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Post by walt on Nov 28, 2016 17:30:30 GMT -5
Today my wife had to go to Wichita, KS, to meet with immigration. She's from Ghana. So I drove her and after the meeting, which went well, I drove on to Hong's Landscape where there is a big Poncirus bush (AKA hardy orange bush). The price is still $1 per pound of fruit. I bought a pound. I expect to get a few hundred seeds from these for use as rootstocks for my breeding stock. So far I have about 150 Poncirus seedlings planted over the last 3 years. Plus about 25 that are from a special Poncirus bush that produces sexual seeds. Other Poncirus seedlings, like most citrus, are clones of their mother. My sexual seedling are a year old. It will likely be about 7-8 years before they flower. Could be more than that. I also have about 25 seedlings from Sanford citrange. Citranges are hybrids of orange and Poncirus. Citranges generally have seeds that contain only clones of the mother. Sanford produces seeds sexually. Poncirus generally are not concidered edible. They aren't poison, but one taste and you won't care if they are poison. They taste pretty bad. Some years ago, I ate 4 of them to try see if the sugar-acid ratio and the aromatic oils would give a useful flavor if the evil tasting substance was bred out. I was never sure. Citranges have less of the evil taste. Some people like them when prepared right, but most don't. And the citranges are less winter-hardy than Poncirus. A few backcrosses to citrus have been made, being 3/4 citrus:1/4 Poncirus. Again, some people find them edible, most don't. They are better than F1 citranges, but they have lost more cold-hardiness. Someday I'll be the first person (that I know of) to grow citrange F2 and other proportions in large quantities. I have been promised 200 more Sanford seeds this fall. I hope they arrive soon.
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Post by walt on Nov 28, 2016 17:03:53 GMT -5
Toomanyirons. About the vinegar-less horseradish sauce from the guy in Brewster, KS. I left out, because I didn't realize why it might be important, that he froze his sauce. So did I when I made it. We froze all that wouldn't get used quickly. I have never made horseradish sauce any other way, so I didn't think about the fact that most people don't freeze it. I wonder if canning the sauce quickly would work too. I don't know.
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Post by walt on Nov 23, 2016 13:02:57 GMT -5
When I used to teaach school in Brewster KS, there was a man in town famous for his horseradish sauce. I managed to get a pint of it and it was wonderful. I asked about his recipe. He said he cleaned the horseradish and put it in the blender. That was it. Some years later I had a garden with horseradish. I tried the recipe. It was great. I don't know why anybody adds anything to it. Actually I might know why people add things to their horseradish. That same year I ran across some paper test strips in the biology lab. Some investigating (I read the directions) showed me that each strip had a chemical on it that some people could taste, but others can't. Each of those tastes were controled by a single gene. Biology teacher used to pass out the test strips and have students test their families and show how the ability to taste a certain chemical is passed down through generatations. This went out of style because of lawsuits. Children were finding out they were adopted, when the parents didn't want the child to know. Or fathers were finding out their children had genes that neither he nor his wife had. People get upset over the slightest thing.
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Post by walt on Nov 23, 2016 12:39:12 GMT -5
There is a book in the Kansas State University library titled Sweet Potato. It is the proceedings of an international conference on sweet potatoes. It was in it that I learned that sweet potato leaves are a major food source in some areas. Also, that sweet potato leaves are among the most nutritious of leaves. In a table in that book, lettuce is shown as being about worthless as food, other than taking up space so fat people don't get fatter. I was suprized and pleased that spinach wasn't high in nutrients as it is reputed to be, compared to many other available but unknown in the western world leaves. But sweet potatoes were way high in nutrients. Since then I have eaten some sweet potato leaves every summer. I have thought of growing them in the winter, but haven't. I find that only the young and tender leaves near the end of the vine are good. Okra leaves and runner bean leaves are also among my favorites. And the book Sweet Potato also mentioned that in some countries there are varieties grown only for their leaves. My favorite ways to eat sweet potato leaves is fresh in sandwiches and in stir fries.
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Post by walt on Nov 21, 2016 15:21:59 GMT -5
I used to do construction with a friend who claimed that laziness was his main virtue. "I do things right the first time because I'm too lazy to do it twice."
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Post by walt on Nov 19, 2016 14:08:35 GMT -5
Last week near-record highs. Last night mid-20sF. I liked last week better.
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Post by walt on Nov 17, 2016 12:32:52 GMT -5
In the last couple of weeks, I went through the GRIN wheat collection. I found no hexaploid Einkorns, but theere are tetraploid einkorns. There are hexaploid durum x einkorn doubled, and timopheevi x einkorn doubled. Those would be AAA'A'BB and AAA'A'GG respectively. But B and G are similar. I doubt, but don't know, that they would have the same problems for those who have problems with wheat. My daughter, for example. I distinguished the AA from the A'A' genomes because the A in einkorn has been seperated from the A in durum and the A in timpheevi from around 5,000 years or more. And for an annual, 5,000 years is about 5.000 generations. The D in bread wheat has been seperated from the D in Titicum tauschii for fewer generation than that, and the wild D is befinitly different from the D in bread wheat. I was looking up wheats in GRIN because I want to make an intermediate wheatgrass+AA hybrid. Get some bigger seeds on that thing!
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Post by walt on Nov 16, 2016 16:46:12 GMT -5
Templeton. The way they would make a wheat without a given protein would likely by the new (in the last 10 years or so) CRISPR method. To over simplify, one just figures out the DNA sequence next to a given gene and the CRICPR enzyme is attached to the DNA code that matches the target. Then the CRISPR enzyme cuts the DNA there and removes the code for that protein. That gives a wheat without that protein. Of course there are many proteins that wheat can not survive without. But storage proteins in the seeds are usually expendable.
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Post by walt on Nov 16, 2016 16:28:58 GMT -5
Had a light freeze 3 nights ago. That is very late for a killing freeze in central Kansas, central USA. And while this freeze killed the tomaotes and sweet potatoes, some peppers survived, so it couldn't have been any but the lightest freeze. So forecast now is for record highs for the date, or at least near records. If I'd put a blanket over the tomatoes, they would have had another week or more of happy life.
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Post by walt on Nov 16, 2016 16:20:10 GMT -5
Paquaot said "Same people who think that SSE should do it are the same ones who won't join because it's too expensive. It's not too expensive, it's just an excuse to yell.
I just looked up the membership price. It starts at $50. That is more than my annual garden budget. Fortunately, my 1 1/2 acres are paid for. So about all I invest each year is sweat. In my younger days I did maintain several varieties of grains and vegetable, some fruits, and offer them in the SSE yearbook. But for now I am done with heirlooms and am breeding new varieties. But either way, I just don't have $50 a year for a membership to anything. And I for one am not yelling about it. Not even complaining. Just a waste of energy. I do run the Species Iris group of North America, which in spite of it's name, has members, seed donors, and seed customers on all continents except Antarctica. That takes a lot of energy too, but it accomplishes more than yelling or complaining.
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Post by walt on Nov 12, 2016 14:09:43 GMT -5
Do you remember the name and source of the bean known for its roots?
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Post by walt on Nov 9, 2016 14:29:47 GMT -5
Don't mistake lots of names with lots of diversity. Most or perhaps all those names may be very slight variations on a few old varieties. Or may be hybrids between inbreds derived from the same varieties. The law on naming introduced varieties isn't strict at all. Copyrighted names or trade names have no standards at all as far as I know. It has been 35 years since I was a professional onion breeder, so laws may have changed a lot. But changes in the law often don't really change things anyway.
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Post by walt on Nov 7, 2016 15:25:34 GMT -5
People here are always starting seeds of many strange and wonderful kinds. It has occurred to me that some might want to start some iris species from seed. I am the seed sale chairman for SIGNA, Species Iris Group of North America. Naturally, anyone is welcome to join and order seeds from this years seed sale. I think we have members on all continents except Antartica. But if you don't have that level of interest, non-members can buy leftover seeds at $0.50 per packet. A packet often has only 5 seeds, especially if it is a rare kind of seeds. Some packets may have more seeds per packet. Old seeds from SIGNA have gereminated as well for me as new seeds. The seed list is at www.signa.org/index.pl?SurplusSeeds Don't know what these species look like? Go here and click on a name. www.signa.org/index.pl?Database Most have pictures and information on where they are from. Note that iris relatives include Gladiolus, Crocus, and genera you won't recognize. There are iris species native to desert, standing water, and everything else. If there is an X in the column under Quantity, we are out of that species. Some of the genera are tropical and are treated like Amarylis. Seeds are free to botanical gardens and arboritums, or for research.
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Post by walt on Nov 3, 2016 12:29:23 GMT -5
Reed. I'm game for some seeds. Nothing to trade just now, but I could pay cash. Or I could sharecrop them, as you said. Or some of both. I'm in Kansas. That is a little like Indiana.
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Post by walt on Nov 2, 2016 10:43:42 GMT -5
Back in my Peace corps days, had had a friend with a pickup. He went somewhere and came baack about an hour later, with a goat. He said that on his way to where ever, there had been no dead goat in the road. On his way back there was a dead goat in the road, obviously killed by a car. So he knew it was fresh and picked it up. He didn't try to find the owner because Nigeriens don't eat domestic meat unless the animal was blessed before it was killed. Wild hunted meat didn't need to be blessed. I don't know why. Anyway, my friend butchered the goat and passed the meat around to his friends, those who wanted some.My wife and I gladly took a share. It was the only time I've eaten road kill. Back in my college days, I had a friend who went to Earlam College, a Quaker college. Several of her fellow students were vegetarians, because they disapproved of taking a life. (plants didn't seem to count.) So my friend was working at a dairy farm to pay her way through college. One night a cow got out and was killed by a car. When it was butchered, she invited her vegetarian friends to a feast, because the cow had had a good life, and died through no deliberate murder. I was suprized that some vegetarians did come and partake and enjoy. I don't know how many. I was at a different college several states away. Road kill, for when you don't have the stomach to kill your own meat.
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