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Post by oxbowfarm on Feb 1, 2013 4:20:38 GMT -5
Hey Richard, that's a drag that you guys couldn't make it work with Koanga. I don't know what kind of seed storage repository NZ has, but if you can't get some tips from them you might consider contacting the US National Seed Storage Laboratory, just looking at that page, they are saying that a lot of seed kept in their conventional vault at -18C is expected to last 20-50 years. I've been in there personally on a tour (the NSSL is on the CSU campus where I went to college) its basically just a GIANT walk-in freezer filled with rolling rack library shelves with bags and bags of seed. They also have a bunch of liquid nitrogen cryo units where seed is supposed to last indefinitely but those are relatively tiny samples so they can get as much as possible into those tanks.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Feb 1, 2013 4:03:29 GMT -5
Just want to point out that high fruitfullness is negatively correlated with tuber production. In other words, a plant that produces several pounds of spuds will rarely produce fruit and vice versa. So selecting for plants that produce a lot of fruit could be bad news if you really want to get a lot of spuds. Of course, most of the commercial potatoes are male sterile so I wholeheartedly agree with getting rid of them. DarJones Hi Darrell, I'm not doubting your statement here, just hoping you could cite where you read it? I'd like to get into some more in depth potato homework. There's a pretty decent ag library I have access to up at Cornell.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 31, 2013 7:01:24 GMT -5
Usually if there is a micro-nutrient problem everyone around who farms and gardens will know about it. Bringing in organic matter and optimizing the pH are the main things you need to do. You can go really crazy doing a lot of soil testing without truly learning anything about what is actually happening in your soil. And I'm speaking as a person who spent many hours in a soils lab as a work study student watching banks of Erlenmeyer flasks swirl round and round.
Soil tests give the illusion of certainty "Oh! I need to add so many pounds of Phosphorus per acre! Problems solved!" What they really are is a best guess approximation of what is going on in your soil, assuming you've made a representative sample, at the moment you took the sample. If you took another sample from the same soil at a different time of year, you can often get totally different test results back from the same soils lab. The more soil testing you do, the deeper down the rabbit hole you can go.
Soil is an incredibly complex ecosystem. There are billions of square feet of soil surface area in the average garden bed, all of them covered in bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, protozoa, macro and micro invertebrates, etc. They haven't really even scratched the surface in terms of understanding how they all interact, interface, and compete with each other and with plants.
Don't worry about it. Get your pH in range and feed the soil OM, that's Moses and the Prophets. Anybody who tells you different is just trying to sell you something.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 31, 2013 5:54:09 GMT -5
Illinois is a cushaw, Cucurbita argyrosperma (Baker Creek is still calling it mixta, same difference) It very well could be a cushaw like Illinois, the leaves definitely look blotchy which is more common on argyrosperma and pepo than on moschata.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 30, 2013 19:10:46 GMT -5
If you sell at our Ithaca Farmer's Market, I might recognize you. We just had our World Rutabaga Curling championships. I raise strawberries, and Ithaca is the "granola" capital of the world. Anything organic sells out here. We were selling at the Curl, that was a wicked cold day this year. I raise strawberries, and Ithaca is the "granola" capital of the world. Anything organic sells out here. I wish that was actually true.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 30, 2013 18:47:07 GMT -5
Looks to me like that seedling has got some kind of chlorophyll production issue. I think what you are seeing is the pink anthocyanin pigments showing because there isn't enough/any chlorophyll in most of the cotyledon to mask them. Notice how the other seedlings have the same red/pink color on the petioles? They probably have just as much or more of the pink pigments in their cotyledons but they are masked by their normal levels of chlorophyll. Kind of cool! My guess is that seedling isn't long for this world, but it does have a little green showing so maybe it will green up and survive? If it does the pink will disappear behind the green.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 30, 2013 18:40:24 GMT -5
I hate winters out my way in NY I built a few hoophouses out of 10'x20' portable carports. I bought 4 of them for $125 each on Black Friday. I use one for hardening, and one for greenhouse overflow. I put two together for a 10'x40' row cover, and built two 40' long raised beds inside for pruned single vine tomatoes. I do all my propagation in my heated 50F greenhouse and use electric blankets for heat mats. I get 7 trays per blanket. I can relate to home-built pipe benders. I'm a master Jury-Rigger myself. Nice job, Hotwired Juryrigger's Guide to PropagationHi Hotwired, you and I are basically out the same way with the same weather. We sell almost all our produce in Ithaca. Interesting idea with the electric blankets, I'm going to have to pick one up to have on hand for emergencies. We basically have gone to using horse manure hotbeds for bottom heating our seedlings. Its a bit less controlled, but it isn't tied to the grid. I have very little confidence in the response time of NYSEG anymore. I like your carport hoophouses, what size is the tubing? If its 1.375" you can very easily strengthen them with a little windbracing made of .5" EMT and some chainlink fence brace bands. The ones from Lowes are OK but if you ever go to Penn Yan you can get real greenhouse bands at Sauders Produce which are much beefier and better galvanized AND cheaper.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 30, 2013 16:54:06 GMT -5
So...
When can we smuggle relocate some Punk Rock California Red bulblets into the Northern Hemisphere?
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 30, 2013 16:49:29 GMT -5
are the piennolo type of your interest? Hey Cortona, Yes they are. I didn't mention them in the list because I already have Grapolli di Invierno (which I grew this year and liked but didn't think to actually save them for the winter!) and some seeds of Piennolo di Vesuvio from Darrel Jones generous seed dispersal. So I have some Italian winter tomatoes to try for this thing too. By the way, I've promised you some corn seed and possibly something else. Did we ever exchange addresses? I'll PM you.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 30, 2013 11:48:05 GMT -5
Been looking into long keeping tomatoes, it occurred to me that we should have these for winter pizzas and salads, if we can keep squash in the spare bedroom we ought to have a bunch of beer flats of long keepers in there. From some queries on other boards and leafing through the 2012 SSE yearbook and especially Extreme Gardener's blog. I've oome up with this list so far. Does anybody have any of these they can send me? My seed list is up in the trades forum. - Burpee's Long Keeper
- Ruby Treasure
- Golden Treasure
- Reverend Morrow's Peach aka Reverend Morrow's Long Keeper
- Giraffe, aka Zhiraf
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 30, 2013 6:39:23 GMT -5
The new seed grown shallots will propagate vegetatively. In the fall of 2011 I planted some red ones from another market vendor and I harvested and replanted them just like a standard shallot. The main difference is that every clump will send up a flower, but they still form the same shallot clump by the end of summer.
They were perfectly hardy in ground all winter, but we had an incredibly mild winter last year. This year has been much colder so we'll see how they survive it.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 29, 2013 22:54:17 GMT -5
I Googled the Loire Valley of France, it sounds like a paradise. If your average minimum temp in January and February is 2degC you actually don't need much of a greenhouse at all to be able to grow cold hardy crops like greens. If you are looking to grow warm season stuff in winter it looks like more than insulation you'd need some kind of supplemental lighting with only average 70 hours of sunlight in January. If you are going to use masonry as thermal mass you need to insulate it from the exterior.
I think it is easier if not prettier to build a wooden wall and then use water in drums as thermal mass. You can build benches right on top of the drums.
Is the greenhouse for propagation or for growing food out of season?
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 29, 2013 20:56:03 GMT -5
Yes, I have a couple ounces of Kakai from this years' crop. Just PM me your address.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 28, 2013 19:23:19 GMT -5
OK, I want a short-season (60 day) bush pumpkin with powdery mildew immunity and when you cut it open it it has your Halloween costume inside. This year I'm planning to go as Fezzik the Giant on the wheelbarrow in the Holocaust Cloak so they need to program that in too.
Bring it, Morflora!
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Post by oxbowfarm on Jan 28, 2013 17:01:49 GMT -5
I've been growing D'olicho di Veneto, also Italian (obviously) and it looks very similar to Holly's picture. Pink/white flowers and clusters of pods raised above the height of the plants. The seeds are greenish but otherwise look like a regular blackeyed pea.
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