Cucumbers starting

Update

Today I had to take the top off the box, as the sprouts are pushing against it. I think I'll have to put them in the ground this weekend (if not Friday) ; as their roots are going to get tangled from pot to pot if I don't.

I also have two seedlings in the pots of old tomato seeds I started. They are, alas in the black zebra striped cherry pot (which I suspect came from some bad tomatoes I got) But maybe the others will make a few as well.
 
digitS' said:
I have started and transplanted all vining crops in recent years. Old seed - I thoroughly dislike having to work with it. Do not send me your 500 year old seed taken from an archeological dig.

Steve
Click to expand...

Ha Ha Ha. One of my big lessons learned from last year. A lot of the seed I got from individuals on Seed Savers Exchange was 1-3 years old. I was really careful- 1 seed per cell, no waste, right? What a waste! So many didn't germinate and I was watering, heating, and lighting pots of useless soil. This year I'm using up all the seed > 2 years, and have been very generous in seeding cells/pots. I can always pinch off a few. I can't get back the 2-4 weeks I spent babying a tray of dirt. And now I know if I let even a single plant go to seed I'll get back a big fresh batch of viable seeds because I only use open pollenated.
 
Cucumbers went out today, 3 Russian Netted and 17 Mandurian Round (the one Siamese Giant died, unfortunately)

As the Assam parchment are still all just seeds, I brought them back in for some more time in the box with the cover on again.

In other news

My azuki bean planting has gone from about 18 to 1. It turns out that all those dark red to near black seeds I found this year are just spoiled and non-viable. So the only one left is the single buff colored one I found, which I will plant later (azukis like it warm and with only one seed, there is no real space issue to necessitate planting and thinning)

planted my few soybeans last night. Mostly wrinkled ones for the sweetness experiment (if I can get them to produce, that is) but a few off browns and greens I dug up as well. They're DEFINITELY going to need to be caged with the squirrels and the bunnies around they don't have a chance otherwise.

I have a few old pepper seeds in as well.

I guess that's really it until it gets a little warmer and I can plant the cow peas and the rice beans.
 
I now have about 12-15 Assam Parchment cucumbers started as well, so they go in the ground as soon as they get some height on them.

Of the rest
Soybeans- about 5 germinated. Both of the green ones, one or two of the wrinkled black ones (a lot of those just went moldy) The brown ones hadn't gotten any imbibing so I removed the seed coats and put them back in.

Adzuki- not quite germinated, but looks close

Rice Beans- I ended up putting in the pinto rice beans (pinto colored ones get greenhouse treatment, as I always have so few of them so every seed counts) of the nine or so I planted, two came up.

Lima beans- The Los Pingunos I got from Joe Simcox were a total washout; they ALL went moldy (BTW the "black" part of the Los Pinguinos is actually brown when they imbibe)

I make up I planted some of the off types of those Christmas like Lima beans I can get in Chinatown (along with a few other odds and ends)

I did NOT plant the funny pudgy ones I found. I was originally intending to, but it occurred to be that as Lima beans and an iffy proposition here anyway, and I only have four seeds of those. It made more sense to leave then in the freezer for the moment. Working on the assumption that seed gotten from the same source probably grew in the same conditions, I can use the Lima's I planted as a bellwether of how well I can hope those will work.
 
Don't know the use (first time growing them) Source was Joe Simcox's site (back when he had one). As I recall he didn't put any description along with the seeds, just a price.
 
4/26

Yesterday (first day in a long time that wasn't rainy) I planted the Assam Parchment cucumbers. A lot of the previous cucumbers succumbed to a late frost (or something) (though I think there is still at least one of each type). so I simply put the new ones in their places (so that everything is under the cloche)

Under another cloche, I have put a few soybeans

I also planted my cow peas and cloched them (well I cloched the speckled eye and mad painter ones, there are so many of the green and black ones are so numerous I am counting on herd safety. The rice beans too, though I have doubts as to whether I will get any pinto (only one of the pinto sprouts survived and it seems to have no leaves).

As of now, ALL of my Lima beans have gone moldy and died (I'm beginning to wonder if, on top of the seed being stored too long by me, it was already old by the time I got it)

I put the Silver Yamato watermelon seeds in the little greenhouse last night. As for the big one, I'm planning to move the pots I planted the tomato seeds in under it in the hopes it will coax more of them to germinate (one of them is already full of seedlings, but I have reason to think those will not be tasty tomatoes)

Assuming weather permits, I'm also going to sow some random seeds from my wild and weedy boxes (since the current situation more or less prevents us from going out and getting any flowers for the garden, I'm raiding my collections for ANYTHING with a nice flower that will grow here)
 
4/28

I began putting out what I had dug out of my seed supplies today. A lot of stuff had to be rejected due to either not being attractive enough (thing like Borreria Latifolia are basically nothing to look at) too dangerous (I'm not putting out Pueraria phraseoloides [tropical kudzu] for anything, who knows just how tropical [read "frost kill-able] it actually is), not suited to the climate (no Clitoria ternatea it's gorgeous but need tropics) Not suitable due to day length issues (I love the flowers on both Hibscus cannibafolius [kenaf or India hemp] and Crotalaria juncea [Sunn hemp] but both donjt flower here until January [indoors] so not good choices * or size concerns (I have seed for both Cajanus sacraboides and what I think is Cajanus acutifolius but as both appear to be shrubby they would be hard to fit in en masse. Likewise I have a lot of seed for some sort of Sesbania (probably S. augustifolia) but that is both day length sensitive AND a small tree, so a no go.)

So I have so far done three pots with

Pot #1 The "mix" pot. This has a sprinkling of what might be something from the dandelion group (or maybe wild lettuce, cant tell as seed) a few errant sunflowers, a pair of what might be safflowers (or some sort of thistle, they're a little too dirty to tell for sure) a few seeds of what MIGHT be some sort of mallow (or possibly some sort of okra) and two or three seeds of Urena lobata (a weedy member of the mallow family with a spike of yellow flowers)

Pot#2 This I have sown with what I always knew as Idigofera viciosa, but have recently realized i misread and is actually viscosa (it's sticky, not vicious) this is an Indigo relative with rusty red flowers and a shrubby habit if I have gotten the identification correct (but for all I know it could be a dye indigo; a lot of the errant seeds I find ARE from other cultivated plants)

Pot#3 This is a "long" pot, the kind we usually used for things like Petunias. I have sown it with Hyptis suaveolens (musky mint, wild spikenard) a leafy plant that when rubbed smells like Vic's Vapo-rub (i.e. HEAVY menthol)

Down the road I don't know. I do have seed for Cardiospermum halibaractum (balloon vine, Love-in-a-puff) which I could put on the side (except that can get out of control fast if you aren't careful) I've got a little Mimosa pudica (sensitive plant) but that can also get messy **

And I can always go digging in the Convulvulacae jar


* That's also why I have never collected any seed from my Crotalaria . The kenaf, I can hand pollinate with a makeup brush (if I have two or more flowering at the same time) But Crotaliaria has a tricky trap door arrangement that needs and insect to trip it (which there aren't inside the house in January) and I was never good at hand pollinating those.

** I have a LOT (as in a BOTTLE full) of Mimosa diplotrica (giant sensitive plant) but I'm not dumb enough to try and play around with something THAT invasive)
 
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