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Post by farmermike on May 23, 2017 16:56:45 GMT -5
Yes, toomanyirons, that Chilhaucle Negro pepper is around 3" long and about 2-3" wide. zeedman, I got the original seed from Horizon Herbs in 2015 or 2016. One of my favorite things about this variety is that it is so compact and productive. Most plants last year didn't exceed 2' tall. They began producing quickly, and the fruits ripened to their final brown color quickly as well. Many peppers stop producing during the height of summer where I live, when temps often exceed 100F, but this one handled it better than most. My Mulato Isleno plants, last year, reached 6' tall and didn't fully ripen a single fruit before frost killed them in December. The CN really shined in comparison. They were also much more productive than my regular Poblanos. Count me in for the brown/chocolate pepper seed swap too!
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Post by farmermike on May 16, 2017 18:00:32 GMT -5
Thanks for all the info, walt. Very interesting! It would be great to see if you could make a cross of these two species. I may indeed try making the cross again using one CMS parent -- if nothing else, just to train my eye at recognizing the phenotype of the hybrid. I would be happy to send you some of my seed stock. I have plenty of the B. juncea (Giant Red Mustard). Some of it was saved in spring 2016, but I also still have seed from the 2010 batch the produced the original hybrid last year (it still had near perfect germination in Feb 2016). I have less B. napus, but still happy to share. I have a little seed from a single plant of Western Front Kale that flowered without vernalization last year (the rest of that sowing didn't bloom until this spring -- and produced no seed due to aphid epidemic). I also have enough to share from the original packet of Groninger Blue Kale (Fertile Valley Seeds 2016). Let me know and I'll get some in the mail for you. That Groninger Blue, by the way, is a very interesting variety. It is touted as B. napus, but it is very different from any other napus kale I have grown before. Based on flavor and growth habit, I am inclined to wonder if it is B. napus backcrossed to B. rapa. (Would that make it AAAACC?) I guess that would make it like the Gilfeather Turnip. Or maybe the GB is just descended from Rutabaga stock (B. napus), but bred for leaf production instead of root -- which are also very different from most napus kales.
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Post by farmermike on Apr 29, 2017 5:50:29 GMT -5
Might the slower growing seedlings just be more bushy or determinate, and the faster ones be more viney? Just a thought.
That's a concern I always have about culling slower growing seedlings. For instance, if you have tomato seedlings segregating for determinate vs indeterminate, might the slower growing ones represent the determinate?
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Post by farmermike on Apr 29, 2017 4:26:28 GMT -5
Getting excited about my peppers this year. Got seeds planted late, but should have some ready to go into the ground pretty soon. Hot/Medium -- These are listed in the order of the spiciness in my garden (or where I expect them to fall for the new trials). My experiences do not seem to align with the scoville rating I find on the web. Buena Mulata (new trial) Ethiopian Brown (new trial) Rezha Macedonian (new trial; interesting corky skin) Bulgarian Carrot (grown once before, and this is about the limit of spiciness I want in my garden) Chilhaucle Negro (my favorite hot from last year; ripens brown; early and productive) Pasilla Bajio (ripens brown) Hungarian Black (anthocyanin skin prevents sunburn; I may try to cross with other peppers to transfer this trait) Poblano x Jalapeno cross (from jondear ; these have been the quickest to sprout, and the most vigorous seedlings) Hungarian Yellow (early and productive) Jalapeno (the one I have is disappointingly mild) Poblano Mulato Isleno Padron (new trial) Chilhaucle negro. This was my most exciting pepper discovery last summer. They ripened early and out produced almost all the other types I grew. They ripened to a nice dark brown color, and had a delicious smoky, moderately spicy, flavor. They look a little like a small poblano. The only drawback I find with these is that they have a very tough skin. Of course, maybe this is because they are meant to be dried and ground up for mole -- which I plan to do this year. But I like the flavor of this pepper so much that I want to chop it up for use in other dishes. I even tried charring the skin over flame, but they did not peel easily like a poblano. I am hoping to do some crosses with this variety and possibly get some offspring with thinner skins. Sweet Midnight Dreams (bell, anthocyanin skin; bell peppers always get sunburned during my hot summers, but these did not) Georgescu Chocolate (ripens brown) Sweet Chocolate (new trial) Marconi Red Violet Sparkle (new trial) Shishito (my favorite and most productive sweet pepper; the strain I have has never produced a spicy pepper) Shishito peppers I have really grown to love shishito peppers, and whatever strain I am growing has zero heat. I can’t remember, at the moment, where I got my original seed. I’ll check back through my records. toomanyirons , I’m happy to send you some seed if you’d like -- although they have not necessarily been isolated from my moderately spicy peppers in the 2 or 3 years I have been growing them. But I have not seen any crossing...yet. The shishitos we get from our CSA also have never been spicy; some from the farmers market have had about one in a dozen that were hot. I actually have been wishing that mine did have a little spice to them. This year I’m trying out some Padrons, hoping to fill that niche, and am going to start keeping the shishitos more isolated. I’m thinking of maintaining both a spicy and non-spicy version of these thin-walled frying peppers. I also have become very interested in the unique flavor of peppers that ripen brown, but am not really interested in super hot peppers. I have been searching around for brown peppers that range from sweet to moderately hot, but there aren’t a lot of them available. One of my breeding goals is to create more of these. My final harvest from last year after the plants were killed by frost (mostly unripe). From top/left to bottom/right: Mulato Isleno, Hungarian Black, Chilhaucle Negro, Hungarian Yellow, Pasilla Bajio, Poblano, Shishito.
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Post by farmermike on Apr 19, 2017 10:15:59 GMT -5
I have several chiltepines still hanging around from 2015. 'Texas' from NSS. This past winter they stayed outside in 1/2 gallon pots, since I had pretty much written them off. Our low was ~26F this year, but they were sheltered by some deciduous trees. The three plants are sprouting back nicely. I think I'll start taking care of them again!
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Post by farmermike on Apr 12, 2017 21:11:01 GMT -5
Peach leaf curl seems like a weather event to me. It just keeps raining in California. We are 13" over our average for the whole year already -- and more rain on the way. (Annual ave: 17"; year to date: 30".) Hard to say anything nice about the drought, but 4 years without peach leaf curl WAS some consolation.
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Songs
Apr 12, 2017 0:51:58 GMT -5
Post by farmermike on Apr 12, 2017 0:51:58 GMT -5
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Post by farmermike on Apr 11, 2017 17:59:33 GMT -5
Worked on hilling up my, tuber grown, potatoes today. The TPS plants are not quite ready to go in the ground yet -- but soon! My spring planted spuds are sure doing better than the fall planted ones. A few of the fall crop are sprouting back, but most were done-in by being frozen and then flooded for almost 2 whole months. I'm a little surprised any came back at all. I'm just glad that I saved some seed tubers for spring planting. I had no problem keeping them all winter on a shelf in my covered porch. Last year my fall planted crop never froze and I got an unprecedented harvest, but alas I guess that strategy is "hit or miss". In retrospect, I think I should have dug some of the tubers, to eat, right after the tops froze down in December. I did a little investigative digging at that point, and found some good looking tubers (on the Yukon Gold), but left them to grow through spring. Would those likely have been mature by then -- after growing for about 45 days in the fall? I have read that harvesting potatoes immature can induce glycoalkaloid synthesis. Also harvested a few carrots from my landrace project -- which is coming along slowly.
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Post by farmermike on Apr 8, 2017 18:49:42 GMT -5
Well, that juncea x napus cross finally croaked without producing any seed. I attempted the bud pollination while it was blooming back in September, but to no avail. Maybe it was self-incompatibity (and my pollination technique failed), but I suspect the bigger problem was that it began flowering in the midst of our late summer heat. We can easily have 100deg days May through Sept. My brassicas typically flower Feb-April and are done ripening seed by the start of our summer heat. Whenever any of my brassicas try to flower during the heat, they don't manage to ripen any seed. I fully expected this plant to perk back up with the start of cool rainy weather last fall, but it never did. It was plagued by powdery mildew and perhaps other diseases all fall and winter. It was also in a spot that flooded regularly during our frequent deluges this year. I guess my mistake was planting the seed in March. Maybe if it had been fall planted, and gotten to vernalize early in its life, it would have flowered in April along with its brethren. B. napus and oleracea perennialize in my garden pretty reliably, but juncea never does; I guess those juncea genes won out. Oh well, easy come easy go! I'll have to try to get another one of these crosses to take. It sure had an interesting flavor. Thanks for the suggestions and discussion, steve1 and oxbowfarm!
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Post by farmermike on Apr 8, 2017 18:12:07 GMT -5
I'm curious how the miner's lettuce is progressing in California? Any seed yet? Yes, the miner's lettuce in my part of California is pretty much done flowering. I just saw the first ripe seeds in my garden last week. I think this year I'll actually try to collect some seeds to share around! Maybe next year I'll also start doing some selection towards a population that maximizes leaf production and is slow to bolt.
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Post by farmermike on Mar 21, 2017 18:25:48 GMT -5
templeton, sorry I don't have any suggestions for you...yet. I'll be going to Florence at the end of April (for a fancy destination wedding). I'm hoping to check out some farms or gardens too. Don't know if you'll be heading that far north, but if so, maybe I'll have some recommendations for you. I may be trying to bring back some interesting seeds. Suggestions anyone has for Florence would be much appreciated. Hope you don't mind me piggy-backing on your thread.
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Post by farmermike on Mar 20, 2017 14:33:52 GMT -5
Beautiful lettuces! Marvel of 4 Seasons (a misnomer in my experience) on the left, and Red Iceberg on the right.
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Post by farmermike on Mar 19, 2017 21:23:05 GMT -5
My California strain Yerba Buena may possibly be alive (and Montana hardy if so). Yerba Buena is one of my favorite plants! That would be cool if it was hardy in Montana. Did you grow that from seed? It grows wild in the woods where I live, and many years ago I transplanted some into my garden. Ever since I've been taking little pieces of it with me every time I move. It propagates so easily by rooted vines, that I've never tried growing it from seed.
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Post by farmermike on Mar 19, 2017 21:08:28 GMT -5
I just wait until some of the seedlings are about 3 inches tall and then remove the soil from the pot, pull apart the root ball, and replant all the seedlings. At that stage, they aren't very fragile and even if there are some small ones that got shaded out, they bounce right back once they are in their own pots. Thanks, billw, that is good to know! (That's basically how I deal with onion seedlings -- except they go straight in the ground after separating.) How long after that would you plant the potato seedlings in the ground?
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Post by farmermike on Mar 19, 2017 20:54:45 GMT -5
I was perusing the Wild Garden Seed catalogue, and noticed this fascinating info about orach. Does this mean that orach seeds are edible in the same way as quinoa? Seems like it wouldn't easily produce enough of a seed crop to be worth eating. Atriplex hortensis is definitely growing on me! I have volunteer seedlings coming up in the garden already -- just from the chaff leftover after winnowing. I wonder if those little black dormant seeds mean that an orach "seed bank" will remain in the soil for several years, even if it is not allowed to set seed each year. It wouldn't bother me much to have this plant going feral in my garden.
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