Plan to plant Taro plant for the first time

[Jimmy Gibson]

http://www.hardytropicals.org/blog/entry/harvesting_seeds_from_colocasia_gigantea

Also Cannas do produce seeds. They are available on-line.

Of you are not getting seeds from your plants then the pollinator is absent. Some plants require only certain species of insects for pollination. If the plant is too far North of its natural range these pollinators may not be around.

I am in West Tennessee...... I have noticed that I have no Honey Bees, haven't seen one in a couple of years, since I am in the middle of a large agriculture area I suspect that is the reason for no bees, but the vegetable garden and the rest of the annuals are doing great

 

[Gemma]

..... It's the same with Cannas lots of seed pods but no seeds

Not all Canna varieties produce seeds...Australia, King, Ermine to name a few are sterile and can only be reproduced by root or tissue culture

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Not all Canna varieties produce seeds...Australia, King, Ermine to name a few are sterile and can only be reproduced by root or tissue culture

Quite true. Many cultivars of all ornamental plants are sterile and do not produce viable seed.

 

[sissy]

I get seeds from my cannas and my elephant ears .I started some of them but gave up since I have so many of them .I give plants away and seeds .If I planted more seeds I would have thousands of them .As it is I have to many bunch's of them .I dig a lot of them up and pot them so that the birthing center can sell them to make money to stay open to help low income mothers get medical care .I donated 6 pots of them to the animal shelter also and they sold them all .I took 8 pots of elephant ears and 4 pots of cannas today to the birthing center to cover orders for them .Wednesday I took some to the shelter to cover the orders there also .I have to split up a couple of more plants in the basement and then that is it for this year unless I can dig some up and start them in the basement .

 

[BarbO]

What does an elephant ear seed look like?

 

[sissy]

I have never seen a seed that survived except for the ones that fall on the ground and grow by themselves .They are small and by the time they are ready to pick most times the wind comes and they fall all over the ground .Same with my palm trees ,they get seeds that are very hard and tried planting them but they never grow .But if they fall on the ground they grow and then I dig them up and plant them .I have lots of potato's or bulbs from my elephant ears that I have dug up and given away

 

[Gemma]

What does an elephant ear seed look like?

This came out of the search

 

[sissy]

The outside of the seed was a very hard shell like a lotus seed

 

[Gemma]

The outside of the seed was a very hard shell like a lotus seed

So do they need to be scratched to break that shell before planting, like Canna seeds?

 

[sissy]

I tried everything with no success the only ones that grew were the ones that fell to the ground and grew by them selves .I would dig those tiny ones up and the seed pond would be broken open with the tiny stem coming out with the first leaf before it would open .I soaked seeds in water and tried sanding ends off and it did not work so every time I saw a baby coming up from the ground I would pot it up after the first 3 or 4 leaves opened .I would put a stick next to the baby when it came up .Same with my palm seeds let them fall and then wait and pot up .

 

[sissy]

theses are the palms seeds and by next spring I will have lots of spikes coming out from them laying there .I do not have pics of the seeds from my elephant ears it is to late in the season

 

[BarbO]

Interesting! Guess there are some things only Mother Nature can do!