A Seed Saver's Garden

[Pulsegleaner]

I actually DO have some new news this time.

First, one of the big plants in the mung bean pot has finally gotten a flower!

Sorry it's so blurry, the leaf above was in the way, and when I moved it, the stem with the flower started vibrating.

I think this one is probably an urd bean, since the flower is solitary (mungs are usually in clusters of 2-4 or so).

I also noticed that there IS at least one moth bean plant that has germinated (I finally looked up what a moth bean plant looked like online, and there is a key difference from the others, it has forked leaves (with the species name aconitfolia, I shouldn't be surprised.)

In addition, in looking through the mat of foliage that is in the horse gram pot, I FINALLY have seen a pod (a fairly well developed one, in fact).So I'll get at least SOME seed back.

Finally, an unidentified legume vine has shown up in the catmint pot. What it is I have no idea (It might be an errant wild soybean I missed from last year, but how it could have gotten from the railing to there I have no idea. I didn't think the birds managed to get any of the seeds, nor did any pods stay on long enough to shatter.)

 

[heirloomgal]

I actually DO have some new news this time.

First, one of the big plants in the mung bean pot has finally gotten a flower!
View attachment 60118
Sorry it's so blurry, the leaf above was in the way, and when I moved it, the stem with the flower started vibrating.

I think this one is probably an urd bean, since the flower is solitary (mungs are usually in clusters of 2-4 or so).

I also noticed that there IS at least one moth bean plant that has germinated (I finally looked up what a moth bean plant looked like online, and there is a key difference from the others, it has forked leaves (with the species name aconitfolia, I shouldn't be surprised.)

In addition, in looking through the mat of foliage that is in the horse gram pot, I FINALLY have seen a pod (a fairly well developed one, in fact).So I'll get at least SOME seed back.

Finally, an unidentified legume vine has shown up in the catmint pot. What it is I have no idea (It might be an errant wild soybean I missed from last year, but how it could have gotten from the railing to there I have no idea. I didn't think the birds managed to get any of the seeds, nor did any pods stay on long enough to shatter.)

When do you usually get your first frost @Pulsegleaner?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

When do you usually get your first frost @Pulsegleaner?

We never really know. Based on previous years, we still could have a decent amount of time (there have been years when my cousin has served us just picked tomatoes from the garden at Thanksgiving.) But it's sort of variable. We probably won't get SERIOUSLY cold weather until late January or Early February, but the first frosts will probably be way before that. We transition from summer to winter the same way we transition from winter to summer, an irregular and variable mix of seriously hot and seriously cold spells.

I probably have September safe, and at least some of October. And, since the stuff is in pots, in a pinch, I can always carry them in to finish up (well, not the lablabs, that pot is too big to move.)

 

[heirloomgal]

@Ladyreneer Having been fighting the onset of a bug the last 2 days, I decided to make fresh tomato vegetable soup after reading your post in the tomatoes thread. DH was home from work today because he was fighting it too, and after he had his bowl he was detectably feeling better. I'm usually afraid to eat at times like this because one wrong thing and you can slip down the tube, but after the soup I felt great. Thanks for a great idea!

 

[Zeedman]

I think this one is probably an urd bean, since the flower is solitary (mungs are usually in clusters of 2-4 or so).

My urd beans were in clusters of 4-6.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Well, it could be another mung as well, I'm just guessing at this point.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Opened the first of the two "select" cucumbers to eat and remove the seeds from for saving. There are some that LOOK like they might be mature, but until they've been fermented and dried, I won't know.

I sure as hell HOPE there are, as ALL of the seeds from the first one I saved were duds, I must have picked it too soon. They looked find when fresh, and when in the fermenter, but the moment I dried them, all of them caved in. It's always a sort of balancing act with the cukes with seeds. Ideally, I know I should just let a few of them stay on the vine until they are completely mushy ripe. But we get so few each year versus how many we eat that, when possible, I prefer to try and find the golden middle state where the seed is ripe but, once I have scooped them out, I can still eat the flesh (same as I do with the tomatoes, I don't get enough to let whole fruit rot, so I scoop out the seeds with the gel and then eat the walls. As a side benefit, that means I have tasted the EXACT tomato the seed came from, so I have confirmed it is a decent tasting example.

If it doesn't make any good ones, I do still have one more picked fruit, and at least one more on the vine (which, if both fail, I WILL leave until it is mushy, since there seems no other way.)

Other slight disappointment was discovering the two tomatoes I bought at the market I thought were the seasons first Green Zebra's aren't, the were just the black kind that were really unripe. Those taste fine, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for (it's been sort of hit and miss with regards to bought heirlooms this year, both the stores and the permanent farmers market stand I use seem to be really irregular in both the amounts and quality of the ones they have. I really need to find a day I'm willing to take a break in my morning routine to check out one of the weekly ones.)

 

[heirloomgal]

It’s been a pretty terrible eggplant season, most of which is due to neglect. I just didn’t pay enough attention to them, and they didn’t get to spend any time in the greenhouse early in the season. So, I can only hope I get a few seeds.
A few of the survivors proved themselves as worthy of trying again for sure.

Thai Lavender Frog

Violette Lunga. A mini.

Nord faired the best of all, by far. These are nearly ready for seed collection. Big fruits considering.

Heart of the North is the runner up for second best. I guess the Northern selections live up to their names.

Thai Long Green. Obviously handles drought well.

Did my second big round of tomatoes for seed today too. This may be the last big one, and I’ll put the rest in the freezer for cooking. I usually cut and squeeze the beefsteaks and occasionally blend the cherries, but I used the blender for everything this time. May always do it this way now, it’s faster and I don’t need to do the work of disposing buckets of squeezed out goop.
Amish Paste & Tondo Liscio.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Correction I may only have ONE type of lablab bean making pods (though, by the number of flower clusters it has now it should make a lot of them.) I suddenly remembered there is at least one horse gram plant in THERE as well (along with some wing beans, and God knows what else) and the "long" pod I see does look a bit like the one I have in the back, so it could be that instead. Most of the leaves look similar enough I can't really tell where one plant ends and another begins, so who knows? If it is, at least I'll have both the colors I planted, since the one in there was white seeded (I hope, the starting seed for that was a mix between dead white and very pale tan, and I don't remember which the surviving plant was.)

The corn may be getting pretty close to harvestable (well most of it, one stalk is just putting out its silks, but since there seems to be no pollen left I have trouble believing I will get anything off of that one.) Many of them look like they are drying down. One appears to BE totally dried down, but, as that one has no ears, trying to yank it out and risking damaging the rest if I fall over (it's on the opposite side from the door to the enclosure, and the plants are too close together to even think of trying to walk between them,) would seem to be a bad idea (though I may have to eventually anyway; Dad has told me that, when I have harvested the ears, he wants to save the actual cornstalks for our fall/Halloween decorations and if the stalk it truly dead, I need to get it inside before the rain starts rotting it.)

 

[heirloomgal]

Correction I may only have ONE type of lablab bean making pods (though, by the number of flower clusters it has now it should make a lot of them.) I suddenly remembered there is at least one horse gram plant in THERE as well (along with some wing beans, and God knows what else) and the "long" pod I see does look a bit like the one I have in the back, so it could be that instead. Most of the leaves look similar enough I can't really tell where one plant ends and another begins, so who knows? If it is, at least I'll have both the colors I planted, since the one in there was white seeded (I hope, the starting seed for that was a mix between dead white and very pale tan, and I don't remember which the surviving plant was.)

The corn may be getting pretty close to harvestable (well most of it, one stalk is just putting out its silks, but since there seems to be no pollen left I have trouble believing I will get anything off of that one.) Many of them look like they are drying down. One appears to BE totally dried down, but, as that one has no ears, trying to yank it out and risking damaging the rest if I fall over (it's on the opposite side from the door to the enclosure, and the plants are too close together to even think of trying to walk between them,) would seem to be a bad idea (though I may have to eventually anyway; Dad has told me that, when I have harvested the ears, he wants to save the actual cornstalks for our fall/Halloween decorations and if the stalk it truly dead, I need to get it inside before the rain starts rotting it.)

What type of corn did you grow? Decorative?