Bema
- Posts
- 72
- Reactions
- 104
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2019
- Points
- 33
The first seed harvest has gone far better than expected with a proportion of seeds looking viable. The mother plant was an auto Blueberry (two of the lowest branches) and the pollen was collected from a feminised auto Amnesia Haze, the whole plant was sprayed with colloidal silver and the pollen collected.
There must be an easy way to collect seeds however the process used as follows: The seeded flowers were tagged and collected with the sensimilla and left to dry until around 62% RH. The unseeded flower is then put into jars and the seeded flower left out until crisp dry. Hand rubbing the dried seeded flowers and winnowing by blowing mixture as it dropped onto the tray helped separate the seeds from the chaff. Very messy.
Visually, the seed coats seem to fit into three broad categories; mature seeds with dark markings and hard seed coats. The in-betweeners that are cream in colour with few markings and finally the underdeveloped seeds that are pale or green with no marking. These seeds feel soft when pinched between fingers. Perhaps if the mother plant was left to finish its life cycle, die and dry out, more of the seeds would be mature. 50 seeds weigh 0.82g and on that basis, 300 (or so) seeds have been collected. Roughly one-third of the seeds collected are mature. This was done using a magnifying glass, and tediously separating out the mature seeds.
In the next grow the viability of these three seed groups will be tested, with particular interested in the in-between seeds, that are brown without defined striping or dark marking. It is likely the green under developed seeds will shrivel up before they get a chance to be germinated but in the name of science, they will get a fair chance.
What have I learned so far: Fertilise the flowers earlier, give the seeds more time to mature and the proportion of mature seeds will increase. With that in mind, I'll need to fertilise less flowers as I don't need so many seeds.
Immature and green - below
In-betweeners
The mature seeds
There must be an easy way to collect seeds however the process used as follows: The seeded flowers were tagged and collected with the sensimilla and left to dry until around 62% RH. The unseeded flower is then put into jars and the seeded flower left out until crisp dry. Hand rubbing the dried seeded flowers and winnowing by blowing mixture as it dropped onto the tray helped separate the seeds from the chaff. Very messy.
Visually, the seed coats seem to fit into three broad categories; mature seeds with dark markings and hard seed coats. The in-betweeners that are cream in colour with few markings and finally the underdeveloped seeds that are pale or green with no marking. These seeds feel soft when pinched between fingers. Perhaps if the mother plant was left to finish its life cycle, die and dry out, more of the seeds would be mature. 50 seeds weigh 0.82g and on that basis, 300 (or so) seeds have been collected. Roughly one-third of the seeds collected are mature. This was done using a magnifying glass, and tediously separating out the mature seeds.
In the next grow the viability of these three seed groups will be tested, with particular interested in the in-between seeds, that are brown without defined striping or dark marking. It is likely the green under developed seeds will shrivel up before they get a chance to be germinated but in the name of science, they will get a fair chance.
What have I learned so far: Fertilise the flowers earlier, give the seeds more time to mature and the proportion of mature seeds will increase. With that in mind, I'll need to fertilise less flowers as I don't need so many seeds.
Immature and green - below
In-betweeners
The mature seeds