A Seed Saver's Garden

[ducks4you]

I planted loads of beans this Summer, late, and though producing they are getting chewed up by grasshoppers that have abadoned the sprayed farm field to the west of us. Still my purple bush beans conTINUE to produce. I find it's best to harvest every other day.

 

[Zeedman]

Given that I've taken away a big armload of broken branches from them, and therefore lost a lot of pods as a result, there is still a fair bit there. Got my fingers crossed! Next year (if I succeed), I'll grow 'em in tomato cages.

The tendency for the largest lower branches to break is unfortunately this variety's greatest weakness; I lost a few branches in my last grow out as well.. But as you can see from the photo, the pod set can be incredible - well worth the trouble of tying up or caging. Those long lower branches can get very heavy as the pods fatten up. Not only an exceptionally beautiful soybean, but a very high yielder if the branches are given support.

Those pods look close to maturity, maybe only a week or so from some of them changing color. That plant alone would be well worth covering should frost arrive before the pods begin to dry down. If I recall, I had to protect the row from the first light frosts the first time I grew it.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Well, two days ago or so I finally picked the one and only fruit produced so far on the survivor tomato plant I named Darkest Night (quite possibly the only one I'll get, as, as is typical for non cherry tomatoes in my garden, having made the fruit, the whole plant now seems to be collapsing.)

Unfortunately, between the BER, the cracking caused by the dryness followed by rain, and the two days between when I picked it and actually got around to cutting it tonight (due to which it got a rotten spot that ended up taking over between 2/3 and 3/4 of the flesh) there wasn't that much to taste. But what I COULD taste is very promising, very sweet meaty and savory. And I DID get some seed back (looks like only 12-14 but it's a start) so I can try again next year.
Anyhow, here's a picture (taken from the good, not rotten side)

 

[Zeedman]

That looks promising, @Pulsegleaner , some really nice color.

 

[heirloomgal]

I agree, colouring is just lovely.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

That looks promising, @Pulsegleaner , some really nice color.

Actually, the coloring is one of the things I need to improve. On this fruit, the shading only went about 75-80% down on the tomato (i.e. the bottom was still dark pink). On the fruit it came from, the darkness went ALL the way down to the other end, and all the way through (remember, I said it was so dark I didn't think it HAD the purple skin trait because I literally couldn't SEE it.) Given the name I have chosen, it needs to be that dark again. So I'm hoping one of the seeds will be better on that account. The way the plant looks, it certainly has the potential (I'm used to seeing tomatoes with a purplish blush to the stem, but this is the first one I've ever seen where it was so dark you couldn't SEE the green really, and that continues all the way out to the beginning of the leaves. ) I may be on the way to making a black tomato that really DOES actually look black.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

More good news.

I looked at the cuke vines on my way to the car, and they are FINALLY beginning to catch up with the first ones (that have now died). There's another dark green one with a big bubble on top and a little nose on the bottom (probably a Russian Netted) and the Horned Melon Rund FINALLY looks like it has some female flowers.

More exciting there is an actual spherical striped fruit growing on one of the vines, which I THINK must be a Borneo Jungle Cucumber (I'd say it was a Sambar, but Sambars aren't round.) Since that's one I CAN'T get more seed for (and I only have one packet in reserve) getting it to keep going is more important than the others.

 

[heirloomgal]

More good news.

I looked at the cuke vines on my way to the car, and they are FINALLY beginning to catch up with the first ones (that have now died). There's another dark green one with a big bubble on top and a little nose on the bottom (probably a Russian Netted) and the Horned Melon Rund FINALLY looks like it has some female flowers.

More exciting there is an actual spherical striped fruit growing on one of the vines, which I THINK must be a Borneo Jungle Cucumber (I'd say it was a Sambar, but Sambars aren't round.) Since that's one I CAN'T get more seed for (and I only have one packet in reserve) getting it to keep going is more important than the others.

I hope your Borneo cucumber makes it to full maturity for you; if it does you'll be in good shape with seed stocks because one cucumber can make A LOT of seeds. Right now I've got 3 Kaisers on the counter and I'm waiting for the perfect moment...

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I hope your Borneo cucumber makes it to full maturity for you; if it does you'll be in good shape with seed stocks because one cucumber can make A LOT of seeds. Right now I've got 3 Kaisers on the counter and I'm waiting for the perfect moment...

Well, there is also the matter of if I like the TASTE of the Borneo, I've never tried it before. I'm not even 100% sure it's a true cucumber (with that shape and those stripes, it looks a lot like more like a carosello, a.k.a. a cucamelon.)

And how true it is (that's one of the reasons I kept a packet back last year, in case the Borneo crossed so heavily with everything else it became junk.)

Cucumbers can THEORETCALLY make a lot of seeds, but it is always a matter of pollination rates. I only pulled about seven seeds from the two or three Brown Russians I seeded last year (then again, they were really tiny cucumbers, which was actually HOW they wound up as seeds, they were too small to be worth peeling and eating).


And the Russian netting having those little unfertilized ends is a bit worrying. As far as I can tell from pictures, Russian netted is supposed to be a spherical cucumber, so it should HAVE a long bit poking out of the bottom. But what else could they be. They're the wrong immature color from Brown Russian (those are pale green to white to yellow to brown, these are dark green to start), and the Sambar are supposed to have stripes.


On a side note, someday I'd like to try my hand with a little cucumber crossing. I'd like to cross a spherical cucumber with a gherkin-type cucumber (that is, one that makes a lot of very small fruits rather than a few large ones), to make one that has both. Think I'll call it "Lantern Chain"

 

[ducks4you]

@Pulsegleaner , have you considered planting more flowers with your vegetables? They Will attract more pollinators, and that could help with pollination rates.
The "Lantern Chain" sounds interesting!