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Post by templeton on Jan 28, 2014 16:31:37 GMT -5
Welcomeaboard, free, mich, kev, and phil. The international mix is great. Dare I mention the word globalisation ? T
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Post by templeton on Jan 28, 2014 16:16:29 GMT -5
Yep, if you get some spare seed, I could cross it with the seed from the one I've left to grow on, and maybe get a bit of vigour back in the line. Can't believe I just implied that tromboncino is lacking vigour...I think I meant fecundity.
and Mike, I gave everything a good spray with seaweed yesterday, with a touch of fish emulsion poured in for good measure. They had semed to slow their growth a bit. T
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Post by templeton on Jan 27, 2014 19:54:40 GMT -5
Ray, I've got 4 different lines growing - some of your flowering ones, some of your topsetters, some from a friend, and my originals. All of them apart from mine are bulbing and look like stopping for the season. Looking very potato onion like. I'm wondering if its a cultivation thing. Mine which are growing in the same bed about 6 inches away are powering on, not looking like setting basal bulbs. I'll post some pics later. The seedling topset from my last year's topset de-bubliling experiment is getting even larger. And my original topsets are also flowering, and i might have one or two seeds. Did the de-bulbing thing again, but not very stringently. T
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Post by templeton on Jan 26, 2014 23:40:36 GMT -5
A question from somebody who has never grown a green tomato - how do you tell when it's ripe?? Texture? A very nice looking tomato, I do not see many homegrown tomatoes that do not have bad cracking. Blackox, you've got to give them a try, if you can get over the 'tomatoes have to be red' syndrome. Ripenes can be tested by giving them a gentle squeeze. And Grubs does develop a faint yellow blush on the blossom end. I think I posted previously on this thread how I gave some to a 'grow for restaurants' farmer friend, and the chefs went mad for them.That, and japanese black trifele. I've just picked my first KBX for theseason - I remember now,THAT'S why I grow them.YUMMM! Must give him some kbx seed to try. T
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Post by templeton on Jan 25, 2014 23:26:31 GMT -5
The reason I suspect genetics is a few years ago I got great production, ran out of that seed packet, bought a new packet from the same supplier, then a decrease in production. Maybe they replaced their wholesaler. Rowan, is your seed also from diggers? Michel, I will certainly try the seaweed spray - a compelling example. And your english is way better than my mostly forgotten schoolboy French!
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Post by templeton on Jan 25, 2014 17:36:14 GMT -5
My go to zucchini-like cucurbit is Tromboncino, but the last couple of seasons fruit set has been poor, and I'm wondering if it's the line of seeds I'm now using. Anyone notice variation in production in this variety? That most recent packet of seed is now empty, and I need a replacement. Any recommendations? And yes, squash seed is an allowed import to Aust at least for the moment.
Additionally, I seem to recall someone mentioning somewhere that a less rampant form of this exists. Any hints on where I might chase it up for next year? T
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Post by templeton on Jan 25, 2014 17:28:15 GMT -5
... Further, since it's common knowledge that the Highway Patrol targets red vehicles, I'm pretty sure muting my truck's redness has saved me (some) tickets. You don't mind the drop in performance brought on by the de-rubifaction? T
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Post by templeton on Jan 25, 2014 16:52:19 GMT -5
If I wash my truck, it will fall apart (even faster); it's a little-known fact that nothing protects automotive paint as well as a seasoned layer of dirt. That washing it would draw rain is just superstition. Further, since it's common knowledge that the Highway Patrol targets red vehicles, I'm pretty sure muting my truck's redness has saved me (some) tickets. I've never washed a car. Every once in a while, I'll take my car in for service and they'll wash it. It just looks wrong. Considering that we live in a salt air/rapid rust zone, I think there may be something to the idea of protective grime. The protective qualities of car dirt are clear, if only from anecdotal evidence. The destructive power of the washing process is less reported, but clearly washing a car ruins it. There's your trusty steed, just like the day you bought her, except for the layer of grime, and the 100,000 on the clock. Just for a treat you decide to give her a wash. Then as you wash, you stand back to admire your handiwork, (not you Bill obviously since you've never done it )and now her previously unblemished complexion is covered with lots of little dints, and scratches all over her, just as if someone has opened their car door into yours, or bumped her with a shopping trolley or scraped her past that bush in the driveway or touch parked in the parking lot! I've given up my infrequent washing regime completely now, if only to preserve her resale value (which is only notional, how could I ever sell her? Can't report on the car washing/precipitation debate, insufficient data points on both counts. T
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Post by templeton on Jan 22, 2014 21:08:03 GMT -5
...and our cars will go un-washed. Personally, I'm so environmentally sensitive and responsible that I've not washed my truck thrice since I bought it in '89. That's a corollary of Quentin Crisp's approach to dusting the house isn't it - hereT
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Post by templeton on Jan 22, 2014 21:04:22 GMT -5
...we really need to get over our repression about pissing in the back yard... Yeah, most of my citrus are in the front yard, the poor Eureka lemon out the back really suffers... T
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Post by templeton on Jan 21, 2014 19:56:22 GMT -5
Although I've just become aware of and interested in landrace development, almost everything I pull up to read about has been authored by you. It's changed how I'm looking at everything, too. I can greatly see the benefit of genetic diversity in these times of unpredictable weather. So I would have to second steev 's comment. With a long growing season and two opportunities per year to plant a lot of things it should go faster, if I can only figure out what I'm doing. I need plants that are cold tolerant, heat tolerant, and drought tolerant. Carol Deppe reckons in one of her books that cold and heat tolerance are really two sides of the one genetic coin - climatic extreme tolerance, so it might not be too hard to get. Maybe it is in the cytoplasmic dna? Just a suggestion. T
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Post by templeton on Jan 16, 2014 15:27:57 GMT -5
A brother in law and sister in law have just moved from Cairns in the tropical north of Oz to Ohakune in NZ. I admire those who can pull up roots and move. Despite a life of travel Eucalypt smoke is in my veins, I reckon. (I remember having a little cry over the smell of the leaves of the two big eucs growing in front of the post office in Kathmandu in my 20s ). I think there are quite a few expat Yanks in Tasmania as well, part of the whole vietnam war/exon valdez/MAD exodus of the second half of last century. I've been playing the 'where do you want to live' thing with partner recently, but can't afford anywhere were we would want to go.
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Post by templeton on Jan 16, 2014 1:44:29 GMT -5
Fire sale of short summer, cold winter adapted vegie seed on the cards, then T
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Post by templeton on Jan 14, 2014 23:29:06 GMT -5
All that green hurts my eyes... (just envy from the sunburnt country ) Looks and sounds gorgeous Syn, just some cheeky prying, you're in N America, no? So how do you even begin to conceptualise moving to a foreign country on the other side of the pacific? T
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Post by templeton on Jan 14, 2014 19:30:54 GMT -5
Crispped off the tips of some parsnips ans beans, sun scalded a to ato fruit, but not too much affected. Lots of shade cloth up, and turned up the dripper tube. T
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