A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

Well, that appears to be tarragon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarragon

I agree, but it doesn't taste like tarragon? I have a tarragon bush that looks just like this plant, and it's a perennial, but the taste is not the same. I should do some googling about tarragon varieties. Funny though, she was so insistent it was Italian parsley. Maybe she's getting her herbs a bit mixed up.

eta: Yup, she got mixed up. I think this is Russian tarragon. What a coincidence though; I have a perennial French tarragon bush, now I have the more aggressive Russian version and there is also a 'Mexican' tarragon. I'm growing that one in a pot this year. I have all 3!

eta#2: Yikes, the anise flavor of French tarragon (the popular one) is from estragole, a known carcinogen!

 

[heirloomgal]

I saw this while researching a bean on the Resilient Seeds website. Has anyone ever tried this to see if it's true? I've read of this before, but finding this on a seed selling website is what caught my attention since I can only assume that they are selling seeds grown using this practice....if this is true it would mean you could grow a popcorn and any other kind of corn in one year without worrying about cross pollinating.....

I'd like to try this but worry I'd wreck both and the year would be a loss...

POPCORN Most popcorn varieties carry a gene that prevents pollination by other types of corn, including (most importantly) GMO dent corn. This is the only corn we do not hand-pollinate, because so far we see no evidence of any cross-breeding with any of the other types of corn we grow (or nearby GMO corn). Approximately 90 seeds per ½ ounce packet.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I've certainly heard of it. But I'm not sure I'd rely on it, since the emphasis would be on the "most" and there ARE times when that barrier fails (if there weren't, my miniature non-pop corns probably wouldn't exist, since it is almost a guarantee their got their miniature qualities from a popcorn and their non-pop traits from a full size corn.)

 

[heirloomgal]

I've certainly heard of it. But I'm not sure I'd rely on it, since the emphasis would be on the "most" and there ARE times when that barrier fails (if there weren't, my miniature non-pop corns probably wouldn't exist, since it is almost a guarantee their got their miniature qualities from a popcorn and their non-pop traits from a full size corn.)

Yes, 'most' is a bit of a concern.

 

[heirloomgal]

I assumed when a bear was found right next to my soybean rows that it was him eating them. He was repeatedly seen in this spot, and I every day I was finding more soybean plants gone. However, last night I put my wire mesh (3" X 2" holes) tomato cages over the soybean plants - they go from ground level to about 4 feet. I was counting on the *psychological factor*, that all the wires would make him say 'nah' not worth the risk of getting caught up in that. Magically, this morning I found more soybean plants eaten - some inside the wire cages. Hmmm, that would not be the bear.

We did our best to wrap hardware cloth around the bed on t posts, minus one side that we barricaded with other wire stuff because we only had 25 feet. We'll see what we find tomorrow.

I guess for all the peas and beans out there, that soybean plants are the only thing being bothered right now is kind of a good thing.

 

[heirloomgal]

Couple more random garden pics.

Morelle de Balbis is flowering.

Sunberries and Hexentomate Golden Berries are bushing out well. Little bit of holes in the leaves, but I think that comes with these species, no getting away from it.

1st time growing huckleberries. Surprised the plants are so big, wasn't expecting that.

'Klein Early' tomato variety; it really is too. Good sized toms on the plants already.

Popcorn

1st successful foxglove overwintering. Flowered at less than a foot last year, then 4 feet this year and it's surrounded by 5 new baby plants.

Soybean fort knox attempt. Critter still got in last night and munched more plants. Hope we plugged the holes well enough this time. I'll soon run out of plants and have an empty bed if they don't get stopped!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Soybean fort knox attempt. Critter still got in last night and munched more plants. Hope we plugged the holes well enough this time. I'll soon run out of plants and have an empty bed if they don't get stopped!
View attachment 58250

Part of the problem I have found is that several of the critters that like soybean plants are able to either dig under wire fences or climb over down and back up them. Getting around the latter I have done by using cloches instead of cylinder fences. I think you can take care of the latter with diatomaceous earth (it makes the soil too sharp and painful for the critters to dig in.)

My stuff seems to be mixed. My corn is stable enough and growing appropriately (they say ones corn should be knee high by the Fourth of July, I think some of mine are about waist high now, and I'm a very tall guy!) But, of course, the real challenge is going to be holding onto the pollen when it comes until the silks show up (they never seem to synch for me. by the time the silk is there, the tassels are long since exhausted. I've head you can freeze pollen, so I'll probably try that.

Something DID make it under the netting, but it seems to have ignored the corn (actually, it ignored pretty much everything, it just dug up some bean plugs and left them there to presumably munch on any bugs I had turned up digging. I just put them back in place.)

I think there may be only one watermelon that will make it, but, with the space I planned, one may be all there is room for.

Beans are starting to climb. Tomatoes are flowering.|

The minor beans (mung, mothe and urd) HAVE finally started putting out adult leaves that don't look so twisted, but I'm a bit worried at how short the plants still are (bearing in mind I have no idea how big any of them have to get to flower and make seed.)

Looks like one one sunflower has any chance of flowering, and the odds are against even that one (it's about as tall as a daisy now). Cucumbers are progressing normally.

 

[heirloomgal]

My corn is stable enough and growing appropriately (they say ones corn should be knee high by the Fourth of July, I think some of mine are about waist high now, and I'm a very tall guy!)

Wow! Waist high on a tall man! What's your secret @Pulsegleaner to getting them so big so fast!?

Part of the problem I have found is that several of the critters that like soybean plants are able to either dig under wire fences or climb over down and back up them.

Do mice, chipmunks or squirrels eat soybean plants? Other than a baby rabbit or groundhog I don't know what could get through such small spaces? If yes to squirrels, I may have discovered my problem. We have those this year.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Wow! Waist high on a tall man! What's your secret @Pulsegleaner to getting them so big so fast!?

I said "some" not all. And that's only a guesstimate based on what I can see out of the window, I haven't gone up and actually stood side by side with them (actually, I couldn't stand side by side with any of them, to stand close enough to touch my foot to the base, I have to stand ON another corn plant, which would kill it.) As for how, you're guess is as good as mine. I'm just relieved they are THERE at this point in the year, and have grown since I put them in (which means I didn't wreck the roots so bad during transplant that they went into permanent shock.)

I'm HOPING that also means they will get decently THICK this time around, or that the netting will do something to cut heavier winds, so it stays up this time (a lot of previous years, even if I HAVE gotten corn to survive, it's so slender and poorly rooted it lodges the moment we get a stiff breeze, and I can never right it, so it grows bent and knock-kneed trying to right itself, and breaks in half the moment you try and touch it (like for collecting pollen).

Do mice, chipmunks or squirrels eat soybean plants? Other than a baby rabbit or groundhog I don't know what could get through such small spaces? If yes to squirrels, I may have discovered my problem. We have those this year.

For soy, I'm not sure. CATCHING the critters in the act is not something that happens all that often, so I usually have to guess as to what did the deed. I know chipmunks have no problem digging under a cloche, since they did it to my corn a few years ago. I've seen squirrels dig up corn as soon as I planted it, but whether they can dig deep enough to fit their whole bodies under the cage I'm not sure.

The last time I did a soybean under a cloche, it DID go the whole way, it's just the end product proved not to be worth the effort (even if the animals don't eat them, a lot of the legumes just don't grow to their full potential here due to the soil, so what I got from that soy [one pod with three extremely small and withered seeds] was far from atypical. Soybeans also seem to "hang" for me if they get to seed producing, they get to the point where they have fully sized but still green pods, and then so of go into stasis for the rest of the year so the pods never finish ripening properly (which means at the end I have half mature seeds that are too weak to make it the next year.)

 

[flowerbug]

chipmunks do eat soybean seeds and sprouts (especially the edamame sorts).

i don't know much about squirrels, but i think they also would.