Re: OT: late-late bloomers and rebloom

I know the seeds are coloring because of an "accident".  My two year old son
Dylan started to "harvest" them for me.  Luckily he didn't get them all, just
a here and there sampling from all over the yard.  Some of these just
shrivelled up, but most had nearly ripe seeds (that I hope will be OK).

I've always wondered if the seeds might germinate when fresh if harvested
early, but no I normally just wait for the pods to ripen and almost split.
You can tell the pods are almost ready to split before they actually do, as
the surface changes color and texture (grays, starts to shrink a bit, and
becomes less shiny), at least here in our dry climate.  I try to get them a
day or two before the pods split, simply because if I wait till they do split,
the seeds are usually gone (wind, rodents, etc.).  By this time the seeds are
fully ripe, but sometimes they are a bit damp and need to be dried before
they're stored (or they'll get moldy).

I think if I relied on seed color alone, I'd loose a lot of good seeds,
because I'd get anxious and cut them open too soon

Interestingly, I think Dylan started picking them because we've never
discouraged him from picking other fruits, rather we try to encourage him to
learn about them (We do forbid him to eat them).  He has had two seasons of
picking Yucca fruits, and as soon as they get big enough, he gets excited
about picking them.  The Iris pods look a lot like the Yucca fruits, and the
poor little guy was very confused when he got severely scolded for picking the
Iris fruits.

As for Yucca pods, when I'm out in the field somewhere, I often don't have the
luxury of waiting till the pods split open.  I have to get what I can when I'm
there.  I've found that if I cut the pods open, and find black seeds, they are
ripe enough to pick, even if the fruits are a long time from ripening.  I also
get more good seeds if I cut them out early, because the larvae that eat the
seeds don't hatch until the seeds are nearly ripe.  If I wait till the fruit
are ripe, I often just get a bunch of eaten out garbage and no seeds, where I
would have gotten all good seeds from the same pod if it was picked early.  Of
course I'm not sure how all this translates to Iris, since the two aren't
really that closely related, and I've never had larvae get into my Iris fruits
(hopefully I never will!).


Dave

----- Original Message -----
From: Showtime Farm
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2003 7:14 PM
dave,

please tell me how it is that you know that the seeds inside your seed pods
are begining to get color?    Which of course leads to the obvious question
of, do you harvest yours based on the color of the seeds themselves as
opposed to the 'tradition' of waiting until the pods begin to split open.

What do you know that you aren't telling?

christian
ky

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