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Selecting healthy Coleus plants to collect seeds is the major part of harvesting. But how to harvest coleus seeds have another three more steps. You need to collect and store the seeds for a long time.
The journey of harvesting coleus seeds will not end there, and you need to go through some additional steps to get the best seeds to grow next sprint. Therefore, we will discuss the 5 simple steps covering the entire harvesting process.
After going through the entire process of harvesting coleus seeds, you will no longer search for the same again in your entire gardening life. So, keep going and get the perfect way of harvesting your coleus seeds.
Harvest Coleus Seeds in 5 Steps
You must be careful in selecting the best-growing or healthy plants. It will be the most crucial factor in collecting any seeds. Apart from that, you must follow the below process of getting seeds within a couple of weeks since you will start from the very first.
Let’s get through these steps and harvest the best quality coleus seeds within the shortest possible time.
Selecting Plants & Tie Yarn or Strings
Finding healthy plants will be your first job before you start the harvesting process. If you mistake choosing weak or unhealthy plants, your effort will be in vain. So, keep an eye on every coleus plant until you get some best ones among them. Remember, you don’t need all your coleus plants to get seeds, and a few of them might be enough.
Once you get some healthy plants, you should tie yarn or some colorful strings around those plants to identify them. You must be careful in tying the strings since it might also damage your plant.
These strings will show you the best quality plant in autumn when most of your plants will be weak, and only the strongest one will still be there. That’s your targetted plant.
Right Time Harvesting
Once you get your healthiest plants, you should wait until the leaves have faded, and those plants only leave with seed pods. Your targeted seeds will be in those pods in dry condition, and you should allow them to dry for some additional days.
You might think of collecting your dry seeds after the leaves fall. Don’t do that until your seeds get everything to get ready for harvesting.
Collect Seeds
Within a week, your seeds will be ready to harvest. You can use scissors to cut through the seed pods, and you should use sharp scissors to cut the vital part of the pods. Then, you will have the seeds that you must place on a paper envelope.
Store The Seeds
After collecting the seeds from desired plant’s pods, you should dry them properly until they are ready to store for a long time.
You should also remove the bad seeds from the collected pods because some of the pods will contain a few bad seeds that might damage others.
So, the seeds need to undergo the screening process, which will help find healthy seeds and quickly remove damaged, broken, or unhealthy ones.
When you finalize the best seeds and dry them properly, you should use a paper envelope to store them. There might be options for storing in plastic jars or boxes, but they are unhealthy for seeds. If you keep your seeds in a plastic box, they will get mold after a few weeks.
Therefore, a paper envelope would be the best way to store coleus seeds.
Plant at Spring
Once you collect and store your seeds for some weeks and spring, you should plant them. You can plant them inside and outside your house since they will grow similarly better in both conditions.
How to take Care of Harvested Coleus Seeds
You have a detailed guideline for collecting and harvesting your coleus seeds for a couple of months. You must take care of your harvested coleus seeds to protect them from extreme conditions and pest attacks.
You can simply consider these two things protecting your seeds.
Extreme Condition
Sometimes, the weather might become extreme in cold and hot summers. We all know that seeds can’t retain their healthy condition in extreme situations unless you take care of them. How do you do that?
If there is too cold outside your home, you should store the seeds near the furnace or inside your living room. In short, you need to keep your seeds in a warm area or at least at room temperature other than in a cold place.
What if the weather is too hot and everything gets messy? In that case, you should change the envelope once in a while to ensure that your seeds don’t get extreme heat.
Protect Your Coleus Seeds from Pest Attack
For some reason, pests might be inside the envelope if you fail to dry your seeds properly. It might occur in the cold or rainy season since you will fail to dry the seeds accordingly.
However, if you ever find any pests or other flies around that envelope, you should change the envelope and remove the damaged seeds. Try to keep them under direct sun and remove mold or pests. Never spray the pest controller over your stored seeds since it will damage your seed’s health.
If you fail to protect your coleus seeds from pest attacks, they won’t be fruitful. So, you must ensure a perfect storing process for protecting your coleus seeds from pests. You should never allow the flies to go through the stored seeds.
How to Collect Coleus Seeds?
You can collect coleus seeds following the same harvesting guideline. You need to choose a healthy plant and then wait for the best time to collect your coleus seeds.
Closing Words
How to harvest coleus seeds will never be a real challenge for you if you go through the above process. It starts with selecting the right plants and ends with planting healthy seeds. I will also show you how you can protect your stored coleus seeds. So, follow the above guideline and collect the best seeds by planting them in the upcoming spring.