Who is buying seeds early...like me!

[digitS']

I am thinking that some folks would think buying garden seed before the garden season is EARLY. For those of us who traditionally don't order seed until after January 1st but search for what interests us through 12 months out of the year here's a Secondary Question: What is capturing your interest as you read ideas on TEG, this thread, and continue to shop the seed company listings?

For the first time in years, I didn't grow Lemon Boy in 2022, after all the effort I put in to overcoming an aversion to growing a tomato named for a Lemon ... It was great but, ... It just has too many problem. BUT! There is a NEW Lemon Boy Plus that is supposed to have more resistance to problems!

I lurk in the Bean Thread and Purple Dove sure looks like a good choice for any gardener who finds some beans sliding past the good eating snap bean stage and would be happy to have them as dry beans for the Winter. I get away with that with Rattlesnake Pole Beans - good either way. Victory Seed has Purple Dove .

So, how about those of us still shopping and planning ahead for Winter seed orders?

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

don't forget your local seed swaps or seed libraries!

 

[Branching Out]

don't forget your local seed swaps or seed libraries!

Some of our local libraries are working to establish seed libraries, which would be wonderful! My last shipment of seeds arrived yesterday including lentils, which I have never grown before, as well as German millet and alfalfa to use as cover crops. I am trying to learn as much as I can about mixing in cover crops, in order to keep the soil covered most of the time. This past summer I even grew a tiny bit of wheat and triticale in one mix. Any of you who are farmers would likely roll on the floor laughing if you saw me sitting in front of the T.V. trying to hand thresh wheat one wheat berry at a time-- it is pretty hilarious. (I keep telling my family that if we had to survive on what I grew we would all perish). But for someone who grew up in in the suburbs it is really kind of neat to grow a grain for the first time, and to see how beautiful the seed head is. So cool. Can hardly wait to start planting again.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I don't really HAVE a set seed ordering season, since most of the stuff I buy is from rather esoteric sources and people (which means I tend to buy it when I find it, and worry about how long I'll have to hold it before planting later.) Plus, there IS the backlog to work from and down.

I've added a few odds and ends of small wildflower like things over the last few months, but that's really it.

I'll probably order from Baker Creek at some point (if to get more Silver Yamato watermelon seed, if nothing else) but they tend to not get the new stuff in quite yet.

I check Trade Wind Seeds every four weeks or so, but, as yet, they haven't posted anything new to interest me (and since a lot of their tropical seeds are recalcitrant, that is one place where I DO have to factor in how long until growing season it is).

Richter's seed zoo I have more or less abandoned, since it looks like they are getting no new seed in and are just selling off what they have left.

On the private side like eBay and Etsy, there's an ornamental legume that looks nice I bookmarked, but as that is a plant and not seed, it's best to wait for spring to try and order that (if it's still available then).

I got a notice that seed for that Vietnamese Giant Lime has come back in (and I have enough Canadian friends to give me a good chance of getting it across the border to myself), but Etsy new policy of autoblocking any auction that is not available in your region means I can't even go on and see the listing, so I can't pass it on to anyone else to order for me either (and they can't find the link themselves either.*)

I'm contemplating getting some stones for a kind of small plum (has anyone here heard of a plum called Wild Pork?) but a part of me says I should really prioritize taking care of all of those greengage stones I have stored up first, along with the other pits I have lying around.

There's something listed called a Russian White watermelon that sounds interesting, but given the description, I'm not sure it isn't just Cream of Saskatchewan with a bogus name).

I have the links for seed for miniature blue and purple Glass Gem corn seed, but as I still have a jarful of the fully colored version, I don't really need any at this point.

 

[R2elk]

There is a NEW Lemon Boy Plus that is supposed to have more resistance to problems!

The new improved Lemon Boy Plus is an orange tomato where the original Lemon Boy is a yellow tomato. I have never had any problem growing the original Lemon Boy.

 

[R2elk]

have you ever grown potatoes from seed?

The problem with growing potatoes from seed is that you don't know what you will be getting. Seed potatoes produce the same potatoes that they are. Potato seeds may produce something different from the original potato.

I have had volunteer potato plants that came from seeds. Sometimes the results were fine. Other times they weren't worth digging up.

 

[digitS']

I remember you telling us that about this time in 2021, @R2elk .

That was just after I had experienced the growing season with 111° weather. I'm not sure if I had a single fruit that final year off of Lemon Boy that wasn't damaged.

Not in the garden in '21, this hot dry 2022 also stymied the Buisson tomatoes. This non-hybrid has apparently fallen out of favor with seed savers. From several years of growing it, I think that I know why. It does well when the growing season is especially benign. We have only so much control of growing conditions and the big veggie garden is fully exposed to the weather.

I have other yellows along with, probably, too many pinks. And, if I'm bored with Big Beef ... imma gonna need another red with some guarantee of all those seasons of success.

Steve

 

[R2elk]

I remember you telling us that about this time in 2021, @R2elk .

That was just after I had experienced the growing season with 111° weather. I'm not sure if I had a single fruit that final year off of Lemon Boy that wasn't damaged.

Not in the garden in '21, this hot dry 2022 also stymied the Buisson tomatoes. This non-hybrid has apparently fallen out of favor with seed savers. From several years of growing it, I think that I know why. It does well when the growing season is especially benign. We have only so much control of growing conditions and the big veggie garden is fully exposed to the weather.

I have other yellows along with, probably, too many pinks. And, if I'm bored with Big Beef ... imma gonna need another red with some guarantee of all those seasons of success.

Steve

The only tomato that I have grown that not only tolerates but does well in high temps is a cherry tomato. It is open pollinated, not a hybrid. Gold Nugget, I grow it in the greenhouse where the summer temps get over 100°F daily.

I have had tomatoes that will bloom but won't set fruit in high temperatures as well as tomatoes that won't even bloom in high temperatures.

I have had Northern Exposure (discontinued) bloom and set in high temperatures too.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

The problem with growing potatoes from seed is that you don't know what you will be getting. Seed potatoes produce the same potatoes that they are. Potato seeds may produce something different from the original potato.

I have had volunteer potato plants that came from seeds. Sometimes the results were fine. Other times they weren't worth digging up.

There is also a problem with the fact that, if conditions are less than ideal, a lot of seed grown potatoes will put all of their energy into making more seeds, and not produce any tubers at all. That's what's happened to me with every ancient diploid potato I've tried to grow, they either only made fruit and seeds, or made absolutely nothing.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I've looked over the 2023 Baker Creek offerings, and there really isn't much of anything I can make use of. I MIGHT get a packet of the Devil Black Pansies when I get my watermelon seeds, but even that is iffy (I don't have great luck with growing pansies from seed unless I toss a LOT of seed into the pot, and even then I just get a crowded mess that never really comes into its own). Plus, I tend to do better with smaller violas as opposed to true full sized pansies (they have seed for Bowles Black, but I have done that one, and it didn't like it here).