Cyclamen seed tutorial

[Regelian]

Here is a general question.  I've always had plenty of seedlings in my garden from C. coum and C. hederafolium, but have never attempted to collect seed from either.  When is the seed typically ready to harvest and how many seeds are in a typical capsule?  Are there any tricks to 'capturing' the seed?  I have taken a good look at a still green capsule and find only a single seed.  Can these be harvested unripe and ripened off the plant?  How is seed best stored?

Other than trying a few pots, I want to be able to send seed to the exchange next season.  I've added a few more species to the collection this season, such as C. graecum, C. trochopterum and another I can't recall.  Are most species similar in seed production?

Thanks,

Jamie

[partisangardener]

The seeds of C.hederifolium ripened in my Garden (South Germany Bayreuth 6a) about July, some even August.
I tried to save seeds with paper teabags. It didn't work. The Blackbirds or the wind took them away.
Number of seeds as far I collected them in time was more than 6 up to approximately a dozen. I collected only open capsules.

[ashley]

Axel, you might find it easier to pick the capsules once they become soft but are still intact.  Then bring them indoors to dry out fully and split, for example loosely wrapped in a piece of kitchen towel (labelled!) on a warm windowsill.  After a few days the seeds can be gathered easily and without loss.

[Diane Clement]

Here is a general question.  I've always had plenty of seedlings in my garden from C. coum and C. hederafolium, but have never attempted to collect seed from either.  When is the seed typically ready to harvest and how many seeds are in a typical capsule?  Are there any tricks to 'capturing' the seed?  I have taken a good look at a still green capsule and find only a single seed.  Can these be harvested unripe and ripened off the plant?  How is seed best stored?
Other than trying a few pots, I want to be able to send seed to the exchange next season.  I've added a few more species to the collection this season, such as C. graecum, C. trochopterum and another I can't recall.  Are most species similar in seed production?
Thanks,   Jamie    

Jamie, most species are similar in that the seeds ripen in mid to late summer, no matter what their flowering time.  So hederifolium (and other autumn species) take almost a year to ripen, whereas repandum (and other late spring species) take a much shorter time.  They nearly all have pedicels that spiral the fruit to the ground where they ripen (persicum doesn't do this).  The fruits are quite firm to touch, test them between finger and thumb.  As Ashley says, when they slightly "give" on squeezing means they are ripe.  At this stage before they have dehisced (split open) the whole pod can safely be removed and ripened indoors in a tray.   But I often do remove the fruits a little before this stage and put the pods in a warm place.  The seeds are white when unripe, and turn orange/brown when ripe.  

The seed pods are sticky to handle at the unripe stage and I usually push the seeds out of the sticky pod to dry off, in a warm place, in an open saucer or similar.  I then store in paper envelopes as they are often still sticky and they easily dry off.  

[Diane Clement]

Here's some pictures to illustrate the story
Cyc seed1   Unripe C hederifolium fruits on the plant in July
Cyc seed2   Seed pods taken off the plant to ripen indoors
Cyc seed3   Close up of seed pod dehiscing (this is C persicum)
Cyc seed4   C repandum seed drying

[Diane Clement]

Cyc seed5   Squeezing the pod from the end to eject the seed
Cyc seed6   Sticky seed
Cyc seed7   Dry seed
Cyc seed8   Some non-viable seed here (unusual!)
Cyc seed9   how I transfer seed into paper envelopes, using a card scoop

[Diane Clement]

And storage
The first shows manilla envelopes, as sold for wages or dinner money.  I like these for storage as the manilla will absorb any stickiness and I reuse them year after year.  They are stored in these until I need to send them to the seed exchanges and then I transfer them into glassine envelopes, shown in the second picture
And the last picture shows what happens when you don't collect the seed - the seed is dispersing on top of the parent tuber, which is seen coming into growth in August. 

[Diane Clement]

And a picture taken last week, to show how the whole situation can get out of hand.  Try collecting the seed off this lot 
And see what happens when you don't    

[Lori S.]

Thank you, Diane and Ashley, for the terrific advice.  Great photos, Diane - they explain it all.

[Paul T]

Beautifully explained, Diane. 

I'm amazed at just how many pods can be thrown by a single plant.  I have a lovely arrowhead type hederifolium (I can dig up a pic if anyone is interested) that is only a few inches wide corm-wise..... it produced a veritable mound of seedpods this year, all of which I notice have dehisced this week.  Heavens knows what I am going to do with all those seed.    I'll sow a few, as I would love to see what the seedlings could be like.  It is a favourite leaf form of mine, which I think originated from Cyclamen Society seed given to me by a friend (I haven't yet managed to join the Cyc Soc, although I really should do so given my interest in them), and I think it will throw interesting leaves in the seedlings, but there must be hundreds of seeds on it at present, assuming the ants haven't run off with them.  It is growing in a 5 inch squat pot and I think the lack of competition had it very happy.  Nice pink flowers, but once the leaves died off I could barely believe teh amount of seedpods.  I kept meaning to photograph them, but never got around to it.    It is the most seedpods I have ever had on a hederifolium, even from ones that were much, much larger than it.

I'm also harvesting heaps of seeds at the moment from the persicum with the perfume, that I mentioned recently in this topic.  I'll end up with hundreds of seeds from that one too. 

[Regelian]

Wow, Diane, what a great presentation!  Can't thank you enough.  Now, I feel like I know what happens and how to handle the whole affair.  I had no idea the seed ripened over such a long period.  My Cyclamen are pretty well hidden under other late plants at that time of the year, so I had never observed the pods en masse.  It's simply incredible what little wonders we miss in our own gardens.

So, Paul, does that mean you are offering seed of this legendary clone?   It's a perfect time to plant in Europe.

[Ian Y]

Superb response Diane a well illustrated master class leaving nothing else to say.

That is what I like so much about this forum, the free exchange of advise and information.

That one plant you show with so many seed pods could supply the seed exchanges needs by itself.

[dominique]

Thank you very much Diane. How clear are these explications ! Thanks more
Dom

[Paul T]

Jamie,

"Legendary" is perhaps over-rating it a tad.  I said "I" liked it a lot, but personal preferences are just that, and not necessarily shared by others.  May be common as muck to you lot, but it is the only one that I have of it. 

[Diane Clement]

Superb response Diane a well illustrated master class leaving nothing else to say.

Ian, I thought you knew me better than that!  There's always more to say on cyclamen    

That one plant you show with so many seed pods could supply the seed exchanges needs by itself.    

Actually, because I have lots of large plants in the garden (and in pots) I take off as many seedpods as I can see before they ripen - there's always lots I miss, so it's just a control mechanism.  There are too many to harvest the lot - so, sorry, many will end up in the bin.  There is no shortage of hederifolium seed out there in the exchanges.  Notice again the last picture, showing how they colonise when happy.  That patch is from my first ever (yes!) hederifolium planted out about 12 years ago.  The tubers from the original plant and two of its seedlings that got too big have been removed and gone to the allotment, but the offspring fill the area.