A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

I can't tell if the I'm starved for garden fresh tomatoes or if it's just an extra great season for flavor, but the tomatoes this year - though not yet numerous - have been outstanding. Sweet Apperitif and Pinky cherries also now ripening and the taste is 10/10. Looks like Beta tomato will be the first variety to ripen all it's fruits this year. With Premus and Uralskiy Ranniy a close second. For a bad year, it's an accomplishment.

Most of the peas are still flowering but the Kentish Invicta peas I started in modules is starting to dry down. A few pods have actually dried down. This is cause for celebration to me, because I had about 10 seeds to start! So, next year I can plant a whole row! I love me some super rare peas. I learned in this rare pea year that I really liked starting the peas in the module trays, it worked fabulous. Will do again. So easy and effortless to plant out and space correctly. I always over seed.

There are a lot of good performing tomatoes in the garden this year, but this one has really stood out - mostly because it oddly seems to have very little nutrition requirements. I planted 2 'Zhiraf' plants in 2 very different locations, and both have done admirably having never been fed and scarcely watered. It's a long keeper tomato and I wonder if somehow that's related. Extremely healthy plants. These 2 plants were my last 2 seeds.

The life cycle of the pea. This is supposed to be Lollandske Rosiner pea, if I recall correctly. However, I have my doubts. It expresses a hyper tendril habit which I don't think was around at the time the LR's date to. Or maybe they were more sophisticated in pea genetics than I'm aware of. WIll need to do some research.

Sapporo Express. A Japanese variety I can't find much info about, but I enjoy both the flowers and the peas very much.

One of my favorite pea flowers of all time - Salmon Flowered Crown Pea. This is just the beginning, the whole tuft flowers at once.

I would be tempted to think of Corazon peppers as 'cherry bomb' type peppers, but the texture of the skin seems to suggest something different. They don't have that smooth shiny skin, it's more matte, slightly textured and colored differently. We'll see what they're like ripe.

Wow wow wow. The Aji Mochero's really will make peppers after all. Aji's are often slow so this is fantastic. If this year goes well I may never grow peppers in regular pots anymore, it'll be window boxes instead. They seem to me to be doing better in them and require much less soil. I've found in the past that peppers grown in smaller containers also tend to be more seedy. Win win.

The overwintered Habanada pepper plant - it's looking good. I think I'll get some seeds. And on the topic of 'nada', I tried my first little C flexusosum pepper tonight. It was very tiny, but I could see that, as the books say, it's more a fruit than a hot pepper. I found that to be true, kind of blueberry/cherry mouthfeel (even though of course peps are technically fruit). AND no heat. SO AWESOME!

 

[heirloomgal]

7/25

FINALLY have gotten some beans black which are all purple/black.

It looks like one plant is making all black, one is making the soldier/orca ones, and one is making ones that are almost totally white with just a dot of purple on each side of the hilum.

And that's sort of the issue, until the other ones catch up, those are the only three plants in that pot producing (and even when they DO, that's only another three plants or so). What causes/caused the black and white to have such sucky fertility compared to the brown I have no clue, but that seems to be the ultimate issue.

In other news.
The Pear run yesterday reminded me about the plum tree, so I ran over there. I was basically too late (the plums probably ripened about mid July, but I found one seriously overripe one on the tree, and a dried out one on the ground, so I have at least two stones to work with.
Oh, and while cleaning up the overripe on, I think that, to my surprised, despite being clearly an ornamental (given the dark purple leaves) if ripe, the plums may be okay. The stuff certainly SMELLED like a ripe plum as I was washing and, while I only touched my finger to the stone and touched that to my tongue, it TASTED sort of plum like. Plus, I suspect the brix is pretty high, given how STICKY the overripe fruit was (that could also explain why there were not a ton of dried out fruits on the ground, they're probably very attractive to the birds as well as the squirrels after the stones.)

Plums...

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Plums...

If I can get these pits to grow, it might actually be a pretty good combination, ornamental (it's a purple leafed plum) AND some fruit. Not all that common a mix (I've seen dozens of those purple leafed plum trees around, but this is the only one I know that makes some fruits.)

I've mentioned my (ultimately failed) attempts to grow greengages and mirabelles.

Since those didn't work, maybe next year I'll try again with the Hunza/Pakistani apricots. At least I know I CAN get those to germinate; I've done it before. ow i just have to hope they can take our winters (Hunza Valley is at the base of the Himalayas, so they probably can, but, of course, I have no way of confirming the little tan ones I get at the Indian grocery store are actually Hunzas; they just look like what I remember the Hunzas looking like.

Speaking of things coloring up, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that my first tomato is beginning to ripen. The bad news is it is also beginning to change color, which this variety isn't supposed to (that's the whole story of Open Minded, they called it that becuase they left it in place even though it appeared to not ever ripen, until they realized it was a "deceptor" (pure green flesh, clear skin) and couldn't change color). So either an errant seed got into the packet or the variety isn't stable yet. Now I have to wonder if the "off" plant that looks more like the Laos's (which I thought was due to me getting one of the seedlings mixed up and in the wrong pot) is the real thing and the rest are wrong (besides being the wrong color, most of them are also much smaller and rounder than I remember the picture of Open Minded to be. Open Minded was supposed to be a beefsteak.)

On the brighter side, now that more of the cherries have started fruiting, I can clearly see some are much longer fruited than others, so I was right I mixed seeds, but it looks like I got both to produce (my memory is hazy, but ( seem to recall the green that started fruiting first not actually tasting all that great).

 

[heirloomgal]

Another night for a warm hoodie and thick wool socks.

However the tougher vegetables continue to soldier on. The tomatoes are really starting to ripen quicker than they can be used, so tomato seed saving has officially begun. I quite like using jars instead of covering a plastic cup with Saran, but I'm a bit worried I'll forget to burp the fermenting jars and have an explosion. So far so good though, and I'm on year two. The Ambrosia Gold cherry tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. Somehow, it's a yummy looking shade.

It has been a GREAT year for lettuce, they are big and the leaves on all the varieties (leaf lettuce, heads and oakleaves) are all so tender. Makes sense, they like the cool temps and all the rain. We have eaten truckloads of lettuce this year because I don't plant to save seeds & the starts were 25 cents per plant, so I bought a ton of them. The icebergs have been especially good. This guy was last nights salad.

My understanding of earth chestnuts was they're biennials as far as seeds go - however, I saw this today. I can only hope that this means I'll get some this year. But, only time will tell. They haven't done much this year that I can see, though there may indeed be little tubers under there. This is one of those plants that even online it's difficult to track down anything about it. It is the most popular seed sold by Eagleridge Seeds, so there must be something to it. I hope.

Pretty Redbor kale. Love these when they get big and mature, and turn deep dark purple. They were late transplants so still need some growth before I can harvest from them. I haven't grown these from seeds in years, and I was lucky to find transplants.

It took awhile for my front yard edible project to grow in (especially this year) but I'm finally starting to enjoy it. It's filled in and I've actually created a little path that runs through must of it and forks in one section out onto the lawn. Everything seems to be in harmony right now, and I hope it stays that way; as things grow further they might start to crowd one another and get problematic. This is part of what I'm testing I guess with this sort of experiment - the idea might be better than the reality at maturity. We'll see. That's Purple Dove climbing the bamboo front right.

I am growing 'Charlevoix' peas this year, and there was quite a bit of conflicting info about it's height online. Turns out, it's another low pea. That's a surprise. I'm happy it fits it's trellis though. And it turns out it's another pea with purple flowers. I think there are only 2 or 3 peas out there this year that flower in white.

SO excited for this European shelling pea - 'Sima Winter'. I had a total of 8 plants to work with and they all seemed to produce so well. The magic of seeds to increase themselves. I don't usually grow many low peas in a season, but it was just one of those years for them given that I ran out of space for any more trellis's. I gave all the space to the beans this year,

'Frieda Welten' sugar snap peas. Another European pea I'm quite excited to have growing, named for a Swiss organic farming pioneer. Another one for which I had a mere 10 seeds.
Looks like I'll wind up with more than that.

I'm posting this picture of my super dwarf Beauregarde purple snow peas for contrast. Almost all purple peas I've ever grown look exactly like this. Virtually no variation. So when I saw the pea 'Ruby Beauty' I thought there was at least a chance that this is what they'd look like too. The photos seemed to suggest otherwise, but it's very easy to manipulate color in photos with lighting. So I didn't know what to expect, and realistically.....not likely there is such a thing as a red pea pod.

I'll see if it holds!

 

[Decoy1]

and realistically.....not likely there is such a thing as a red pea pod.

Interesting. You might know that producing a pea with a red pod has been quite a holy grail in some quarters. Producing a red podding pea has proved particularly elusive.
For example:

Red-podded pea update: the F6 crop and beyond

Rebsie Fairholm is an amateur breeder of vegetables, mostly using genetics from heritage varieties and specialising in peas, potatoes and tomatoes.

daughterofthesoil.blogspot.com

And:

Red podded pea project | Homegrown Goodness

Well, it seemed a shame for the new Fabaceae forum to have nothing in it yet, so I'll take this opportunity to show off my red podded peas. ;D http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3015/29812353

alanbishop.proboards.com

Ruby Beauty is looking promising and lovely so far. Was it difficult to find seeds? I don’t think they’re available in UK.

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

Red poded pea… awesome.

 

[heirloomgal]

Interesting. You might know that producing a pea with a red pod has been quite a holy grail in some quarters. Producing a red podding pea has proved particularly elusive.
For example:

Red-podded pea update: the F6 crop and beyond

Rebsie Fairholm is an amateur breeder of vegetables, mostly using genetics from heritage varieties and specialising in peas, potatoes and tomatoes.

daughterofthesoil.blogspot.com

And:

Red podded pea project | Homegrown Goodness

Well, it seemed a shame for the new Fabaceae forum to have nothing in it yet, so I'll take this opportunity to show off my red podded peas. ;D http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3015/29812353

alanbishop.proboards.com

Ruby Beauty is looking promising and lovely so far. Was it difficult to find seeds? I don’t think they’re available in UK.

Thank you for posting this @Decoy1, very interesting information. I had no idea that even the thought of a red podded pea existed until I saw these Ruby Beauty seeds. Especially interesting that Rebsie Fairholm reports that her red podded pea tastes terrible! This certainly increases my level of curiosity as to what these'll taste like. They're listed as a snow pea, but the description does mention they aren't especially sweet. That's not saying much I suppose as most purple podded peas tend to lack sweetness compared to greens.

I found them accidentally really, just cruising the seed sites looking for new and interesting peas and stumbled across them. I almost didn't get them as I thought it was probably creative selling to use the word ruby to describe them, the main photo of them actually doesn't look that red. I'm so glad now that I did get them afterall even though I himmed and hawed for awhile.

Snow Pea - Ruby Beauty

These hypertendril snow peas have very interesting colours. The main part of the plant is green, but transitions to crimson and yellow where the translucent burgundy pods form. There's a little blush where leaves meet vine, and the tendrils can also have a yellow and red blush. Not too sweet...

nocoastseeds.ca

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Well, here it is, the first ripe tomato. And yes, despite the color it IS ripe, I ca feel it.

Can't say it's the most ATTRACTIVE color I've ever seen (and, of course, it's supposed to be green.) but I suppose it ultimately depends on taste. Not huge (maybe an inch to an inch and a half across, or shooter marble size).

 

[heirloomgal]

Well, here it is, the first ripe tomato. And yes, despite the color it IS ripe, I ca feel it.

View attachment 67344

Can't say it's the most ATTRACTIVE color I've ever seen (and, of course, it's supposed to be green.) but I suppose it ultimately depends on taste. Not huge (maybe an inch to an inch and a half across, or shooter marble size).

Wow, it's a true pastel pink. Gorgeous color. There is not a single pink tomato I've ever grown, from beefsteaks to cherries, which is a true pink like this.

Do you have plans to try and stabilize it?

 

[heirloomgal]

My early maturing tomato venture couldn't possibly have been chosen for a better year. I'm impressed with every ripe tomato so far, and haven't tasted a single dud. Yet. I decided to let them all sprawl this year, all of them being in a single raised bed garden. The world 'sprawling' conjurs for me a sense of relaxation, but I don't really see that in the patch. It's a weird plant, they tend to topple standard cages and yet the branches stress when not supported. Some break off. I wonder if I should tuck some hay under the bunches of fruits laying over the ground, but I fear rodents. The original tomatoes sprawled across the ground, so I guess it can't be that tragic for them.

Been a good carrot year, and I'm a reliably terrible carrot grower. They're already a good size considering we waited for the last moment to get them in. Enjoying lots of kale sauteed with garlic and olive oil. The first batch of planted kales are huge, and the varying degrees of vulnerability to pests each has is really showing. Lacinato kale seems the most fragile, whereas the Scotch kale and Red Russian haven't suffered a bit. The cabbages are getting massacred though- my last resort is cedar shavings in the forming heads. Not likely I'll ever plant cabbages again. WAY too pesty for me. They must be bred REALLY far off from whence they came, because that pest pressure is nuts, and generally speaking I don't have pesty gardens. Too bad, they are an utterly charming looking vegetable. Big and dramatic.

Tinga peas finally started to flower - seems like that took forever. Then again, I planted seeds not plants. They're hugely tall too, at 6 feet and still moving. No wonder they rotted last year without support. Such pretty flowers. The heartseed vines are not climbing yet though. We'll see if they make it to maturity, seems a bit late for no balloons.

I was astonished today to see that one of my newly planted perennial poppies is sporting 5 buds waiting to bloom. Which is rather out of season really. I can't believe that for a new planting and wonder what might have been the cause of that kind of growth. The others had a single bloom, if any - this multi-flowering plant is in part shade. Maybe it likes that? Always thought they were sun lovers.