A Seed Saver's Garden

[Decoy1]

Now this is by far the strangest thing I have EVER seen in tomatoes. The company sent an insert with this tomato too, noting not to start it until 4 weeks before planting because it dislikes being in a pot. I found that very odd, and hard to imagine. It's standard for an 8 week start ahead date, so I didn't really pay attention and just did what I normally do. But now the quirk of the plant, probably resenting being in a pot, is showing. My guess is that this variety must be quite wild; I've grown tomatoes with fairly wild genes and haven't seen this though. It might be wild in the sense of having no selection put into it for pot culture. It grows to 1 foot tall and 2 feet wide. I guess at least this one will need a starter pot already. They had good reason for that insert warning me about this tomato, 'Oja de Venado

That is very odd. I’ve grown the wild tomato Solanum pimpinellifolium and it didn’t protest at all at being in a pot. .

It’s difficult to imagine what these young plants would get in the ground that they can’t get in a pot. I can only wonder what it would be like if you put it in a pot of your garden soil and gave its roots plenty of space so that it couldn’t possibly know it was in a pot!

 

[heirloomgal]

That is very odd. I’ve grown the wild tomato Solanum pimpinellifolium and it didn’t protest at all at being in a pot. .

It’s difficult to imagine what these young plants would get in the ground that they can’t get in a pot. I can only wonder what it would be like if you put it in a pot of your garden soil and gave its roots plenty of space so that it couldn’t possibly know it was in a pot!

And it's getting even stranger. These seedlings get more crumply dry, and unhappy, with each day. I need to do some research on this variety, I really may need to plant another batch of seeds in a week as the package instructed. Their prediction of 4 weeks being the height of misery in the seedlings is turning out to be accurate. Just when you think you've seen it all with weird tomatoes!

 

[heirloomgal]

About a month ago I got a surprising as well as depressing email. It was from a lady who had gotten seeds from me a couple years ago, and had really liked a freebie I had put in her package. She was so pleased to find such a uniquely good fresh bean variety, and on a guess I had made about what she might like.

Of course I know that this happens, it's just part of the cycle of life, but she related that she has gotten to an age where gardening is now more than she can do. The email was to say thanks for being able to have those beans for the years she did (not many), and to offer some of the seeds she had saved of them, back to me. I was a little speechless, and almost felt a bit teary. I don't know this person, but the finality of that felt like a wallop. I can't imagine not gardening. Ever. And to be confronted so directly with the end of someone's gardening life... heavy.

Today the seeds arrived in the mail. They were perfectly beautiful, smooth, shiny and well formed. Round black marbles. She knows how to grow wonderful bean seeds that's for sure. And she sent a lot, much more than I was expecting, 30x what I had sent originally. It was really quite touching. I sat at my desk this afternoon and looked at that bag of beans, trying not to think too deeply about what the bag of beans meant. The wheel in the sky just keeps on turning I guess.

 

[Decoy1]

About a month ago I got a surprising as well as depressing email. It was from a lady who had gotten seeds from me a couple years ago, and had really liked a freebie I had put in her package. She was so pleased to find such a uniquely good fresh bean variety, and on a guess I had made about what she might like.

Of course I know that this happens, it's just part of the cycle of life, but she related that she has gotten to an age where gardening is now more than she can do. The email was to say thanks for being able to have those beans for the years she did (not many), and to offer some of the seeds she had saved of them, back to me. I was a little speechless, and almost felt a bit teary. I don't know this person, but the finality of that felt like a wallop. I can't imagine not gardening. Ever. And to be confronted so directly with the end of someone's gardening life... heavy.

Today the seeds arrived in the mail. They were perfectly beautiful, smooth, shiny and well formed. Round black marbles. She knows how to grow wonderful bean seeds that's for sure. And she sent a lot, much more than I was expecting, 30x what I had sent originally. It was really quite touching. I sat at my desk this afternoon and looked at that bag of beans, trying not to think too deeply about what the bag of beans meant. The wheel in the sky just keeps on turning I guess.

It was particularly moving as she still cared enough about the beans and the seeds and your kind generosity to want to do something to honour all three of those things. I imagine that still caring that much must add to the poignancy of what is missed for her.

 

[heirloomgal]

The forest has finally opened up. The snow & ice has pretty much melted, it's dry enough to be out walking around. I don't think I've ever felt so elated to be able to walk in the bush again, after nearly 6 very long months. I especially love the pine groves where the light is filtered and the entire ground is a landscape of orange pine needles. Our first couple forays have been especially eventful; yesterday we crossed paths with a very large porcupine, who quickly ascended a nearby tree. ( I was wondering what all these little piles of woody macaroni were all over the place). They actually have a fair bit of courage to stare at you from up there. Given that I'm walking with an off leash dog, I'm glad I had no quills to extract. My dog's breed nature is to flush animals out, not harm them, so there probably wasn't much risk anyway.

Today we went out for quite a long time; as we walked across the deep layer of cushy pine needles our footfalls were silent and we came right up on a black bear as we rounded the top of a hilly spot. My dog bolted toward him and, shockingly, turned instantly on his heels when I called him back, though whether that was obedience or self preservation I don't know. (I'd like to believe all the training we've done was a factor.) He was gorgeous, inky black with a cartoonish sandy coloured muzzle. I've always enjoyed bear encounters, most I've seen are either quite dopey and slow, or skitter right off. They don't last very long usually, so this was special.

This guy though was the first bear to ever spook me. My dog had been quite gentlemanly and hadn't barked once at him. I was standing with him, now on a leash, from a small distance as the bear climbed a tree. I thought we'd take a moment to just enjoy him at such a close proximity and my daughter had her digital camera so she wanted a video clip. It was all serene and magical until I felt some misguided impulse to speak gently in reassurance to the bear - all I said was 'it's alright Mr. Bear' because he was really looking down at us hard from his not very high tree nook. I assumed his main worry was my dog. My gosh, the moment that bear heard my words he let out the most gosh awful hiss, like a leopard, almost with a spit attached, and tried to air swipe me from the tree. Now that's a first. Grump! Luckily my daughter caught it all on her camera so we can enjoy the hissing, spitting, swatty bear for years to come.

 

[ducks4you]

Gotta admit, no bears HERE!!
I am watching your seed starting.
You are Much more of a seed starting expert than me. It's just that normally tomatoes are so gosh darn easy, I don't worry about them. Right now I planted literally 72 seeds in a 72 cell flat, over a gro mat, under a gro light and underneath is the lid acting as a water source bc I just keep it pretty full, and on top is a 12 inch high dome.
Basically I have created a greenhouse for them. Since I don't have multiple seeds in the cells, no need for thinning.
I think to when I used to buy 6 cells of tomatoes that were Way past needing up potting or planting, and most of the soil was gone, pretty much big stems and vast root systems.
I plan to send the first tomatoes out around Mother's Day.
more on my thread...

 

[heirloomgal]

Gotta admit, no bears HERE!!
I am watching your seed starting.
You are Much more of a seed starting expert than me. It's just that normally tomatoes are so gosh darn easy, I don't worry about them. Right now I planted literally 72 seeds in a 72 cell flat, over a gro mat, under a gro light and underneath is the lid acting as a water source bc I just keep it pretty full, and on top is a 12 inch high dome.
Basically I have created a greenhouse for them. Since I don't have multiple seeds in the cells, no need for thinning.
I think to when I used to buy 6 cells of tomatoes that were Way past needing up potting or planting, and most of the soil was gone, pretty much big stems and vast root systems.
I plan to send the first tomatoes out around Mother's Day.
more on my thread...

You planted 72 tomato seeds? That's a lot of tomatoes!

It's so fun though isn't it? Do you keep the dome lid underneath the cell tray with water in it always?

 

[heirloomgal]

@hdan posting this for you. Noticed oedema in these seedlings a few days ago. You had posted some tomatoes with leaves that looked a bit like these, (these are tzimbalo plants). The table these are on is pretty high humidity, because I have lots of plant trays on there and they were all watered a bit too well a few days ago. Plus this is in my kitchen which has naturally quite high humidity. My house in general has high humidity, which doesn't help. Notice the bumps and the curling leaves. This will disappear when they go outside or probably even once I can open the windows.

 

[heirloomgal]

It's impressive how a tuber like Jerusalem Artichoke can do so well under lights for such an extended period of time. I feel pretty confident now these will be just fine despite having to plant them so early. I guess they aren't really known for being finicky growers. They are at least a foot tall now.

The thrill of growing something totally new from seed never gets old. The first true leaves of Hamburg parsley were a surprise. I don't know what I was expecting really, I've never seen the plant. I still remember the first time I grew parsnips, a big bed of them, and a friend came over and asked what was growing in that bed. When I said parsnips, she flatly said 'no, I've eaten parsnips my whole life and they don't look like that'. For some reason I found that so funny. I noticed she said 'eaten' and not 'grown'. That whole summer she refused to believe me, she was sure it was a packet mix up, until I finally had one big enough to pull up and show her! I think she was expecting carrot tops.

This martynia is sizing up! I may not have ruined them. They are gaining in size but not unduly so, at this rate they will make it under lights for another couple weeks. Apparently the plants are on the larger side. This one should be fun.

Ground cherries are all finally sizing up. That took a few weeks for sure. I find once they get to this size they increase in size quickly. Probably needs some fertility too. Soooo excited to eat! The ground cherries I mean.

My little survivor. I brought a little tray of Yellow Canary mini-dwarf tomato seedlings to seedy saturday in early February. What was left got carried outside and put into my vehicle at below freezing temps. Most of them melted into green goo. One guy though stayed somewhat perky. I was tempted to just throw him out because I have still a lot of seed for this variety, but I decided since he survived such very cold temperatures in early February I'd keep him going for his good genes. He didn't have good lighting since then ( he got ignored a bit) and stretched up too much, so I cut him down and am rooting him in water for a deep planting soon. Amazing how fast they root in a cup of water.

Time to replant all the peppers and tomatoes, they're too big for the cells now. Peppers are so sensitive to light I find, these new fixtures are stressing the bigger plants a little with that antho coloring. Very pleased with most of the pepper germination rates this year. With older 2019 seeds though, even if they sprouted, some just sat there and didn't budge afterward. Seemed like there was only enough energy left in them to germinate, unfurl cotyledons and then stall. A few sprouts haven't budged and aren't growing true leaves. Such a funny species the capsaicins. Very few seeds seem to do that. Beans can be less vigorous as plants if the seeds are older, but they'll still grow if they can sprout.

I feel like the cotyledon leaves of cotton actually grow a fair bit until the true leaves arrive. They didn't seem that big inititally.

The grey-blue tone of the collards is appearing! Just love the grey greens in the vegetable world; I have a tomato called Zapotec Red and the leaves are exactly this color. You can spot it in a tomato crowd a mile away.

Going to finally use this molasses in some diy fertilizer. Had it for a while and never got to it. I need to do some research because I have no idea how to safely use it without harming plants or soil.

Time to plant some chufa nuts too. I may start the 4 week ahead plants this weekend since it's going to rain and won't be hospitable outside. I'm looking forward to it, as daunting as the volume needing to be done seems right now. My Lambert soil has really worked out well, and this has been such a relief. I've had a couple rough years with bad mix so it's nice to not have to worry about that.

Tick tock, in no time at all we'll all be out weeding again!