Radish seeds

RnR

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I grew radishes for the first time this spring. I let a few plants bolt to collect seeds for the next season. They have flowered like mad and I have seed pods everywhere. All this is great except I'm not sure when to collect them. I read in a few places to let them dry on the plant and then pick them but these fellows keep rebranching and flowering and the seed pods have been a rich healthy green for almost 2 months. Has anyone propagated radish seeds successfully and could you share some tips that worked for you? Many thanks in advance
 

Mark

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The plant will eventually die back or the older pods will dry out even if it is still flowering and producing new ones. The process of letting the pods dry out fully is important because it hardens the seeds and you know they are really ready and not immature.

However, you can try removing a few limbs and hang these branches with the mature pods somewhere undercover for them to die and fully dry then test the seed for viability. This method can work for most vegetable plants.
 

Berkeloid

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Is there a particular way you're supposed to collect the seeds? I've peeled open the dry spongy pods to get the seeds out but it's a bit of a slow process. I'm wondering if there's any trick to it?
 

RnR

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They have started turning purple since this was posted so perhaps it's just a matter of practicing patience. There is more than enough to try cutting a branch to dry and see how that works out. Many thanks for the feed back. Probably just jumping the gun because I've been able to spend so much time I the garden lately

Berkeloid, from what I understand they are ready when they have dried out enough that you can hear the seeds rattle when the pod is ready.
 

Berkeloid

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I've gotten them to that point but then you have to sit there peeling them open one by one and you get maybe 2-3 seeds out of each one, then some of them ping all over the place if you open the pod too quickly. I mean it's fine, but it's one of those things that makes you wonder whether someone has come up with a trick that makes the process faster.

Sounds like you have plenty of pods which is a good thing. I often get caterpillars on mine that eat a whole bunch of the pods seemingly overnight when they're green so I don't end up with a huge number of seeds in the end.
 
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