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Post by Tucson Grower on May 28, 2023 6:49:45 GMT -6
macmex, Thanks for those tips, otherwise I might have spoiled my chances of harvesting viable seed.
Edit: So I went out to check, sure enough I couldn't even scratch it, with any fingernail, I tried several. Some places the skin would flex a little, but not break. I cut it off the plant and am now letting it rest for 20 days (it should be ready on the 16th of June).
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Post by Tucson Grower on Jul 27, 2023 10:00:40 GMT -6
My first attempt to save seed was a flop. I just harvested a fruit, which is my second attempt. This time the fruit is almost twice the size of the first.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Sept 27, 2023 12:14:40 GMT -6
Just now I extracted the seed from my most recently harvested fruit. It was harvested in July, soon after the plant succumbed to the summer heat. And I gave this fruit a much longer resting period between picking and extracting seed. Long enough that most of the outer lighter areas between the darker green stripes had turned dark yellow. The fruit had grown very light and had begun to grow shrunken and wrinkled. It is now near the end of September and I broke it open and scooped the seed out onto paper towels on a stack of 4-5 paper plates. It now sits next to me on a side table. It will likely be dry enough to transfer to a jar of coarse silica sand, where I will use the sand to clean off any remaining dried-on debree. I will then transfer the seed to individual paper envelopes (~50 per envelope), then place the envelopes into small zip-loc bags with dessicant to further dry the seed. I'm also, at that time, planning to do a germination test with ~ 10-20 seed. I'll plant some of the seedling where their mother grew, perhaps they'll produce before getting frozen.
I can already see a difference between these seed and my first batch, and the differences look promising.
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