Charles Woolever
29-03-2007, 10:07 PM
Several years ago, I had a petunia plant purchased from a nursery. The
plant was deadheaded daily by someone who, during that period had
surgery and used the time tending the flowers as their outside time to
heal.
So....I had left a few flowers on and gathered the seed. I stored the
seed in the refrigerator and started the seeds in a few peat pots just
enough to get one hanging basket worth of plants "in remembrance" of
that summer.
I was told correctly that the resulting flowers would probably not be
the color they were but purple. Each year, I leave a few flowers on to
collect the seed, store it, and start a fresh plant in the Spring.
The question: Each successive year it seems the seed is less able to
germinate. This year I tried almost 30 seeds and got 5 plants and 3 died
at the 2-4 true leaf stage. I don't have this problem with other plants
or with other petunia seeds. Is it possible for a plant to basically
become more sterile such that any seeds produced just don't work anymore?
Thanks,
Charles
plant was deadheaded daily by someone who, during that period had
surgery and used the time tending the flowers as their outside time to
heal.
So....I had left a few flowers on and gathered the seed. I stored the
seed in the refrigerator and started the seeds in a few peat pots just
enough to get one hanging basket worth of plants "in remembrance" of
that summer.
I was told correctly that the resulting flowers would probably not be
the color they were but purple. Each year, I leave a few flowers on to
collect the seed, store it, and start a fresh plant in the Spring.
The question: Each successive year it seems the seed is less able to
germinate. This year I tried almost 30 seeds and got 5 plants and 3 died
at the 2-4 true leaf stage. I don't have this problem with other plants
or with other petunia seeds. Is it possible for a plant to basically
become more sterile such that any seeds produced just don't work anymore?
Thanks,
Charles