An Edifying Search

Pulsegleaner

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Today I was browsing around an Etsy seed store looking for a specific species of Albizia, and, as is my custom, I checked the rest of the catalog to see if there was anything else I might want. Also as usual, I cross referenced anything I couldn't immediately recognize online.

I didn't find much I wanted to buy, but the search DID yield me the identities of TWO of my mystery cucurbits; the single odd looking seed I found five or six years ago in the rice beans that never came up (Diplocyclos palmatus) and the so called "tiny angled loofah" I got from Thailand (Tricosanthes cochinensis)
 

Pulsegleaner

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You have a great deal of understanding and appreciation for the rarer species and varieties in the hort world @Pulsegleaner. Are you an avid reader?
Of some things.

The whole seed hunt thing for me is (or was, since I haven't done much recently) as sort of detective case or treasure hunt. Find, identify and cultivate.

It's just a pity so many of the "cases" go cold i.e. I am not successful in getting them seed to seed.

And (from MY POV) that the sellers of bulk produce in the world have gotten better about cleaning their stuff, so there is less and less interesting stuff to find.

There is also a sense of duty involved. As a lot of these things are rare and unappreciated my thought it "If I don't save them, who will?"
 

flowerbug

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Of some things.

The whole seed hunt thing for me is (or was, since I haven't done much recently) as sort of detective case or treasure hunt. Find, identify and cultivate.

It's just a pity so many of the "cases" go cold i.e. I am not successful in getting them seed to seed.

And (from MY POV) that the sellers of bulk produce in the world have gotten better about cleaning their stuff, so there is less and less interesting stuff to find.

There is also a sense of duty involved. As a lot of these things are rare and unappreciated my thought it "If I don't save them, who will?"

i've really been facinated the past 10 years by all things sorting (trash, beans, crushed glass, etc) and they're always improving on the technology. in the older days when you bought a package of beans it wasn't unusual to find a small rock or piece of dirt or other strange things in the bag with the beans. now it is very rare to find anything like that. i have spent hours watching videos of various machines for entertainment purposes alone. kinda strange hobby i guess, but hey... :)

i had to resort some beans the other day because i accidentally mixed two box flats together when i obviously meant to not do that. :( so that was 3hrs of bean sorting therapy for me. by this stage of bean sorting the only thing i'm removing is the beans that have dried down and they're malformed enough that i don't like them being in there or a few might have some minor blemishes or they may be too small and i want them out of there. the worm farm will turn them into fertilizer for me.
 

Pulsegleaner

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i've really been facinated the past 10 years by all things sorting (trash, beans, crushed glass, etc) and they're always improving on the technology. in the older days when you bought a package of beans it wasn't unusual to find a small rock or piece of dirt or other strange things in the bag with the beans. now it is very rare to find anything like that. i have spent hours watching videos of various machines for entertainment purposes alone. kinda strange hobby i guess, but hey... :)
Years of searching through the products of other countries (many of whom lag behind us in sophistication of machinery) has left me a little blasé about finding rocks, dirt clods, insect remains, rodent droppings etc. (though I probably shouldn't be given that these are items being sold for FOOD!). Except for the time when the rock I found might have been a tiny piece of jade (which I saved) or when the insect is particularly pretty or interesting (and I put it in a vial of alcohol to preserve it). I barely notice anymore.

However the one that sticks in my mind is the time I was sorting though a bag of senna seed (used as a laxative) and out popped a rosary pea. Very pretty, and very, very DEADLY. (one seed has enough poison in it to kill 75 elephants!). I shudder to thing what would have happened if someone bought that package, and simply dropped the seeds in water (like one does to use it) then drank the resultant tea (with the shell intact, the seed is more or less harmless, but the boiling water would probably break it........)
 

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