Okra, amaranth

[tracydr]

How do I know when my okra and amaranth are ready to save? I've left a bunch of okra plants for seed saving and thought the pods would dry out but they aren't.
Also, my amaranth is, I think elephant head. I can roll the seed out with my fingers but it's light tan, I was thinking when I planted these they were black?

[Coffee_Break]

Tracy when did you plant your Okra ?? Living in Arizona they should have been Dry
by now you want to pick the okra when the pod are dry but before they Crack open
you need to leave a couple of pod on the plant so they can reach maturity if they
are still green they are immature and I doubt if they will germinate next year on
your Amaranth I can't help you I have never grown it


Charles

[WinterSown]

The amaranth will be mature when the seeds drop from the heads when you shake it out. Some amaranth seeds are blond, I do remember growing giant orange amaranth and those seeds were tan, but elephant head, which is a dark purple variety does have black seeds. You need to give these more time. If you're only getting the seeds by your own physical effort of rubbing them out then they're not ready. Ma Nature may seem complicated but she's actually pretty easy to figure out. She's not going to release the seeds from any plant until they're ripe. Amaranths have heavy-ish seeds, they don't blow away in the breeze, they drop and roll away. Usually, the plant will mature and age or freeze will cause the stems to snap and fall over, and out come tumbling the ripe and ready seeds.

Okra seed saving is the same as any hibiscus. You need to wait for the pods to brown and shrivel, you'll see a starry opening develop at the top of the pod. This opening is created by the drying action of the pods--desiccation causes them to shrink back and that opens the top, making an almost cup-like vesicle from which birds can pluck the seeds, or if the stem snaps the seeds can disperse. In my garden, I do get some dropping and rolling away of hibiscus seeds if I disturb the plants after they've matured and browned, but most of the seeds are bird food. The birds, when they're feasting on hibiscus family plant seeds, do shake those pods a lot when they're retrieving seeds, so a lot of the seeds are scattered and drop close by to the parent plant, but some of them--well, let's just say that 'eat and poop' is one of Ma Nature's favorite ways to distribute seeds.

To gather seeds always looks for browning pods--this is a clear sign of seed maturity. Ma Nature is very efficient, she doesn't need to supply nourishment or moisture to mature seeds, so she shuts off the tap and the drying action causes the pods to open, this allows for natural release of the seeds. Any seeds you have to tug at to remove are not mature.

Hope this helps,

Trudi

[tracydr]

Tracy when did you plant your Okra ?? Living in Arizona they should have been Dry
by now you want to pick the okra when the pod are dry but before they Crack open
you need to leave a couple of pod on the plant so they can reach maturity if they
are still green they are immature and I doubt if they will germinate next year on
your Amaranth I can't help you I have never grown it


Charles

Gosh, it was planted a long time ago, maybe June for the one crop, July for the other? I doubt I've picked it since September.

[tracydr]

The amaranth will be mature when the seeds drop from the heads when you shake it out. Some amaranth seeds are blond, I do remember growing giant orange amaranth and those seeds were tan, but elephant head, which is a dark purple variety does have black seeds. You need to give these more time. If you're only getting the seeds by your own physical effort of rubbing them out then they're not ready. Ma Nature may seem complicated but she's actually pretty easy to figure out. She's not going to release the seeds from any plant until they're ripe. Amaranths have heavy-ish seeds, they don't blow away in the breeze, they drop and roll away. Usually, the plant will mature and age or freeze will cause the stems to snap and fall over, and out come tumbling the ripe and ready seeds.

Okra seed saving is the same as any hibiscus. You need to wait for the pods to brown and shrivel, you'll see a starry opening develop at the top of the pod. This opening is created by the drying action of the pods--desiccation causes them to shrink back and that opens the top, making an almost cup-like vesicle from which birds can pluck te seeds, or if the stem snaps the seeds can disperse. In my garden, I do get some dropping and rolling away of hibiscus seeds if I disturb the plants after they've matured and browned, but most of the seeds are bird food. The birds, when they're feasting on hibiscus family plant seeds, do shake those pods a lot when they're retrieving seeds, so a lot of the seeds are scattered and drop close by to the parent plant, but some of them--well, let's just say that 'eat and poop' is one of Ma Nature's favorite ways to distribute seeds.

To gather seeds always looks for browning pods--this is a clear sign of seed maturity. Ma Nature is very efficient, she doesn't need to supply nourishment or moisture to mature seeds, so she shuts off the tap and the drying action causes the pods to open, this allows for natural release of the seeds. Any seeds you have to tug at to remove are not mature.

Hope this helps,

Trudi
Thanks, Trudi. I was pretty sure I remembered these seeds being black but I have amaranth in my pantry from the grocery store and it's light tan, so wasn't positive.
As far as hibiscus, I only grow the tropical and I've never seen seeds on them. Are they supposed to have seeds? I'll have to pay closer attention.
I'll just leave the okra longer. I'm getting impatient, would like to clear it out for planting something else but I actually need the seeds for next year since I lost a bunch of seeds left out in the rain.

[WinterSown]

Tracy, I'm not sure I made myself clear, I apologize. Okra is in the hibiscus family. Some of the tropicals do not produce viable seed, so they're pods simply wither and drop away from the plant. Okra does produce seeds, well, at least the varieties I've grown, so I expect that with some time (and patiences which is the hardest part of seed saving) you'll see those pods brown and open, then you can remove the pods. Let the pods dry for a week or so to make ieven eaiser to remove the seeds. When the pods are brittle put them in a paper bag, roll down the top, and shake like mad. The seeds will drop to the bottom of the bag. Spill it all out, remove the empty pods and blow off any chaff. Okra can have little buggies amongst their seeds--easy to remove those. Use a plate, not paper, and put the seeds on it. Place it outside in the sun on your deck or patio and watch the buggies slither away. They hate bright sunlight and scurry off the plate as fast as they can. Leave the plate for a few hours and most, if not all the buggies should be gone.

T

[tracydr]

Thanks, Wintersown. It just seems like those darn pods have been the same green for two months. Maybe if we get some cooler weather it will help. It's just that I want to get that space cleaned out.
I was just asking about my tropical hibiscus, since you brought hibiscus up. I'd love to take seed from it and make a bunch more, rather than buying expensive plants. They really thrive around here and the hummingbirds love them.

[tuk50]

tracydr, wintersown gives good advice and you can also rush the clearing out a bit by just pulling out the whole okra stalks and bundling them up in 3 or 4 stalks in a bundle and loosely tying them together at the bottom and hanging them upside down in a shed or garage. This way the seeds will mature out of the weather and you can begin preparing your soil for the next planting. In fact we just finished clearing out our garden last week and putting the summers compost pile over the top so it will be ready for next spring. I've done this with a lot of vegetables over the years and it works well. You can even do it with tomatoes, onions, leeks, peppers, marigolds.. etc. Some of them like onions do well with a bucket under them on the floor to catch the seeds when they fall off.

[WinterSown]

You can hang plants upside to dry the seeds, but it only works if the seeds are near to being mature. God advise is to lay a clean sheet on the floor under the drying stems because as the mature pods dry, they will open and gravity will cause some of the seeds to fall on their own. Once you go to remove seeds yourself then the movement of the stems when you touch them will cause even more seeds to drop out. On the sheet below you can rool the seeds towards the center with your hands to gather them.