‘Dig’ The Earth

I was very curious to know how to start hosta from seed, but everywhere I read said that it was not commonly done since the seeds are not always produced.  Turns out that one variety of the hostas I collected in the fall of 2007 did indeed produce pods with hundreds of seeds.  The hosta seed I collected this year was an open pollinated Elegans hosta.

The pods that form after the flowers die are about an 1″ long on this variety and hang down on the flower stem.  You have to keep a close eye on these because once they’ve dried and opened a strong gust of wind could take off with all the papery seeds.  The pods will become very woody and open when the seeds are ready for harvest.  Removing the pods when they are still green may give you seeds, but they may not be mature enough at this point to germinate.  The seeds are very small and have a papery, black tail on the husk.

This year I had three varieties of dianthus growing in my garden: Sweet William, Spangled Star and a Neon variety.  Like the daylily, once the bloom expires a pod behind the bloom begins to swell with seeds.  Allow the pod and stem to turn brown and dry out. The little pod will usually open at the top allowing you to pour out the seeds once you’ve carefully separated them from the plant.

I discovered that daylilies are one of the easiest flowers from which to collect seeds.  After the flowers have bloomed and died back the portion just behind the bloom begins to swell and form a pod.  The pod starts out green and supple the seeds are not ready yet.  Allow the pod to turn brown and dry out.  If the pods have split open it’s definitely OK to collect the seeds.  There are usually several 1/8″ diameter black seeds to a pod.

When the avocado fruit has turned black and is ready to eat you can remove the seed. Take a knife and half the fruit from stem end to bottom twisting gently to separate the halves from each other and the seed.  Use a sturdy smooth blade kitchen knife to whack into the side of the seed and give it a turn to release it from the meat of the second half.

Wash it well in cool water.  Don’t store these too long or they may not sprout.  Usually, you just stab 2 or 3 toothpicks into the sides of the seed to suspend it over a glass of water. Make sure that the water covers the bottom half of the seed at all times.

On a side note, I learned something very interesting the other day on Alton Brown’s Good Eats program on the Food Network.  The avocado fruit will not ripen until it is removed from the tree.  This allows farmers an almost unending harvest season as long as the weather holds up!