Hello! I have had 5 of my 17 hips on one of my own roses called “Goliath” abort. It’s a shame, I threw so much pollen at it this year. The take rate is low, so to lose any has been quite painful. Some of them were quite far along, so am planning to stratify and germinate anyway. Please advise if anyone has had any luck on aborted hips?
James, I do my formal hip collection starting at 90 days, and extending to as much as 150 days…it depends on ripened color and when the first frost occurs. Hips will frequently fall off on their own before 90 days, and I will sometimes keep those, especially if they are more than 60 days old. Sad to say though, I don’t believe I’ve ever had a germination from one.
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I’ve frequently read that seeds are “mature” at approximately 110 days from pollination. I date my tags along with the pollen parent’s name and harvest them at around the 120 mark. I hope it helps.
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Despite a few attempts here and there, I think I can say with pretty good certainty that I, too, have never managed to get the seeds from aborded hips germinating. Still, I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Due to prolonged heat and no water this season I think there have been a lot of aborted hips. However I’m still on for a very successful season if things stay roughly how they are. It’s certainly going to my best year with indigo yet! I think I have 13 large hips on it
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Have you tried embryo extraction on the achenes of the aborted hips? It takes forever but maybe it could be the solution to your problem.
I have not been successful as of yet and I don’t have the time to learn
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If you catch it quickly and the seeds are mature enough then you should theoretically be able to germinate them. The longer the seeds remain in the dying hip the more likely they are to die with it though.
