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Post by walt on Nov 1, 2016 12:19:16 GMT -5
I've been out of touch with SSE for some time. The membership fee was just too much for me. But I have 1 1/2 acres, and some of it could be a home for 'chokes. And I think I remember he had a huge collection of barley. I like to grow barley. And I wouldn't much have to worry about barley crossing. As if anyone here worries about their crops crossing. But I do want the heirlooms to be kept as a seed bank, where the old is preserved. Both ways have theirs merits.
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Post by walt on Oct 22, 2016 11:01:45 GMT -5
Thanks for the link to the strawberry store. I think I'll be spending some money there over the winter. This summer I bought strawberry seeds and musk strawberry plants from oikostreecrops.com , as well as Jerusalem artichoke seeds and Clipper corn seeds. The seeds all arrived promptly, though I didn't try planting the strawberry seeds during the heat of summer. The plants arrived yesterday and will be planted this afternoon. For years I've wanted to taste musk and alpine strawberries. Next summer I'll get my chance, I hope. I hope they can take Kansas summer heat. 110F. I won't translate that to non-American degrees. You don't really want to know how hot this is.
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Post by walt on Oct 13, 2016 14:23:25 GMT -5
How cold does it get?
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Post by walt on Oct 13, 2016 14:06:15 GMT -5
About 30 years ago I went to a NAFEX (North American Fruit Explores) meeting in Joplin MO. A group of older men had each gone out into the native walnut forests with nutcrackers, cracked some nuts from a bunch of trees, and marked the trees with thin shells and high nut/shell ratios. When the season was right for grafting, they went and cut scionwood and grafted onto seedlings back home. So a few years later, when the superior grafted trees began to produce, they contacted area walnut dealers to sell their improved walnuts. They were disappointed that the dealers wouldn't pay a premium for the improved walnuts. Walnut shells pay as much as the nut kernals. The shells are ground for cleaning jewelery by sort of sandblasting the jewelery with the ground shell. And the ground shells were glued together to make grainless "wood" for woodcarvers. They did find that they could direct market the cracked walnuts to cooks who would pay a premium price for the bigger pieces. Anyway, if you are near a bunch of walnut trees, you might want to sample nuts from each tree and check if some are significantly easier to shell.
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Post by walt on Oct 12, 2016 13:24:09 GMT -5
I googled Nashi pear. Didn't find anything about Nashi pear bearing young. Blooming a year from sprouting should be something people would be talking about. The guy at Oikostreecrops.com found 5 seedlings, out of thousands, of beach plum bloomed their first year. He seperated those out and found that they bred true for that trait. Might be that you have something just as worthwhile, though you don't have another such early one to cross it with. Might have to go to the F2 to get the trait set. On the other hand, Asian paears are said to be somewhat self compatible. So it might come true from the start. Don't mow that thing.
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Post by walt on Oct 11, 2016 15:48:09 GMT -5
Thanks for all the information. I used to be on citrusforum daily. Reading, seldom saying anything. So much to learn. So little to tell. But for the last couple of months, I couldn't get it. So when you just posted about it, I tried again. I got it. Wonderful! I was told I could only get seeds for now. It is in quarantine. I mean that plant is in quarantine, not the whole place. But I was sent 50 seeds I asked for. Also 50 seeds from Sanford, a zygotic citrange. The only one I am told. So this summer I asked if I could have another 200 seeds from Sanford, to grow out a good sized F2. They are sending them when they are ripe. I don't need more Pocirus, but I would like an older Poncirus, one closer to breeding age. Now that I can get on the citrusforum aagain, I'll be asking. And I will be looking for Laaz's seeds, seedlings, or scionwood. It would, I hope, reduce generation time. I had fingerlime, which sometimes blooms within a year of sprouting. Cold killed it to the rootstock. I'll get another come spring. Kumquats are the next quickest seedlings to bloom, often in 2 years. And they are much more cold-hardy than fingerlimes. Also, there are already kumquat hybrids with Poncirus and very many citrus. That saves a generation.
In a few days, I am making the 150 mile drive to my seeds source for Ponciris. In Wichita Kansas. well into zone 6, Hong's landscape has 2 huge bushes of Ponciruis that have grown there all their lives. Fruits are $1 per pound and there are about 35 seeds per fruit.
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Post by walt on Oct 11, 2016 15:11:33 GMT -5
Timopheevi wheat, from Armenia and Geogia, is a spring wheat. It is not closly related to most other wheats. Like all wheats, timopheevi, vavilovii, and zhukovsky have the AA genomes of Einkorn wheat. But all except timopheevi, vavilovii, and zhukovsky also have the BB genomes of a goatgrass similar to T. spearsi. Timopheevi has GG instead of BB. So AAGG for timopheevi, and AAAAGG for vavilovii and zhukovsky. Durum wheat is AABB. Common bread wheat is AABBDD Vavilovii and zhukovsky grow mixed in the same fields as timopheevi. All are spring wheats. Timopheevi is easier to cross with rye than is most other wheats. Chineese Spring and a few other bread do cross more easily.
I never studied this myself, but I shared a lab with Tim Kileen, who was doing research on crossablitity of wheats with rye and barley. I think I might remember more of his research than my own.
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Post by walt on Oct 11, 2016 14:19:02 GMT -5
I did grad work at KSU, the greatest wheat university in the world. Everyone on campus said so. So I was working with barley, but I used the same methods as the wheat people. There are winter wheats, spring wheats and facultative spring wheats. Obligate winter wheats require vernalization before they bloom. Obligate spring wheat aren't winter-hardy, and must be planted in the spring, or they will be killed by the cold. Facultative spring wheats don't require vernalization, (winter or cold treatment) but they can handle it. There are few, if any, places in the world where farmers don't either plant in the spring or the fall, but do what feel good this year. So collectors label them either as spring or fall types and no one knows otherwise. From crossing winter and spring types, one could theoreticly get a proportion of wheat seedlings that require more cold to bloom than they can survive. Those obviously don't make it to the next generation. If you have a wheat that you don't know if it is spring or winter type, then trying both planting times would be a way to find out. If you don't have enough seeds to risk that, there is another way. I was crossing spring and winter barley to get greenbug resistance from spring barley into winter barley. To get them to bloom together, I'd sprout the winter barley seeds on moist filter paper in petri dishes. As soon as I saw the tip of a sprout, I'd put them in a refridgerator set just above freezing for 30 days. From there on I'd treat the seedlings like spring wheat. It would grow and bloom.
So if you like, moisten your unknown seeds about 30 days before last frost. Keep them warm a few days until you see the first start of a sprout. and put it in your refridgerator. At last frost, plant them out and water them, at least once.
Another way, and I should have said this first, google the name of the wheat. It might tell you when to plant it. Duh moment here.
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Post by walt on Oct 11, 2016 13:42:19 GMT -5
I think deeper roots might be better for your situation. Peppers and okra have taproots if started in the ground. These might save the taproot from stopping and growing side roots to the exclusion of the tap root. The same might be true of other species you mentioned.
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Post by walt on Oct 11, 2016 13:28:52 GMT -5
I am reminded of my time as vegetable breeder in the Rep. du Niger, 1978-1982. In Niger, at that time, it was illegal to release hybrid varieties of grain crops, and I supose also illegal to release varieties of hybrid vegetable crops. Sure, if you ordered some from out of coutry for yourself, no one bothered you about it. The government had more important things to do. But big multinational companies weren't welcome. Nigerien plant breeders were educated at universities in the USA, (one had been a classmate of mine in grad school at Kansas State U.), or in the USSR, or at 2-year college in India or neighboring African countries. They knew very well how to breed hybrid varieties. But they had paid attention in class when we were taught how to improve open-pollinated varieties, make synthetic varieties, yes, make land-races, etc. CIMMYT had shown that open-pollinated synthetic varieties could yield 90% or more as much as the best hybrids. Much of my work with vegetbles was to travel the country, collecting local vegetable varieties. I'd take them back to the research station, grow them out in replicated trials, multiply the seeds of the best ones, and send them out again around the country. Local growers would try them with their own local varieties, and keep whichever did best for them. Part of the reason hybrids weren't wanted was that there was really no way to distribute new seeds to the farmers every year. Camels could carry bags of seed to the scattered villages, where people could try them on a small scale and use them if they worked well. If not, no harm done. Another part of why they didn't allow hybrids was that farmers couldn't afford them anyway. They could afford to risk buying a pound of sorghum or pearl millet or cowpeas, the main crops. If they did well, good. If not, not a big deal.
About what we were taught at KSU: I remember Dr. Clayburg saying in class "Hybrid tomatoes are being sold based on the reputation of hybrid corn. Hybrid tomato seeds aren't worth an extra penny". But what did he know? He was just a bean and tomato breeder. And the one entemology course I had, entry level, was taught by the department head. First thing he told us was why he ws teaching an entry level course. He said at the very least, 90% of the money spent on insecticides was wasted, and he gave 10 reasons. 1. Farmers and orchardists often sprayed by the calender, when there might not be any harmful insects present. 2. People spray when they see insects, not knowing if that kind of insect was harming the crop. 3. People spray at the time that insects are dormant, so they aren't killed. 4. People spray when the insects are doing damage, but not enough damage to make it worth the cost of spraying. 5. People spray, killing insects that are doing damage, but they kill predators so the target insects came back worse than ever. There were 5 more reasons. But it was 30 years ago and I don't remember them. I do remember what one student said as he left class. "I don't know why we have to learn all this. I just want to know how to kill insects." Universities are often criticized because of the narrow-minded graduates they turn out. Sometimes the fault lies with the students they take in.
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Post by walt on Oct 5, 2016 13:40:43 GMT -5
I have not heard of Golden Bantam of Country Gentleman corn being called sacred. But my grandmother and my mother grew them for their families to eat, and I grew them for myself and my children to eat. I took seed from them to Africa in the Peace Corp. My daughter learned to cross corn using them. What could be more sacred?
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Post by walt on Oct 1, 2016 13:02:44 GMT -5
Same company has dwarf papayas and dwarf avacodos, too. But that doesn't solve the import problem. I am seed sale chairman for the Species Iris Group of North America, so I know the problem of moving seeds and plants around the world. Also I can't get some of the hardier citrus from Europe. But some of the the most serious citrus diseases in the USA were brought in by amatures that that it is OK to bring this one citrus with me.
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Post by walt on Oct 1, 2016 12:42:03 GMT -5
Same company has dwarf papayas and dwarf avacodos, too. But that doesn't solve the import problem. I am seed sale chairman for the Species Iris Group of North America, so I know the problem of moving seeds and plants around the world. Also I can't get some of the hardier citrus from Europe. But some of the the most serious citrus diseases in the USA were brought in by amatures that that it is OK to bring this one citrus with me.
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Post by walt on Sept 30, 2016 14:06:08 GMT -5
20' greenhouse is not needed. "This exciting strain of the Cavendish banana will actually produce fruit at a manageable height of just 3’ or less" That is a cut and paste from www.logees.com/fruits/tropical.htmlThat was another cut and paste.
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Post by walt on Sept 29, 2016 11:23:27 GMT -5
I've read that fruit trees in Siberia are pruned very short so that during the harsh winters, the trees are safe covered with snow.
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