Often monocarpic plants can be kept alive after flowering if the flowers are removed as soon as they are done blooming, before seed formation begins, or if the flower buds are removed before they begin blooming.
Removal of faded flowers will prevent seed formation.
Topping is a process by which a mower or similar implement is used to "top", or remove, the aerial part of a crop, in order to prevent seed formation and distribution onto the soil.
Different types of seed coats can be made up of living or dead cells, and both types can be influenced by hormones; those composed of living cells are acted upon after seed formation, whereas the seed coats composed of dead cells can be influenced by hormones during the formation of the seed coat.
"Mountain laurel like many other plants, when confronted with extreme drought-stress conditions will focus its energies into reproduction, into seed formation," he said.
For some seeds, their future germination response is affected by environmental conditions during seed formation; most often these responses are types of seed dormancy.
Pollination is required for seed formation, but the presence of seeds negatively affects the quality of the fruit.
Since this male-sterile line cannot self-pollinate, seed formation is dependent upon pollen from the male line.
But when the seed formation is freed from the maternal organization, the working of the forces in the plant divides; in one direction, the forming of substance is such as to strive upward into the realm of the etheric, while in the other it strives back again to physical formation.