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Post by farmermike on Nov 29, 2017 12:49:59 GMT -5
This was a very interesting year for peppers! I had the opportunity to grow out a segregating F2 population, and found some really nice (accidental) F1s that popped up in my garden. These are a small sample of an F2 poblano x jalapeno cross from jondear . I loved these! I only grew 5 or 6 plants, but they were very productive and compact. I used them to flavor pots of beans all summer long -- and they’re still going. They were all moderately spicy, which is exactly what I was looking for. They definitely seemed to be segregating into jalapeno-ish and poblano-ish shapes, but more jalapeno sized (no huge poblanos). I’ll definitely grow more from my saved seeds, and more of the original seed next year. I’m tempted to continue growing these as a mix in the future and just select for diversity within a theme. I had a couple Pasilla Bajio that looked like they crossed with Hungarian Yellow (one of my favorite peppers). The fruits start out yellowish-green and pointing upward, then turn yellow and hang down, then ripen to red -- all just like HY. But they were long, narrow and curved like PB. I’m planning to grow lots of those F2 seeds next year. Excited to see what comes out of it. This was supposed to be Pasilla Bajio, but also looks like it was crossed with something -- perhaps Mulato Isleno. These were delicious in both the dark green and brown/ripe stages, with a nice moderate level of heat. I think a lot of my pepper garden space next year will be devoted to growing out these crosses. I should have some seeds to share in trades this winter, if anyone is interested. I grew Padron peppers this year and they were way too spicy unless I caught them at the very earliest stage. Shishitos were glorious, as usual, fried in a skillet. Last year on my Mulato Isleno, I only managed to get one fruit that barely ripened before frost killed it (in December), and only got a few seeds. I planted those seeds this year and got 4 or 5 fruits to ripen -- without planting them any earlier. Maybe that is the result of selection for earlier ripening? I had a nice patch of Chilhaucle Negro and was intending to dry them for mole, but I waited to long to pick the ripe ones and rats ate them all while I was on vacation. I didn’t think rats would eat spicy peppers, but I’m not sure what else could’ve done it. My biggest problem with peppers is sunburn (as you can see in some of the above photos). Anthocyanin in tomato skin seems to help prevent this. I am thinking about crossing Hungarian Black with some of my other favorites to incorporate the black skin trait into some breeding lines. Anyone else have experience with this? I would love to breed a pepper that starts out with black skin and ripens to brown! toomanyirons , I’ll definitely be interested in those crossed HB seeds, if you still have some to spare.
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Post by farmermike on Oct 11, 2017 17:38:25 GMT -5
Nice peppers, toomanyirons! Those Hungarian Black look like they have some crosses in them. The smaller, darker ones look like what I usually get. (I posted a photo earlier in this thread that shows my HB from 2016.) I got the original seeds from Baker Creek. The larger ones seem to have some yellowish-green showing. They may have crossed with Hungarian Yellow -- which would be pretty cool, since that is a cross I have been hoping to see. Did you get any ripe seeds from that phenotype? That's very interesting that your Shishitos look so different from mine. Mine look much more like the shishitos I'm used to seeing at farmers markets around here. Did you get any spicy ones from my batch? My line seems to still be heat-free this year in my garden, and I'm going to try to keep it that way. At first glance, I thought yours looked more like Friggitello peppers, but a look at images online shows both varieties displaying a range of shapes and sizes. I tried growing Padron peppers this year, hoping for a SLIGHTLY spicy shishito-type frying pepper, but they ended up being the hottest pepper in my garden (and the most productive). I made 1/2 gal of hot sauce from them. I had run out of room in my garden by the time we traded seeds, so I'm looking forward to trying yours next year! I had a pretty interesting pepper year, with lots of nice crosses showing up, and some segregating hybrids. I'll post photos and a grow report here when I get a chance.
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Post by farmermike on Sept 12, 2017 20:58:46 GMT -5
They predicted thundershowers late, and they were right; started sparse thunder and short spats of huge drops, every now-and-then; it's not rain, but welcome to clear the air and settle the dust. I was fortunate enough to view that lightning from the window of a plane as I landed at the San Jose airport last night. It was glorious! When I got home the ground was wet and it smelled of rain; also glorious!
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Post by farmermike on Sept 2, 2017 13:27:29 GMT -5
That's interesting, William! Hopefully something useful will come out of those dehybridizing Indigo Kumquats. The F2s I grew from that this year were pretty, but bland. I think I'll go back to the F2 again next year, if I don't need all my space for my own segregating crosses. My attempts at crossing early varieties with colorful varieties seem to have been successful. I have a bunch of F1 seeds fermenting now. Forest Fire, of course, was the first to ripen and produced the most fruits and the most seeds. I think I'll sow some of the F1 seeds this weekend of Forest Fire pollinated with a cocktail of pollen from Blue Beauty, Berkeley Tie-dye, Lucid Gem, Black Beauty, and Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart. I should have F2 seeds ready for next spring and there ought to be a lot of interesting phenotypes to come out of these crosses. I may have to dedicate most of my tomato space next year to this project. I'll have seeds to share this winter as well.
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Post by farmermike on Sept 2, 2017 0:01:33 GMT -5
We hit 108F today; 114 is predicted for tomorrow! I've been putting frozen water bottles in the coop for our week-old baby chicks. They seems pretty resilient already though.
It was still 90 at 9pm tonight. It's been a while (10 years?) since we've had temps this high.
It's smoky too, from one of the many fires around the state. Hopefully, when the weather cools off next week, the wind will pick up too.
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Post by farmermike on Aug 25, 2017 21:25:58 GMT -5
This one I can cover. Since white or yellow is a trait that is found in the endosperm your are working with 3n box rather than a 2n. So if the population is totally hetero, you get any of four possibilities yyy (white) Yyy (light yellow) YYy (yellow) or YYY (super yellow). So, is that "YYY (super yellow)" responsible for the orange coloration in Cateto or Joseph's Orange Sweet Corn? (Which is an excellent variety, btw.) Or is there another gene (like orange alurone) in there as well?
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Post by farmermike on Aug 4, 2017 13:12:51 GMT -5
I'm still wallowing in the midst of vole onslaught, so I've had no time to post anything, but I had to take a minute to comment on our weird weather.
94F and cloudy the past 2 days! 48% humidity is extraordinarily high for us in the summer. My wife tells me this is what it's like on the east coast.
I have to admit I am enjoying the respite from the sun, though, even if I am drenched in sweat while digging emergency trenches in bone dry clay, to install vole fencing around my garden.
Even felt a couple of rain drops here in Martinez.
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Post by farmermike on Jul 14, 2017 10:52:46 GMT -5
steev, when I lived in Prescott, AZ I had a plague of grasshoppers one year that did a lot of damage to my garden. I bought a cheap butterfly net and spent every morning and evening catching them. It made a differerence in my small backyard garden; don't know if it would help on your farm much. I stuck them in a jar in the freezer to kill them and then cooked in the toaster oven as a snack. Not the best cooking method (though it did get them crunchy), but I was broke and hungry back then, so I made do. If I couldn't eat from the garden directly, at least I could indirectly! Beer battered and deep fried is much more palatable. The giant western cicada is also abundant in those parts. A friend and I tried those too. Flavor wasn't bad, but again deep fried and crunchy would've been better than sautéed.
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Post by farmermike on Jul 13, 2017 15:56:06 GMT -5
Finally, a potato flower! This is on a no ID blue/purple commercial variety that I planted pretty late in the spring and kept pretty well watered. There's only flower (all other buds on the inflorescence aborted), so I'm not sure if it's likely to become fertilized and produce a berry, but this still feels like some success. It's nearest neighbor has buds forming too. Okay, I guess the lesson is that I can't "dry farm" my potatoes if I want berries. And maybe I need to plant them in spring (May), instead of fall (Oct-Nov) or winter (Feb-Mar), as I often do. I do like to grow potatoes during our rainy season, because I can often get a crop without any additional watering (and then they don't displace any summer crops), but I'm willing to start doing a little of both in order to get some true seeds. This may present a unique breeding challenge in order to find potatoes that can both grow well and produce tubers during our cool, wet winters (without irrigation), but also thrive during our hot, dry spring and summer (with irrigation). Should be interesting to investigate.
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Post by farmermike on Jul 13, 2017 11:54:31 GMT -5
I have have a lot of things I'd like to post about, but I'm too busy killing voles with my bare hands like an animal. Of course, then I have to quickly wash up and play with my kids.
Maybe in a few years they'll be old enough to train in the art of vole hunting. Then I can kick back and write eloquently about all my farming success.
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Post by farmermike on Jul 8, 2017 19:09:04 GMT -5
William, glad to hear about you finding highly exserted stigmas on Blue Ambrosia. I guess it is important (for increased outcrossing) that the stigma becomes exserted very early during flower development. Most of my tomato plants with highly exserted stigmas only do this later when the flowers are fully open (like in my Sungold descendants), so there is probably a high likelihood that the flower has already released pollen while the stigma was still within the anther cone -- and thus pollinated itself. I did find this one yesterday, where the stigma protrudes well before the flower opens. You can see here that the unopened bud at the bottom of the photo already has an exserted stigma. Seems pretty safe to assume that bud has not released pollen yet, right? Strangely, it is growing in a clump of mysterious volunteers at the edge of my gravel driveway. I had volunteers in that area last year too, so these must be descendants of those. None of those last year had the exserted stigma trait, and so far only one does this year. Even more strange, is that I have had no other volunteer tomatoes in my garden this year, and these ones on my driveway have survived and are setting fruit with no water whatsoever all summer -- as they did last year too -- which is very unusual in my climate. Perhaps these are just a particularly drought tolerant strain, or maybe there's a leaky water main in that area!
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Ticks!!!
Jul 7, 2017 10:50:41 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by farmermike on Jul 7, 2017 10:50:41 GMT -5
Tick season doesn't last too long here in CA. They tend to subside when the grasslands dry down to a crisp. Probably very different from your situation! My only suggestion would be to keep wild grasses cut down so they have a harder time grabbing onto you as you walk by -- since they like to hang out on blades of tall grass until someone brushes past them. I agree ticks are the worst!
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Post by farmermike on Jul 6, 2017 18:16:46 GMT -5
Looks like Cichorium endivia. Escarole or frisée, or endive?
I only have C. intybus flowering in my garden now, but they're bee magnets!
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Post by farmermike on Jul 6, 2017 17:10:49 GMT -5
I finally got the last of my summer crops in today, and now I feel like I can relax a little. So I thought I’d write up a list of all the warm season stuff I have going this year.
Things are listed roughly in the order they were planted.
- PLEASANT HILL GARDEN
Early tomatoes: Forest Fire, Silvery Fir Tree, Jagodka, Hamsonita, Bison, Ararat Flame, Lofthouse Landrace, several no ID’s. - Mostly determinate, but some more than others.
Sweet Corn: SE: Trinity F1, Luscious F1, Ruby Queen F1, Top Hat, Who Gets Kissed? SU: Painted Hill, Joseph’s Cherry Sweet, Joseph’s Orange Sweet, Treaty of Paris, Double Red, Stowell’s Evergreen, Black Mexican - I am planning to detassel the SU, and their immediate descendents, for several years, and flood their DNA with the SE gene. Then I will continue to select for sweetness and holding ability to isolate the SE gene while maintaining diverse coloration.
Peanuts: Carolina African Runner, Gregory Virginia, Negrito Manduvi, Tennessee Red, Fastigiata Pin Striped, Schronce’s Deep Black. - This is my attempt to adapt peanuts to my dry climate. I am expecting low productivity the first few years.
Bush Snap Beans: Provider, Red Swan, Borlotto, Capitano, various purple, yellow, green pod no ID’s. - Selecting for diversity, productivity, and compactness.
Cherry/Snack tomatoes: Indigo Kumquat F3, Sungold F3, Tomatoberry Garden F2, Chocolate Cherry, Amethyst Jewel, Wild Zebra - Selecting for flavor, productivity, and promiscuity.
Watermelons: Sunshine F3 (canary yellow flesh), Wilhites Tendergold, Royal Golden, Yellow Moon & Stars - Landrace project. Particularly interested in a yellow-fleshed, and yellow-when-ripe phenotype.
Long Beans: Orient Wonder, Chinese Red Noodle. - Initial trial.
Maxima Squash: Red Kuri, Blue Banana, Burgess Buttercup, Lofthouse Landrace, Uncle David’s Dakota, Katy’s Sweet, Sunshine F2, Bagheera F1. - Landrace Project. Selecting for diversity, dry, sweet flesh, and resiliency.
Giant Sunflowers: Israeli, Lofthouse Landrace, several no ID’s - Selecting for large shells and large seeds.
Medium Hot Peppers: Padron, Mulato Isleño, Pasilla Bajio, Chilhuacle Negro, Poblano x Jalapeno F2. - Looking for spontaneous crosses, and may attempt some manual ones.
Slicing Tomatoes: Berkeley Tie Dye, Lucid Gem, Blue Beauty, Black Beauty, Berkeley Tie Dye Heart, Utah Heart. - Looking for diversity of unique flavors and anthocyanin skin pigments (to prevent sunburn.
Paste Tomatoes: Indeterminate: Striped Roman, Portuguese Paste, Opalka, Bisignano #2 Determinate: Health Kick F3, Bush Roma - Looking for productive, acidic-flavored, fruits for processing.
Lima Beans: Bush: Henderson’s Baby, Jackson’s Wonder, Thorogreen. Pole: Christmas Red Calico, Colored Willowleaf, King of the Garden, Kurzer’s Calico Traveler, Hopi Yellow, Reed’s Mix, Violet’s Multicolored - Initial trial.
Flour/Parching Corn: Magic Manna, Lavender Mandan, Hopi Pink, Reed’s Big Red, Big Red x Cherokee White - Landrace project. Selecting for diversity,and pure-floury endosperm.
Short Pole Dry Beans: Hopi Black, Hopi Red, Hopi Yellow, Beefy Resilient Grex. - I am attempting to select a landrace that is adapted to climbing up short season corn varieties.
Okra: Clemson Spineless, Evertender, Texas Hill Country, Star of David, no ID reds. - Once again I didn’t dedicate enough space to okra. 2018 will be the year of okra!
Mospermia Squash: - Only about 8-10 plants.
Pole Snap Beans: Trionofo Violetto, Kentucky Wonder, Withner White, Anasazi, Fortex x Northeaster F2. - Looking for productive snap beans, and possible multipurpose dry bean use as well.
Hulless Pumpkin: Kakai, Lady Godiva, Styrian. - 2nd year. Selecting for completely hulless seeds, and jack-o-lantern qualities.
Sweet Peppers: Sweet Chocolate, Shishito. - I may try to perform some crosses between these two.
- MARTINEZ GARDEN
Dent Corn: Kentucky Rainbow, McCormack’s Giant Blue, Bloody Butcher, Virginia Gourdseed, Hickory King, Silvermine, Tennessee Red Cob, Trucker’s Favorite White, Trucker’s Favorite Yellow, Open Oak Party, Pencil Cob. - Landrace project. Planning to use this for corn meal and nixtamalization.
Cowpeas: Indeterminate mix, Determinate mix, Whippoorwill, Rouge et Noir, Blackeye, Shanty - Will continue to separate into groups by growth habit.
Bush Dry Beans: Rockwell, Emy Lou’s Golden, Spanish Tolosana, Arikara Yellow, Hidatsa Red, Dakota Bumble, Magpie, Beefy Resilient Bush Selections, Ireland Creek Annie, Montezuma Red, Hopi Red Pod, Purple Koronis. - Initial trial.
Pole Dry Beans: Good Mother Stallard, Rattlesnake, Withner White, Hidatsa Shield, Kentucky Wonder, Hopi Yellow, Cannellini, Brown Greasy, White Greasy, Fort Portal Jade, Mayflower, Trionofo Violetto. - Selecting for dry beans that grow well climbing on my dent corn population.
Watermelon: Blacktail Moon & Stars F2 - Will be attempting to stabilise this phenotype. Last year these were much earlier than the typical Moon & Stars type.
Cushaw Squash: Miller Family Crookneck, Orange Cushaw, Mennonite Cushaw. - Selecting for elongated summer squash types.
- LAFAYETTE GARDEN
Popcorn: Robust Pop 400MR F1, Robust White F1, Robust Yellow F1, Puffy Pop F1, Dynamite, Pennsylvania Butter Flavored, Japanese Hulless, Glass Gem, Strawberry, Navajo Copper, Cherokee Rainbow. - Will be detasseling the ornamental heirloom types and letting them be pollinated by the types breed for popping ability. The goal is colorful, diverse corn that pops well.
Luffa: Dok Smooth, Extra Long Smooth, no ID smooth, Chinese Okra Angled, Bonanza Angled, Wild Luffa - Landrace Project. Selecting for craft use of sponge by kids, and maybe immature use as a vegetable. Anyone know if the different luffa species (L. acutangula, L. aegyptica, L. operculata) will cross with each other?
Climbing Melons: Rich Sweetness 132, Kajari, Sakata’s Sweet, Golden Crispy, Thai Golden - Selecting for small melons that can climb on a trellis.
Watermelon: Sunshine F3, Royal Golden, Ali Baba, Yellow Moon & Stars, Orange Flesh, Blacktail Moon & Stars. - Landrace Project.
Moschata Squash: Butternut, Climbing Honeynut, Lofthouse landrace, Tahitian Melon, Chirimen. - Initial trial.
(Cucumbers, eggplants, musk melons, tomatillos, and ground cherries were almost completely left out of my gardens this year.
Looks like a lot now that I write it down! I guess in, subsequent years, I’ll put some projects aside and increase focus on others.
I am in the process of transitioning away from my current day job, and devoting more time towards farming and plant breeding. I am just starting to work up a business plan, as a step towards self-employment.
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