Urban Veggie Volunteers

[Pulsegleaner]

It can sometimes be a bit tricky with the domestic MG's. The last time I grew any, only one seed germinated (though that one produced like crazy)

That's actually sort of one of the main reasons why when I do my weed grow outs I still include the bindweeds (for the purposes of this, I'm using bindweed" for all members of the Convulvulacae family) I'm hoping to find ones in that stuff that are both resilient are attractive of flower. Unfortunately so far there have only been two types that even reproduce and neither is a perfect match

1. the one I call "notch" or keel seeded bindweed. And odd little plant. It's actually probably the best behaved bindweed I have ever seen, it grows very slowly, and is actually incapable of climbing (it sort of runs down wherever you put it, so in the wild I guess it crawls along the ground. It's got odd leaves. Their pedicels (leaf stalks) are so short the leaves are technically sessile (attached to the stem with no stalk) They're still sort of saggitate (arrowhead shaped) but the middle lobe is so much longer than the side ones they are almost linear. In its season it then makes a profusion of small bell shaped bicolored flowers in yellow and black (they actually look a lot like Psyalis (husk tomato) flowers until you look closely at them. followed by capsules with four seeds with their characterist features of a deeply recessed hilum and a "keel" or ridge along the back. But that one actually isn't hardy enough to make it to fruition every year, and seed has gotten to be a pretty scarce find

2. Grasp Vine. This plant does GREAT in terms of hardiness. In fact it's probably the only one stronger than weedy bindweed. Thick hairy stems, and odd looking somewhat palmate leaves with five lobes (hence the grasp part the leaves look like hands) But that doesn't actually make flowers instead these green knots form where the seed pods show up with no intervening flowers.

Few updates from outside. It turns out that the pansy is making a third flower so there is still a bit of a chance for seed (since it is in a pot, I may simply bring the whole plant inside when it gets cold and see if a winter indoors will let it get to be a little bigger. And I found another mystery volunteer. This was in one of the petunia pots

Sunchoke maybe?

 

[Nyboy]

I have no problem germinating MG, I just soak seeds 24 to 48 hours almost all have germinated this way. it is planting them in the garden , they just sit there doing little.

 

[Jared77]

How long do you let them go? Our volunteers take till mid July to really make their presence felt. Others I start early so are a few feet high before going out.

Those get fed well, and hit the ground running

 

[so lucky]

I have Grandpa Ott morning glories growing from cracks in the sidewalk. If I leave them grow, they get huge, and bloom like crazy. This year I pulled out the seedlings as they sprouted. some of the tap roots were nearly a foot long, with only a 3 inch plant on top.

 

[Nyboy]

End of Aug now plants maybe 4 feet no flowers

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Sounds like my corn patch (tallest plant only about 18 inches, only one showing any sign of even beginning to have a tassel)

Added a new semi candidate. Was over on the mid lower part of Central Ave, picking up some lunch from a restaurant called Pagoda and make a quick trip across the parking lot to pop into an A&P there (the last time I was at an A&P branch elsewhere, I noticed it was carrying the brand of gorgonzola I prefer, and so thought this one might have some too. It didn't) as I crossed I saw that the tree in between was an apple tree and was well hung with pretty decent looking apples (a little undersized but comparatively free of blemish) so on my way back, I made a point to pluck one and take it with me (yes I know apples don't come true to seed, but it's not like I could have cut a slip off in the middle of a parking lot)

And another reminiscence . I mentioned briefly I keep a feral wheat population (because I know the actual nature of species, I do not call such finds "wild wheat" and actually get quite irritated when people do.) made up of seed collected from heads found growing randomly in odd places. Some of them particularly in the parks and urban plantings are invariably from spilled birdseed (like the millet and canary grass you see here and there) or to a lesser extent dropped food (particularly in those areas where raw wheat berries are a common part of the cooking) But given that most of the finds are on the sides of roads, they probably come from elsewhere. In a more rural area, I's ascribe a lot to droppings off shipments of grain being trucked along the roads. But HERE I suspect a lot of it has is origins in the practiced of the road crews and landscapers to lay down straw after doing work in order to minimize erosion of the newly exposed soil when it rains (and the attendant mud slippage issues).

Most of these finds are one offs, single plants that show up one year an not again (whether I collect them or not) But note must be made of a spot I used to call the "Golden Shoulder". This was/is a chunk of the Saw Mill River Parkway, around Ardsley. For several years there was a chunk of this road about 5 miles long, from about the Outlook (or whatever that park is called) to the Eastview exit that was covered with wheat, on both sides of the road (though heavier on the park side). This could be considered a true naturalized population since it passes the fundamental test (being able to set seed that could come back and grow repeatedly). Alas it isn't there anymore* (there finally came a year when the road maintenance people actually were not lazy and mowed the area somewhat earlier than they did most years, and so before the new seed crop was produced. But I do still have a sample took (including a few heads that were in good enough shape to keep as is, in a vase). And it is a very impressive looking wheat (the plants are almost 4-4.5 feet and the actual grain heads a good 4in long). So someday I can re-plant on my own property. Other noted spots are here in Sleepy Hollow (there is a patch of clothed barley (I know free threshing barley is called "naked" so I'm guessing this is what non free threshing is called) that has been just below the high school for two years (though they mowed there early this year so that probably isn't there anymore) and a place in Elmsford that was notable for being a truly mixed patch (bearded and beardless growing side by side) and possibly revealing either some odd genetics or some problem in the soil (a lot of the heads were twisted like corkscrews) and several were actually branched, which usually doesn't happen with modern wheats (some turgidums (rivet wheats) branch and someone told me the semi ancient type Ezeer branches, but those are the exceptions.)

*Or most of it. I seem to recall that on the non park side, near the very edge, there was a place where a few grains had managed to make it to a fragment of land between the two turnoffs at Tarrytown, and that area wasn't mowed. Whether there is any there now I have no idea (though it occurs to me that, given how often I travel that area, and how I keep my eyes out, if there was, I would have surely noticed it.)

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Was digging around my old photos found one of a seedling of grasp vine

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Weekly update

1. A solution to the origin of the purple bean plants on 14th st. I crossed the street a bit further up this week and noticed that the hotel a few door up from the corner (the Wedgewood or the Windsor or something like that) had planted hyacinth beans in the pots of boxwood outside their door. Evidently they had some extras and decided to cover the pots on the corner too (that corner has the entrance to their parking garage, so it does make some sense.) Or something (pigeon, rat, squirrel) stole a few and re buried them a bit farther away.)

2. New mystery plant to keep an eye on in union square. last week I saw an odd legume seedling on one side (four leaflets per leaf, which doesn't match up to any of the commoner legumes that show up in the NYC urban ecosystem) yesterday I saw another elsewhere and it makes it even more confusing since this one has a flower and that corresponds even less to anyone I know (it almost looks like a peanut flower)

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Weekly update

1. A solution to the origin of the purple bean plants on 14th st. I crossed the street a bit further up this week and noticed that the hotel a few door up from the corner (the Wedgewood or the Windsor or something like that) had planted hyacinth beans in the pots of boxwood outside their door. Evidently they had some extras and decided to cover the pots on the corner too (that corner has the entrance to their parking garage, so it does make some sense.) Or something (pigeon, rat, squirrel) stole a few and re buried them a bit farther away.)

2. New mystery plant to keep an eye on in union square. last week I saw an odd legume seedling on one side (four leaflets per leaf, which doesn't match up to any of the commoner legumes that show up in the NYC urban ecosystem) yesterday I saw another elsewhere and it makes it even more confusing since this one has a flower and that corresponds even less to anyone I know (it almost looks like a peanut flower)

 

[Nyboy]

People feed squirrels in the park peanuts all the time.