Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Sowing Ansellia africana seeds

Ansellia africana pod harvested at 116 days old
I had been keeping an eye on my Ansellia africana seed pods that had been slowly maturing on the mother plant for just over 3 months. I noticed that the first pod began to turn yellow quite rapidly at 96 days old so I harvested it a few days ago and sowed the seeds on P6668 half and full strength supplemented with sucrose. The other pod seemed to remain green so I thought I would leave it for as long as possible but it turned yellow yesterday and I had to harvest it as well. This pod's seeds were sown on the same medium yesterday evening. The problem however is that literature that I had consulted suggests that A. africana pods take up to a year to mature and that green pod harvesting can be done at 5-6 months. My second pod was only 116 days old so I wonder whether the seeds will be viable. I can only guess that the constantly high temperatures in my greenhouse sped up maturation, well I am hoping this is the case. The mother plant is certainly not stressed and is growing like a weed and has shot out 7 new shoots so it is happy. I have included below images of the yellowing pod just harvested and one of the flasks of seeds.

A. africana seeds innoculated on P6668

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