The Ethics of Gardening

[Collector]

@Zeedman, great advice ,don’t let the thought of failure deter from your mission. Question: how do you store seed in freezer? How long will it remain viable?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Oh I understand prioritizing @Zeedman . What I plant any given year is the merest fraction of the seed I have available, even factoring out the tropical seed i.e. the seed I couldn't successfully plant out even if I wanted to (I know there are some tropical plants that can make it with a bit of tending but I am talking about seed for things like tropical trees, so things best kept in storage for the foreseeable future.) I have corn samples in cold storage that go back 5-6 years because they fell between the cracks of my rather unusual selection process for what gets planted each year (where things are defined by both how interesting it would be if I got something and how hard it would be to replace the seed if it all died (or as is normal got eaten by critters). You'll notice that, as long as that bean list I posted on the Easy Bean Network was, the Lima beans I SAID I was going to do aren't there, because it was them or the soy, and the soy has a better chance with our season. The chickpeas and fava beans aren't there either, because I ran out of space) I have a FILE cabinet of tomato seeds to get through (a miniature one, but it's still a file cabinet)

Your message actually hit on my phone around 1:00 AM but I happened to be up recovering from a troubling dream and that gave me time to think. I came to realize that yes, I HAVE had successes in gardening. They're odd successes (in both senses of the word) and most of them are not in food plants, but they are there. If I had never done the thing with the black cow peas, I'd never have gotten Coals in the Candle (the first wax podded cow pea I have ever seen). I have found tiny cow peas and azuki beans already that while not popular colors, are workhorses in production*. I may not be able to eat some of the weird flowers I have grown out of the random weed seeds I have played around with but they are quite pretty (someday I may have to write a book called Gardening with Weeds**). I've almost got the Sugar Pod cow pea sorted out (a cowpea with a pod sweet enough that one could use it for a snap bean raw.) I just need to get one a little earlier.

Oh and I have also decided to try and make another sharing offer here, to see if I can find people willing to try thing my way. Will update when I have posted it.

*In my garden any case where a single plant produces enough seed to fill my hand gives it workhouse status.

** Ironically, given my angst about growing, I feel no guilt at all about planting weeds all over the place which many people would consider reprehensible. I feel that a lot of "weeds" are simply plants growing out of place, and that they HAVE a place if treated properly. The line between vetch and tare or between bindweed and morning glory, is a lot less cut and dried than most people think.)

 

[Nyboy]

LOL I once posted here i was thinking of planting bindweed. WOW did that post get a response

 

[flowerbug]

i like to encourage diversity in plantings and flowerings so there are colors and bee food the entire season.

weeds to me are simply mother nature's way of keeping her clothes on. even if i have issues with certain ones of them in the much longer scheme of things my issues will not be very influential.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

LOL I once posted here i was thinking of planting bindweed. WOW did that post get a response

Well I know that last year I took those seeds out of the AC jar* that most resembled morning glory seed tossed them in a big pod on the side patio, and what I got back sure as heck LOOKED like morning glories. Blue ones, pink ones, purple ones and at least one that was pretty close to black.

On the other side, that Jar as also given me grasp vine, or the bindweed relative that is even worse than it is. Agressive (it strangles other bindweeds), hairy, no real flowers (it makes these sort of nodes that look like buds but they make the seeds without opening) and with leaves that look more like cotton than morning glory (or like hands hence the grasp name) Thank goodness it isn't winter hardy, or I'd be overrun with it.

 

[Nyboy]

I didn't realize bindweed came in colors i thought only white

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Depends on the species. Convulvulacae is a HUGE genus. Convulvulus arvensis (the common bindweed we have around here) is usually white flowered, but can be pale pink too.

What I had was probably something in the Impomoea genus i.e. a true morning glory. Specifically, given the lobed leaves, probably Impomoea nil, the Japanese Morning Glory (which is pan tropical).

This years experiment is the one I refer to as "spot seed" bindweed (I use my own terms until I can figure out what the real species is) It's been in the mix before, but up until now I hadn't managed to get the mixture separated at all and the grasp vine invariably choked everything else out. Hopefully this will be one of the ones that can flower up here (despite the sheer fecundity of most of these bindweeds, only three kinds have actually reproduced besides the ones last year; grasp vine (sort of, I've lost most of the seed over the years to random accidents, but it was produced so it counts) the one I call "nortch seed" (funny little vine, can't climb, has leaves that are so elongated they look more like grass and are nearly sessile and has flowers that are red and yellow and resemble those of a Psyalis) and the little one last year (that made tiny white flowers)

 

[ducks4you]

ANY plant that tries to take over is invasive at my house. You just don't know about some of them, bc I seem to have NO trouble controlling the mint I have planted. I got some passion flower seeds from my Vet, but I saw where it has overrun her fence, now I'm not so sure about planting it.

 

[ninnymary]

ANY plant that tries to take over is invasive at my house. You just don't know about some of them, bc I seem to have NO trouble controlling the mint I have planted. I got some passion flower seeds from my Vet, but I saw where it has overrun her fence, now I'm not so sure about planting it.

I have my mint planted in the ground between brick pathway and flagstone. It does ok but sometimes I'm tempted to fertilize it!

Mary

 

[flowerbug]

@Zeedman, great advice ,don’t let the thought of failure deter from your mission. Question: how do you store seed in freezer? How long will it remain viable?

i think as long as it is dry and sealed up well it will keep for many years as long as the freezer keeps it frozen.

i've not actually frozen any seeds yet. no room at the inn...