Harvesting native lilies – Data Collection

Protocol

Plant selection

Grow plants to maturity, one per standard nursery container.Selection criteria – plants with twenty or more fruit and the oldest (lowest) fruit is approaching harvest maturity.

Select 40 plants.
Treatment allocation Randomly allocate plants to treatments, 10 plants per treatment.
Plant maintenance Store plants on a nursery trolley, randomly distributed; hand water for the duration of the experiment.
Identifying start of harvest

Hand harvest (T1) – when 1st fruit reaches harvest maturityEarly harvest (T2) – when 1st fruit reaches harvest maturity

Intermediate harvest (T3) – when 3rd fruit reaches harvest maturity

Late harvest (T4) – when 6th fruit reaches harvest maturity
Harvesting – hand harvest treatment T1: hand harvest each fruit as it reaches harvest maturity. Retain all open flowers and buds on the plant; allow to develop normally.
Harvesting – early, intermediate & late harvest treatments T2, T3 & T4: the 1st, the 1st 3 and the 1st 6 fruit respectively, are not counted as part of the harvest. Collect seeds from these fruit. Remove all unopened buds above the topmost open flower.
Data to record at harvest commencement For each plant, record the number of: fruit aborted; fruit set including those that will be discarded in treatments 2, 3 & 4; open flowers; unopened buds.
The photograph by John Delpratt shows the controlled maturation environment.
The photograph by John Delpratt shows the controlled maturation environment.
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