Learning how to save Echinacea or cone flower seeds can be a bit difficult for the new gardener because of how long they take to mature. If you don't know when to harvest cone flower or echinacea seeds, I've got you covered!
First, I'll show you the many stages of a cone flower's bloom; the young blossom, the larger blossom that's still actively being pollinated, the older blossom as its petals fall off and it begins the maturation process, and a dry, mature seed head that's completely brown without ANY color; no orange, no green.
The mature Echinacea seed head can be quite irritating to the skin, so be sure to wear gloves and potentially long sleeves while handling the seed heads if your skin is quite sensitive.
If you have several seed heads, you'll want to add all of them to a container of some sort (like a coffee can) and add some small pebbles; or you could go with a pillow case, and smack it against something hard (deck, driveway, pavers, fence post, etc.) For a single seed head, something like what I'm doing (a can and a plate) is better suited.
You can see a drastic color difference between seeds and chaff; the chaff is dark brown, sometimes nearly black, and the seeds are white, gray, or tan in color. They almost look like little cones, much like the flower itself. The chaff can be difficult to separate from the seed, and as you can see in this video, I didn't even bother!
Be sure to stratify your Coneflower seeds to maximize your germination rate. All you have to do is stick your saved seeds into the freezer for at least 2 weeks! Many recommend roughly 6 weeks, which you could do; but the minimum for me is 2 weeks, and this seems to do the job for me. If you have the time, always stratify your seeds for a longer amount of time rather than shorter.
If you're using the seeds for trading or to expand your Coneflower garden, be sure to do a germination test to ensure that the seeds are viable, and if they have a low germination rate, so that you know to oversow or overtrade to compensate. Germination tests are a great, easy test for ensuring that your saved seeds are viable, so that there's no guesswork next season as to whether the seeds are slow to grow, or just not viable.
Music By:
www.bensound.com
Негізгі бет When & How: Harvesting 🌺Echinacea ❇️ Seeds (Purple Coneflowers), Stratification, Storing for 2022!
Пікірлер: 8