posted: Sep 30, 2009

On the last day of September we are enjoying cooler temperatures and harvesting our late fall bloomers like the Western Aster (Symphotrichum occidentalis). In order to harvest this one we load up the generator, Shop-Vacs, and extension cords into the Polaris and drive up to our 4 rows of Western Aster.



Each plant produces hundreds, if not thousands, of small fluffy seed heads that are designed to disperse with the wind.  In order to capture these seeds before they fly away we use the Shop-vac to suck them off when they're ready. 



The seeds develop over the period of several weeks so make several passes with the vacuums to try and harvest as much as we can and minimize the seed lost to the wind.