A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

Few odds and ends.

A trip to the bodega yesterday yielded a decent handful of "correct" fava beans, so I'm basically set for next spring.

Actually, I'm wondering if I should bring the current fava beans inside for the present if we are supposed to be getting this massive heat wave. Everything else out there is a warm weather crop of one sort or another, so they can stand it as long as we keep them adequately watered. But the Favas are cool weather, and I'm wondering if the heat itself will kill them no matter how much water they get. The pods are far from ripe, so I need to do SOMETHING to keep them going.

My Ghana seed package arrived a few days ago as well. The "mixed" color wing beans proved not to be all that mixed (they didn't even have tan, which I KNOW exists since I have some) but I did manage to pick out a few that are an odd color I haven't seem before (sort of a greenish-grey).

I also went through the African rice (Oryza glaberrina ) and found one unidentified small legume seed to play around with.

The purple eyed jack beans had no surprises, but then again, they are far too big for anything small to pass by in packing.

I haven't grown that many kinds of favas @Pulsegleaner - Crimson Flowered, Purple Russian, Fingerprint. I think that is the sum total, but I do think there is significant variation in their heat tolerances. CF seemed the most likely to wilt in heat (though it always perked back up by evening, even unmulched) and Fingerprint was the toughest one for sure, never showing any kind of stress or even aphids when not pinched. It seemed to handle heat really well, and we had some spells of 90 degrees last summer. I have Gold Elio planted this year and it too seems to be showing super resistance to heat, we've had real feels of 100 and 102 degrees the past two days, and the GE are still small transplants, but they haven't shown any signs of distress at all. And they're in a raised bed, unmulched. This is especially surprising since transplants can be a bit more fragile than direct planted seeds because they've acclimatized to indoor moderate temps. Maybe try some mulching? They may be alright afterall?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I haven't grown that many kinds of favas @Pulsegleaner - Crimson Flowered, Purple Russian, Fingerprint. I think that is the sum total, but I do think there is significant variation in their heat tolerances. CF seemed the most likely to wilt in heat (though it always perked back up by evening, even unmulched) and Fingerprint was the toughest one for sure, never showing any kind of stress or even aphids when not pinched. It seemed to handle heat really well, and we had some spells of 90 degrees last summer. I have Gold Elio planted this year and it too seems to be showing super resistance to heat, we've had real feels of 100 and 102 degrees the past two days, and the GE are still small transplants, but they haven't shown any signs of distress at all. And they're in a raised bed, unmulched. This is especially surprising since transplants can be a bit more fragile than direct planted seeds because they've acclimatized to indoor moderate temps. Maybe try some mulching? They may be alright afterall?

I've decided to take a wait an see monitoring stance. As it happens, the pot of favas is close enough to the dining room window that I can keep an eye on it without actually going outside. At the moment, I'll leave it where it is and just keep watering it. If I see any sign of drooping THEN I'll brave the heat and lug it inside.

I've realize I may also have to plan for the flip situation later. Since this summer has as yet been somewhat on the cool side, while the cool weather crops are doing unusually well, the warm weather ones are a bit lagging. The corn is still more or less on schedule (according to folk wisdom, your corn is supposed to be "knee high by the Fourth of July", and what I have is already partially at the height of my knee (and I have long legs). And dad has confirmed one of the tomatoes has a flower bud. But the common beans, mungs and cow peas may be lagging a bit, so I may need to be prepared to haul them in at the end of the year to finish up.

At least, I THINK the beans are lagging. Since I start with different beans every year, it's hard to remember what is "normal" for them. I THINK I have memories of starting to get mature seeds by the end of June (which the current plants are nowhere near), but that was probably the African ones, so the rules may be different (well, except for the Africans planted out there now to replace the peas now that they are more or less done.)

The cucumbers are having their own odd issues. They sprouting fine (at least, some are) and a few now have their first permanent leaves. The tricky bit is working out what is and is not a sprouting cucumber. Like everywhere else in the back yard, there is now quite a lot of senna seed hiding in the soil, and the seed leaves of senna look enough like those of a cucumber to make me unsure at that point. So I have to keep looking over and yanking senna seedlings out as soon as the compound leaves show up. So I have no idea how many cuke seedlings I actually HAVE at this point (I think there may also be an ivy one in there that needs to go.)

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Turns out some of the beans ARE getting buds, so I guess we aren't as far off course time-wise as I thought.

I also note that, of the two bud bunches I can see, one seems to be white and the other pink, so, even factoring in for the segregation by seed color and the possible diminishment of the gene spread (due to the black seeded doing so poorly and the white seeded not coming up at all,) there is still a decent amount of gene diversity in each sub section, and I can have hope for further segregations.

Pity I'll never have the space to do things the REAL right way (plant each individual bean well spaced from the others with a pole, so I can correlate each seed to a given plant.) The yarn trick doesn't really work (the vines intertwine so much it gets difficult to work out which is which without pulling them apart so hard I end up breaking them all.) Guess I'll just keep trying to keep notes on seed size, shape and color and work from that (at some point, I should start considering which ones are worth trying to eat, and a bit part of that is working out how much of which parent is in each current plant.

 

[heirloomgal]

The peonies are finally blooming profusely & exuding their incredible fragrance, Duchess de Nemours is especially odiferous right now. It's such a short time that they flower, but it's so nice for that little while. I bought my neighbours a Duchess plant this year after they helped us so much with our big stumps. They have a couple peonies, but they enjoyed that particular one in my garden, I always made them a yearly bouquet. It got planted right next to their front entrance, which I thought was so cute. They evicted an older peony they had in that spot to replace it with the new one.

Learned a lesson on Father's Day about delphiniums. Just as I placed the last exquisite blue blooms atop the cream cheese iced cake I made for everyone ( it was a carrot cake), a little voice nudged me to check and be sure they're a *good* choice. I had put polka dot blue decorative paper edging all around the outside edge of the cake and the two tones of delph blooms I had (powdery baby blue and royal blue) were a gorgeous match all around the cake and arranged on top. That little voice turned out to be looking out for us all. Awhoops. But it was a glorious look while it lasted.

It's so nice to tour around the garden and see all the seeds up, all the pea rows growing and the last bean seeds sprouted around the poles. The pignuts transplanted well, which I'm grateful for since I don't think that's standard practice with those. Even the carrots seeds seem to have mostly sprouted. I have one new garden section that I've been able to turn into a 'regular' garden, not terraced like my main garden and not in raised beds like everything else. I've always loved the look of long rows of different crops on a flat bed; they're more weeding work I think than raised beds, by there is a beautiful aesthetic to those old school traditionally planted gardens. I managed a block of Yukon Supreme corn, a row of Schoenbrunn ground cherries, a row of Stonehead cabbages, a row of Lacinato kales, 3 rows of various tomatoes, a row of chufa nuts and then a block of Purple Magic potatoes. It's the first time I've ever had a 'rows' layout and I really like it.

 

[Artorius]

Early tomatoes.

I'm not sure I've ever paid real close attention to my tomatoes outside of how they taste, and the ones that produced buckets and buckets of tomatoes. But this year's trials of 'earlies' is proving to be rather interesting. I noticed a few days ago that one of them, a Polish variety (I think) called 'Betta' actually has tiny green tomatoes on it already. That is a wow-level of early for me and my garden, small fruits by June 10th. I am going to make a point to date the day I harvest the first tomato. Online info says maturity @ 78 - 83 days after seeding. Cocktail size.

@heirloomgal
Beta (with one "t") is a Polish commercial variety from the 1980s. Poranek (Morning in English) is also a Polish tomato.
I noticed the name Premus in another post. If you have it written down that it is a Polish variety, then the correct name is Prymus. Please, take a photo of the ripe fruit.

 

[flowerbug]

...Learned a lesson on Father's Day about delphiniums. Just as I placed the last exquisite blue blooms atop the cream cheese iced cake I made for everyone ( it was a carrot cake), a little voice nudged me to check and be sure they're a *good* choice. I had put polka dot blue decorative paper edging all around the outside edge of the cake and the two tones of delph blooms I had (powdery baby blue and royal blue) were a gorgeous match all around the cake and arranged on top. That little voice turned out to be looking out for us all. Awhoops. But it was a glorious look while it lasted.

do you mean they are not edible flowers? i don't think they are considered edible...

 

[heirloomgal]

@heirloomgal
Beta (with one "t") is a Polish commercial variety from the 1980s. Poranek (Morning in English) is also a Polish tomato.
I noticed the name Premus in another post. If you have it written down that it is a Polish variety, then the correct name is Prymus. Please, take a photo of the ripe fruit.

Thank you so much for this info @Artorius! This last bunch of tomatoes I'm growing has been the hardest so far in terms of tracking down information, so I appreciate whatever you have to share about them. Some of them don't even come up on google searches, my location is filtering out the information I think as most of these are from Russia and Eastern Europe. I don't get a single hit even with Premus or Prymus, though I see Prymus listed on the Tomdori site. Most of the tomato seeds I have this year I received from a trader, who I believe got them from Andrey Baranosvksy. She had little slips of paper in the envelopes with the names and as I went through them on google, some either didn't come up or came up with a slightly different spelling. So I'm so happy that you are familiar with some of them and can help me resolve some mysteries!! I will take a picture of the fruit!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

One new addition on the way. I found someone on Etsy who had seed for the red-fruited nightshade I was looking for. Turns out I was looking in the wrong place (it's Africa, not India) and the wrong species (it's villosum, not nigrum, same as the ortoccoli berries). Unless there is a red fruit nigrum as well, in which case, the hunt goes on.

 

[heirloomgal]

do you mean they are not edible flowers? i don't think they are considered edible...

I mean they can, apparently, cause human fatality. Delphinine, diterpene alkaloids. Would we have perished from eating a cake with those flowers on it, seems unlikely to me, but not something I'd want to take a chance on. They were just a decoration, not for eating, but it seems even if you wrap the stems there is enough toxicity to still make it dangerous.

Delphinine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[heirloomgal]

One new addition on the way. I found someone on Etsy who had seed for the red-fruited nightshade I was looking for. Turns out I was looking in the wrong place (it's Africa, not India) and the wrong species (it's villosum, not nigrum, same as the ortoccoli berries). Unless there is a red fruit nigrum as well, in which case, the hunt goes on.

@Pulsegleaner If your referring to Solanum villosum ssp. alatum aka Red Nightshade I'm growing it this year. One of my plants is already a pretty decent size considering how long they took to germinate - I wrote about it somewhere in here. It must be a perennial because it germinated like one - with great hesitation and prompting. If I succeed and you want some seed I can send you some. I read that the plant can get to 2 metres, and I didn't want it that big, so I put it in a giant pot I had and am hoping for the best. My thinking is if it is anything like it's relations, it won't be terribly picky.