A Seed Saver's Garden

[Pulsegleaner]

Just got my latest seeds from Ghana.

I got a LOT of Cucumeropsis manii (white egusi melon) so I'll have plenty to play around with.

The African copal seeds look fine.

So do the cherry orange seeds, and, in a stroke of turning bad luck into good, the failure of the basil means there is an empty pot already waiting for them.

The African prunus also looks fine, but I'm no closer to working out the species. I'm fairly sure it's Prunus africanus , on the grounds that that seems to be the only Prunus native to Africa. But going online, it's hard to get an accurate idea of what P. africana fruit and seeds look like, most sites show completely different looking things some look like the picture I got (sort of) some don't.

And a lot of the ones of pits show ones with two distinct lobes to the pit, which mine don't appear to have (it's hard to be certain of that at this point though, as the pits came with a quite a bit of dried fruit still stuck to them.) But they don't look exactly like any other Prunus seeds I know either.

I also noted that they arrived in a paper towel like the orange ones, which would usually indicate seed that needed to be planted immediately. But, unlike the paper in the orange ones, their paper is bone dry, so moisture doesn't seem to be a priority (maybe, since they do have so much fruit attacked, the paper towel was to speed up drying before the residual fruit fermented and attracted insects.)

Either way, I'll give them a quick soak and scrape, and then see.

 

[heirloomgal]

Just got my latest seeds from Ghana.

I got a LOT of Cucumeropsis manii (white egusi melon) so I'll have plenty to play around with.

The African copal seeds look fine.

So do the cherry orange seeds, and, in a stroke of turning bad luck into good, the failure of the basil means there is an empty pot already waiting for them.

The African prunus also looks fine, but I'm no closer to working out the species. I'm fairly sure it's Prunus africanus , on the grounds that that seems to be the only Prunus native to Africa. But going online, it's hard to get an accurate idea of what P. africana fruit and seeds look like, most sites show completely different looking things some look like the picture I got (sort of) some don't.

And a lot of the ones of pits show ones with two distinct lobes to the pit, which mine don't appear to have (it's hard to be certain of that at this point though, as the pits came with a quite a bit of dried fruit still stuck to them.) But they don't look exactly like any other Prunus seeds I know either.

I also noted that they arrived in a paper towel like the orange ones, which would usually indicate seed that needed to be planted immediately. But, unlike the paper in the orange ones, their paper is bone dry, so moisture doesn't seem to be a priority (maybe, since they do have so much fruit attacked, the paper towel was to speed up drying before the residual fruit fermented and attracted insects.)

Either way, I'll give them a quick soak and scrape, and then see.

I wonder @Pulsegleaner, given how many exotics you grow, if you have ever seen Latin designations for species that you felt did not fit. I recall reading at one point about the various groupings and how they've changed over time. This prompts me to wonder if there are more changes to come; the fact that it seems there are bean seeds produced from P. vulgaris and P. coccineus crosses makes we wonder how accurate they all are, because I thought that part of how those differentiations are made is breeding incompatibilities.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I wonder @Pulsegleaner, given how many exotics you grow, if you have ever seen Latin designations for species that you felt did not fit. I recall reading at one point about the various groupings and how they've changed over time. This prompts me to wonder if there are more changes to come; the fact that it seems there are bean seeds produced from P. vulgaris and P. coccineus crosses makes we wonder how accurate they all are, because I thought that part of how those differentiations are made is breeding incompatibilities.

Well, there are certainly a lot of cases where I think the name should be changed. Top of the list are ones where the name resulted from a mistake, and has hung around due to the rule that "first name is the accepted one." Sturt's Desert Pea would be a classic example. It's species names is formosus since they thought it came from Formosa (Taiwan). It doesn't it's Australian.

I also REALLY don't like they changed Hyacinth bean from Dolichos lablab to Lablab purpureus. If they wanted to spin the species off into a new genus, fine, but purpureus was a bad choice considering that at least half of the varieities are NOT purple.

Moving on to less formal nomenclature. I think the Seven "types" of corn need to be revised as there is too much overlap and stuff that falls on the border, especially in terms of use. There are plenty of flint corns whose internal ratio of soft to hard starch makes them behave and grind like a dent corn, or even a flour. I'd like to replace the flint/dent/flour groups with a sort of grinding spectrum, with flour on one end, flint on the other, and dent as a sort of bump in the middle. Maybe put pop on the end as a subgroup of "superflint" (or, as I usually call it, "crystal flint") Sweet, Pod and Waxy can stay separate, since those are categorically different from each other and the spectrum (though I don't really see WHY you couldn't get a pod corn with sweet or waxy kernels inside of it. It would be an interesting cross to try.)

But, then again, they keep saying there is no need to revise anything, since, once the tech catches up, binomial nomenclature will be totally replaced by genetic cladistic trees anyway. Though those are going to require everyone to have a computer on them at all times (can you imagine if the only way you could order a variety would be to say or type its entire DNA karyotype?)

 

[heirloomgal]

But, then again, they keep saying there is no need to revise anything, since, once the tech catches up, binomial nomenclature will be totally replaced by genetic cladistic trees anyway. Though those are going to require everyone to have a computer on them at all times (can you imagine if the only way you could order a variety would be to say or type its entire DNA karyotype?)

Well this certainly got my attention. Genetic cladistic trees.

Yes, the results of genetic & technical advancements could allow humans to refine categorizations and our present (and most subtle) understanding of the plant world. On the one hand, I've always been curious to know what the results would be if all the listings in SSE were genetically sequenced, how many would in fact turn out to be duplications under various names. Particularly with tomatoes, I suspect there is a great deal of overlap. Then again, that is an incredibly dangerous water to venture into.

You reminded me of something I haven't thought about since Grade 13 Biology - how utterly arbitrary the choosing of some of the Latin names are!

 

[heirloomgal]

The Maltese Cross/Jerusalem Cross is in full flower. It amazes me how much seed these plants make. The hummingbirds love them.

As Jack Sparrow says, this is a right nasty beastie.

I have actually struggled many years trying to get ground cherries to mature a good quantity of fruit before frost. Sometimes the plants stay so tiny and I barely get anything. Like last year. They have always flowered so late for me. But this year, I don't know what it is, but I have had super good luck. I don't usually have plants this big in September! There are 4 plants in the front row (you can see 3), and there are husks with fruits already forming inside. I'm hoping for a landslide because these are the most delicious annual summer fruits IMO. Saw the first ripe wonderberry today too. Tried to pull off a black huckleberry from it's branch this evening, it wouldn't give.

Chufa nuts are liking the heat

.

Oh, it's a great time of year!!!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Got a few more black and yellow viola seeds off the plants, and miraculously, a few more x-rays (miraculous becuase 1. The plant doesn't make nearly as many pods as most of the other violas, and 2. Since the pods themselves have so few seeds, they tend to be really small, so it is extremely lucky that both of the times I have gotten the pod at the right point (old enough the seed is mature, but before it explodes and spreads the seed all over the ground), since the size is one I'd normally NEVER think was big enough to be mature. )

 

[heirloomgal]

I FINALLY caught my garden marauder in the act tonight. A rabbit. I threw out a carrot in the hopes he'll eat that instead.

I was so sure it was a groundhog because I've seen so many around, but no, it was a rabbit. Well, this is a first. The good news is he hasn't done much damage as of late other than nibbling the bottom leaves off of a few pole beans (he likes Weaver it appears) and I can fence off my main garden fairly cheaply if need be. I doubt that'll be necessary, but who knows, anything is possible. I'd be disappointed to have to garden within fences like that, after all the freedom I've had, but I'd accept it.

My soybeans which remained untouched (with a single bush bean row) and the rows which were chewed down quite a bit but are growing back. I really, really hope they can still make some seeds for me.

 

[digitS']

Mountain Cottontail live here and are tolerated by most of the human residents. I don't think that it is much different from the Cottontail that lives in much of North America.

The problem that I have had with the Mountain Cottontail is that they like beans. They can eat a lot that are just sprouting and have all but wiped out an entire planting. I have seen them crawl right through a chainlink fence that a neighbor had at a previous garden.

The groundhogs/marmots may also be more similar than different. Wikipedia tells us that groundhogs, Marmota monax, may weigh between 2 and 6.3 kg (4 lb 7 oz and 13 lb 14 oz). Our marmots, Marmota caligata, are between 3.75 kg (8.3 lb) and 10 kg (22 lb). What seems to be different to me is the persistence some gardeners with groundhogs say that their pests show. I have been reasonably successful in discouraging them from continuing to raid the gardens. I have also taken stronger measures than driving rocks in their holes and such.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

Mountain Cottontail live here and are tolerated by most of the human residents. I don't think that it is much different from the Cottontail that lives in much of North America.

The problem that I have had with the Mountain Cottontail is that they like beans. They can eat a lot that are just sprouting and have all but wiped out an entire planting. I have seen them crawl right through a chainlink fence that a neighbor had at a previous garden.
...What seems to be different to me is the persistence some gardeners with groundhogs say that their pests show. I have been reasonably successful in discouraging them from continuing to raid the gardens. I have also taken stronger measures than driving rocks in their holes and such.

if you are discouraging them before they have gotten established in a new area so that they don't think of some place as their home turf that likely makes a rather big difference. in my experience once there is a den that they've dug out they won't give up easily. usually that means i have to hunt them.

 

[heirloomgal]

Okay, every darn pest seems to love to chew on eggplants.

While picking a couple snails off the eggplants this afternoon I found a few of the weirdest bugs on one plant. Never seen these before, bright green with black lines. From google searches looks like Four Line plant bugs.

Oh no! What might I find next?!