When can I harvest tea seeds from tea bushes?

[djtanng]

I have 4 China tea bushes growing in my back yard in Spotsylvania, Virginia. They just started flowering over a month ago, and now I'm wondering when it's a good time to pick the seeds.

I couldn't find anything from searching Google, and anything I could find failed to mention "when" the seeds can be harvested.

Does anyone here know?

[Poseidon]

Im sorry, I dont know the answer but I do have a question about how well the tea bushes do in the southern climate. I live in Kentucky and while the ground is fertil, the weather is quite harsh. I wouldnt imagine tea doing well. Whats your secret ?

[djtanng]

Well, I bought them from a nursery this past spring and believe they were already around 2 to 3 years old and cultivated in either Virginia or South Carolina. (I need to find out next spring when I buy more.)

I put them in the ground from their pots in late June and made sure they were on a slope as tea plants like growing on hills. I think that's because hills help the soil drain better, and I know tea plants like well drained soil. They seem to be alright now in October, but this winter may be their first winter in the ground here in Virginia, (fingers crossed) and for all I know they could have been kept healthy in a greenhouse all this time.

I wanted to plant new tea bushes from the seeds of my current plants myself in hopes that at least one of them can become a mother plant that is tolerant to this area that I can use to make more plants from it's clippings.

I don't really know what I'm doing, but just playing it by ear and learning as I'm doing it. Lol..

[teaformeplease]

I think they'll naturally fall off when ready. That's the way most plants seem to operate anyways. I've got six seedlings growing on my windowsill in New Jersey. Hopefully they'll be up for moving outside in the spring. Unfortunately I don't have a yard so containers it is.