Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Seeds

Have you ever wondered how vegetables produce seeds? Let me show you.

I've allowed my mustard green vegetables to bolt and produce flowers. After several weeks, the flowers turn into seed pods. Each pod contains many tiny black seeds.

As you can see, you can get loads of seeds from a single plant.

My maize has also started producing male flowers called tassel. Male flowers are always found at the top of the plant while female flowers (the silky part you find at the top part of a corn cob) will form about halfway down the plant. The corn we eat are from the female flowers.

Now I have to wait for the female flowers to form before pollination can take place. Then I may get to eat sweet corn.

2 comments:

  1. Ting, can you take photo of the female flower? I have never seen one. Keen to gain more knowledge about corns.

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  2. Hi JC
    The silky part on the top of any corn is the female flower. You can see one in my older post
    http://msgreenfingers.blogspot.com/2010/09/corn.html

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