A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

Huh? Did something get lost in translation?

Tatgut Buschbohne "Bunte Hockerbohne"

www.tatgut.de

 

[Blue-Jay]

Huh? Did something get lost in translation?

You should get that "Red Ball" bean from this place. It's a stringless snap bean. Then once you have grown it I can get it from you. Otherwise I have to send them one of my USDA labels and explain how all my import stuff works. It's a pain just for one bean and I don't see any contact information on their site.

 

[heirloomgal]

First chufa nut harvest today. I selected to replant only the biggest tubers from last year and howdy, they are definitely bigger! Many times over. They are the size of little pearl onions. I do wonder if this leap in size is from the electric fertilizer, since so many other vegetables this year are bigger than usual. Mailing these to people will become a challenge at this size. I’m going to try and stop myself from planting them like this again, way too labor intensive to dig and search. Need some kind of planter method.

These are the biggest carrots I’ve ever grown. They’re usually much, much smaller for me. For 15 years.

The bell type peppers I left to perish all produced well. This Feher Ozon was badly squished between to loaded pea trellises in shade.

I thought I was done with tomato fermentation. Lol, it’s never over.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I did finally manage to get some seeds out of some of the Phil's two tomatoes (the first one had no developed ones), but I'm not 100% sure I want to re-grow it. It was okay, but it's a bit more acidic than Green Zebra, so it might make more sense to go back to some version of those (especially given I have found no Green Zebras at ANY of the places I buy heirloom tomatoes at this year, so it very well may be that, if I want any in the summer, I'll have to grow them myself.)

I know I won't be doing EITHER next year, since I already have three tomatoes slated (White currant, Phantome du Laos, and Open Minded), and three is ALREADY pushing it for varieties in a year, I don't have room for four.

It looks like wing beans won't even GERMINATE for me up here, let alone produce, so I guess I'll strike those off my plans. Haven't decided yet if I'll keep up the lablab trials (I suppose I could try out the long podded ones and hope, and I think I still have half of the seed for one of the African ones).

Randoms may be sparse, I haven't found many new odd exotics I want to try (since I got no flowers and very little growth from any of this years except the partridge pea, I know enough not to re-try any of those). I'm pretty well depleted on any vetch or sweet pea relative I'd actually WANT to plant (tossing in the same villosa and tetrasperma that grows along the sides of the road would be pretty pointless), so, unless I CAN get the confidence to re-enter Manhattan and see if I can find any more "appropriate" grass pea seeds, that's a no go. And finds are also going to be less (due both to the same lack of access to Manhattan and less stuff to find in general.)

I still have a bit of growable rice bean seed, but the odds between what I plant and what actually makes flowers and seed are so long (and, if I have the wrong kind and don't know it, are actually zero) that, by now, it hardly seems worth the ground space they take (maybe I should flip THOSE over to pot growth. It worked for the mungs, and for the azukis so maybe that's what the rice beans want as well. At least it would cut down the loss due to animal predation.)

I suppose my real problem is that there is pretty much NOTHING I can plant that wouldn't be better off in a pot, but i just don't have the space for so many extra pots.

 

[heirloomgal]

I did finally manage to get some seeds out of some of the Phil's two tomatoes (the first one had no developed ones), but I'm not 100% sure I want to re-grow it. It was okay, but it's a bit more acidic than Green Zebra, so it might make more sense to go back to some version of those (especially given I have found no Green Zebras at ANY of the places I buy heirloom tomatoes at this year, so it very well may be that, if I want any in the summer, I'll have to grow them myself.)

I know I won't be doing EITHER next year, since I already have three tomatoes slated (White currant, Phantome du Laos, and Open Minded), and three is ALREADY pushing it for varieties in a year, I don't have room for four.

It looks like wing beans won't even GERMINATE for me up here, let alone produce, so I guess I'll strike those off my plans. Haven't decided yet if I'll keep up the lablab trials (I suppose I could try out the long podded ones and hope, and I think I still have half of the seed for one of the African ones).

Randoms may be sparse, I haven't found many new odd exotics I want to try (since I got no flowers and very little growth from any of this years except the partridge pea, I know enough not to re-try any of those). I'm pretty well depleted on any vetch or sweet pea relative I'd actually WANT to plant (tossing in the same villosa and tetrasperma that grows along the sides of the road would be pretty pointless), so, unless I CAN get the confidence to re-enter Manhattan and see if I can find any more "appropriate" grass pea seeds, that's a no go. And finds are also going to be less (due both to the same lack of access to Manhattan and less stuff to find in general.)

I still have a bit of growable rice bean seed, but the odds between what I plant and what actually makes flowers and seed are so long (and, if I have the wrong kind and don't know it, are actually zero) that, by now, it hardly seems worth the ground space they take (maybe I should flip THOSE over to pot growth. It worked for the mungs, and for the azukis so maybe that's what the rice beans want as well. At least it would cut down the loss due to animal predation.)

I suppose my real problem is that there is pretty much NOTHING I can plant that wouldn't be better off in a pot, but i just don't have the space for so many extra pots.

I've always assumed that Phil's Two tomato is bred from Reisotomate, and I found that tomato on the acidic side. If I'm correct on that assumption it makes sense that PT also has that acidic taste. It looks really neat though.

White currant, such a great little tomato! I adore it. I should grow it again too. Only downfall of that tomato is it's tendency to cross, argh. I've always wanted to grow winged beans, but I think I'd have as much luck with those as I do butterfly peas here. I can get a certain distance with them, but for seeds probably not. I'm trying to learn my limits with Richter's offerings, what's possible and what's not here. Especially with my space limitations, I try to make every square foot count. I do try to only grow that which I can get seed from. I can't believe it but my Tinga peas were an absolute flop for seed saving. It's totally possible, but because they didn't indicate on the website they need support, the lack of it became a problem. That is a disappointment but I think I can get more seed since I don't think people are rushing the gates to get seeds for that species.

For more container/pots space , what about a couple of these? There may be some version of this out there with more generous root runs, but up always helps when your trying to maximize grow area.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I thought of things like that, but the problem is that while those pots are long, they are also narrow. For something viny like beans, they sometimes work, but when I plant an unknown, for all I know it will turn out to be a shrub or even a tree, and need to spread roots in a wide circle. Plus, I'm really only limited to the very rim of the patios (the middle needs to stay clear for people and the barbecue, so they really isn't room for ANY more pots than what's there. We're already overcrowded (when you consider that a healthy chunk of the side is totally shaded by the cypress tree, and I'm always nervous about putting too much against the railing at the end (the base of the railings on the back patio are pretty much rusted through, so I assume the base of the ones on the side are as well, and while the drop from the back patio to the ground is only four or five feet onto the lawn (which I HAVE fallen, when one of the railing panels actually gave out when I leaned over) the drop on the one on the side is at least fifteen or twenty, right onto the cars or the driveway. So I worry that, in a big enough storm, the wind and rain could actually hyroplane the pots against the railing, break it off, let them tumble down, and destroy the cars.)

I'd give you might insight on what has and has not worked for me with Richter's, but pretty much everything I have ever bought from them has come from the Seed Zoo and is no longer there.

If White Currant crosses readily, that could actually work to my advantage. What I REALLY wanted was a GREEN currant tomato, but there doesn't appear to be one. But, if the only two other tomatoes I'm growing are one that is also white and one that is green, there might actually be a chance of an accidental cross achieving what I am after.

The tinga's flopped? Damn, I was going to ask if you had any to spare at harvest's end (I tried ordering it directly from Salt Springs, but, based on the last time I checked the packages status, customs seems to have caught it and decided that, rather than emptying it and sending me the envelope with one of those notes, it's just going to pretend the package was never there.)

 

[heirloomgal]

I'm always nervous about putting too much against the railing at the end (the base of the railings on the back patio are pretty much rusted through, so I assume the base of the ones on the side are as well, and while the drop from the back patio to the ground is only four or five feet onto the lawn (which I HAVE fallen, when one of the railing panels actually gave out when I leaned over) the drop on the one on the side is at least fifteen or twenty, right onto the cars or the driveway.

This sounds soo dangerous!

A green currant, what a great idea. I love green tomatoes, and there isn't many of them in the cherry department and none in the currant category. There's room for a purple/brown currant too, now that I think of it. I'm going to get another pack of Tinga's @Pulsegleaner, and I'll share the pack with you. If they pack it anything like last year, there is more than enough seeds for both of us. It was right full. The germ rate was amazing too, 100%. Not bad for a seed type that likely sits around for a bit.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

This sounds soo dangerous!

A green currant, what a great idea. I love green tomatoes, and there isn't many of them in the cherry department and none in the currant category. There's room for a purple/brown currant too, now that I think of it.

Well, you know I have my absolute miracle green cherry I don't know the identity of (the one that was the only tomato to grow out of the four or five pounds of old tomato seeds I when I cleared out my supply.) and it's derivative (the one from the next accident that suddenly developed stripes and a new flavor).
Officially, I know of Green Grape, Frosted Green Grape, Thompson's Seedless Grape, Green Doctor's (possibly the identity of mine), Green Cherry, and Green Zebra Cherry. There are also at least three green cherries I have saved seeds from in my mixed tomatoes, though they are variable in quality.

I'm going to get another pack of Tinga's @Pulsegleaner, and I'll share the pack with you. If they pack it anything like last year, there is more than enough seeds for both of us. It was right full. The germ rate was amazing too, 100%. Not bad for a seed type that likely sits around for a bit.

That would be great, if you can get them through (you are also in Canada, so customs might seize yours as well. And the method I tend to use to smuggle seeds INTO Canada, relies on resources you probably don't easily have to hand, and would be too expensive to get to justify buying them just for something like this.)

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Only real news of note concerns INSIDE seeds.

A day or two ago, my mom asked me to go through the lemons and limes I had gotten over the previous few weeks (I tend to buy any odd looking citrus* I see when I see it, whether we actually need any at the time or not,) that had begun to get too old. So I first, of course, spun cut them to see if any had any seeds (spin cutting is a thing I do where I cut the fruit about 3/4 of the way to the center all the way round and then twist the two parts apart, so that, if there ARE any seeds, I don't cut them in half.) And I wound up with two surprises.

On was an ambiguous (as in, it was a color such that I can't tell if it started as a lemon or a lime, since limes yellow up as they get old and fully ripen.) The inside looked really odd, with peel WAY thicker than is normal for a lemon (maybe it has some extra citron DNA) I only took the tiniest taste off my finger of the juice since the inside didn't look all that appetizing (it was all brown and withered, which I HAVE seen before, but not on a fruit whose skin still looked that fresh.) But, in the seeds went (it was also very long and thin for a lemon).

The second I am reasonably sure WAS a lime (it smelled like one) though it was also rather long and thin for one. As I have mentioned, finding a seed in a regular lime is a fairly rare occurrence, I think the average is one to thee per one hundred limes. So imagine my surprise when I open this one and SEVEN seeds pop out! So in those went as well. I tossed a few of the pits from the orange fleshed jackfruit in some of the other plugs to fill it out, sealed it, and it's on the radiator progressing.

 

[heirloomgal]

Text is all in next post for some reason -

Even though I’ve grown it once before, I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around a bean that is this blue. It’s crazy.