Collecting holyhock seeds
 

Have grown some beautiful holyhocks this year and i'm wondering what the best method is for storing the seeds? will a plastic sandwich bag with a zip-loc do?

I'm assuming collecting them is much the same way as foxgloves, wait till the seedpod is brown and wrinkled?

Thanks for your help :)

Tiger303 wrote:


Have grown some beautiful holyhocks this year and i'm wondering what the
best method is for storing the seeds? will a plastic sandwich bag with a
zip-loc do?

I'm assuming collecting them is much the same way as foxgloves, wait
till the seedpod is brown and wrinkled?

Thanks for your help :)



Not really, plastic won't let the seeds 'breathe'. Paper envelopes would be
best.

--
"In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with
reality at any point."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 11:02:12 +0100, Tiger303
wrote:

Have grown some beautiful holyhocks this year and i'm wondering what the
best method is for storing the seeds? will a plastic sandwich bag with a
zip-loc do?

No No No! Never store seeds in plastic. They will go mouldy. Put
them in a paper bag or envelope and keep them somewhere dry and not
too warm. Good luck with them. The seeds ave pretty well as long as
they are ripe.

Pam in Bristol

In article , Tiger303
writes

Have grown some beautiful holyhocks this year and i'm wondering what the
best
method is for storing the seeds? will a plastic sandwich bag with a
zip-loc do?

I'm assuming collecting them is much the same way as foxgloves, wait
till the
seedpod is brown and wrinkled?

Thanks for your help :)


--
Tiger303

I store seeds in the little brown wages envelopes, then packed into a
plastic box (recycled 2 litre ice cream packaging), and kept in a
refrigerator. This seems to work - some ten year old seeds (Digitalis
purpurea, Centaurea cyanus, Lavatera trimestris) thrown down in my
father's garden earlier this year germinated quite happily. OTOH, Allium
aflatunense didn't.

Technically hollyhocks don't have seed pods - the mature fruit is
enclosed by the dried calyx, and is a schizocarp, i.e. composed of
separate mericarps ("nutlets"). In the case of hollyhocks these are
flattened, with an enclosing wing, and contain a single seed -
functionally these can be treated as if they were seeds.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley
http://www.malvaceae.info/

Tiger303 wrote:

Have grown some beautiful holyhocks this year and i'm wondering what the
best method is for storing the seeds? will a plastic sandwich bag with a
zip-loc do?

I'm assuming collecting them is much the same way as foxgloves, wait
till the seedpod is brown and wrinkled?

Thanks for your help :)


--
Tiger303

That was good advice from Pam & Jon. If possible, I would suggest that you
store your seeds in the fridge, but not the freezer. About a quarter of my
fridge is taken up with seeds - this is what fridges are for!
Wishing you the best of luck,
John