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I don't know about you all... but I enjoy harvesting seeds before a plant finishes. I find some seeds tend to finish faster than others and you can get more of a perpetual seed harvest this way. I also think it encourages more seed production to compensate for the ones that in nature the birds might have plucked off. But really, why bother? Isn't that just extra time and work for a BIG maybe I'll get a few more beans???? Probably. There is no harm in leaving a seed too long, right? So what's my problem??? A: I find seeds tend to want to pop immediately when fresh plucked, otherwise they begin to go into a dormant protective phase before sprouting. B: I have tested this theory and found it to be true. but C: I had no idea how right I was until the other day when I was picking some seeds out of the buds, and found a full grown sprout!!! And then another... and then a few cracked beans with a root beginning to emerge. WTF!!!! it's winter... it's dry... it's cold... there is every reason this shouldn't have worked. The hilarious part: I had given them a nice little PH balanced mist the other day, just to keep things happy and keep the dust off so to speak. Well I guess it was just enough moisture to encourage these prime beans to hatch. They came out like hydrogenas, I mean bone dry, but they were sustaining themselves on air and what little moisture they could pull from the buds. Really demonstrated how little moisture a seedling can need, whereas too much is inevitable root rot. The second they hit medium they were thrilled! I've never seen plants happen so fast. I literally was pulling little plants off of... yes PLANTS! I found this all very odd and humorous and had to share. This ever happen to anyone else??? Nature is full of many pleasant surprises. So, little ones are on the way while the seed mama still buds and produces more seeds. That's my kind of awesome! Peace out! Midnight