A Seed Saver's Garden

[ducks4you]

Had a spicy moment in the garden this afternoon. Was weeding out the farthest back right corner of my compost garden when I started hearing the tell tale sounds of branches snapping in the bush. I was so determined to rid myself of these blasted wild sunflowers that I didn't really pay attention. I honestly did not care that a bear was there because I was in the middle of task I wanted done asap and my kids have seen enough bears that they don't find it especially exciting anymore. I was sitting on my butt and I looked up to meet eyes with a big black bear standing on his hind legs 15 feet away looking down on me! Not the most common position to see them in. The bush grass is so tall I guess he had to stand up to see what was what. I booted it to the house to get my Tablet for a pic, but it was dead so I grabbed my daughters digital camera and ran back out. I got a pick of him as he investigated where I was sitting though it was from a distance, the closer I got the more uncomfortable he became so he left too quickly for a good picture. I'll have to learn how to get the pic downloaded on this device. It occurred to me after that I had eaten a banana right where I was weeding & tossed the peel aside on the ground to be picked up later. I suspect this drew him. My goodness their noses are exemplary. I've seen a lot of bears over the years in the garden, especially in early June, but never any of them standing on their hind legs! He had a nice face too, very brown muzzle against black inky fur.

2 ways:
1) hook your phone directly into your computer and it will pull up to download pictures (VZ Media, so change to that first)
2) email pictures to yourself
then
3) download IRFANVIEW, copy/paste, autocorrect colors and/or sharpen, then save as (name your photo)

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Dug out some more seed to fill in holes.

Managed to put together a lupine mix, roughly 50% Russel's and 50% Choclos (Lupinus subandeus). I HOPE the choclos are darker ones, as I selected seeds with markings to try and get that (though since the "markings" on them consist of the occasional light brown spot on the white seed coat, I can't honestly tell if they are authentic seed coat markings or just rather sticky dirt spots.

Also dug out my small grains, in case I want to plant those. Though I wonder if it is worth it. The Tibetan Barley looks OK, but it looks like I only have the seed of maybe two heads left, one of which I am unsure is actually the Tibetan stuff (it's hulled, and I seem to recall ALL of the barley in the Chusi Gandruk mix being naked barley.)

I have a good handful of shot wheat grains from when I planted that, but that did SO badly that I seriously wonder how much, if any of it, is actually viable (it looks like a bag of what are called "tombstones" in the wheat growing world, and very TINY tombstones at that.

Besides that, I have a packet of Utrecht Blue wheat, and a vial of mixed emmer and einkorn grains, and that's it. Enough to put together a pot or two, but that's it. And even if I DO plant them, what then? I don't have the space (and currently never will) to grow enough grain to make anything to EAT. And the old trick I used to do of putting the nicer heads in vases as dried flower arrangements is no longer viable since we got Juniper (who is OBSESSED with finding and chewing to pieces ANY stalk of dried grain).

I think that's all the rant I have for now; off to pot up the grass peas.

 

[heirloomgal]

2 ways:
1) hook your phone directly into your computer and it will pull up to download pictures (VZ Media, so change to that first)
2) email pictures to yourself
then
3) download IRFANVIEW, copy/paste, autocorrect colors and/or sharpen, then save as (name your photo)

I took the pic with an old digital camera not a phone (don't have one); I do have a cord to connect it to the Chromebook. I thought I had this figured out before and a screen would pop up once I plugged the camera in, but that isn't happening. The Chromebook isn't recognising the camera?

I guess I'll have to get DH to connect it to the Laptop - a gadget I avoid because all those icons and do-hickey thingamabobs scare me.

 

[heirloomgal]

Dug out some more seed to fill in holes.

Managed to put together a lupine mix, roughly 50% Russel's and 50% Choclos (Lupinus subandeus). I HOPE the choclos are darker ones, as I selected seeds with markings to try and get that (though since the "markings" on them consist of the occasional light brown spot on the white seed coat, I can't honestly tell if they are authentic seed coat markings or just rather sticky dirt spots.

Also dug out my small grains, in case I want to plant those. Though I wonder if it is worth it. The Tibetan Barley looks OK, but it looks like I only have the seed of maybe two heads left, one of which I am unsure is actually the Tibetan stuff (it's hulled, and I seem to recall ALL of the barley in the Chusi Gandruk mix being naked barley.)

I have a good handful of shot wheat grains from when I planted that, but that did SO badly that I seriously wonder how much, if any of it, is actually viable (it looks like a bag of what are called "tombstones" in the wheat growing world, and very TINY tombstones at that.

Besides that, I have a packet of Utrecht Blue wheat, and a vial of mixed emmer and einkorn grains, and that's it. Enough to put together a pot or two, but that's it. And even if I DO plant them, what then? I don't have the space (and currently never will) to grow enough grain to make anything to EAT. And the old trick I used to do of putting the nicer heads in vases as dried flower arrangements is no longer viable since we got Juniper (who is OBSESSED with finding and chewing to pieces ANY stalk of dried grain).

I think that's all the rant I have for now; off to pot up the grass peas.

Do you have good luck with lupines? Any tips? I got some to flower ONCE and they got COVERED by aphids overnight. Flowers were so pretty but I had to yank out the plants because of those bugs. I don't as a rule have much insect problems and didn't want to create any. But my lupini beans this year were attacked (and totally destroyed) by onion maggots and that sort of convinced me that anything in that lupine family is trouble for me. Climate related? I have seen a huge naturalised field of lupine flowers nearby which clearly are doing well but I wonder if they do well mostly when they plant themselves. Perhaps your area is very amenable to that family?

Utrecht Blue Wheat! That is a GORGEOUS plant. Almost surreal. I'm a celiac but even I want to grow that one for it's looks. I'd love to use it in arrangements as you have. If I didn't worry about physically handling it I would grow some as I've seen the seeds for sale occasionally. It's like a work of art.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Do you have good luck with lupines? Any tips? I got some to flower ONCE and they got COVERED by aphids overnight. Flowers were so pretty but I had to yank out the plants because of those bugs. I don't as a rule have much insect problems and didn't want to create any. But my lupini beans this year were attacked (and totally destroyed) by onion maggots and that sort of convinced me that anything in that lupine family is trouble for me. Climate related? I have seen a huge naturalised field of lupine flowers nearby which clearly are doing well but I wonder if they do well mostly when they plant themselves. Perhaps your area is very amenable to that family?

I couldn't tell you. The last time I planted anything in the lupine family from seed before now was about twenty years ago, when I tried my hand with the Altrei Coffee kind of lupine, Lupinus pilosis (as a tribute to how long ago this was, I got my seed from Joe Simcox's original batch he sent to Richter's) They grew alright for me, and DID flower, but I got no seed back due to an unexpected heat wave withering everything to the ground (It was so bad that normal regular watering wasn't GOOD enough, the heart was literally evaporating the water as soon as it hit the ground, since the only way to keep anything alive was with a trickle system for continuous watering, which we didn't have.)

Since then, I MAY have tried to add some lupines as full grown flowering PLANTS, but I don't recall any of them setting seed either.

But Lupinus is a BIG genus, with members spread ALL OVER the world. Theoretically, there should be SOME species that will work.

Utrecht Blue What! That is a GORGEOUS plant. Almost surreal. I'm a celiac but even I want to grow that one for it's looks. I'd love to use it in arrangements as you have. If I didn't worry about physically handling it I would grow some as I've seen the seeds for sale occasionally. It's like a work of art.

Actually, I could get a LOT of nice looking heads from what I planted. Some of the emmer is presumably the black one (all of my emmers and einkorns got mixed up a while ago, so what I have is a hodgepodge) The other should be the gold* and both are GREAT at making nice shapely heads (plus, compared to most of the other grains, the sucking bugs tend to leave them alone, so they don't get misshapen). The barley could be purple (a lot of the original mix was). Someday, when I get around to re-ordering from the OSSI site, I'm going to have to make a point of getting a pack or two of the Rocky Mountain Wheat Grex, not because I want it for the grain production, but because, based on the accompanying picture, it has a LOT of compactum (club wheat) in it, and I tend to find short, wide ears more attractive than long narrow ones (the only reason why I don't just go to Native Seeds and get the Mount Pima Club is that I don't like the irregular bead lengths; they're messy).

*Theoretically, there could be a third emmer in there. When I initially planted out the three grains, in separate pots, there were a few plants in the Einkorn pot that grew extra large and made heads that looked more like the Golden Emmer than the rest of the einkorn (though not exactly). Most likely, I simply got some emmer grains mixed in (or they got mixed in at Kusa, who packed it.) But einkorn CAN occasionally naturally double its chromosome number to go from being diploid to tetraploid, at which point it WOULD technically be an emmer.

 

[heirloomgal]

Weather challenges.

All the rain has caused some stem rot in my Painted Serpent cucumbers. Luckily with those I had one extra starter pot of them. But at least one watermelon plant and ALL the 'Jambalaya' okra have developed totally wilty leaves. I don't think the okra will make it. I've not had trouble when I've grown it before, but it seems to be rather sensitive to high moisture. At least, combined with cooler temperatures at night. Little disappointed by the prospect of losing the okras. Not going to buy more at this point.

But what makes one do poorly, causes other to do well. The corn has reached over a foot with all the rain, the peas are all doing really well, the favas are great, lettuce too. The White African sorghum and Job's Tears are fine. Even the Kaiser Alexander cucumbers are alright, probably because they are over a month old now. Cucamelons are surprisingly tolerant of recent conditions.

Hopefully the early summer rains recede, as they usually do, and some nice, reliably sunny weather can begin.

I suspect the bear that visited while I was weeding the other day is regularly visiting in the early morning hours these last few weeks. I'm seeing bear prints everywhere. He stepped right in the middle of my cowpea planter, though amazingly the seeds still came up anyway. At least he is making an effort to avoid plants, which I very much appreciate.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Potted up the lablab beans today and stuck them in the cold frame to wait for the cotyledons to be exhausted. It really is a pain to be basically unable to direct seed ANYTHING, or to even be able to put them in their permanent places the moment the roots are ready. But, as an object lesson on WHY I have to do this, the Macropitilium seedling I direct planted (because there wasn't enough room in the pots I had brought out for it) was eaten more or less instantly. At this point, I just hope the plants can survive being in smaller pots until their cots run out, and that they can then set up good roots when I move them.
Also potted thew little "grasspea" as well, though I am worried. It LOOKED fine in the peat pot, with a nice green shoot, However, when I turned the peat pot over (to see whether the root had poke out, or if I could still remove the pot mesh first) the plant FELL OUT of it! Turns out it doesn't HAVE a root yet, ONLY a shoot. I can just hope that the root comes out soon.

I MAY have gotten my first seedling in the mixed wild stuff pot. There is a green shoot that I recognize as being from something in the bindweed family. Might be one of mine, might be a blow in, no way to tell.

I'm FAIRLY sure some of the cucumbers have started to come up. Let's just hope the critters leave some of those alone until they are too big to be tasty to them (cucumber seedling deplete their cots pretty fast, so there is a decent chance.)

According to Dad when he was out this evening barbecuing, one of the herb plants has died (unfortunately, it sound like the one that did was the new experimental one, so no data on whether that is a good choice for here or not.

STILL no sign of sprouts in the Sweet Pea pot. In another few weeks, I may have to assume that all of the sweet pea seeds were just as dead as they were the last time (they shouldn't have been, I made sure to plant them they year I GOT them this time) and put something else in. Maybe, instead of putting the grass peas AND the Lablabs in one of the pots (though there is room for both) I'll put one in each.

 

[meadow]

STILL no sign of sprouts in the Sweet Pea pot. In another few weeks, I may have to assume that all of the sweet pea seeds were just as dead as they were the last time (they shouldn't have been, I made sure to plant them they year I GOT them this time) and put something else in.

I grew sweet peas for the first time last year, and missed getting to them this year. I do recall being advised to nick the seed coat to improve the germination rate. Apparently timing can be tricky with them too.

I was blissfully unaware of any of this last year when direct seeding them along with the peas. The volunteers that came up this year were quite early -- pretty much as soon as the ground could be worked. Sadly, DH weeded them.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I grew sweet peas for the first time last year, and missed getting to them this year. I do recall being advised to nick the seed coat to improve the germination rate. Apparently timing can be tricky with them too.

I was blissfully unaware of any of this last year when direct seeding them along with the peas. The volunteers that came up this year were quite early -- pretty much as soon as the ground could be worked. Sadly, DH weeded them.

Oh, them IMBIBING (which is what the nicking is for) is going on just fine, I keep having to poke imbibed seeds back down into the soil after each rainstorm. It's just that, as yet, none of them have SPROUTED.

As I said this is my second attempt with these particular sweet peas (a variety called Tommy, that I got from someone in the Ukraine over Etsy). The first time, I attributed the lack of germination to the fact that I had sat on the seeds for some years. But this time, I got the batch only about nine or so months ago. I suppose it is possible that the seed was already old when I got it (it would be bad form for a seller to sell expired seed, but all online buying is caveat emptor.) But it seem odd, given that the grass peas, which were even OLDER (I would have gotten them before COVID hit, since they kame from Kalyustan's in Manhattan, so we are talking several years by now.) germinated just fine.

 

[heirloomgal]

Oh, them IMBIBING (which is what the nicking is for) is going on just fine, I keep having to poke imbibed seeds back down into the soil after each rainstorm. It's just that, as yet, none of them have SPROUTED.

As I said this is my second attempt with these particular sweet peas (a variety called Tommy, that I got from someone in the Ukraine over Etsy). The first time, I attributed the lack of germination to the fact that I had sat on the seeds for some years. But this time, I got the batch only about nine or so months ago. I suppose it is possible that the seed was already old when I got it (it would be bad form for a seller to sell expired seed, but all online buying is caveat emptor.) But it seem odd, given that the grass peas, which were even OLDER (I would have gotten them before COVID hit, since they kame from Kalyustan's in Manhattan, so we are talking several years by now.) germinated just fine.

Do the grass peas you refer to mean the one that goes by so many names? i.e. Italian cicerchia, Ethiopian lentil, Indian pea, chickling vetch etc.