Phalaris Seed Harvesting

[ENtiTY]

I have been growing some phalaris b for seed and the time has come when the flower/seed heads are abundant but I have this problem. How to collect the seed?

Sounds stupid I know and it never occured to me that I would have a problem in doing so when I set about the task. The problem is that the seed heads ripen from the tip down over a period of a couple of weeks maybe 3. If you take the head when the tip is ready the rest of the seed is green, wait until the whole head ripens and most of the seed has dropped.

I guess one could take the head when its ripe half way but their has to be a better more efficient way. Leaving the heads on the plants and tapping the ripe seed out on a daily basis is probably the best way I suppose. Could be problematic in a breeze though.

Any thoughts?

[Undergrounder]

cover the heads with a stocking or something? Tie it on, wait 3 weeks, take it off .. you have your seeds

[Auxin]

Brachy heads ripening over 3 weeks? o.O

I know the tip dries out well before the head is ripe but it usually stalls there and then the whole head ripens in 1 week.. here it does anyway.. the heads are quite short after all.

I just wait til its 2/3 ripe and harvest it with loads of stem still on and put in a bag and let slowly dry so it ripens more.

[t st tantra]

i think seed retention is a trait which has been selected for in some commercial crops,so this is a common problem?

t s t .

[ENtiTY]

I have heard of the stocking method before but was worried about it interfering with pollination.

3 weeks was the time frame for the first head that appeared which was at a time when it was a lot cooler than now so that time frame is bound to shorten as temperatures rise I guess.

I might try applying the stocking method once the tips show signs of drying out and see how that goes.

Thanx for your help peeps

[Gunter]

I shake the plant over a cloth or bag and gather the seeds over the seed ripening phase.

[Vertmorpheus]

if expecting dry weather for a bit, try gently taping a paper "funnel" (I use brown paper lunch bags, upside down with a wee hole i can tape around the stem of a plant later) below the ripening heads. Leaves access for bugs if you want them, catches a decent amount if they're not TOO fine or windborne and every few days just bend it over gently, tap out what you've collected.

I've also put old towels or closeweave hessian bags under plants to catch seeds... the lil holes in the weave hold onto them nicely but yeah same issues if it starts raining. Nothing is perfect.

Good luck with not ending up with a bunch of anaemic white things or empty husks ;)

VM