Re: Hosta Seed Maturation

Bill Nash wrote:

<<*Fully Ripened hosta-seed* means: the seed will sprout plants verses unripe seed does not sprout anything at all.  On this, my measuring stick for collecting fully ripe hosta-seed, is to wait until pods show slits/splits (about to split open like?).>>

Bill, what makes you think that seed maturation and pod dehiscence (i.e., splitting) have anything to do with each other?  

June-flowering, July-flowering, August-flowering, September-flowering hostas all seem to have their pods split open at roughly the same time here, which happens to correspond to the onset of colder weather.  Is that because they all have different seed maturation times that just happen to correspond to the changing seasons?  

I'd suggest that a more likely reason is that seed pods split open as a hosta begins to go dormant and stops transporting water up the scape to the seed pods.  If that's the case, pod-splitting probably has nothing to do with seed maturation.

If I'm wrong about that I'd love to know why.  Maybe Messrs Schmid or Zonneveld will chime in.

--John

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