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Post by templeton on Jul 30, 2017 8:25:39 GMT -5
I'll check a roadside near here - but individual tree , I think Someone local = Victoria posted a pic of a fruit on FB yesterday, so they might be fruiting here.
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Post by templeton on Jul 30, 2017 8:21:28 GMT -5
soil fungi?
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Post by templeton on Jul 30, 2017 4:36:46 GMT -5
And here I thought Lillypilly was made up! I made sour plum gin. It's a lovely magenta color and quite yummy. We got lilypilly and bidgeewidgee, but i don't think either of them grow in Suggan Buggan or Wagga Wagga.
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Post by templeton on Jul 30, 2017 4:22:07 GMT -5
Phila, I think they are living in the greenhouse... I'm overwintering a nice blue chilli in there, and had a look a few weeks ago, most of the fruits removed, in a neat pile on the soil, the fruity outside nibbled off, the hot seeds and membrane left in piles surrounded by rat shit on the soil...The totally consumed peas aren't too precious, they were F2 of my next gen purple podded peas, aiming for vegetable perfection - my beds are going to be full of red-podded project lines anyway, and i did manage to salvage enough single pods to continue the important lines. T
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Post by templeton on Jul 29, 2017 3:16:54 GMT -5
Well long service leave started today, and I headed out to the garden to bring in all the mature pods on my coloured pea breeding lines - only to be confronted with a 'valuable learning experience'.
My F2 Jupiter X Giant Snowman cross (searching for a Deppe style eat everything even when mature purple podded pea), - the plants that were covered in maturing pods a week ago - were bereft of pods...not a single pod left. Checked all the breeding lines, in all my beds and many/most were decimated. It's gotta be the rats, that I thought were feasting on next door's lillypilly which is shedding fruit everywhere, but apparently there are some nutrients in the peas that are desirable... Interestingly, in my red lines, most of the antho lines were smashed, but the yellow lines growing with them - they are still segregating - were untouched. If only i could train a rodent to indicate the higher nutrient lines without eating them...rat-on-a-leash...my poor mother would have nightmares, being rodentaphobic... Well on most of the plants i managed to find a small upper pod or two with what i hope are mature enough seeds to go on with the next generation (F6) for an Antipodean vernal planting in a month or so. but those plants that were stripped - were they the best, tastiest, most nutritious plants? I'll never know...
I'm hoping that some of the Jupiter X Giant Snowman F2 seeds are still in the seed library - clearly they were very desirable, suggesting that the cross was a good one. T
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Post by templeton on Jul 29, 2017 1:59:03 GMT -5
Well, I had a bit of an exploration, and ended up digging up the whole bed. So, denizens of the frosty North, how do i best prepare the roots for a month's fridge storage prior to replanting? I imagine I should remove foliage, leave growing tip undamaged, loosely packed relatively dry in a plastic bag?
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Post by templeton on Jul 26, 2017 17:35:12 GMT -5
collected lilypilly fruits from the street tree across the road, intending to make a magenta-purple infused gin. The colour faded to almost nothing after 30 minutes (not my picture)
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Post by templeton on Jul 26, 2017 17:19:54 GMT -5
Its more a timing issue than cold intensity - I think. We don't get really long leisurely springs here. Some years I'm watering continuously from mid october. carrots don't seem to re-establish that well under my care, and getting the selections re-established early seems prudent. I'm never going to get really big robust roots under an autumn/winter/spring seed rotation. T
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Post by templeton on Jul 26, 2017 1:28:16 GMT -5
I'm growing out selections from mass crossed coloured carrots searching for a coloured 'paris Market' type. I'm at about F4 or F5, but with lots of selection still to do - mass crosses are time consuming! Anyway, I've been doing late summer sowing, pulling in late winter, and replanting for seed production in the next summer. Last couple of years I've had issues with quite a few plants not going to seed. And others rotting after replanting. This year's complication is a 7 week absence from the garden over the best part of spring. My questions - how long should i plan on fridge stratification? I have a few possibilities - 1. pull now while v small, fridge for 3-4 weeks, replant just before I'm away and take advantage of good=damp weather while im gone, 2. pull now, fridge for 11 weeks, replant and nurse them through summmer, 3.delay for 4 weeks, pull, store in fridge for 7 weeks, replant in late spring and nurse through summer...
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Post by templeton on Jul 22, 2017 3:20:25 GMT -5
I've got the next 3 months work-free (long service leave - apparently a uniquely Antipodean workers right - fancy that!) so will try to post a bit more, having a bit more time on my hands. (from wiki "Long service leave was introduced in Australia in the 1860s. The idea was to allow civil servants the opportunity to sail home to England after 10 years’ service in ‘the colonies’. It was 13 weeks for every ten years of service, composed of five weeks to sail back to England, three weeks of leave and five weeks to sail back.") T
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Post by templeton on Jul 17, 2017 1:07:02 GMT -5
I've had a couple of tastes of Shiraz - not very impressed. Is that really the best T&M, professional seedsmen can actually do? If i recall they claim to have spent a decade developing it - I was most depressed when they released it thinking my toil was wasted. How come a clueless breeder like me with little knowledge and less experience can produce a far superior purple pea? and not just dumb luck, i've got three good lines. T
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Post by templeton on Jul 17, 2017 0:57:33 GMT -5
It's just another of the constant changes - my vinyl hasn't had an outing since the turntable croaked 10 years ago, i don't even look over the album covers that Ms T would love to liberate the shelves of. My cookbooks don't get opened much, inspiration from the web is quicker, tho the dominance of NorthAm sites is a bit frustrating re ingredients and measures. I still love my cookbooks, and my gardening forums, and my vinyl, they all have irreplaceable uses. Just other stuff is useful too. T
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Post by templeton on Jul 16, 2017 5:59:48 GMT -5
Over on Steev's page, where Joseph kindly posted photos of the farm, you can see Templeton's parsnips growing between the rows of shallots (the photo with the play house). Templeton, this is the 3rd year I've sown a row of the seeds you sent. These were planted in early spring and are looking great. Usually parsnip seeds don't do well if over a year old. Your's were so fresh, I practically had to slap them! I've gotten several good stubbies. Which is a really really good thing. The longies always try to grow to reach down under, which results in broken implements. I love parsnip flowers. Every year I'm tempted to plant a row just for the flowers In the front of that picture, is a new to me plant, Weld. I planted it for dyeing. I also have a bed of flax, woad, indigo and madder going. Because, it's dyeing time again. Okay, back to the garden. Nice. To hear they are doing well. Will send some of the further selections when harvested next. Summer. Nice to see the pics
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Post by templeton on Jul 16, 2017 4:28:13 GMT -5
Steev, there is a web-wide decline in forum posts. Forums have sufffered at the expense of FB and instagram. The forum i mod in oz has had a huge decline in new membership, visitation, and posting. There are a few new members who post regularly, but its mostly old hands. A bit of a pity, since we often dont have much new to say to each other. Posting pics is an issue, and since many of us like to boast or enquire visually, the easy posting of pics to FB versus uploading to another site (here), or having to resize pics at my oz forum is a barrier to participation. I dislike the FB garden groups i belong to, but what do you do?
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Post by templeton on Jun 10, 2017 8:12:45 GMT -5
Despite a long-standing ban on any new kitchen items, with her away in Queensland, a hankering for sourdough, and my dodgy shoulders ruling out kneading, I got onto the local crime converts website, and picked up a bread maker for $25. Seems to do a great job on kneading, tho I suspect I won't trust it to cook. We will see after a second rising tomorrow...
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