|
Post by galina on Apr 16, 2010 14:03:22 GMT -5
jpea varieties do cross, right? Not easily. They shed pollen inside the flower, before it opens. Any crosses have to be made by hand using very immature flowers. With peas you don't have to worry about crossing.
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 16, 2010 6:15:30 GMT -5
They look lovely. The unnamed pea is flowering already, plenty to pick soon. Wish you good luck with saving seed from all the rare ones.
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 15, 2010 14:04:53 GMT -5
Jeanninexx
nice to meet you here. Have read your posts in the other place and especially about your generous parcel. You will like it here. Not tough to be the new kid, not here.
How do you stop one ply wool from twisting? Sounds like your eyesight must be spectacular and probably your patience too. I crochet pot holders for presents, that's my skill level. Well not much more anyway.
Welcome!
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 13, 2010 4:26:25 GMT -5
Very occasionally we get a volunteer plant, but way too late for volunteer fruit here. Main reason is that we get late blight (phytophthora infestans) regularly and often as early as July and that kills off any volunteer plants usually even before they are flowering.
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 11, 2010 17:28:14 GMT -5
Thank you Grunt, there are some amazing photos on the site you quoted. Some of these abyssinicum peas are fully black, others grey or dark grey brown. What a good idea to have a colour sample pane next to the photo of the seeds.
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 11, 2010 17:12:20 GMT -5
I'm growing out the F2 generation of a cross between Lancashire Lad (purple podded) and Oregon Sugard Pod. They are even interestingly different at the 4 - 10" high stage. Some are green and tall, some very purple, some dark green edged with purple, and short. I can't wait to see the flowers and pods! I'm also hoping this year to cross Sugar Snap and Goldensweet with Carruthers and Ezetha's Krombeck Blauwschok. I need more garden! I guess you are after a sweet, purple snap pod? What did the F1 generation look like? Which was the pollen father and which the mother? Yes that is the trouble with the F2 generation. I had one plant to a bamboo cane spaced something like 20cm apart when I was growing my F2s to be sure I could tell each plant apart. Much more space than growing peas for eating. How high did Oregon Sugar Pod grow with you? F2s are great fun, hope you get something a bit special.
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 11, 2010 9:25:20 GMT -5
And my very best wishes too. Please give the baby a cuddle from me. Glad your cousin is so much better. With a new baby and recovering from the op, she needs all her strength.
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 10, 2010 9:48:31 GMT -5
Out of curiosity, what are everyone doing with their peas this year? A few years ago I crossed Schweizer Riesen and Golden Sweet for an early, large, sweet, yellow mangetout pea. I selected for yellow, parchment free pods and called the new cultivar 'Court Estate'. This is the name given to our local area which used to be a royal hunting ground centuries ago. This pea is still not quite stable. Some of the pods were more silvery others more golden. I liked the golden ones more and called them Court Estate Gold. As expected the seeds is mixed coloured (because of their parentage), but just for 'grins' I have separated green, brown and heavily purple speckled seeds. Which means that I am growing 3 lots of Court Estate Gold this year. I think they will all look the same and that each batch will produce mixed coloured seeds in turn. We will see whether that is actually going to be the case. Maybe a cross of Court Estate Gold with Amish snap as well? Will see ...
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 10, 2010 9:16:55 GMT -5
Pisum sat arvense is just the ordinary field pea. Most definitely edible, but not as sweet as some. The Plants for a Future database has an entry: www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Pisum+sativum+arvenseThis is the original medieval pea, purple flowered and sometimes brown seeded. Much bred and improved in the last century between the wars in The Netherlands. Often described as soup pea. Very meaty and popular during fast times when meat was not eaten. Capucijn peas are arvense. I am not familiar with abyssinicum and hope to learn about these.
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 8, 2010 19:30:21 GMT -5
That is sad. More employees losing their job in these hard times. Parks carried seeds of some rarer cultivars as well, like the 'Kwintus beans' and many more.
Their demise is a loss. One of an ever lengthening line of companies, such as Seeds Blum, Abundant Life Seed Foundation, and a few more whose names I cannot remember at the moment. These companies have in common some rare heirloom varieties not available elsewhere. Hopefully the varieties will survive.
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 8, 2010 7:08:54 GMT -5
Minnie go for the named variety Russian comfrey Bocking 14. It flowers and attracts bees but does not set seed and the spread by root is very controllable indeed. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ComfreyRussian Comfrey Bocking 14 is an excellent base for homemade liquid fertiliser, especially for tomatoes because comfrey is rich in potash. I get 3 cuts of comfrey leaves here in England, which I chop roughly with a spade (make sure no bits of root are cut off because they will root readily) and use to mulch my potato plants and also my greenhouse tomatoes. Sorry, just reread your post. You have got the comfrey already. If it is not Bocking 14, then plant it as far away from vegetable plants as possible. Perhaps you have a semi-wild area somewhere? Cutting with a scythe or garden shears before the plants flower, will give you the beneficial leaves and control spread by seeding to a degree. As an alternative to chopping leaves you can mow over your harvested comfrey with a mower that collects grass for ready-to-use mulching materials.
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 8, 2010 4:36:24 GMT -5
A miracle spring baby to a miracle mother. I am so glad that she is getting better after her ordeal. Hope she is much stronger now. Update?
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 8, 2010 4:15:26 GMT -5
wildseed57
After all you had to go through, this new start sounds so positive. Gardening on top of clay will also hold in water and make watering last longer, apart from being easier to work a raised bed. Clay isn't all bad but it is just so hard to work. May I wish you a lot of success.
Yes multicoloured peas are very pretty in flower: white, two-tone purple, salmon pink and the purple and yellow pods also look good later.
Good growing and good harvests.
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 7, 2010 10:13:49 GMT -5
This is a picture of my witloof chicory, which is being blanched in a muckbucket in the conservatory/sunroom. I did evidently not block out all the light (I just inverted another muck bucket), and the blanched 'chichons' are not as tightly packet as the commercial version, but they tasted delicious. Completely bitter free. At the moment I am harvesting a second cut from the same roots. Even less tightly packed, but very useable in salads all the same. I also have roots in the garden, covered with black florists buckets, which are not ready yet. ps hope uploading this picture works Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by galina on Apr 7, 2010 6:59:19 GMT -5
Thank you for this wonderful photo - ahhh bless!
The corn salad must be a different variety clearly. Mine are very much smaller. Large Italian - ok Google brought up Bavicchi seed company selling a very large variety. I guess that may be what you have.
|
|