A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

Be careful; they're toxic raw or undercooked (actually, this is this is the first time I've heard of anyone trying to eat them; they're usually a curiosity ornamental.)

Oh, and it's a tropical vine/climber, so you'll need a greenhouse/indoor space with a LOT of room.

From what I've researched there are two types, wild and cultivated. It is the wild ones that are toxic, I imagine the cultivated ones have been bred away from that trait, the way lupini beans have been bred away from bitterness.

Sadly, I don't have plans to grow it, they'd never make it here. I posted the clip because I thought it was incredible how huge they can get and they don't even need to be planted in the ground. You just put one on top of the ground and it grows into a vine that produces these tubers, which most people say taste as good or better than potatoes.

 

[heirloomgal]

The most marvelous mail arrived today from the UK! It amazes me the generosity of seed savers worldwide . Did a wee trade - or so I thought - and today I found this in the mail! I would not have guessed they'd survive!! It has been quite a week of wonderful mail surprises!! Just 6 hours after planting and they seemed greener already!

I am thrilled beyond the beyond right now!!!! Top left packet has little bulblets in there!!!

Small problem occurring. The sunchokes sent to me in the mail over a month ago, that I've been overwintering in the fridge in pots with peaty soil - they're sprouting! And I can't plant them out until June?

 

[ducks4you]

Gonna have to pot them up and put them in a window for awhile.
At least they will make inside oxygen for you.

 

[heirloomgal]

Gonna have to pot them up and put them in a window for awhile.
At least they will make inside oxygen for you.

If I take them out of the fridge now and put in a window I don't think they'll make it. These are very tiny tubers, they probably don't have much energy in them to keep producing greenery in a too small pot. Last year I started them in pots pretty early not knowing what else to do with them because I got them in the mail in May, and because they grow so fast they got oversized pretty quickly. For now, I'm going to let them keep sprouting in the fridge and hope that slows them down enough to buy me some time. I guess this means if they were in the ground they'd be sprouting down there. Hard to imagine though, we had a lot of snow last night and the ground is hard as rock still.

 

[heirloomgal]

The planting of seeds has officially begun!

Bell peppers are all in, and about 1/3 have sprouted. Got all my new onion seeds in the ground, and the wee onion/leek bulbs. Planted 9 cotton plants tonight, and did the first round of tomato seeds. Mostly cherry tomatoes and dwarf types so far. Felt great to do that.

My new Brother label machine is AWESOME, I don't know how I ever managed without it. It's just glorious looking at the seeding tray full of perfectly uniform, nicely printed labels. I should have gotten one of these years ago! Thank you so much for the suggestion @Decoy1, I would never have thought of such a tool, it was so simple to figure out too. 10 minutes of tinkering around and I figured out all I needed to work it. I needed 9 cotton tags and all I had to do was type in cotton and hit 9 copies! I got it with the idea in mind to avoid scrubbing tags, buying markers and acetone, but now I love it just for these beautiful tags its making!!

In the thrill of my new label machine, and realizing how a wonderful tool can REALLY make your life easier I went out and bought a new watering tool for seeds & seedlings too. Oh my gosh, this thing works AMAZING. No more seeds floating up to the top of the pot when you water it in with a watering can. Generally I like old fashioned ways of doing things, but this method of watering in seeds blows away any other watering method. It is almost like an electric waterer with the pump action, and the mist/spray is adjustable to my preference. It was only $17.99 too, and totally worth it. Another tool that I should have gotten long ago. Works absolutely wonderfully. Better late than never!

 

[heirloomgal]

All tomato seeds are planted for 2025!

As per my usual habit, I way overdid it....but I have such a surplus of really awesome tomatoes, thanks in large part to the amazing tomato collection of Bill Minkey, that I couldn't resist overdoing it. lol But I was at least somewhat strategic, I seeded a lot of mini dwarfs as well as regular dwarfs. So, all those will go in window boxes as well as pots and won't take up any room in the garden. This will likely be the year that I finish up growing out all the Russian varieties that I got from a short season tomato collector.

My new watering tool is just so good, I feel like a dentist using it. Like I have this super professional precision tool. Saved me SO MUCH TIME. I never realized how much my handy dandy watering can was slowing me down. Between my new labeler, waterer and the fact that I had a list ready of tomatoes to go in I think this was the fastest I was ever able to get my tomato seeds planted!

 

[ducks4you]

I think I have seen you new watering tool before in a YouTube video.

 

[heirloomgal]

I think I have seen you new watering tool before in a YouTube video.

Works like this, at 1:50.

 

[heirloomgal]

Got another round of planting done this evening!

I feel weirdly organized too, things are going so smoothly. This can be a bit of an overwhelming time for me because I feel pressure to get so many various seed species in soil, and usually asap because the 8 week mark doesn't last long. So there is that time sensitivity. And then I worry about forgetting things to plant as well, and if the planting window passes for a crop then I have to wait a whole 'nother year! And if it's seeds I've bought, I worry about their age and how well they'll sprout after another year in storage. Anyway. Feeling on top of things, which is really nice.

Got some 'Vates' collards planted, all the Physalis species fruits, Scarlet kale, nodding onion, a couple more bell peppers, eggplants, Hamburg parsley (this one really threw me as the package has no time guideline for planting, and I have zero experience with it, I might be early with it) yellow lavender and tzimbalo. I had so much interest in those fruit seeds that I'm nearly out and don't want to lose that lovely fruit!

I'm really liking this new starter mix I got a month ago at a greenhouse operation - 'Lambert', and it's really nice and light. Quite full of aggregate. Really good stuff for sprouting seeds, probably will need repotting soon after true leaves though. The bale is a year old but they guaranteed me that it's not expired, and that they use these bales themselves even the next year from purchase. This is a little bit hard to imagine, but I guess I'll see. They usually have such a short shelf life. But they knew all the various additions in there that were perishable (lots of soil sellers have very little knowledge of the product they sell), and reassured me they were good, so I kinda feel like they were being honest. Lots of the peppers are up and they're looking good, the cotyledons are not pointing up towards the light source - that's a good sign! The first indication of bad seed mix is unhappy cotyledon leaves that want to fold together or point up. (Replant right away if you see that!) So far so good!

 

[heirloomgal]

And so it begins!!

The tomatoes are sprouting nicely and in good time. Most of these are all new to me, so I didn't know the age of any of the seeds, germ time could have been pokey. I planted a few faves of my own using my oldest seed lots, dating to 2017 and I can't believe how quickly those sprouted too. I wanted to refresh the seed knowing it was aging; I knew they'd sprout but it took only 5 days! Just goes to show if you have really good storage conditions (#cool, #2 dark, #3 dry) your tomato seeds will really hold. I'm quite happy with the results so far.

Interestingly , the fresh seed from the Schoenbrunn ground cherries of 2024 (so only 7 months old) are still not up! And they're on a heating matt! But that is the way of the Physalis family - stubborn! I also experimented with some of my older pepper seeds (which I should not have let go for so long) and while they certainly took their sweet time, they came up with a 75% germ rate, which is pretty good if slow. Pepper seeds don't age well, nothing like tomatoes, but that 2019-2020 seeds will still sprout at those rates is not bad. Not likely I'll ever really getting into having a big pepper selection because of that, but there are some new ones slotted in for this year and we'll see how they do. I'm excited to be growing Odessa Market, Red Belgium and Chervena Chuska again, old favorites that I haven't grown in awhile. I'm pretty excited to refresh that seed and be able to offer them to people - SUCH good sweet peppers!

Good times, good times!