A Seed Saver's Garden

[Blue-Jay]

The mosquitoes this year continue to be abundant and ferocious.

At my Bean Acres offsite the mosquitoes are also ferocious in a season where we get a lot more rain. I use a product called Deep Woods Off and it works. It's in a spray can. I apply it to my arms, hands, neck, ears and carefully to my face and it works. Mosquitoes don't like this stuff. It was developed for the U.S. army many decades ago. Have you ever tried it? I wonder if it's available in Canada.

 

[heirloomgal]

At my Bean Acres offsite the mosquitoes are also ferocious in a season where we get a lot more rain. I use a product called Deep Woods Off and it works. It's in a spray can. I apply it to my arms, hands, neck, ears and carefully to my face and it works. Mosquitoes don't like this stuff. It was developed for the U.S. army many decades ago. Have you ever tried it? I wonder if it's available in Canada.

I have heard of it @Blue-Jay, I think it's probably available here. If these mosquitoes continue as they have - and they probably will since we've having our 3rd rain right now in just the past 24 hours - I will try to find this spray. Been a long time since we had a season with so many bugs.

 

[flowerbug]

it will help, but if used try to apply it to the clothes and not the skin if you can help it. while it may not have known negative health effects i'm one of those people who doesn't like the idea of the skin soaking up chemicals.

when i was up north fishing a lot we used 100% DEET and i'd put it on my hat and cuffs and that would usually help deter most of the bugs, but not all of them. black flies were much worse than mosquitoes especially in the early summer.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Harvested first common bean pod yesterday (and second today) haven't opened today's yet, but yesterday seems to be white seeds (despite coming from the mottled tan opt) so I guess they aren't done segregating.

Actually, A LOT of the pods feel "hollow" indicating they are mostly finished), but I am erring on the side of caution this year and not picking until the pods are yellowing (I'd love to wat for them to dry down on the plant, but with our rain, that's just asking for re-soaking and seed spoilage.

I suppose I'll have to keep a careful eye on the wild mungs as well, being wild, they'll probably shatter when they dry.

Speaking of which, I harvested the last pod from the domestic yesterday, but it now has more flower buds, so it isn't over. Have started some more mungs to fill in when the tinga finally conks out and can be removed.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I also saw a odd seed in some of the September 2025 batch of senna, which let to me getting the last three bags. Besides that seed (another of those white ones that looks a little like a peppercorn I haven't managed to get to germinate yet, I also got a few more wild soybeans and two more wild mungs (handy backup if the one that has flowers now is the only one that gets them) plus a few bindweed seeds and another black cowpea.

Speaking of that cowpea (or, rather the one before it I planted). I'm getting sort of worried about it. Originally I thought it had just come up pale, or it needed more light. But, now despite being a perfectly decent height, all of the plant is still closer to yellow than to green. I don't get it, it's getting the same light, same soil and same watering as everything else. Could it be some sort of odd cowpea that needs a TON more nitrogen than normal? Is that just the natural color. I supposed that, if it is still growing, the yellow must not be impairing it, but it IS odd.

 

[flowerbug]

...
Speaking of that cowpea (or, rather the one before it I planted). I'm getting sort of worried about it. Originally I thought it had just come up pale, or it needed more light. But, now despite being a perfectly decent height, all of the plant is still closer to yellow than to green. I don't get it, it's getting the same light, same soil and same watering as everything else. Could it be some sort of odd cowpea that needs a TON more nitrogen than normal? Is that just the natural color. I supposed that, if it is still growing, the yellow must not be impairing it, but it IS odd.

it could be a mutation, but generally varigated plants are not going to grow as well as the full green ones. could also be some issue with the root system or stem...

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Opened a few more bean pods, and I'm a bit baffled. As yet nearly ALL of them are white seeded and the few that aren't are a VERY pale purple. Given that EVERYTHING planted that has been harvested from was brown, brown with black streaks, or black (the white seeded ones haven't flowered yet, as they were planted later). I expected SOME variation in color this year, but it looks like nearly EVERYTHING is changing colors.

 

[heirloomgal]

Speaking of that cowpea (or, rather the one before it I planted). I'm getting sort of worried about it. Originally I thought it had just come up pale, or it needed more light. But, now despite being a perfectly decent height, all of the plant is still closer to yellow than to green. I don't get it, it's getting the same light, same soil and same watering as everything else. Could it be some sort of odd cowpea that needs a TON more nitrogen than normal? Is that just the natural color. I supposed that, if it is still growing, the yellow must not be impairing it, but it IS odd.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like I've noticed (over the last couple years doing bean grow outs) that P. vulgaris seems to have a higher predisposition to genetic oddities than other species. I can't count how many times for example I've seen bean seeds germinate and seem unable to grow in the right direction, with their lopped necks above ground and their heads staying buried until they die or get pulled out. Some never figure it out. I find there is a higher incidence of needing to rogue out plants with beans. I'm not sure why this is, but I do find genetic wierdos pop up quite a bit. I never seem to see that in peppers or tomatoes. I see the odd albino pea, but you seldom see a spontaneous chartreuse leafed tomato, or spontaneous variegation. I saw that in peppers once though, spontaneous variegation in a pepper plant but it died as a result. Wouldn't you know it though, it was in seedings for the pepper variety where the Fish Pepper is said to have emerged from.

 

[heirloomgal]

My first cherry tomato of the season is almost ready to be picked. I don't have many cherries planted this year, but the Japanese variety 'Pinky' is colouring up nicely, and I'm going to wait on it to fully turn, because when I rush it I regret it. Apparently Pinky can get up to 60 tomatoes on a single truss, which is lots, though I'm not seeing anything like that on my plants yet. The little trusses look like they each have 9 or so, so far.

I'm excited to try my Karen Olivier tomato Karma Miracle this year - supposed to be a cherry, but the fruits look bigger to me than usual cherries. Hoping they'll be like mini Ananas Noire. I have adored every Karen Olivier tomato I've tried, and this one looks good. Oldendorf Red & Sweet Apperitif are also on the menu. Been wanting to try Sweet Apperitif for awhile now. Wagner's Blue Green is looking pretty awesome with inky blue shading. It's in a pot so the fruits may be more like cherries than cocktails.

Some pics from today

Hairy tomatoes. Posted about these earlier.

Pinky. Trusses are actually longer than I thought. About 20.

Can hardly believe it, but there are figs growing on my plants. I see someone a few blocks over who have a few 6 foot tall fig trees in pots along the driveway that they are clearly overwintering indoors. Gives me hope I may be able to do that too. Though where in the house I'd keep two 6 foot trees I have no idea.

Alaskan Fancy tomatoes. Haven't read anything good about how these taste, but I haven't read anything bad either.

West African Basil aka Adefetue growing well now that hot weather arrived. Taste is interesting, but not basil-y. I'm sure there is thymol in the leaves. Might be good in vegetable soup with oregano and savory.

Lagos spinach aka Shoko Celosia argentea. Pretty little plants. Will try the leaves once the plants reach 3 feet.

Earth chestnuts Bunium bulbocastaneum. NOT a fast growing plant. Will probably need at least another month if I want to try the greens. Hope I can get seeds, but I doubt it. Probably a biennial, so can only hope the tubers will overwinter indoors.

Peppers, a happy ending. The pepper seedlings this year were near death, literally, by June 1st. Way undersized, starving for food, barely 2 inches tall having been neglected with all the projects that were going on. I almost threw what survived out as they looked so unlikely to live or ever grow to proper size. I don't know why but I planted some of them anyway. And they have actually caught up. I'm truly shocked. Even the aji's are going to set fruits. I guess you never know. Biggest surprise of the year so far.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like I've noticed (over the last couple years doing bean grow outs) that P. vulgaris seems to have a higher predisposition to genetic oddities than other species. I can't count how many times for example I've seen bean seeds germinate and seem unable to grow in the right direction, with their lopped necks above ground and their heads staying buried until they die or get pulled out. Some never figure it out. I find there is a higher incidence of needing to rogue out plants with beans. I'm not sure why this is, but I do find genetic wierdos pop up quite a bit. I never seem to see that in peppers or tomatoes. I see the odd albino pea, but you seldom see a spontaneous chartreuse leafed tomato, or spontaneous variegation. I saw that in peppers once though, spontaneous variegation in a pepper plant but it died as a result. Wouldn't you know it though, it was in seedings for the pepper variety where the Fish Pepper is said to have emerged from.

I think part of it may be that the common bean was actually domesticated TWICE, in two different regions (Mesoamerica and the Andean region.) So there is probably a lot of genetic variation between the two groups and so lots of odd combinations that can show up.

Cow peas may have a similar situation, as there you again have two groups that separated a fairly long time ago (Africa and Asia). Lablab have the same division, but there's not as much of a split.

Rice beans have a tendency to throw a fair number of albinos (there were usually one or two every year back when I used to toss them all over the lawn.

And Thai basil tends to have a consistent occurring variation I call Leopard Basil, where you get green leaves covered in purple blotches. I used to see one or two of those each year as well. Though I seem to recall the blotches would get paler and paler as the plant grew and got sun.