Does anyone know when to harvest Cyperus papyrus seeds and what to look for when they are ripe?

Hi duane456, I have this plant and can honestly say I have never seen seeds ( I have had the plants for about 10 years now) . The plant generates new plants from the plant head in between the leaves on the head . You can do this two different ways. 1. bend some of the stems and put the head submerged in the water until new plants sprout leaving the plant intact or 2. cut off a stalk with the head attached . Fill a container with water and drop the plant head into the water and keep in a brightly lit spot until new plantlets start to form .

I have this plant as well and have for several years and I haven't ever seen seeds either ........

Apparently it's propagated vegetatively:

http://www.melindamyers.com/Ra...

Karen

Hi again Duane , I took a picture of my papyrus that I am growing from the heads. I usually use the ones that have been caught by the wind and bent in half .


All I do to grow the new plants is cut the stalks I want to use to about 4 inches long , I also trim the head to about 4 inches in Diameter and put the head upside down in a jar with water . You can also just leave the stalk on the main plant and bend the stalk so the head is in water . There is potential to grow multiple new plants from just one head . When they have reached a decent size they still will be small but I usually remove them from the parent plant head when they reach about 4 inches tall . To get them off you just pry them very gently away from the dying head and plant in very moist soil

Signet ---Thanks for the info

Duane , you are most welcome!

Signet

update-
I pulled off the "head" part last fall and let it dry. This spring I crumbled the dried head (not knowing what was seed or not) into one of my winter sowed containers. I got 3 plants started to my amazement. Here's a pic of those 3 plants in a pot, now--


It can be done !

Nice, Duane!

Karen

signet said:Hi duane456, I have this plant and can honestly say I have never seen seeds ( I have had the plants for about 10 years now) . The plant generates new plants from the plant head in between the leaves on the head . You can do this two different ways. 1. bend some of the stems and put the head submerged in the water until new plants sprout leaving the plant intact or 2. cut off a stalk with the head attached . Fill a container with water and drop the plant head into the water and keep in a brightly lit spot until new plantlets start to form .

I have this same plant and this has been the only ways I've know to do it to.

Cool, now we know two ways to do this. I love these threads!