I was checking a couple of seed pods on my single fern leaf and found them full of seeds. The pods were not dry yet and the seeds do not have that almost black, hard, shiny coat but they appear to be mature. Most of them fell out of the pod when it was opened. Question is, are these viable and suitable for beginning new plants?

I've never seen them when they weren't black or brown but there's only one way to find out for sure, Jerry; plant them and see if anything happens! Nothing ventured, nothing gained....

I recently learned that pale seeds can be ripe and in fact will germinate THIS year rather than NEXT year. Yours are still pretty pale but I suspect that at least some of them will germinate.

See this post from Cricket Hill Garden on starting peony seeds for a photo of pale but ripe seeds:

https://crickethillgarden.word...

They very well may germinate. I give it a little squeeze test to make sure it isn't soft or mushy. Then pop what is good in the ground. Water in. Liz is right, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Black seeds have that extra coating that makes germination possibly delay for a year. Before starting black seeds, I soak them in water, changing the water every day for 10 days or so. This softens to coat and helps germination.

Nice pic. of the tenuifolia seeds.
Tenuifolia seeds are like tiny cylinders in shape.

After removing 2 small pods off a single fern leaf and checking the seeds, I pulled all the pods off the remaining singles. I ended with something like 280 seeds, most of which readily fell out of the pod as I opened them. I cut one seed in half with a very sharp x-acto knife and found it to be solid internally and filled with the seed material. Separated them into batches of 20, put them in a ziplock bag with vermiculite and a dash of weakly fertilized water, put all the bags is an open top cardboard box inside a black plastic bag then put the box on top of a freezer in the garage. This type of freezer has the heat exchanger built into the sides and top and is noticeably warm when it is running. With the darkness, growing medium, and moisture, they should germinate if they are fertile. If the progress turns out well, I have no idea of what to do with over 200 new fern leafs, but it will be interesting to see the results.

Keep us posted on how they germinate? Please.

I will wait for a month before checking the seeds. Without their hard shells, they should open more quickly than normal. Out of almost 300, only about a half-dozen floated when I sterilized them in a bleach/water solution and those were discarded.

About how long after flowering?---did you harvest the seeds?

5 to 6 weeks after the end of blooming. Check the pods for beginning to mature before harvesting. Most of mine were still partially green but tough skinned to pull open. Usually they will split and pop open when the foliage begins to die. That is when the seeds are nearly black and very hard.

Tree peonies and herbaceous peonies typically take 8-12 weeks for seed to ripen. When the carpels (seed pod) turn from green to yellow and the pod begins to split, you'll know whatever seed you have is ready. Some species may vary, as Jerry suggests.

The fern leafs are first to drop seeds since, in my area, the foliage is usually completely dead in July. This is the first year I didn't deadhead all the blooms as quickly as they began to wilt. A couple of times I would leave a pod or two to see if they would develop seeds and they sometimes would. I have had them pop open and dump seeds on the ground. The doubles never set seeds under open conditions which is normal as far as I can read. These seeds came from a species single and my old singles of unknown parentage. I also collected 15 seeds from my species P.tenuifolia ssp.lithophile and have them in a ziplock bag of vermiculite as I did the others. I will have a lot of free seeds to pass around if they germinate. I certainly have no need for them.

Thanks for the info.
I shall allow a few seed pods to develop.
Last year I tossed several seeds which were white or cream--
thinking they were to immature to bother with!

I just checked 2 of the bags and found the seeds had developed a hard, black, shiny coat. No evidence of sprouting. This is after 2 weeks.

any updates?

No sprouts after a month of warmth. They have been in my spare refrigerator for 2 weeks. I will recheck them at the end of the month.

I think that it takes more than a month of warmth for the seeds to sprout roots.
My one sprout took nearly six months!

I wanted to give them a shot of winter before placing them in a warm spot. As you say, it may require warmth until next Spring to get them to crack open.

Good luck I hope they sprout for you

My problem is that I forget to check on the peony seeds when I get to gardening outdoors!
I missed one last year that way-it was all dried up when I got around to it!