6,340 Garden Web Discussions | Growing from Seed

Culinary Star anise (Illicium verum) is usually grown in southern Asian countries, & I know of no plants or a source for fresh seeds in the US. Fresh seeds would be more likely to germinate. Be careful when you buy seeds for sale  anyone can grab this spice off the spice rack & resale the seeds, but that does not mean they will germinate. I can get a package of star anise from the store for about 60 cents & I would not buy unless I was assured germination. When buying seeds, look for the seed companies germination rate for that seed. Having said that, I am trying the same thing as you - sometimes many of these spices can be grown from store bought seeds.

One problem you will have with store-bought star anise is a lack of viable seed. Below is a picture. The seeds are inside the star pod inside the shiny shell. The ones on the left are the seeds, whereas the ones on the right are dried up seeds that are definitely not viable. The outer shiny shell of the star anise is very fragile, and would probably break down with the soil.

I were purchasing seeds I would break down the shiny shell & notify the company if I found dried up seeds in them. I would not pay for non viable seeds as seen in the right.

Hi, I am searching for the real satr anise, bought some seeds, planted them, had them healthily sprouted and have them growing. Question is - Are they really Illicium Verum ? If you can help me answering it, I would be very grateful, cause the data about the subjet, available in the net, is not relliable, probably because of intervention of the powerfull pharmaceutical industries politics, that spread misinformation on their most valuable subjects,as star anise, from wich is made TAMIFLU.
Thanks, Silvio Chaves.

Thanks morz8! I didn't think about them being patented. No nursery near me grows the more exotic varities. I've heard a lot of horror stories about ordering mail-order live plants so I keep shying away from ordering anything but seeds. Could you recommend one that you have used in the past?

Thanks

I don't know what side of the country you are on to know if I would be recommending nurseries who would not charge you exorbitant shipping, but of those I've used (and I order only things more rare that I cannot find in person) and am confident in, in no special order:
Plant Delights Nursery
Lazy S's Farm
Digging Dog
Forest Farm
Greer Gardens
Cistus Nursery
Joy Creek Nursery
You'll find excellent packaging and quality plants with any of the above, but again, you'll pay for it too so make sure your order will compare favorably with a tank of gas, a weekend morning drive to someplace you can go 'nursery hopping'.

Final shot, of the cornflowers looking back at the cluster that we just passed.

Thank you for posting your beautiful pictures!

I almost posted yesterday, but glad I didn't. I'm glad you're enjoying growing the apples from seed. Nothing wrong with it -- if you know what you may or may not get. And just because an apple you grow is good enough to be commercialized (the figure i've heard is 1 out of 40,000) doesn't mean it's not good enough for your purposes.

Remember (if you're inclined) that besides apple butter, if the apples are astringent or bitter think hard cider.

"I have small deerless patch of woods" -- HOW and where do I get one? :-)

I am in a semi-urban setting. We got wild turkeys behind our condos but no Deer sighted as of yet. That might change when my apple trees start dropping apples! We have plenty of Maples and Oaks; how about something different?

Flora, Great research!
Appreciate you finding out the real answer.
I was just out in the garden and was thinking that I have a very technical book, that I like, that deals with plants down to the cell actions. I will check it to see how they explain it. But I can start by looking up "root primordia " because of the research you did.
Thanks!
Bob

Here is a link that truly shows the difference between the hairs and the potential roots. Pretty cool.
Couldn't find it in my text book, but when I searched in Google books I found a lot of discussion.

Bob

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Lover

Why kill them? Just washing them off the plants onto the ground satisfies me. Al

Duplicate post.

I think it's the cold weather here in NY, even though we did have some hot days. Peppers and eggplants like it hot. My cukes are still tiny. I put everything in the ground already. I know the next week will be cold again, but as soon as it heats up they will take off. I feel they are better off in their outdoor place (now that frost threat is over) and I don't have to worry about them.

Like I said before, each year brings new and different challenges. You adapt and change what you're doing and in a few more years you will have the right routine. People have varying success with windowsill gardening, pre-fertilized potting mix and with peat pots.

I had similar problems with tomatoes and pepper seedlings this year (and they weren't in peat pots). (Acually I'm running a tomato test where half my tomaoes were in paper drink cups (removed at planting) and half were in peat pots (top rim torn off at planting)).

I found by using a very dilute* miracle gro-like fertilizer started them growing again. I've heard negative things about the slow-release fertilizer in potting soil (don't have an opinion myself). One thought is; is it releasing the fertilizer as fast as the plant needs it?

* when I say dilute - I'm mixing 1/2 TBSP to 1 gallon as a base solution and then when I mix it to use it I dilute it 4 to 1.

Hope this helps.

as soon as that seed even cracks(you dont need to see root)
it should be planted in soil, as a rule of thumb, twice the seeds thickness deep.

if you leave it in the towel, the root will grow longer than it should be, and be prone to snapping.

It will most certainly produce leaves without light. Cotyledons exist to some level before the seed even cracks. Without light to the cotys the roots will cease to grow, and the plant will die.

I planted my seeds in a clear hard plastic food container and placed them in the window sill. After they got a good start and had a couple of leaves I planted them in individual pots and lifted the plant so that 3/8 inch of the root was above the soil line. The ones I planted below the soil line die from trunk rot. Take the standard procedure for growing citrus.

Have your trees turn out well. Could you post pictures. See my picture below.

Meiwa kumquat tree grown from seed.

Here is a link that might be useful: https://plus.google.com/photos/111099372377958308731/albums/profile?banner=pwa

I should mention that everything I have planted in the egg cartons are only about an inch high so far. I am transplanting them to a bigger container this weekend. But most of my other veggies have already been transplanted to large containers already.

I think you should sow the seed direct in ground.
Suzi

Al, I only have 5 seedling plants, and there is another coming up and maybe they all will, but no guarantees there. I wouldn't hesitate to lose one if all 25 took, but we need 21, so every baby counts and now we have 6 counting the twins.

Today DH got out his knife, and separated the twins. Actually, I was surprised that they kept their roots straight down and were not co-mingled.

He then cut another root cube in half, jammed it up against each seedling, and back in the rooting chamber they went.

They will survive just fine.

Not so sure about the new twins. They are about 1/32" from each other. If one is big, it will get culled because it's growing next to a true dwarf root stock. And the dwarf stock is the whole reason for seedlings.