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Post by farmermike on Mar 17, 2017 1:11:20 GMT -5
My first sowing of TPS is going well so far. I received seeds fromĀ Joseph Lofthouse, andĀ jondear this winter and germination has been excellent. I over-planted a little, and am assuming I should just thin down to the strongest seedling in each cluster. I planted these seeds during the last week of Feb. I probably should have planted in Jan. I'm getting pretty close to the end of the season when I feel safe planting potatoes. We often get our first 100F day in May, which causes potatoes to wither up pretty quick. I wish I could be planting these seedlings in the ground today, but they seem like they have a ways to go. I may have to plant these in large pots and grow them under shade cloth in order to get some seed tubers for my fall planting. I would really like to start producing some of my own TPS, but I wonder if my hot summers and split potato growing season (they only grow in spring and fall here) are going to make that difficult. Come to think of it, it has been a long time since I have had potatoes even flower. The last time I had a potato produce berries was 10 years ago, when I was gardening at 3000' elevation on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, on the north facing side of a deep canyon. I wish I had saved those seeds! Maybe I just need to find the right variety that will flower reliably in my climate.
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Post by farmermike on Mar 13, 2017 12:56:00 GMT -5
Looks like michaeljohnson last posted here back in June. Maybe if someone tags him, he will know we are talking about him.
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Post by farmermike on Mar 7, 2017 14:14:21 GMT -5
If you were working that auger alone, no wonder it kicked your ass, being a two-man auger. Dude! You have a family; don't trash yourself willy-nilly. Which way does that hillside face? Looks north; should be good for apples in our cold-deficient region. Fortunately, we had 3 of us men on that 2 man auger...on a steep hillside. Alone, it would have had me spinning around like a pinwheel. It was hard work, but that is how I keep in shape without ever going to the gym! I always encourage my crew to work carefully and deliberately, practicing appropriate form and technique, so the result of a laborious day is only sore muscles instead of musculoskeletal injury. Unfortunately, that hillside is south-facing (which I advised against). A local organization planted the orchard for us and then bailed out on any management of it. Those trees may have to be irrigated indefinitely; I'm planning out a gray-water system for this eventuality. If trees continue to fail, I may throw in the towel on that location; we have a north-facing slope that would be ideal -- but still has voles though.
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Post by farmermike on Mar 6, 2017 22:55:51 GMT -5
The skinny ones are 1YP and 2YP. 2YP grew from a seed and I believe it's parent is the same clone as 1YP. I also believe 1YP may be self compatible. 2YP bloomed profusely but set almost no seeds last year. I will be planting those seeds but am culling this root. Very inspiring, reed! I have a small amount of TSPS planted under grow lights on a covered porch. What does the YP stand for?
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Post by farmermike on Mar 1, 2017 22:05:06 GMT -5
Planted 40 new apple trees to replace the ones that were killed by voles last summer. The new trees will have trunk protection this year. That auger kicked my ass!
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Post by farmermike on Feb 27, 2017 22:28:35 GMT -5
That photo looks great! Sadly I've never tasted a pawpaw. I ordered a little tree from Edible Landscaping a couple years ago, but it didn't last long in our hot dry weather. I'll have to try again sometime.
I've mostly been eating wild mustard (rapini), and miner's lettuce this time of year.
Welcome to the forum Marie!
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Post by farmermike on Feb 26, 2017 19:33:05 GMT -5
Oh yeah, the Sicilian Purple also seems to propagate vegetatively quite easily! I accidentally broke off one of the main stems during December, and stuck it in the ground a few feet away from the main patch. It rooted in and produced a head. Of course, we've had a very wet winter. In a drought year, it may not have survived.
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Post by farmermike on Feb 26, 2017 19:28:06 GMT -5
To me this seems to be pretty much the "holy grail" of perennial cauliflower. This was a little test row of about 6 Sicilian Purple cauliflower I planted in late summer of 2015. They produced a few nice heads in Feb 2016 -- which we ate. They didn't grow any side shoots along the main stem (as broccoli does), but later in the spring they began to send up new shoots from near ground level. So, I cut the old stem off to make way for the new. I grew corn and watermelons all around this little patch during the summer. It sent up a few flowers, but made no viable seed (either due to hot weather or self-incompatibility). In the fall, when the cool rainy weather began, the several new shoots on each stump grew in nicely and produced large and small heads in Jan & Feb 2017. The little patch was more productive the second year! My plan is to eat the large heads and let the smaller ones produce a little seed crop. Only 6 plants seems like kind of a genetic bottleneck, but I figure I'll add in new germplasm at some point anyway. It is possible that their flowering may coincide with some Burssels sprouts, in which case, I will let them cross with those in attempt to make a cauliflower x Brussels hybrid to select from next year. It will be interesting to see if these plants will survive for a third season. I suppose this variety may only be perennial in mild winter climates like mine, but my limited experience has suggested that long-season varieties have much more potential to be perennial. My short-season cauliflowers (also planted out in late summer), produced heads in December and had much more fragile main stems, which did not survive the summer heat.
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Post by farmermike on Feb 26, 2017 16:59:49 GMT -5
Here are the latest developments from that cauliflower x Brussels sprouts hybrid. Should I call it "caulisprouts" or "Brusselsflower"? Here is the tip of the inflorescence. The curds are pretty tight, and the overall structure is much like romanesco, but without the spirals. And this is one of the "sprouts" that grows above every leaf node along the stem. The abundance of these makes each plant incredibly productive. They taste just like cauliflower. I have a decent amount of F1 seeds of these to share, if anyone would like to try it, but I presume it has CMS. (It has not flowered yet for me to confirm that.) I don't have a great interest in creating another round of F1 hybrid, CMS seeds after this lot is gone, but I will definitely attempt to cross a fully-fertile cauliflower with Brussels sprouts in order to recreate this interesting specimen. Will I be able to stabilize this phenotype? I don't see why not!
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Post by farmermike on Feb 24, 2017 17:24:40 GMT -5
I am planning to make some crosses this summer between extra early determinate tomatoes, and highly-flavorful diversely-colored indeterminate tomatoes. Some of the determinate mothers will be Forest Fire, Silvery Fir Tree, (and a few others I received in trades), and the indeterminate pollen-donors might be, Berkeley Tie-Dye, Lucid Gem, Ananas Noire, Cherokee Purple, Striped Roman. I am assuming that the DTM of the progeny from these crosses will be somewhere in between the parents, and that in subsequent generations they will segregate for a higher percentage of indeterminate (vs. determinate) because that is the dominant trait.
My plan is to just look for the most determinate offspring starting with the F2, and continue with those lines until I have colorful extra early tomatoes.
I have never tried manually crossing tomatoes before, so I guess I need to learn how to do that. I suppose I will also have to start a later crop of the early mothers, so that their flowering and fruit set coincides with the later pollen-donors.
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Post by farmermike on Feb 3, 2017 17:18:47 GMT -5
I have read that black locust wood makes great untreated fenceposts and mine timbers (I have used it for the former, as well as woodworking projects), because of its high resistance to rot. I wouldn't expect those chips to be an efficient way of putting organic matter in the the soil, but I bet they would be excellent for pathway mulch or weed suppression.
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Post by farmermike on Jan 28, 2017 19:18:00 GMT -5
These Claytonia populations are descendants of those I planted in my parents' yard around 15 years ago. They are still growing strong in a few places. C. perfoliata C. parviflora Presumably some crosses between the two different species! These collections were all originally made just a few miles from where they are now growing. Around here the parviflora tends to grow on steep, sunny hillsides in rocky or disturbed soil with little competition. The perfoliata tends to grow on shady (at least in winter) north facing slopes or under the shade of old oak trees. I remembered, from years ago, that whenever I grew these 2 species together, I would quickly notice some intergradation. It is interesting to see that there are still pure patches of each, and some intermediates.
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Post by farmermike on Jan 28, 2017 18:51:02 GMT -5
mskrieger, so far I have harvested 3 individuals this year. This first one was the best. It had a round head and the top leaves were tightly wrapped, so the dense inside was nicely blanched. The white ribs were sweet and there wasn't much bitterness to it at all. This one looks to me like pure Castelfranco. These other 2 were pretty bitter (particularly the big one on the right), but once they were chopped up and mixed into a salad with lettuce, arugula, bok choi, baby kale, etc., they were really nice. They add a great texture to a mixed salad. I am generally more interested in the round heads, for the self-blanching qualities, but the latter 2 heads had other nice traits (deep red color; and pronounced vigor), so I think I'll let them contribute to the general population this spring. I think that biggest one is an F1 from last spring, since none of the parents looked quite like that.
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Post by farmermike on Jan 23, 2017 11:36:15 GMT -5
My radicchios are looking pretty good (although planted a little closer together than they would really like). The one on the lower left, and the the one kitty-corner to it, are Sugar Loaf. The smaller, very dark red ones, are Palla Rossa. These two types seem to have the most reliably dense heads. Since heading qualities are primarily what I am looking for, these two are natural choices to cross with each other. Some of these have really nice coloration. We'll see if they head-up nicely as well.
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Post by farmermike on Jan 19, 2017 16:06:11 GMT -5
Nice fence, but working in the rain? Oh, I forgot how often I worked in the rain when I was your age; never mind; you'll get over it; warm and dry beats the hell out of cold and wet. That's about as much wisdom as age has brought me. I didn't want to do it, but I had been putting it off for weeks, and that was the only day I had the lumber, a decent crew, and child-care so I could be there to make sure it was done right.
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