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Post by richardw on Sept 12, 2018 14:49:07 GMT -5
A question to panel - does Ipomoea batatas grow best in soil that has a clay layer/pan?, i was always lead to believe that it needed to so as to stop roots from going too deep. I dont have clay below my soil but instead its free running shingle. So the last growing season i prepared a bed by laying a sheet of plastic down after i had moved the soil to one side, then mounded it back on top and planted my two Kumara cuttings that i had wintered over. I wouldn't imagine there would be anyone here who has ground like mine though, so yer... thoughts?
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Post by richardw on Sept 11, 2018 20:52:57 GMT -5
Milky blue sky here today from Australia, i presume it will be from controlled burns, along with the smoke is some warmer air
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Post by richardw on Sept 11, 2018 0:32:45 GMT -5
I sow Fava beans in autumn over a two month period and take seed from the oldest surviving plants in spring, thanks to a mild winter these were knee high and flowering before they lost there tops to frost, but came away as it warmed. They would be the most advanced Fava plants ive grown to regrow again come spring. This variety grows very tall at about 1.7 metres.
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Post by richardw on Sept 9, 2018 15:33:33 GMT -5
Noticed yesterday a seed that had broken the surface was not making any more progress so i lifted it out to see why, it had a root of about 10mm long but it was all black, the little bugger had kicked the bucket.
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Post by richardw on Sept 8, 2018 20:04:01 GMT -5
And they are quite good as a winter house plant too.
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Post by richardw on Sept 8, 2018 14:43:15 GMT -5
Ive wintered over three plants in my 'frost-free but unheated greenhouse', so yes they should slowly grow.
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Post by richardw on Sept 7, 2018 15:10:38 GMT -5
I remember you saying that some seeds can take a long time to show themselves, so i'm far from giving up. We have just had a week of cold cloudy weather and so the tunnelhouse has only been getting up around 16Cdeg in the daytime while it's 8-9Cdeg outside. But starting yesterday, we are in for a run of much warmer weather so that should help, even though its a reasonable frost this morning of -3.5C the tunnelhouse stone work has warmed enough to keep it well above freezing and now the skies are clear plus the angle of the sun, it should be around the mid 20'sC this afternoon.
Ive carefully been checking on the seeds, i can see a few swelling so i'm sure there will be more than 10.
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Post by richardw on Sept 7, 2018 1:06:28 GMT -5
Now have four fully open leafed seedlings. Hoping for at least 10 clones to establish my breeding nucleus which looks highly likely, anything after that is a bonus.
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Post by richardw on Sept 3, 2018 14:13:19 GMT -5
And i though snow was just cold, not sure what's meant by 'mild snow' and 'cold snow'
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Post by richardw on Sept 2, 2018 23:45:36 GMT -5
The weather patterns lately mean no bitter cold air masses have been directed up this way, yet Australia have had more cold than us. Our ski season saw fields some of the lowest snow base depth for many years.
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Post by richardw on Sept 2, 2018 14:06:36 GMT -5
I wonder if that diversity remains when you get up past F8-9, one would think it should stabilize out if new genetics was not added.
Total now of 9 germinating seeds
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Post by richardw on Sept 1, 2018 15:06:34 GMT -5
Two more showing and the first seedling with its first leaves
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Post by richardw on Aug 31, 2018 17:56:57 GMT -5
Great news, one seedling is starting to poke through.
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Post by richardw on Aug 31, 2018 0:30:51 GMT -5
Last day of winter here and for the third year in a row, no snow. The lack of hard frost now means knee some high Fava beans survive winter, I'll be taking seed from these. Kale grew flowers all winter but no bees around to pollinate them though. What was a hard climate to grow stuff has now become a gardeners paradise.
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Post by richardw on Aug 30, 2018 1:09:36 GMT -5
You poor bugger steev, hope you continual to improve.
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