Four O'Clock Seeds

Is the seed pod in the little black thing or is it in what the little black thing comes out of? If the seed pod is still on the plant, when do I know when the seed is ready to harvest?

The seed is the little black thing. One seed per flower...about the size and shape of a rabbit dropping..(sorry..it's the closest thing I could think of)

when they are black and loose from the flower head... if you tug a bit it should let go easy.. they reseed themselves most of the time... I found tons of seed under my plants last year... picked them up off the mulch and dried them out... they sowed fine this year

sorry I don't have a picture of them.... just shipped out my last batch in trade... mine won't be ready for quite some time this year.. but this site might help

http://theseedsite.co.uk/db14.html

Great site, Onewish. Thank you very much!!!

thanks so much for that site - it is great !!!!!

Libby

Great site Onewish... I put in my favorite and will refer to it often, I'm sure.

This post is a little older, but I just wanted to say that Four O'Clocks have been the easiest seeds to find, for me... They were the first I collected and it's been just about downhill from there! (In terms of finding/identifying and collecting seeds from various plants.) :)~
One thing I've found with the 4 O'clocks is that- even though you can damage the internal seed if you're not very careful- the seed germinates much more quickly if you remove the outer black shell. I don't think the UK site mentioned that, and I wouldn't try it unless you had more than a few seeds to work with, but I like to do it b/c the inner seed has usually sprouted by the next day if you try it without the outer shell.
~Gina

...and how do you do that?

I use a sharp, pointy thing to penetrate the outer shell, and then use my fingernails to peel it in half. The outer shell isn't totally dried when I do it, so that helps. (It is black, though, and is definitely ripe. The inside seed is beige when I plant/germinate it.)
Of course, I don't know if that has any effect on the resulting plant, it doesn't seem to so far.
I also don't know if this works for all 4 O'Clocks, or just the kind I have... A store-bought seed packet, not Burpee's but another popular brand.
~Gina

Just took this picture yesterday

I would Love to have some 4 oclock seeds, if any one has any to spare...

Hello! Hope that you don't mind me adding my comments re: the hard outer shell. I'm a bit of a klutz so don't stratify my 4:00's (or other hard-shelled seeds) with anything sharp!!! If you put the seeds in 3% hydrogen peroxide for a couple of hours and then put your seeds in your seed starting medium (or, whatever...) they'll germinate in a couple of days...without using any sharp instruments :0

Later,

Jan the klutz

(edited to add/say: I LOVE your 'Custard and Cream' 4:00's!!!)

This message was edited Sep 14, 2006 4:14 PM

4:00s don't take too long to germinate, anyway... taking off that outer shell just gives me something to do! ;)