Hi, I am new here. My indoor plant Aglonema, produced a fruit and I want to know about it, that is how I found my way to the UBC Botanic Garden forum. So, I have had this Aglonema for over a year, and it mainly sits in my office. It flowers every once in awhile. Well, this last time it flowered, it produced a fruit! It has recently gone from green to yellow and now it is orange. What will happen next? What can do with it? Could I harvest seeds and try to grow new plants? I just think this little fruit is the coolest thing. Thanks for your help. Greg
I would try Googling to find out before it gets any older! I certainly would try to reseed from the fruit, if nothing else - what's to lose?
Thank you for the response. I did try Googling first, but most hits were sellers, when I really wanted a botanist. There were also a fair amount of care & feeding sites, but nothing on fruiting. The fruit is now bright red. I leave it alone for now. Maybe it will drop soon. Once it drops or begins to dry out, then I will try to harvest seeds. Thanks again.
I don't know much about the Aglaonema fruit either, but may be able to help you refine your searches. I do a lot of searches in my job here. Most commercial sites are (.com). By typing -com into your search you will weed them out. In the USA university and other education sites end in (.edu). Adding edu to your search will get University sites. Careful use of quotation marks and word combinations can really refine your results. Here is a great little article on Google tips written by Daniel Mosquin: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/articles/1/ Of course correct spelling is very important as well. The correct spelling returns many more hits. Google will usually point out if you are a letter off, but you can't count on that. I did see enough to know that your fruit will turn red. Hope you can find more about it. I think these plants are grown for their foliage, never heard much about the fruit. If you find out anything please share.
Eric, I believe a more accurate way of excluding domains in Google is to use the keyword '-site:'. (i.e. -site:com instead of -com) Conversely, use site:edu to select education sites. Daniel's guide could also be updated with information for the Firefox browser which has a built-in list of search engines, include Google. I believe there is now a Google Toolbar for Firefox but I prefer the Googlebar Lite extension. Another extension which others may find useful is CustomizeGoogle. Perhaps Daniel can spend some time during his vacation to update the document ;) (NOT!)
Thank you Eric for the pointers on how to improve my google search. Also, thank you for correcting the spelling of the genus. I copied what was written on the label on the pot. Aglaonema is correct. I came across the web site I wanted, www.aroid.org. Here they describe how to harvest, clean, and sow the seeds. My fruit is starting to age, I will see what I can do here within next couple of weeks. Thanks again, Greg
