mljohnson19 said: I have two followup questions, though. First, if my children got overly excited and picked some green pods (that were likely around 40-45 days old) is it worth keeping the seeds to see if they sprout? And second, I'll likely still have pods when the first frost comes here in WI, will the frost kill them and is it best to pick them just before the first frost is predicted?
I just accidentally broke off a pod that was 46 days old over the weekend. It was all green and definitely not wanting to open. Most of the seeds look round and shiny black, so I think I'm in good shape. In fall 2016 I pulled some early pods on purpose just to find out for myself how things work for me here. My results were:
less than 30 - 1 of 8 seeds germinated (it was a 29 day seed pod)
30-35 days -- 0% germinated (only 8 seeds tested)
36-40 days -- 50% germinated
41-45 days -- 60% germinated
46-50 days -- All but 1 germinated
I like to wait for them to look like Sue's, which takes me 50 days or more. When I do, I get 85% or better germination rate over the last three years.
I've not really paid attention to the frost and pulling pods. My best guess is, you'd have to have at least one very hard killing frost to kill the scape. As long as the scape stays green, I think it's still sending nutrients to your pod.
I've been really working on very lates the last few years, so it's not uncommon for me to pull pods mid-October or later. Certainly after the first frost. Only one time did a whole late pod's worth of seeds fail for me. 0 for 7 on a Fred's Red pod last year. Usually, I get some to germinate. Come to think of it, my first year hybridizing, I mostly bought seeds, but I remember pulling some pods off of Stella and Happy Returns and Centerton One in early December when I had to wipe the snow off the pods. Most of the seeds had already been picked clean by birds or fallen to the ground. I still got 30% of them to bloom. I think they are pretty tough if they get enough days in the pod.
