|
|
Post by templeton on Jul 30, 2012 4:45:19 GMT -5
I've just started to process my F2 purple snow pea seed, and found about one third of the seeds had germinated in the drying pods. anyone else had this, or think about how I might be doing it wrong?. They were collected with fully swollen pods, laid on cloth in front of a sunny winter window in the warmest upstairs room in the house.
I'm a bit eager to get them dried down and sown for a (SH) spring grow out in the next few weeks or so.
T
|
|
|
|
Post by raymondo on Jul 30, 2012 4:51:05 GMT -5
I shell my green peas for drying. Not sure if this makes a difference or not. I haven't tried it by leaving them in the pods.
|
|
|
|
Post by mayz on Jul 30, 2012 6:25:31 GMT -5
germinated pea in the pods is a common problem with my humid summer. If the pod begins to dry and next is rehydrated by several days of rain then the seeds germinate readily.
Usually I collect my pea when the pods was "dry". Inside I let them dry in the pod during 2-3 weeks before shelling.
|
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Jul 30, 2012 7:18:45 GMT -5
Thanks Mayz, maybe it did germinate in the pod while still on the plant. I think some of the pods had begun to dry off, and we've had some wet weather.
T
|
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jul 30, 2012 10:04:34 GMT -5
I pick my dry peas each week immediately before irrigating or if rain is expected. In my garden, the crop gets ruined if dried peas get wet. They mold and/or germinate and/or ferment. If i grew them on a trellis, the losses would be smaller, but anything that is touching the ground, or deeply covered by foliage goes bad if it gets wet.
I dry them in the pod a few days laid out on a suspended piece of hardware cloth or screen (in a shady spot with a good air-flow), because they will also mold if I leave them clumped up in a basket.
I leave the pods on the plant until they are mostly dry, perhaps not crunchy, but close to it. Then I dry the pods a few days until they get crunchy. Then I shell them by stomping on them.
If I ever pick wet immature peas, I shell them immediately by hand, and dry them as a single layer of seed on a cookie sheet.
A few days after shelling they get cycled through the freezer to kill insects.
Some peas are more susceptible to molding than others.... Some soup peas grow up and the entire plant dries out along with the pods. These handle wet weather better than peas who's plants stay green. A patch that is only peas handles wet weather better than a patch that is full of green weeds.
|
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Jul 30, 2012 16:11:17 GMT -5
Thanks for the info, folks. A morning of shelling awaits...
T
|
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Jul 30, 2012 17:03:28 GMT -5
well, I've just learned a profound and deep lesson. Winter does not equal summer. Particularly in the pea seed collection stakes. About half of my dryish pods on the bush have germinated in the pod. Have only shelled out one batch - my Golden Podded X Purple Podded F2 seed. Am rehydrating the sprouted ones - perhaps a couple are not too far gone to kick back to life. Ah, the painful lessons are the most profound... ...lucky I'm not playing for sheep stations...(NH translation here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_for_sheep_stationsT |
|
|
|
Post by steev on Jul 30, 2012 19:52:32 GMT -5
So it's equivalent to "bet the farm". I so enjoy cultural/ linguistic/ technical idiom. Language is probably the most human attribute differentiating us from our kin, all other species, or connecting us to them, all other humans.
BTW, of course I knew the meaning of "long pig", but it was fun playing "innocent"; I think you must not have read any of my posts dealing with anthropophagy, at the time of that exchange. No hard feelings, I hope; perhaps someday you can come for dinner. Do fava beans agree with you?
|
|
|
|
Post by raymondo on Jul 31, 2012 4:33:21 GMT -5
...lucky I'm not playing for sheep stations... T Must be a south of the border thing. (T's state is directly south of mine.) I've never heard the expression before. I had to look up the reference too! |
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Jul 31, 2012 5:58:54 GMT -5
Thanks for the dinner invite Steev, not sure if i can get a chianti in the hand luggage.
Surprised you haven't heard that one Ray.
T
|
|
jim
grub
Posts: 75
|
Post by jim on Aug 7, 2012 21:11:50 GMT -5
We see this in beans too...a certain amount of plants produce seed that do not have a dormancy and simply germinate in the pod.
I was surprised that some of the seed that germinated in the pod would survive even if dried down and stored for a period of time. Those with the smallest radicals might have a chance...but you will probably continue to see the lack of dormancy in their progeny...not a trait you really want to keep around. But, if you have limited seed and want to get as many recombinants as you can, it might be worth trying to grow some of these impatient plants out if you can....
Jim
|
|
|
|
Post by templeton on Aug 7, 2012 21:25:19 GMT -5
Jim,
I didn't have a lot of material to work with, so every seed was precious. The ones which I had already dried down in the pod I just left - if they germinate when i sow them, well and good.
On the remaining crosses, I took all the swollen pods off my F1 growouts, shelled them, and separated them into unsprouted and sprouted - thee were a whole range of degrees of sprouting. I soaked them, and just chucked them all into a try of potting mix. I was very surprised - quite a few have come up! They must have just been slightly dehydrated, or only just starting to germinate. So good news.
I should have taken some pics, but i forgot.
T
|
|
