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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 21, 2016 1:06:26 GMT -5
I too don't like Sungold, but it is the smell that is repulsive to me. Sungold seems to be quite popular. I've never tried it though. I'm curious to know more about how it smells different than normal tomato plants. Does it really smell that bad? Honestly i think normal tomatoes smell kinda weird, not necessarily repulsive, but not really good. Is it just because you have been conditioned to like the smell of normal tomatoes that anything different you perceive as bad, or is it more a biological reaction? Is it because some of the wild genes are still present as sungold is reported to have a wild ancestor? Some of the original p20 tomatoes smelled kinda weird if i remember correctly. Perhaps they too retained some of those wild genes. I'm growing out some galapagense and cheesmaniae plants this year. I've read reports that some of them have a odor to them. Do they have the same odor as the sungold plants? Other people have said sungold smells different: forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2173039/smell-of-tomato-foliage
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 19, 2016 18:16:59 GMT -5
The maturities of the Coroico I'm growing are all over the place. A few of them, with very low ear attachment (12" off the ground) have already made black layer, so I'm getting a trickle of ears to look at. This ear has a really good expression of row interlocking. On some of the ears like this one, the rows are almost overlapped with some rows deeper/closer to the cob and the alternate rows projecting out slightly. Hopefully that shows up in the picture. Just noticed this today. WOW! That corn looks VERY interesting! Any chance there will be some to share in the future? I'm always on the lookout for novel ornamental corn traits.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 19, 2016 10:19:28 GMT -5
Nice corn Søren! Looking good. I think you can grow corn just fine where you are if you use the right genetics. I look forward to seeing more of your corn in the future!
When i first started out it was fairly common to get sparse cobs like that. In my case i had planted two or three long rows rather than in a large square. I've successfully grown corn in a 10ft x 10ft (~10 sq. m?) square with corn planted a foot apart. Technically i probably have more room than that, but i haven't tried going any bigger. Since corn is basically a grass i guess it needs to be planted and treated as such. Some people isolate their corn by great distances to prevent cross pollination, but as Joseph has mentioned before, and my own observations is that while corn pollen might be able to travel far in a heavy gust of wind, often light breezes only push the pollen a foot or two away at most as the pollen is very heavy.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 18, 2016 23:38:00 GMT -5
Thanks for the offer, Keen! I think you are right about the genetics. Interestingly, I heard from a gardener in the area who got a cantaloupe from a volunteer compost pile plant, apparently store bought. I guess that could have reflected F2 genetics from a commercial hybrid. Too bad they didn't save it. Also, I tried "blacktail Mountain" with no luck, despite its repute. My mom has either a cousin or a friend that lives somewhere around Greeley. From what i'm told she grows honeydews, cantaloupe, and other melons regularly without problems. But i think she puts considerable effort into her soil. I grew cantaloupe one years a long time ago and they did ok. Those were average store bought seeds too. Yes, blacktail mountain also did poorly for me. I think i included it twice just to be sure, but ultimately it fared poorly for me as well. I guess it just doesn't like Colorado despite it suposedly being bred in Idaho. Not sure why, one possibility is that it is now a variety grown so widely, including the south, that perhaps many of the ones grown under that name have lost some advantage it once had to us in northern climates. Or perhaps Colorado weather is just so wacky the poor watermelon just never has a chance. Whatever the reason it is certainly a poor choice here. Another reason for me to like the artificial landrace collaboration that Joseph and i undertook together (along with other collaborators i'm told as well) to develop our own watermelons that thrive for us. Here's hoping this year is a good year for watermelon.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 18, 2016 18:21:50 GMT -5
Hi All, I'm very interested in your work, since I struggle with growing melons. I've tried for three years, and no melons yet. Denver is a radiant cooled high desert. So we have the sun, but no heat and no water! Specific to watermelons, i think i tried 4 or 5 years without success. If you want one variety that should do well i recommend yellow doll. It has some of the right genetics and small size to make it. I'm just a little north of you, so if i get a good crop I'll plan on sending you some seeds. I also threw in a few old seeds of Joseph's cantaloupes. I haven't tried cantaloupe in awhile, but generally they (and other true melons) are easier to grow than watermelon and you should be able to grow them in Denver since our conditions are the same. My best tip is to start with the right genetics. Once you have that right everything else becomes so much easier. Good soil is nice, but it's easier to adapt plants to your soil than it is to adapt your soil to those seed packets you find at your local big box store.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 16, 2016 1:15:15 GMT -5
I'm up to three distinct varieties. Thats all im going to try. I have them rooting in water in a warm window sill making slips. Not sure of the names other than thw stokes purple. One is a short stubby one that grows slow that i don't particularly care for, but i figure it cant hurt and wont take up any extra space. Anything to try and increase the odds of getting some true sweet potato seeds.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 15, 2016 11:50:04 GMT -5
Today i decided to plant the last third of my watermelon seeds. I was saving them for safety / backup to plant at a more normal watermelon planting time, but i decided what the heck. I would prefer to have watermelons that can be direct seeded early and germinate early to get that extra tiny bit of growing time. I felt it was worth the risk. Since i did not water the seeds i figure they will have a better chance of surviving and not rotting and/or germinating earlier that they should. I will let nature do the watering for now. There is some snow predicted for friday. This is basically what i did a few years back just in april instead of march, so i dont expect major problems. At the very least i expect some watermelon to grow if by bad luck some do not.
In the frost tolerant melon thread (http://alanbishop.proboards.com/thread/6136/frost-tolerance-melons) Joseph mentioned that my proto-landrace originally was the winner of the early germination test. So why not try to reproduce that. I believe back in 2011 and 2012 i planted my watermelon seeds on April 1st, still far earlier than people say you should plant watermelon, but some of that is negated by the fact that they are direct seeded instead of transplanted.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 13, 2016 23:39:19 GMT -5
Still running over ideas for this. Sweet potatoes have the handy trait that their tubers just keep getting bigger the longer the plants live. I'm certainly no expert, but i would think sweet potatoes would be better suited for this than regular potatoes. My understanding is that sweet potatoes are more of a vine, and vines are easy to bury and root. Perhaps what you need are potatoes that have more wild traits like S. chocoenese which are reported to have their tubers further away and deeper than cultivated potatoes. Have you thought about other root crops like Oca or Yacon?
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 12, 2016 21:08:40 GMT -5
Snow has been predicted for later this week. I guess on Friday.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 11, 2016 20:39:18 GMT -5
Hey nice trailer! I'm impressed!
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 10, 2016 23:35:04 GMT -5
Don't know where to post this. In anticipation for this years garden i started some tomato seedlings indoors in a flat with adequate lighting. I plant to start more soon. Part of my tomato grow outs (and potential breeding) will include several (what i thought) interesting Solanum cheesmaniae and Solanum galapagense accessions.
While i did not plant all of them, of the 6 accessions i have planted i have two or three that have not germinated any, two that have only germinated two, and i have one that out of 6 cells has germinated what may be 5. It is still early and more could germinate in the future, but the one that has germinated 5/6 seems promising. It is accession LA0530 and is described as having orange-brown fruits. The only accession described with that description. All of these followed the suggestion to use a 2.7% bleach solution for 1 hour. Mine was probably closer to 3% at 1 hour.
Does the bleach really improve germination for galapagos tomatoes? I find it hard to believe that they really need that to germinate and find the whole tortoise thing to sound awfully like a myth. In fact some of the accessions were found on islands where no tortoises are known to live or visit and are wondered by scientists if they have spread by birds and/or iguanas. Some are highly attractive to invasive feral goats apparently. Although goats probably eat anything.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 9, 2016 19:13:00 GMT -5
Thanks for the seeds Joseph! I'm looking forward to trying a few of your tomatoes this year. I will do my best to watch for 1.plants highly attractive to pollinators 2.Those with large flowers, open, and/or exerted stigmas. A few days ago I planted seeds from S. habrochaites and S. pennellii. They are both sprouting today. My intention is to use them as pollen donors to domestic tomatoes. I'd like to use DXX-M (Dx51-12 X Jagodka) as the mother of the crosses. I hope to incorporate self-incompatibility into my tomatoes. They may also introduce more open flower structures. I'm also currently experimenting with a growth-chamber so that I can create short-day conditions to induce them to flower early. Since plants mostly absorb blue and red wavelengths many of the premium grow lights use red/blue bulbs and/or LEDs. So i was curious to know how each spectrum affected plant growth. Apparently blue b itself can be used to keep plants short and stout, while more red light can simulate the ending of the season and therefore you can trick some plants into flowering early if you use a higher red light ratio. Perhaps you should consider adding red light to your growth-chamber and/or greenhouse.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 9, 2016 15:27:40 GMT -5
Well, looks like i'm doing quite a bit of my planting early this year. Today i direct seeded 2/3 of my watermelon seeds (i will sow the other third when the time seems closer to normal just in case). I also planted a haphazard plot of Astronomy Domine Sweet corn interplanted with the rest of the Zea mexicana teosinte seeds i saved. I figured what the heck. I've been itching to grow teosinte again. I dont know why i have such a love and fascination for it. If nothing else it will give me something else to report back to grin this year so they dont think im a seed stealer. I think the seed was requested back in 2011 or 2012, so its about time i plant it. With the watermelon i intermingled a bunch of regular melon seed that included some bush cantaloupe from joseph and hopefully some dalamon melon.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 7, 2016 14:02:30 GMT -5
Everyone seems to have their own "doings" threads that i often feel left out. I prefer group threads myself. Today i planted all my breeding peas. It included 'Orange Pod' from IPK Gatersleben, Salmon-flowered (with potential F1 hybrids with Biskopens), Biskopens (with various potential F1 hybrids), Joseph's Red Podded, Joseph's Red Snap, Joseph's Yellow podded, Joseph's Yellow snap with pink spots, Virescens Mutante, Kapuler bred varieties: Sugar Magnolia (with various potential F1 hybrids), Spring Rose, Green Beauty and Sugaree. And others including my brown mottled Mummy pea and green seeded unnamed umbellatum originally from USDA GRIN. In addition i direct seeded a few seeds i saved from the teosinte diploperennis-corn(maize) hybrids and Zea Mexicana teosinte within the pea breeding patch. I'm hoping at least one will make it to seed this year before fall ends. Here's crossing my fingers. I planted my pea stakes in a circle this year specifically to create a fence around the teosinte and teosinte hybrids. Last time i grew teosinte the racoons broke them stupidly thinking it was corn with something to eat. I'm sure they were disappointed. I sure was. I got them planted before it started to rain. I preparing to have a large tomato grow out this year. Generally i stay away from tomatoes as i have not had great luck in the past. But i'm going to try and change that this year or at least work toward it. I'm tired of cardboard tasting pale red store tomatoes. I want some color and flavor. I also would hope to eventually work towards Joseph's goal of a highly attractive to bees and highly outcrossing tomatoes. Bonus if those tomatoes are frost tolerant. Biggest selection is tomatoes that do well here. And by that i mean they thrive even in poor soil, produce abundantly, and fit my other tastes. I does not matter if an heirloom like Cherokee Purple tastes great, but only makes one tomato the whole season. That's just lame. I already have some Mighty Midget and Purple Passion peas growing in my cold frame. Also some discarded small peas were some of the first to grow that i threw in a spot last fall. I guess you could call them winter peas. This is the earliest i've ever planted before. But based on what others have said and my climate graph of my area it seems like i could have always planted peas in march. It's certainly been warm enough. It's even warm enough i'm considering planting some indian corn since i know it survives frosts just fine. But i dont know if i'm going to plant corn this year... still thinking about it.
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Post by keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.) on Mar 4, 2016 12:20:24 GMT -5
Do the wild crossed ones have speckles or is that just from environmental scarring? You said some of those taste better, how so. More complex flavors? The Wild Cross 5 plant has the "zebra stripe" pattern. Regarding the speckles: There were only two tomatoes in my garden last year with speckles on them. One plant from the wild crosses, and a variety which I have grown for years. I consider speckles to be part of it's phenotype. Both of the wild crosses that I thought were particularly tasty had green coloring around the gel-sack. They both seemed sweet, and had complex flavors. I'm delighted to report that most of the tomato photos from last growing season are now lost to me!!! I'll try to get more and better photos next growing season. I call my other tomato Brad that has speckles on the skin: The speckled ones seem interesting. Speckled, striped, and multicolored all together would be interesting. But some of those striped ones are striking as well. I've just discovered Frogsleap farm breeding ventures and their tomato breeding is amazing! They have many breeding lines that are amazing even though many of them are cherry size. The have an interesting one that has striking gold specks on a blue background. They also have an interesting one that they call Bengal Tiger that has blue stripes. But they have other striking striped and bicolor and multicolor ones as well. frogsleapfarm.blogspot.com/2010/12/freckles.htmlfrogsleapfarm.blogspot.com/2012/06/siberian-tiger-f4.htmlAs a side conversion, Joseph i think these are more like what people want when they as for "heirloom" tomatoes. What they really want is a tomato that does not resemble the pale red awful tasting perfectly round or oval ones from the store. What they want is a good sized slightly mishapen, multicolored good tasting tomato. For a red tomato, that Brad one looks pretty nice.
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