carolem said:...starting pulling apart dried flowers for seed collection. Now I'm confused if all is viable seed or not? Snapshots using 1/2"grid paper.
Hello Carole,
I don't see any things that are good seeds for certain in that first photo. You can actually save zinnia seeds as green seeds, while the bloom is still developing. That lets you minimize the chance that seed eating birds will eat the seeds and avoid your seeds sprouting in the zinnia heads during an extended rainy season.
These are some green seeds that I saved a few days ago from my ongoing indoor zinnia project, and an earlier photo showing some zinnia petals with good green seeds and empty green seeds. Notice that the petals still have color and are still alive.
When saving green seeds, make sure that the seed contains an embryo. Seeds that contain an embryo will be kind of fat. If the seed does not contain an embryo, it will be empty and it will not be a viable seed.
Dried good zinnia seeds are also visibly fat, and if you gently pinch them between your thumb and forefinger you can feel that the seed is thick enough to contain a dried embryo.
Incidentally, my graph paper is ruled at 10 per inch.
carolem said:Are these also potential successful seeds? So much tinier than those seeming more matured seeds on the ends of the petals.
No, that second photo shows just some "Chaffy Scales", which are not seeds. Do you have any other zinnia blooms that might have seeds?
ZM
