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Post by Alan on Jun 13, 2011 17:24:40 GMT -5
Hey guys, long time no posting I know, too busy at the moment getting things planted, cultivated, and more and playing with some new systems. Anyhow, I'm looking for bush type winter squash as well as a number of preferably colored carrot types. Would also like to have some good dry bush black type beans.
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Post by Alan on Apr 4, 2011 17:23:00 GMT -5
I got predominately red, but did get a few green plants! Really excited to plant this out this week!
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Post by Alan on Mar 15, 2011 23:40:48 GMT -5
Mike,
respectfully I disagree, completely and will not forget about Svalbard. Big things lie in this issue alone and SSE is part of it, whether by ignorance or by intelligence.
Yes, things are in the public domain of course, but it only takes a slight change of the law to turn that around.
It is an issue, even Carolyn Male who I never thought I would agree with on much has her issues with what's happened
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Post by Alan on Feb 28, 2011 0:18:54 GMT -5
Alan, what is you definition of "politics" going to be if you institute a "no politics" policy? Bill, the examples above are actually the "skins" we were looking at implementing but placed on daylillydudes site as an example as opposed to our actual site.
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Post by Alan on Feb 25, 2011 12:54:40 GMT -5
OK, you guys all pitch in and decide which one you like the most and as time makes itself available I'll work on getting it implemented.
I want to take a moment to thank Daylillydude for putting so much time and effort into it and don't forget he has a great site as well!
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Post by Alan on Feb 23, 2011 12:44:03 GMT -5
Easy enough to get ordained......I did it online in highschool and am on file with the state of Indiana in case a friend needs a favor someday........if I weren't a conscientious man I'd wouldn't be a far leap.
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Post by Alan on Feb 15, 2011 0:25:16 GMT -5
This past week I re-used an old snow/ice collapsed greenhouse frame dropped off by the town drunk several years ago to create a new little hot bed for starting seedlings, also made good use of some creek rock for the walls. You can check it out at homegrowngoodness.blogspot.com
In the spring I'll do a blog on my new "quail tractor".
I should really just make a whole 'nother blog called "being a broke farmer and making due with crap that four generations of family and town drunks leave strung around your property!"
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Post by Alan on Feb 14, 2011 11:49:57 GMT -5
We used to make box bailers somewhat similar to that here on the farm for pressing tobacco into bails to sale at the warehouse.
Basically they were about 3 1/2 - 4 foot wide by 5 foot tall. They were framed using 2x4 lumber and then finished out with plywood. Accross the top was attached a piece of angle iron positioned to the middle of the box and attached to 2x4's using lag bolts. A door was made using plywood with pins and receptacles on the front of the plywood and the plywood door was about 1/2 the height of the boxes as a whole
Next we made a "press plate out of 2x4 pieces and plywood that fit the interior of the box.
This allowed us to lay cotton rope into the box with the excess running up the walls and over the front door. We would lay our hands of tobacco into the box and after they would reach a certain height we would use a jack with the mechanism against the piece of angle iron to compress the bail.
Could work well for small scale bail making.
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Post by Alan on Feb 11, 2011 17:09:45 GMT -5
Bunkie, this is a special case in part because my winter temperatures and humidity levels are comparable to parts of Chile. A few of them that either germinate cool or mildly warm after gradually warming cool temps I can just put in my low tunnel, and that's what I did. Stevil, that's what I did with your Hablitzea seeds too. Got great germination, almost every seed. I'm going to start another tray this year. Some of the others might actually want to be warm, cold, warm, and those I am starting indoors under florescent lights, checking for germination (some might not need to be stratified), then putting outside to finish. I think stratification is a common requirement for wild plants as opposed to highly domesticated ones that no longer have built-in safeguards against germinating the wrong season. It is also common among domesticated plants that are not usually grown from seed. There are all sorts of tricky special situations and I am not an expert with stubborn seeds. Orchids are particularly challenging because their seeds contain practically no endosperm; in nature they feed on fungii. It would be fun to grow some Chloraea orchids but I'd need a partner with a lab to flask them up. I know it'd be a bit of a trip for you, but if you ever get a chance make the trip down to Corvallis to meet Alan Kapuler, he is/was big into Orchids and it might be worthwhile for you. I stratify all my stuff in bulk in vermicompost filled pots in an old refridgerator in an unheated spare room. If not for the profusion of rodents in southern indiana outside would be a viable option, but Voles and Red and Gray squirrells make such a thing nigh impossible. I did however take an old chest freezer, paint it, place it on blocks, and put it on the north end of the house to be filled with vermicompost next fall, here I will stratify/winter sow most perrinials for 2012.
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Post by Alan on Feb 11, 2011 14:54:03 GMT -5
If there were a problem with the diversity which I saw, it wasn't my doing. The only seed which I have grown out thus far has been straight from the original source. It wasn't so obvious the first 2 years when there were only 3 or 4 plants in different plots. It was obvious last year when I was requested to start a dozen for one gardener and 18 for another. Midway through the growing season, certain plants were better than others for various reasons and one of the gardeners flagged those which he thought were best to save seed from. Those are the ones now buried and awaiting replanting in the spring. I'm not the least bit interested in producing seed by the pound in the interest of genetic diversity, I'd be more interested in getting rid of much of the diversity which apparently already exists in what is supposed to be the parent stock. Martin Martin, it weren't meant as a slight against the way you saved seeds, just a general expression of the genetic limitations of brassicas in a short amount of time, a small population to increase the frequencies of prefered genetic combinations is fine for a couple years, but soon you have to increase the plant population drastically or you end up with incompatability, sterile seeds, and generally weak plants.
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Post by Alan on Feb 11, 2011 1:05:59 GMT -5
Anyone who is still seing elves or the black and green motif:
Hold Ctrl R to refresh the page, if this doesn't work go to the profile button on the top rightish side of the tool bar, click on modify profile, scroll down to the section called skins, click on default, when done refresh the page.
The default setting is a white background with black text, dark blue links, light blue links after clicking on them, and green and black menu bars. It's a very clean and fresh look, for some reason (likely the cookies from this site) it does not update on everyones computer automatically.
Sorry for all of the issues, just trying to spruce things up a bit and I cannot "preview" the look of the board as there isn't a preview option, only the option to change colors, go back to the forum and look at it, and then in real time change it.
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Post by Alan on Feb 10, 2011 23:53:34 GMT -5
Wow, thanks for the review! Now you've got me interested and I'd mostly already lost interest in chickens here on the farm thanks to my other game birds.
They are beautiful as pictured above. I do prefer gamey type chickens, even if they don't produce as much meat, as long as there is a bit of breast and leg meat, I'm satisfied.
I'd be interested in using them crossed over to Brahma and English Game, maybe even Fan Tail, just to find a good barn roosting mutt that could fend for itself.
Hell, if they are half of what your review states, I might just be interested in them alone as my chicken needs match your review to a T.
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Post by Alan on Feb 10, 2011 23:47:47 GMT -5
;D Thank god I"m not alone in this world nowdays. When I first started this site I didn't know im my fellow "doomers" would find it, come out of the woodwork, or be converted.
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Post by Alan on Feb 10, 2011 23:44:23 GMT -5
I am under the impression that there are at least 2 varieties of yellow cabbage collards (YCC)? What are the chances that yours have changed on a genetic level since you first began growing them? In fact, DO plants change/evolve to meet the demands of a new location? Do you think that it would be a good idea to grow seed from different sources together as a way of increasing the genetic diversity? I've also got another seed source that I will attempt to pursue. I was talking about the trip to Ayden with a friend and told her we were heading up that way to get YCC seed and she says, "My cousin sells the starts for YCC. I bet you can get some from her! She sells the transplants but she might sell you some seed as well." She gave me the contact information so I'll have to follow up on it. She lives a couple of towns over. I figured I can always grow a few of the plants and save the seed myself if she won't sell me any seed. Do they taste "cabbagy"? Do they need the super long cooking time that regular collards need? Likely there are more than two variations of Yellow Cabbage Collards as many families are maintaining their own selections isolated from other families even next door and circulating a slightly different combination of genes, probably even containing genes from other heirloom collards from the area. The USDA finished a collection of collards in the Carolinas in 2008 which turned up nearly 100 unique strains. Commercially available also are the Morris Heading Collards, similar to YCC but not the same. Yes, over time by selecting seed that represent the traits that you admire the seed does become adapted to location, not usually by spontaneous mutation but by concerted or unconcious selection on behalf of the seed saver they do and will become more adapted. Mutation among brassicacea is fairly common thus the many types of brassicas share the same genus and species names but representing many forms. To increase the diversity it would be fine to include other accessions. Brassicacea are heavy outbreeders and need a large population for seed saving as they are fairly self incompatible if the genetic pool becomes too small. The small population Martin produced seed from is probably fine for a year or two but coming years the population will have to go up to fifty or more individuals to maintain the genetic expression without inbreeding. They taste like collards, but the texture is a bit more firm like cabbage, they do take a good long while to cook, but they produce like crazy and don't mind summer heat too much. After frost they become almost crazy sweet, similar to the taste of winter king type cabbages. ]
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Post by Alan on Feb 10, 2011 23:37:09 GMT -5
Mine should be as pure as the parent plants. They were blooming within a month after they were planted back. No other brassica would have been blooming until July or August. However, we did note some slight differences among the plants grown from Collard Shack seed. Some were more yellow than others. Some had slightly smoother leaves than others. The seed that I saved has not been grown out but the 3 plants which were used were about the same. I have 5 or 6 buried now but they are select ones chosen for color. Martin On my three grow outs I got quite a bit of diversity, but always the light green, leaning towards slightly muted yellow green (reminiscent of the color of tobacco leaves affected by blue mold) like you did with some learning much stronger yellow. There was also diversity particularly in leaf size, internodal distance, stem size, and ability to "head" at the end of the season.
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