Harvesting Lupine

15 years ago

Reccently I have been flagging white Lupine that I have seen growing on the roadside or in public areas. I only saw one of these plants last year, and despite my efforts, the one plant died a miserable death of aphids and snails. I saw no white plants in that area this year. (Actually the whole Lupine crop over there is lacking this year.)

Anyway, people have heard of my hunt for white lupine seeds, and recently someone found a branch of green lupine seed pods froma white plant and gave it to me. As kind of an act as this is, the seeds are not even close to ready yet. I was told "Well she is a member of the garden club". I don't care. From my experience you get green shriveled up seeds from plants who's pods are not yet dried and ripe. I am no expert though. I put the branch in water hoping the pods will continue to grow and ripen.

So... am I right in saying the seeds are not ready until the pods dry out and begin opening or is the other person right because she belongs to a local garden club???

And aphids struck again... even some of my flagged white flowers :(

Thanks.

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Comments (5)

gardenweed_z6a
15 years ago
Can't help with the aphids infestation--have never seen any on my lupines--but in my experience the seed pods need to remain on the plant until they ripen in order to harvest viable seeds. The seedpods on all my lupines are in various stages of green, brown and black (ripe) right now so as they turn black I'm harvesting them. I put Velcro tape around the stems of red, blue and pink so I can keep them separate but didn't mark the white ones. I'll have plenty of seeds to trade in a few more weeks but can't guarantee you'd get just white ones. That said, there are a few ripe seedpods on the lone white lupine growing at the SW corner of my house so if you wanted some I could harvest those for you in exchange for postage (3 1st class stamps).
lily55rjw
15 years ago
Gardenweed! Thanks for your post on here. I am waiting on my 3 Lupine plants seedpods to ripen and your response on here was very helpful! I too, haven't had any anphids on mine. Other plants, yes! I am so excited to harvest seeds off mine so I can trade for some other colors! I have 1 tall purple one and 2 short purple/white ones! I want some pinks, yellows, reds...
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gardenweed_z6a
15 years ago
lily55rjw - you're more than welcome to some of my lupine seeds when they're harvested either in trade or for postage. I have both pink & red that I'm keeping separated since another GW member wants some of the red ones. Guess it's about time I started another seed trade spreadsheet like last year.
lily55rjw
15 years ago
That would be awesome! My list isn't updated right now but I will get it updated as soon as I have seeds to list! Thanks Eileen!
gardenweed_z6a
15 years ago
Okay Randy--yours is the first name on my 2011-12 seed trades spreadsheet. I put you down for pink and red lupine seeds. Do you want white too if I have enough?