A Seed Saver's Garden

[ducks4you]

@Pulsegleaner, it is true, mini roses are hardy little devils!
I bought one in December at Aldi. It Looks a little sick, but I have kept it watered. It Really needs a transplant, hopefully this week, then I will put it downstairs in a cleanout out and used 2 gallon ziplock bag, open, to keep it watered, and next to the mums, in a north facing basement window. Really they aren't very fussy.

@Zeedman, did your DW have a favorite mini rose?

 

[heirloomgal]

More thoughts and observations on Electroculture:
After looking the grow area over with a meter something real simple stood out to me. My garden “antenna’s” are in an open area away from any form of electrical interference and what the meter reads is activity drawn to the antenna. Im calling this a static atmosphere. Of course one end of that wire is buried and i suppose the energy is transferred to the soil And that action is responsible for the gain we see in terms of plant health. Something about the energized soil is also what must be repelling certain insects?

Ok, back to the grow room. When i pass the meter across a heating mat, especially the thermometer cable the readings are very high and in some cases exceeding the range on one scale. There’s also a noticeably strong “field” around the grow lights which im sure is the same EMF put off by anything electrical. I can easily imagine it being easy for this much energy to be picked up by the antenna and transferred to the grow medium. I use this same set up year after year, same lights, same crops, same time period, so im curious about how things will fair with the addition of these “indoor antenna”?

Another peculiarity is that outside i see activity on the meter to roughly a 15 ft. Radius And yet indoors the much stronger energy falls away in less than 2 ft! Telling me i’m seeing different forms of energy.

By now you’ve figured out im no Scientist but a Layman in the truest sense of the word. If this discussion becomes “too much” just say so, we’ve previously traded little snippets back and forth and i’m just thinking that keeping it in one place might be good? However i don't want to be guilty of over running you.

Timothy Leary, over and out!

@Alasgun I love to hear your thoughts on this stuff! I’m here to learn, so for me this is what it’s all about! Sharing ideas! I’ve learned SO much from you these last years on TEG, my organic methods have gotten a definite upgrade from seeing your process. It’s a privilege to get your perspective and insights.

 

[heirloomgal]

My DW always planted those outside in one of her flower beds. They've proven to be surprisingly winter hardy; I've only lost a couple over the years. If anything, given a little care (I cut them back in Spring & late Summer) they have gradually become more vigorous.
View attachment 63583 View attachment 63584

Beautiful roses. I’ve tried many times with these, I guess -40 winter temps are just too much for them here.

 

[heirloomgal]

Today’s adventures with soil mix.

I jinxed myself talking about bad pro-mix awhile ago!

It came to my attention the last few days that my precious pepper seedlings are dying. The tell tale signature leaves of an off kilter starter mix. I post this not to advertise my woes, but for anyone who might be reading this thread who uses pro-mix. This is what your seedlings will look like when they’re dying from a bad bag of mix - either expired or a bad formula. I caught this very early because this Isn’t the first time it’s happened, so I can still rescue them and save them. No fertilizer will fix this. Totally abnormal leaf color, the missing pieces are just mouse bitten. If I let this go the cotyledons drop off first then the others. These are stunted now but I started them early so they can catch up.

Terrible!

This is the bag.

Notice the fine print about expiry. Use before best before date, but when is that?

I looked and looked, couldn’t find the exp date on the bag. Called the store where I got this, can they see an expiry on any bags? Nope, ‘they don’t have that says‘. The owner, had the store for decades, never even heard of expiry on small bags. Big ones, yes. I told him, yes, there def is Please look. So he goes and checks the new shipment they got today. He comes back to the phone in shock, he found the exp dates. AND he can’t read them. I look everywhere on mine FINALLY found it. Geez, wonder why I didn’t see it right away! He just couldn’t believe the blurry date stamped on. I told him to hold them accountable for bad product.

I can’t read mine either. BUT. I see on closer inspection a NEW ingredient I’ve not seen in these bags before. The 3rd ingredient COCO COIR. Plant killing stuff. Oh. My. Gosh. I had no idea that was in there. As soon as I opened the bag I knew this stuff was junk, texture was way off, just so wrong. So, a new reason the seedlings are starving to death!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

@Pulsegleaner, it is true, mini roses are hardy little devils!
I bought one in December at Aldi. It Looks a little sick, but I have kept it watered. It Really needs a transplant, hopefully this week, then I will put it downstairs in a cleanout out and used 2 gallon ziplock bag, open, to keep it watered, and next to the mums, in a north facing basement window. Really they aren't very fussy.

Provided they have been decent treated before you get them. The problem I kept having was that, by the time I would get them, it was usually WAY past Valentine's/ Mother's day*, and the one left had basically been ABANDONDED in the floral section (I think that, once the blooms fade, stores assume no one is going to ever buy them, and stop watering them)**. So a lot were pretty close to totally dead BEFORE I got my hands on them, and beyond help.

Breaking them up seems to help as well. As I said, a lot of them have multiple plants in the little pot, and splitting them/removing the completely dead ones seems to help give the merely sick ones more space to recover in.)

But yeah, good plants can show up in some really odd places (I actually bought a succulent*** once in an IKEA, and it lived about five times longer than any one I had bought at a professional nursery.

*I keep using the double date because I have gotten them as late as June, but, for all I know, the ones I have gotten in June actually HAD been in the store since Valentines day.

**Though, if they thought that, why keep them at all?
*** Succulent, not cactus, It was some sort of xeric Euphorbia, I think.

 

[Zeedman]

@Zeedman, did your DW have a favorite mini rose?

She grew one kind exclusively - those gifted to her by our daughters & myself. Sometimes one given to her wilting & half-dead by a friend, which she would then nurse back to health. As you probably noticed from the photos, color was not an issue; she cherished them all, and planted them in gloriously colorful chaos.

 

[flowerbug]

seed starting mix is different than potting soil or a more robust growing medium.

seed starting mix is often nutrient poor and is not meant to be used for longer term growing. that is what potting up is for and also added nutrients.

the seeds have the energy to start. after they go a certain period of time (depending upon the plant species) they need to be potted up or gently fertilized.

IMO the mix is not defective. it's done what it was supposed to do.

 

[heirloomgal]

So, I transpanted all the seedlings into some new seed starter mix; I used 2 different brands and marked the pots so I'll be able to see if there are any differences between the two. I'm hopeful these will be better because they don't have exp dates and don't seem to contain any coco coir. There is some peat in them though so it's still a gamble. These are denser than the pro-mix with less vermiculite etc. (because they are cheaper) , which of course is less ideal for setting roots, but more a sure thing to avoid the toxic effects of the peat et. al. and wacko pH factors. One of the seedlings had progressed to cotyledon dropping overnight, so that's really bad, but I think I caught it early enough this time. I know I could get a refund if I pursued it, but I remember from last ime, they want dozens of pictures sent to them and you have to play phone tag etc. so I'm just gonna move on. I know the store owner will pursue it anyway, he has much more to lose selling junk soil, and he was definitely not happy yesterday about his new shipment. He told me, because he uses this stuff too, that over the years he's come to the conclusion that these small retail bags are the absolute dregs of the professional pro mix operation. lol I'll let him hold their feet to the fire.

Hope the seedlings recover, and quickly. Ugh, bad soil makes me so frustrated!!

 

[ducks4you]

I had to look this up re coco coir:
it can have an extremely high salt content

https://areapeat.com/conclusion-coco-coir-not-sustainable/#:~:text=While%20making%20coco%20pith%20uses,mention%20ethical%20working%20practice%20issues.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

FINALLY got my walnuts yesterday (after the sellers basically left me hanging in the wind for about a month.)

Looks like I may have been wise to get fresh Manchurian Walnut seed. Looks like in addition to being old, and possibly not treated the proper way for growing (as I got them from someone selling them for use as hand therapy, not eating or planting.) It now looks like most of mine may also not be pure Manchurian. They're too short (some nuts are shorter than others, but mine are mostly shorter than that.) too round, and, with one exception, the indentations in the shell are too shallow.

As walnuts cross with each other quite readily, I think most of mine may be a mandishurica/regina mix, like I used to be able to fish out of the nut bin at that supermarket (only with a lot more mandishurica than those had).

I really hope that, when I get back to Manhattan, that supermarket has some more of those in (or, indeed still exists.) I'd still like to have an Iron Walnut, as it is the most structurally attractive (it's a lot more upright than most walnut trees), and, since I can't seem to find someone with certified seed, going through their mixed up bin is probably the best chance I have of getting some (assuming I can find a good enough picture of the nuts to allow me to see what traits they have that make them visually distinct from those of regular Persian Walnuts.)