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Post by templeton on Nov 11, 2017 4:25:28 GMT -5
Good thing is that those caging nets are not that expensive nowadays, had to replace mine this week to keep out the carrot fly, the last one lasted 15+ years but the odd hole meant that ive been getting to much grub damage come winter time. Interesting though the grub doesn't effect the seed crop, the roots that are currently close to flowering would have had grubs in them during winter. what do you use for netting? haven't looked yet, I must admit...
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Post by templeton on Nov 9, 2017 6:38:07 GMT -5
templeton Would you get 100% not getting enough stratification? i'm thinking that selecting for a warming climate is a important consideration Richard, Last year I hurried the stratification. A few of the better developed roots went on to flower - I think i only gave them a week or something in the fridge. The others continued to grow, and now a year or so later are beginning to flower. The ones I dug earlier this year, and kept in the fridge for a month or 6 weeks are almost all flowering - so I'm going to get a mix of F5 and F6 or F4 and F5 or whatever it is - I don't have enough room in my garden to separate them, struggling with my 3 or 4 selections and a couple of other grex growouts as it is - seriously looking at day caging. T
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Post by templeton on Nov 8, 2017 16:49:38 GMT -5
I've started a carrot project and get this purple-red + yellow-orange variant too. It's pretty. I take it you had flower this year? I'm going into generation 3 next year, and have added black carrots to the mix. I'm looking for something with lots of colour: orange, red, purple and maybe bright yellow but mostly the latter three. My preferred shape is the same too: broad shouldered, not too long. What I'd really love is a colour genetics chart. Don't suppose you've stumbled across any? I get flowers every year. I sow seed in late summer/autumn, dig roots early in spring, refrigerate (I'm going 4 weeks now after failures by not stratifying enough), then replant mid-spring, get flowers early summer. These replants are in bud at the moment. Same with parsnips. And no idea on colour charts. White seems to be dominant, I'm guessing red/orange are one of those codominant things. Just checked Deppe, and she notes that purple leaves/ stems are often codominant.
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Post by templeton on Nov 8, 2017 16:38:08 GMT -5
Open Source is really cool! There's even some Lofthouse goodies there! Templeton, I think you should put the Mill Creek Onion there! I don't think I can register something that someone else had bred/selected. It would be nice if it was registered.
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Post by templeton on Nov 1, 2017 17:21:19 GMT -5
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Post by templeton on Oct 31, 2017 16:56:53 GMT -5
Reed, my father was a potato wholesaler. He investigated storing potatoes with apples. Doesn't work. T
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Post by templeton on Oct 31, 2017 16:48:50 GMT -5
What is a reasonable return for a breeder who offers exclusive growing rights to a farmer? I've registered two lines through the Open Source Seed Initiative. No idea, but i also would be interested in knowing. I may want to pursue something in the future if the watermelons keep developing into something good or the citron x watermelon project or a pea line down the road. T, curious about the registering with the Open Source Seed Initiative. How does one register a variety there? Do you have a link? Follow rowan's link. Open Source. Anyone can use it for anything as long as any of the products produced also remain open source. Puts a disincentive on anyone else to sneakily claim your lines as their own. I'm going to have a chat with george this morning - I might go 10% as an opener Since I don't want to have to audit, need to keep it low enough that an honour system is sufficient. I checked out the End Point Royalty amounts (where the grower doesn't pay up front for the seed, but pays on the amount that goes to market) for various wheat varieties in Australia, between $2 and $4 per metric tonne. wheat sells for around $250 per MT at the moment, so that's up to ~2%. Given the rarity value of seed I'm producing, and the specialty product/niche market, I reckon 2% is way too low.
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Post by templeton on Oct 30, 2017 19:52:32 GMT -5
Thanks for the feedback. I'll give it a bit more thought.
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Post by templeton on Oct 30, 2017 17:13:03 GMT -5
What is a reasonable return for a breeder who offers exclusive growing rights to a farmer? OK. I've bred my coloured snowpeas. They are stable, and tasty. I've registered two lines through the Open Source Seed Initiative, and I'm distributing them fairly freely and selling online. I have other lines that I haven't registered or distributed (much). A commercial grower has put in test rows of all 4 lines, and is getting very good responses from his wholesalers. He wants to grow more. So far its been a handshake deal, he gets to grow and sell some, I get some seed back. He also gets some seed.
We want to expand. He wants to pay me. I want a (small) slice of the action. If this was actually a useful survival crop I would probably just let it go, but since its a niche boutique thing, that might have considerable potential to make money, and with my retirement looming, a little extra coming in, compensation from my 5 years of breeding work, seems like a reasonable idea.
But neither of know how exclusive licencing deals work, or what's a reasonable return. Are there any standard deals we could look at? More importantly, What is a reasonable return for the breeder? I was thinking a percentage of sales. Any online resources for this? I would rather not lawyer up for this.
I also have a number of other melon and carrot lines in the offing that we are interested in, so getting something that works ok would be good.
Additionally, he is selling a chunk of his main business (where he is growing my peas) to wholesalers, and if some bigger players are going to profit from my work, I want in - a bit. The melons and others are likely to be a side project, we can sort of pursue a little more informally.
T
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Post by templeton on Oct 27, 2017 18:22:24 GMT -5
reed, not really a totally natural solution, but i wonder if the expanded clay balls used for hydro growing would be a useful filler material. very light, easy to wash off, reusable.
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Post by templeton on Oct 7, 2017 2:18:36 GMT -5
One barrier for me posting more is the need to host photos on a second site. Since google photos changed,it's quite tedious, so I post less. I also think that within a limited community, we might have exhausted some topics of conversation - what more do keen, steve1 (amongst others) and me have left to say about purple snowpea breeding, for example?
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Post by templeton on Oct 5, 2017 16:21:05 GMT -5
By chance stopped at a little supermercato south of Gallipoli in Italy today, to find trusses of largish, flattened cherry tomatoes for sale already strung on strings for hanging. Puglia grown, advertised as pomodoro inverno, or 'winter tomatoes' with our broken language and Google translate,the young shop assistant and I managed to exchange the info that they were indeed locally grown, she hadn't heard of del Vesuvio, that the skins go wrinkly, and they would easily last a month - our exchange cut short by pushy customers...in Italy, who would have thought! A bit of a Google this afternoon and there are indeed heritage varieties here for winter storage.https://www.salentokm0.com/it/antiche-varieta/pomodoro-dinverno.
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Post by templeton on Oct 2, 2017 15:22:36 GMT -5
Currently in Puglia. Visiting markets, food stores (seeking out local producers) and such. Dried beans, chickpeas etc on display. Collected some black, red and plain chickpeas in L'aquila, supposed to be local varieties. (Had a some unusual heritage wheat on display too that I'll try to post pics of soon.) Anyone any interest in having some beans etc sent? My Italian is nonexistent, so it will mostly be a lucky dip. I'll cover postage etc. It's also melon time, tho I suspect I'm mostly seeing commercial varieties, tasty tho they be.Just message me.
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Post by templeton on Sept 17, 2017 15:12:29 GMT -5
I suspect, with out any real evidence, that we might find in coming years that there are subtleties in human nutrition that will reveal the importance of naturally grown food. The recent developments in human/gut microbial flora and fauna is a case in point. We live and participate in extraordinarily complex ecosystems that have evolved over millennia to have complex and subtle interactions and feedback loops. it beggars belief that we already know everything about them. Mind you, changing CO2 levels has been part of those systems, and while cli mate change may be concerning, I suspect there may be more troubling issues in the future around the introduction of novel chemistry and biota. We will see. Or at least future generations will. T
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Post by templeton on Sept 10, 2017 14:54:07 GMT -5
I got replacement BLs from a very generous correspondent (damien at mudflower) who sent me a selection of bulbsizes. Instantly replanted, so cant wait to see how they go. Away from my garden for 7 weeks, ... so much anticipation! thanks davidp for the reminder and all the great details.
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