Hi,

You can leave the berries on the plant for a while. Ideally, you will harvest them before the next bloom. If the berries stay on the plant too long, they can dry up. You might conisder picking in a few weeks and refrigerating the seeds until your desired time to germinate.

Good luck,
Craig
Sacramento, CA

Very often I leave berries on the plant until they actually begin to germinate. Mine have never dried up on the plant, but I'm growing them in a relatively humid environment, at least during the ripening period. All of my plants naturally get a cooler rest period as the seeds are developing on the plant, so refrigeration of seeds has not been necessary, either. You'll see the berry darken a bit as it softens, and the radical (root) will begin to poke through the skin on one side. At that point the berries can be removed, the skin and pulp carefully removed, and the seedling planted in a small pot of freely draining mix.

thanks, looks like the berries are staying on the plants for a while longer!

Actually, looks like they are starting to sprout on the plant. These are on a plant of Sahin's Yellow that I started frm seeds in about 2002.

{{gwi:571206}}

WOW!! Those seeds are way cool!! I only grew the regular orange flowered seed, and they turn red when they are ripe. this valentines day, I recieved a Golden DRagon from DH! [not in bloom, but perhaps next year.] Good job raiseing this Beauty!!

Can any of the experts out there suggest about how long after pollination it will be before the berries are ripe and ready to be harvested/seeds planted?

Now I have not harvested a single berry yet, but I suspect that they will be soft to touch. I was given some, and they would give when you squeezed them gently. It looks like the ones in the photo might be ready.

I read somewhere else that it's about 9 months, and that's how long mine took to ripen.