i'm sure it's been covered, but please suffer my question... after a seed pod on something (you pick) has formed and dried...when is it time to plant (or attempt germination)? right away? i'm in a zone 11 in the tropics and therefore our cool season is warmer than most living rooms in the north.
That depends on what seed we are talking about? Citrus should be planted ASAP but will tolerate a dry out period, too... legumes can remain dry for very long periods (many months)...up to two years, or refridgerated... nightshade family can be kept dry for many months too.... which tropical fruit pods or seeds????
John, is this your Psuedobombax seed? Did you wait until the pods had opened of their own accord? If not, it might not be viable; my experience with true Bombax is that the seed isn't fully mature until the pod expells it, so your germination rate might be really low.
the pseudobombax pods are still getting longer on the tree, so no problem there i had a sprouting seed in a mamey zapote, put it in dirt, and there it sits for 4 weeks...makes me want to dig it up and look at it... the original question is more along the line of, "Are there 'rules of thumb" that can be used even as we encounter unknown seeds?
I would say all seeds are different and you really need to know what you are dealing with. Some seeds you can plant right away. Some seeds need a dormant period and some seeds need a cold period, before they will germinate.
Not really. I find the Purdue Crop Index helpful though; if you know what the seed is that you're planting, it has a wealth of information. (food crops, mostly.) I can tell you that Mamey Zapote here are usually fed to pigs or tapirs and the resulting poo is buried. Apparently it's something about the enzymes that help the seeds along.
I don't know anything about mamey zapote, but some seeds take a long time to germinate. 4 weeks in some cases would not be overly long. Some seeds take months, so don't give up hope.
if i go back to the spirit of the original question...i might just try several different approaches at once on any given seed...plant now, later, much later, or wait for imaculate sproutation on the shelf! at the moment, i have some increasingly large pods forming on my pseudobombax (shaving brush tree)...there is a very big seed in that pod, or a bunch of little ones if anyone has ever fussed with these, please sing out...otherwise, i will let the pod's continue and follow the above sceenario...plant a few, save some, and plant some later on another subject, where on this site might i present a rather amazing parasitic vine for discussion?
