A Seed Saver's Garden

[Zeedman]

Mice.

They stripped my 2 last pea patches in the past 2 days. Looks like Novella and Mega will not produce much seed. Oh well, I guess it goes like that sometimes.

Mice become a problem here just about this time every year, when things begin to ripen & thick foliage offers a lot of hiding places. Some years, their numbers are large, and damage can be severe. They particularly like soybeans & adzuki beans, and will begin stripping pods as they fatten... they destroyed nearly all of one of my soybeans last year. I saw the first signs of damage a couple days ago, ends of yardlong beans eaten off near ground level. No apparent damage to soybeans yet, so will begin proactively putting out traps under the plants, where mice make their runs. I think they are nesting under the mutant pumpkins. Rained yesterday & a thunderstorm rolled through last night, so that will have to wait until the garden dries out enough to walk in.

 

[Dahlia]

Mice become a problem here just about this time every year, when things begin to ripen & thick foliage offers a lot of hiding places. Some years, their numbers are large, and damage can be severe. They particularly like soybeans & adzuki beans, and will begin stripping pods as they fatten... they destroyed nearly all of one of my soybeans last year. I saw the first signs of damage a couple days ago, ends of yardlong beans eaten off near ground level. No apparent damage to soybeans yet, so will begin proactively putting out traps under the plants, where mice make their runs. I think they are nesting under the mutant pumpkins. Rained yesterday & a thunderstorm rolled through last night, so that will have to wait until the garden dries out enough to walk in.

We once had voles in our garden and one summer they went through my garden and devastated the peas! They just snapped them off about 2 inches above the soil and left the tops just lying on the ground. They didn't even eat the peas they just destroyed them!!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

We once had voles in our garden and one summer they went through my garden and devastated the peas! They just snapped them off about 2 inches above the soil and left the tops just lying on the ground. They didn't even eat the peas they just destroyed them!!

Same thing happens to a lot of the plants in my garden. The problem is that the voles actually aren't homing in on the smell of the plants, their homing in on the smell of the turned over soil (and the possible bugs and grubs you may have unearthed while you were digging) Your plants are just in the way for them, so they bite them down to get them out of their way. Birds can do the same thing. And squirrels and chipmunks will often dig up seedlings and gnaw off the roots for some reason, leaving the actual shoots behind. That's sort of why I still take heavy losses even when I keep my seedlings under the cold frame until they have grown enough to have used up all of their stored food (and be no longer attractive to seed eating animals.) They'll STILL usually be dug up by critters looking for bugs in the soil.

 

[Dahlia]

Same thing happens to a lot of the plants in my garden. The problem is that the voles actually aren't homing in on the smell of the plants, their homing in on the smell of the turned over soil (and the possible bugs and grubs you may have unearthed while you were digging) Your plants are just in the way for them, so they bite them down to get them out of their way. Birds can do the same thing. And squirrels and chipmunks will often dig up seedlings and gnaw off the roots for some reason, leaving the actual shoots behind. That's sort of why I still take heavy losses even when I keep my seedlings under the cold frame until they have grown enough to have used up all of their stored food (and be no longer attractive to seed eating animals.) They'll STILL usually be dug up by critters looking for bugs in the soil.

Pulsegleaner, thank you for that helpful insight about why the voles are doing what they are doing! I was so perplexed! What u said really makes good sense! Thanks again for sharing!

 

[heirloomgal]

I should add to my above post....and chipmunks. My daughter was in her room reading a book yesterday, listening to me rustling around in the dried pea vines just outside her window. Then she heard my voice coming from the kitchen and wondered how that was possible? She looked out the window and saw a chipmunk holding a pea pod and eating it's contents like a peanut. She had listened to "me" for 20 minutes!

And now my tomatoes are suffering somebody's predation too. It isn't bad, but I'll need to be really vigilant for ripeness to avoid further losses. I'm suddenly remembering what I told myself NOT to forget LAST year - make the hothouse mouse proof before September. They will clean me out of the last pepper seeds in there at this time of year. Whoops. Might be a good idea to put everything out at this point, as a last resort.

Knock on wood, my popcorn are never bothered by anything.

 

[heirloomgal]

I think I may have my own tomato variety in the making.
That wasn't something I set out to do, it sort of fell into my lap by happy accident. 3 years ago I grew out some Verdo Claro cherry tomato seeds grown a few years before. (Green when ripe tomatoes are my favourite.) I wasn't crazy about Verdo Claro really, as frosted greens lack some appetizing 'look' for me, but frosted greens are rare so I persevered with it anyhow. It turns out that it must have crossed with something red and larger than a cherry tomato, because I found cocktail sized greenish red tomatoes on the plant 3 yrs ago. They looked like little Ananas Noire or Muddy Mambas. The taste was truly off the charts too. I regrew it this year and got the exact same tomato - lime green mixed with pinkish red. I can't know for sure, but I'm thinking it might just be stable already. Definitely going to regrow it next year.

Would be pretty neat to be able to name my own tomato.

 

[heirloomgal]

Experiment.

Tigre Jalapeno. Definitely a stretch of the imagination to call it a jalapeño. But I like the look.

Reliable visitor has finally arrived.

Count Dracula. For a little guy, he can really put on the gas..

Sart Roloise. Juicy.

 

[digitS']

a stretch of the imagination to call it a jalapeño

Would you be more inclined to think of it as a jalapeño if it tastes like one? Does it?

I'm a fan of the jalapeño flavor. But, have some limits on peppers usually because of cool nights. Early Jalapeño variety is a kinda coarse pepper. HeirloomGal, what do you think would be another early choice?

Steve, thinking that there might not be these cookin' Summers, year after year

 

[heirloomgal]

Would you be more inclined to think of it as a jalapeño if it tastes like one? Does it?

I'm a fan of the jalapeño flavor. But, have some limits on peppers usually because of cool nights. Early Jalapeño variety is a kinda coarse pepper. HeirloomGal, what do you think would be another early choice?

Steve, thinking that there might not be these cookin' Summers, year after year

Doesn't smell nor taste like one. Early-ish peppers, that's a tough one. Especially since I mostly use/need a greenhouse for dependable crops. I've grown the TAM Jalapeño, supposedly an early strain. Didn't notice a difference really but it had a pretty good flavour. I once grew a pepper called 'Rooster Spur' - now that one was super early...but its not a Jalapeno.

 

[heirloomgal]

Looks like the pink popcorn will make it to dry seed. Certainly not as early maturing as I'd prefer, but I think it's worth keeping. I've starting picking the drier cobs off the plants. Kernels seem rock hard.

(Lighting is WAY off but I'll post a better pic later when the full crop is in. The cobs are pure pink with a lavender tone, no yellows as this picture makes it seem.)

I thought this was interesting (but I know NOTHING about corn genetics) - the rows are not uniform cob to cob. Some are very straight and aligned, but others are all over the place. I didn't realize a single variety could express both kernel traits.