How to tell when Nicotiana rustica seeds are ready?

[Coschi]

It's flowered, the flowers have died and now there are these dark green bulbs where the flowers were; i'm assuming these are the seed pods.

How to tell when the seeds are ready?

It's flowering again now

Edited November 12, 2008 by Coschi

[incognito]

wait for the pods to go brown.

[Coschi]

how long does that usually take?

[incognito]

just keep an eye on them.

but get em just b4 they split open.

harvesting to early will reduce the germination rates.

u can check on them daily yeah? just wait till the pod is nice and brown, and before it splits open.

if ur worried about missing them tie a put a panty-hose over the seedpods and tie off. that way the seed falls into the pantyhose.

passive has heaps if ur looking.

Edited November 10, 2008 by incognito

[Coschi]

thanks matey

that's cool looks i'll have a bunch of seed in the end. I opened one pod prematurely just to see if it was what i thought it was, looks like at least 20 seeds per pod. I'd like to have a bunch of these plants going; the smoke is so much nicer than cigarettes! tastes a bit funky though but I haven't even looked into picking times / curing etc.. on that note, any tips you'd care to share?

Also, when the seed is ready, say in a month or so, would that be a good time to plant a bunch and get them settled in before winter?

[TheFriendlyPlanter]

Harvest the pods just after they split if you like, but keep an eye on them so you don't loose too many seeds. Then put them in a brown paper bag for about a week, and then shake all the seeds out when the pods are dry.

They should go through winter if they are not too exposed to the frost.

[hebrew]

should have more than 20 seeds per pod

[mutant]

Good advice....

but hey mate, don't worry, these plants are prolific seeders... you will have more than you can do with... ;)

20 per pod??? hell, maybe even 100 per pod!

[Coschi]

yeah 100's more like it i didn't want to say that though at risk of blowing it out of proportion

Here's a nice picture I took of the flowering head:

[mauve]

tobacco plants are covered by little globs of resin...would it be possible to make a kind of "hash" with it ? Just curious, i don't even smoke tobacco, if nicotine is present in the resin...

[mutant]

Nicotine is surely in the resin. The flowering time or a bit earlier is the time that the plant has the biggest potency and is sticky as hell - propably a bad idea to make a concentrated product for any kind of consumption with this plant though, unless one would use it as poison for insects...

Great photo by the way

Here's an older photo of mine

[Coschi]

Nice pic mutant, some massive leaves you had there!

The pods are turning brown, i'll keep a close eye on them