Forby Seedlings.

[countrydudeuk]

That's the attitude of "man" Julie! Like it!

Yep, those forbies won't throw up down yer back or wee 10 feet in the air when you change their nappies!!!!!

They'll just sit there, in their cosy little compost bed, like good little children......seen (admired) but not heard!

cheers!

[Julie]

Interesting! There is a pretty clear correlation between mother, and seedling height.

Sorry for the naff photo. But you can still see that the "pink" seedlings on the key, are much taller.

Pink - Girlie's tall babies - she is short and fat.

Green - Mama's short babies - she is tall and thin!

The white two on the left have boh parents unknown as I liberated the pod from a GC.

[attachment 4914 seedling-heights.JPG]

You can just see the parents, nicely beheaded. Girlie is to the left of the two little ones, and Mama to the right.

On the bottom of the key is a line telling that those to the left of it are not Little Y's - unknown dad or dads. To the right are all Y's babies. Seems little correlation between dad and baby features.

Little Y is the one in the terracotta pot with saucer, and he is not in flower. I think he is not very happy... am a bit worried! He did flower all winter though, he might just be responding to drier conditions - less water, less soil and more free-draining.

[iann]

Maybe they get looks from the mother and brains from the father?

[B.A.]

Julie please excuse my ignorance but what should i be looking for,for seed production with the obesa, assuming mine is preggers.sorry not the best pics.
[attachment 4917 cs081Small.jpg]

[Julie]

Bruce, you definitely have a girl, and probably a boy too if you've fertilised?

In a couple of days you'll see the base of the stigmas swell. Then over a week or two, the pods will reach full size. Then they stay that way for a month or more, not changing outside at all. Suddenly they will go brown and dried out, starting with the stigmas. This takes from a couple of hours to a whole day, depending on how warm it is.

This is the time for an upturned clear plastic cup, or the like. Cos you ain't never gonna find them if the pod catapaults them across the greenhouse. Also, if it's not warm and sunny, you can pluck off the dry pods and put them in a container and pop in the sun or on a radiator. I had a stubborn pod which I did on the boiler but they didn't grow. Other methods are bubble wrap bubbles over the pod, and painting the pod with latex to keep it all together when it pops, see here:

http://www.euphorbia.de/catch.htm

Then you have the joy of growing them!

Pre-soak for 24 hours to soften the husk, and do it in May ideally, unless you have a propagator.

[Julie]

Here is an interesting pod. It developed from a double flower, and is now a double pod.

The mother is "Pearshape", and all her other flowers have been quite normal, so I haven't fertilised them.

[attachment 4929 pearshapesixer23-6-07.jpg]

[B.A.]

Thanks Julie, I will give it a go.

[Julie]

By the way you can also break pods with your fingernail, pressing in the valley between two seeds. I've heard it said that seeds don't grow if you do that, but I've had successes.

Last resort for stubborn pods.

[Stuart Estell]

I must have a go at raising some of these... I haven't owned an Obesa for donkey's years. In fact I can't even remember what happened to the one I had. They're lovely things though.

[Roy]

I bought some timber the other day so now I can say I also have a four be too (builders joke)