Over the last three gardening seasons I've learned how to harvest seeds from my existing plants (herbs, flowers and vegetables) so I would have organic (non-GMO) seeds for the following years. But I noticed something in the Spring of 2020; I had an abundance of seeds. So instead of letting them go to waste, I decided to open an Etsy store and begin listing the seeds there for others to enjoy.
I had originally started with my wild lettuce, calendula, feverfew and mullein. From there it has evolved to over two dozen seed varieties being sold over the last two years.
This year I have plans to expand my seed storefront with marsh mallow, more varieties of calendula, lemon verbena, teddy bear sunflowers and more.
Earlier this week I began the process of attempting to germinate lemon verbena seeds. I have seen lemon verbena plants for sale online, but was having difficulties finding lemon verbena seeds.
Before I ever place seeds for sale on my Etsy store, I do a trial run to make sure they germinate and then plant the seedlings outdoors in one of my gardens. I like to think of it as my personal "quality control" department.
In the summer of 2020, I was fortunate to find two sad and droopy lemon verbena plants at a farmer's roadside stand for cheap. I bought both, brought them home and set to getting them both back to good health. I babied the plants and was successful with reviving them. They flourished last year and I tried to find images I had taken of them, but was unable to find any.
To be able to harvest the seeds from a lemon verbena plant, you need to be exact and harvest the flowers and little pods at a precise time. One day too soon or too late, and the seeds will not be able to be germinated. These little seeds start out as green in the pod and when they are ready to harvest they turn black.
When I first started watching the little flowers and pods that were still on the plant, I wasn't sure what I needed to do. I remained vigilant and continued researching. Once the little pods turned black, I snipped off the stems of the flowers and pods and let sit to dry out completely. I had harvested the seeds back in October 2020, and let them sit until March 2021.
Looking at the "seeds" I had harvested still confused me. Were the lemon verbena seeds the little black dots? Or were they the ones that looked like a little nail? I was clueless!
So I took three of the little nail/spike light seeds and planted them in a certain seedling tray, then I took two of the tin black little seed-like pieces and planted them in another seedling tray. I'll be watching them over the next 10-14 days to see which "seeds" germinate. Once I have that figured out I can begin separating the correct seeds from all the other dried flowers and pods and begin to sell lemon verbena in the store.
RESEARCH
How To Harvest Lemon Verbena
Verbena Seed Harvest: Learn How To Collect Verbena Seeds
This post was made from https://ulogs.org
This is great! I'm interested to know which part ends up being the seed. Before looking, I would have guessed the little dots, but after seeing the nail part you referred to, I'm kind of leaning in that direction.
Yes! That's why I decided to "test" both. I'll have a follow up post when the seeds germinate.
This is a good method though and also I prefer to make this a good trial one of these days there in Nigeria we do something of this nature as well it's a good agricultural practices. Keep it up 💕💕
It reminds me of my kids when they had science experiments to do. This would be a good one.
I am going to give Teddy Bear Sunflowers this year, they are really cute :)
I can't wait to get mine outside and transplanted to see them start blooming.
No idea as I've never tried to save the seed. Pretty cool doing the experiment to find out. Hope all of one or the other germinate for you.
If I can get two of the seeds to germinate I'll be thrilled. Only about 10 days to wait and see the results.