Harvesting/collecting pak choy seeds

[Vanessa]

Does anyone know when to harvest pak choy seeds? I've let two of my plants go to seed and found they are excellent bee attractants when flowering. They have lots of seed pods on them and are still flowering. Does anyone know when the seed pods can be picked to harvest the seeds? They are still green.

[Donna]

Google couldn't help me with 'pak choy' but 'bok choy' got the answer below and google images showed they look pretty similar... and I found this information:
'Bok choy, pak choy, pac choi, bai tsai, baby pok choy, Shanghai bok choy – enough to drive Western gardeners crazy. Why so many ways to identify this mild but tasty Asian green in the brassica family? Asia is a really big place and regional dialects result in different pronunciations and spellings. Other name variations are the result of varieties developed over time that adapted to different growing conditions. And these are just the Chinese names. People in Japan and the Philippines, for example, call it something totally different.' theheirloomgardener.com/pacchoi.php

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090202192518AAaY0Hl

The bok choy will produce pods where they flowers were. They will be about one inch long, and contain small, round black seeds. Wait until the plant is dead and the pods are completely dry to harvest them- you will drop a few seeds, but you are going to have thousands.

'I've had success with bok choy, but keep in mind that it could possibly hybridize with another member of the cabbage family. I've included a link to a book I plan to read about seed saving- some plants are easy, some not.

You will get more seeds from a single plant than you would from a packet that you buy. When seed is abundant, you can sow lots of seed and thin the plants later, increasing your odds of success.'

[Vanessa]

Thanks Donna!

[Addy]

When I harvest my chinese vege seeds, I put a plastic bag over the whole stems and then cut them off. Then I just rub and shake the bag and the seeds fall to the bottom of the bag.

[Vanessa]

Awesome - I'll give it a try. Looks like the first plant is starting to run out of flowers and yellow so hopefully will be ready for harvesting soon.

Thanks!

[Scarlett Patrick]

the pods go brown and start to open - that's a great time for addy's paper bag trick because then you know they're ripe
if you roll them down a magazine into a bowl the chaff stays up the top
if you toss them up in the air in a wind the chaff flies off
i find that swirling them round so they fall through a colander gets rid of a lot of the chaff too
you can just keep the chaff and scatter the whole lot - but the seed won't keep as long and there's a pest risk