A Seed Saver's Garden

[Pulsegleaner]

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Maybe you could fashion a little protective coat for the chestnut/s with some chicken wire. I find one of the nice things about that stuff is you can shape it and mold it how you like, it's remarkably shapeable. It also is inexpensive and comes in so many different widths and lengths. Once the plants are established you could just lift it?

Wouldn't know where to get chicken wire. One of the disadvantages of living suburban, there ARE no feed stores with that kind of stuff. A hardware store MIGHT have some, but it would be super expensive.

But I do have a wire cloche, I'll test that out. Short term, that would be better since it's also covered on the top (since we are talking about a pot of trees, until I can separate them out, a circle of wire would still leave a wide enough diameter hole for a daring deer to stick their head in to eat.

I suppose I also need to make some bilingual signs to keep the gardeners taking them out, and hope they play by the rules (that is they don't simply pull up the sign, pull up the cloche, mow down the trees and then deny any of those things ever existed).

 

[digitS']

Cute analogy of the trees ..

. with the photo of ..

. @peteyfoozer 's sleeping puppy .

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Decided to take the tops of the wet paper towel beans a bit early, and glad I did!

It looks like the African stuff is all TOTALLY dead (I'll do the last one just to be sure, but I'm pretty sure now).

I got SOME germination from the blacks and the whites but not much (like 7-8 out of maybe 50-60 seeds each)

I've discovered I can sort of "feel" if a bean is dead after it has imbibed. If it feels like there is a lot of liquid inside, it's dead (alive ones stay firm).

I also seem to know now WHY the white ones didn't come up, and why they might be super attractive to the birds. The white ones (or rather, the cream ones, there are both light cream and chalk white ones, but I lumped them together) no only have super thin skins, they barely have skins AT ALL! Once soaked, I literally couldn't PICK THEM UP without the entire seed coat popping off. Probably a great trait for cooking, but a bit of a hassle when planting. Some of the seven or so that did sprout are those, so I should probably be able to retain the trait (I also noticed that, despite all being started at the same time, the white sprouts are a LOT bigger and more developed than the black ones. I guess the super thin skin also makes for super fast germination, and the sprouts have an easier time popping out.)

 

[heirloomgal]

I've discovered I can sort of "feel" if a bean is dead after it has imbibed. If it feels like there is a lot of liquid inside, it's dead (alive ones stay firm).

Interesting observation @Pulsegleaner, this sort of thing is observable only to someone who's planted a lot of beans!! I don't soak beans as a rule (except for cooking purposes) so that is not something I would know, or would even have thought of. But I can relate a little; I planted some Coco de Paimpol beans this year, and as I put each seed into the soil I thought to myself that they feel too 'light'. That's a bit strange, beans don't weigh much anyway, but they just didn't feel right. Like the insides were made of air. I planted the entire packet because I had a bad feeling about the germination due to that odd feel and sensation. Turns out I was right, not a single one sprouted.

 

[heirloomgal]

The strange fresh sprouts of Tinga Peas aka Tangier Peas. They're the only plant I know of which sprouts brown colored. They're green now, but this is a fascinating phase in it's growth.

Contrast of the Argenteum silver foliage peas to regular foliage peas. I was surprised how many regular leaf genetics I had to cull this year.

Shimofuri is such an oddly colored tomato plant! Some odd ball tomatoes taste great, some are sour as anything. We'll see which camp this one falls into. Because the foliage is so white I didn't even see those blossoms on there till I took this picture.

Bonica. I couldn't resist it when I saw it. If it really can make all those blooms, I'm willing to give this rose a try too. Too bad it's not a shrub rose, I wanted to mostly stick with those.

Chicago Fig!

The last few weeks have been good for the tomato plants. Good soil is invaluable! I've given them nothing but a sprinkle of chicken manure the day I planted them. Lots of wee tomatoes out there.

Red nightshade berries - the difference in size is almost two weeks between transplant times.

On a lark I threw into this row the remainder of the heartseed vine seeds I had, they date to 2019 so I thought the germ rates would be off. Turns out they were still in extremely good shape. The whole row sprouted.

My first sunchoke plant. Bolton Haynes. It's already 3 feet tall, despite being very root bound when I panted it.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Largest Fava pod was withered today, so I decided it wasn't going to get any more mature, and the bean is now drying (well have to see how far it got). Just one pod left out there, same as with the pea (the second pod on the one with the big which was withered down as well, proved to have nothing in it big enough to save or clean enough looking to eat). And the smaller on on the other appears to have aborted totally, as they were no seeds in there AT ALL (just a bleb of rotting tissue.)

@heirloomgal is sort of funny your tinga is just starting, as mine is nearly finished! At least, the flowers have stopped, and it's now all maturing pods. Guess it's due to the different latitudes.

 

[heirloomgal]

Largest Fava pod was withered today, so I decided it wasn't going to get any more mature, and the bean is now drying (well have to see how far it got). Just one pod left out there, same as with the pea (the second pod on the one with the big which was withered down as well, proved to have nothing in it big enough to save or clean enough looking to eat). And the smaller on on the other appears to have aborted totally, as they were no seeds in there AT ALL (just a bleb of rotting tissue.)

@heirloomgal is sort of funny your tinga is just starting, as mine is nearly finished! At least, the flowers have stopped, and it's now all maturing pods. Guess it's due to the different latitudes.

Wow! Your tinga peas are nearing the end of their life cycle already!? I'm curious to see what these seeds look like freshly shelled. I only planted these once, last year, and that was an epic fail. I didn't know they needed support and most of the plant matter rotted, including the pods which were under the vines. The company never mentioned anything about support, so they had none and paid the price. I was shocked at how few seeds were in the Ethiopian lentils/Grass Peas pods, I hope the tinga pods contain more seeds than that!

 

[heirloomgal]

I cannot believe the mosquitoes this year. It's crazy bad. I'm not sure why, it hasn't been especially rainy. Working outside tonight in the garden I had my hoodie hood up, tied tight to my neck to keep them out of my ears, in an outfit with zero skin exposure. Ugh, not a fan of insects, mosquitoes especially. I really, really hope they drop off as the summer goes along. Not pleasant!!

I laughed at myself tonight while I was browsing the garden centre looking for chicken manure. I'm a fan of Richter's Herbs, and have bought quite a few seeds from them over the years. Even this year I started some Iberian Thyme and Winter Lemon Savory, but the packets are not cheap - $5.00 plus about $5.00 - $7.00 shipping. And then you have to get them established over the winter under lights! I noticed a huge potted herb on the perennial table and it was one of the Richter's type herbs - Golden Variegated Lemon Thyme and it was for $10.00! Ha! It's the size of the plant that gets me, enormous! So I guess this is one of those situations where seeds is not always the way to go. My Winter Lemon Savory potted herb is a dwarf compared to this one!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Wow! Your tinga peas are nearing the end of their life cycle already!? I'm curious to see what these seeds look like freshly shelled.

This probably won't be for another few weeks, if not a month. I tried to open one of the bigger pods a little bit to peek inside, and, while the seeds are full sized, they're still completely green in there, so they need a bit longer.

I only planted these once, last year, and that was an epic fail. I didn't know they needed support and most of the plant matter rotted, including the pods which were under the vines. The company never mentioned anything about support, so they had none and paid the price.

Guess I was lucky there. As they were basically similar to grass or sweet peas, I ASSUMED they'd be vines, and so planted them next to the railing to give them their support.

I was shocked at how few seeds were in the Ethiopian lentils/Grass Peas pods, I hope the tinga pods contain more seeds than that!

They probably should. Each pod on mine looks sort of like a long common (English) type pea pod with heavy protrusions where each seed is. I didn't count protrusions, but there have to be at least eight to ten per pod (and there are fair number of pods)

Speaking about pods, I see I have the same rice bean problem this time as I have every time; being able to give a valid answer to the question "are they bush, semi-runner, runner, or pole?" The answer is I don't know, because none of those terms really fit! I'd say "bush" this time, since there seem to be no tendrils, but is it really a bush if there are no real branches and it's only maybe 3-4 inches from the ground level to the top of the plant?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Speaking about pods, I see I have the same rice bean problem this time as I have every time; being able to give a valid answer to the question "are they bush, semi-runner, runner, or pole?" The answer is I don't know, because none of those terms really fit! I'd say "bush" this time, since there seem to be no tendrils, but is it really a bush if there are no real branches and it's only maybe 3-4 inches from the ground level to the top of the plant?

I counted flower clusters today, and they are at least three, all on separate "spurs". I suppose those count as branches, which would make it officially bush.

A few have the star of pods, but it's a bit too early to guess how much seed I'll actually get off the plant. Not only do they vary quite a bit on how many flowers per cluster, but in how many of those actually take. If seen pod clusters of two, and ones of five or more (it can actually be a bit tricky, since the pods don't all have to ripen at the same time, and getting ripe ones off before they shatter without damaging the connection to the plant of the next pod over that needs more time can be delicate work.

*MOST rice beans have had shattering bred out of them, as would be expected of a modern field crop. But some of the smaller ones still have it, and since most of the traits I select for are older ones, I never know if a plant has the shatter gene or not. I've never lost seed to the ground, but I HAVE had pods that shattered the moment I touched them to pick them (LONG before they dried down all the way and turned brown).