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Post by Jim on Sept 28, 2008 19:21:44 GMT -5
Just curious whats planned for 2009?
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Post by canadamike on Sept 28, 2008 21:11:14 GMT -5
Lots of melon trialing, corn, taters, carrots.As much as I feel the need to breed an it is fun to create new stuff, there is much to be done in terms of the evaluation of accessions sleeping in genetic banks. Lunéville, Sarah and Consul Schiller are 3 very good exemples. I'll get many colored carrots accessions soon too, and I am already excited at the prospect of trialing them.
As experienced as most of us are, there is much to discover, and not only in the taste and look areas, but disease resistance, DTM etc....too.
And new genetics mean new breeding material...
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Post by Alan on Sept 28, 2008 21:26:25 GMT -5
Finishing up a lot of what I have started in the last 3 years:
Particularly working towards:
OP Astronomy Domine
Increase of Kuculi corn strain
Dent corn for decoration as well as stock feed and humanfood
Ultra II butternut OP
Trialing and Evaluating Alpine Strawberries for farmers markets and in breeding project
OSU Purple tomato in various crosses
Brandyboy OP (various other commercial F1 tomatoes in the F4 generation)
More Cotton Breeding
Fruiting trees and shrubs, grafting
Increasing seed of finished projects for offer in 2010
Big projects this year will be based mostly on organic systems managment and increasing soil fertility. Lots of thermophillic and vermicomposting projects including use of Phoenix Worms (black soldier fly larva) as well as "humanure" projects.
Another interest is quickly becoming chickens, particularly playing with what some would call "mutts", IE. Americauna/easter egg chickens along with cuckoo marans.
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Post by Alan on Sept 28, 2008 21:30:55 GMT -5
Forgot to mention trialing and breeding Muskmelon/Cantaloupe and also developing grains, particularly Quinoa and Amaranthus crosses.
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Post by Jim on Sept 30, 2008 10:31:17 GMT -5
As far as breeding experiments I'm planning on basically getting crossing tomatoes down to a science. I plan on working mainly with crossing things into the LISP dwarf champion series.
Crosses I'd like to work on:
Black plum x lisp pink
green sleeves x lisp green when ripe
sungold x lisp (any colors)
banana leggs x lisp gold
I'm sure I could make a longer list but with another baby coming I need to be serious about not taking on lofty goals. The kids obviously come first. My hobbies are a distant priority. I would however really like to work on these crosses to develop more varieties in the dwarf or very determinate types of maters. My extended family loves the manageable plant sizes it's just the flavor really isn't there in these dwarf plants.
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Post by canadamike on Oct 5, 2008 20:26:46 GMT -5
Alan, we could maybe exchange some seeds? Would you consider sending me some  Honestly, unless you have something really exceptional, I think it mostly should be the other way around. The trials brought surprises, none really known much this side of the Atlantic, and quite frankly, I honestly doubt many, or anybody around for that matter, have ever grown those which became champions here. With hundreds to trial, I expect some other surprises next year. I am looking especially to breed LUNÉVILLE, for its superb disease and bad conditions resistance, with others. Lunéville is an early PRESCOTT, realy, which does not mean it is an early melon. Manitoba looks so much alike in terms of morphilogy and is so early it should prove interesting to cross them. I also want to find/trial/breed smaller melons of the like of ANANAS D'AMÉRIQUE À CHAIR VERTE, HAOGEN, PETIT GRIS DE RENNES. There is much to say for these pint size melons, they tend to be superior in taste and incredibly beautiful, which add a lot to the experience. Orflo will send me a very tiny melon which I will use, along with SMALL FRUITED and some others. A small LUNÉVILLE would be a blast. |
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Post by johno on Oct 6, 2008 12:10:45 GMT -5
I'm definitely planning to work on Astronomy domine for the long haul. Corn is easy enough...
I'd like to try again on the C. moshata project. Everything pretty much died out on me this year. I do have one Tahitian on the vine that could have been crossed, but probably not with one of the bush moschatas. There is also one young fruit developing on the Musquee du Provence from Lav, but frost is coming in about three weeks... Next year might be a better year for squash.
In fact, I'd pretty much like to repeat this year's attempts all the way around - tomatoes, melons, etc. - but on a more realistic scale. My spine damage has decreased the amount of time I can spend being productive more than I wanted to believe. So I'll be cutting back on the amount of space that requires work, and devoting what's left over to plants that don't require work, mostly beneficial insect habitat.
I never managed to cross any tomatoes, but not for lack of trying. I made progress this year in understanding what exactly to do, if nothing else, and got some practice in. My biggest problem so far has been getting pollen - emasculating the 'mama' turned out to be the easy part. At least I have my tomato breeding toolkit all ready for next year. Next year I will start as soon as the first flowers appear, in hopes that pollen flows freer at that time.
I'd really like to work with Kieth's Purple Haze hybrid. It's everybody's favorite. I took cuttings from the F1 and from both the large-fruited and the cherry type F2s. Good incentive to work on that greenhouse! The other toms that I want to work with the most are Vorlon, Guernsey Island, and Brad's Black Heart. I'm also very curious about crossing a few cherries: Cerise orange, Whippersnapper, and Negro Azteca. I have all winter to consider the possibilities, but I know I want to cross Purple Haze with Vorlon.
There is a gopher the size of a dog that keeps stealing the tomatoes and melons about a day or two before I would harvest them. I have a bullet with his name on it, but he seems to have ESP... Assuming that situation gets rectified, my plan for reducing the number of melons I work with is simple: if it tastes like cantelope or has salmon colored flesh, I'm not interested. Green fleshed are my preference, but I also like some of the yellow and white fleshed melons (Santa Claus, Crenshaw, etc.). There are few exceptions to the rule... I love Noir des Carmes, and will consider Charentais.
Two other things, though, that have piqued my interest this year are carrots and kales. I saved seeds from some carrots that did well left to nature's hands; they were either St. Valery or Oxheart, maybe both. The soil here is not carrot-friendly, but these two are reportedly good fro heavy soil. I recently bought some Little fingers carrot seed, as I'd like to breed the size down a bit to further the ability for tough soil. Also saved seed from Dwarf Blue kale that was grown near a mix of collards (saved seed from them, too). I'll be resowing these soon to see what I get. Dr. Kapuler has been working on a cross between kale and collards, the working name is Steel Green, I think. (My memory is in the toilet this morning...) I'd like to get a small batch of those seeds to try out if he offers them through SSE next year. Bought some Siberian Kale seed also, and I'm curious to see if I like it well enough to work with it.
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Post by americangardener on Oct 6, 2008 18:54:59 GMT -5
Well ya all got grand plans!! Me i don't know what i'll be doing for breeding projects yet. It'll definately be doing something with luffas. I must be the only one here with a passion for em.. but that's one thing i'm determined to keep at. I'll be doing more growouts and evaluations with different beans, and not so much with the tomatoes and peppers as i have been in the past. It's kinda hard to say right now what i'll be doing since i've kinda got my mind pre-occupied with starting up a new seed company next year. That's gonna take up a great deal of my planning time. Right now i'm working on the business plan and hopefully i'll file the articles of incorporation for my new company sometime around Jan 1st. Still looking for recuits for the board of directors and all that. But, hopefully i'll have a little online seed company up and running by next fall. Nothing much to start out mind ya.. probably only have a few hundred varieties to offer to start out. But, something i can build on over time. I'm hoping to growout the most exclusive varieties i can come up with next year though.. May work against me having unknown stuff.. but i think there's a market for it. If not i'll adjust my strategy after i get it going.
It's just that i'm tired of having nothing to my name but dirt. Dirt ya can't pass on to your children when you're gone and i'm not gonna be round for a whole lot longer. So, that's why i got to get that started up this year.
Dave
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Post by plantsnobin on Oct 6, 2008 20:13:10 GMT -5
Well Dave, that certainly sounds exciting! I think that now is a great time to be in the seed business, as interest in growing food is on the rise. Good luck with your plans.
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Post by canadamike on Oct 6, 2008 20:57:14 GMT -5
Tomatoes= dirty green hands Potatoes = dirty gray hand Peppers = one or the other Luffa =GOOD SCRUBBING Now I get it. Still, you're weird   If I can help in any way with the seeds, you know you can call me. Bravo for doing it my friend. Can I be your first customer?  |
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Oct 6, 2008 21:22:00 GMT -5
OOOOO, This is soooo exciting!! A new seed company. Dave, put me on the customer list as well.
I've only tried luffas once and they were a miserable failure. Perhaps that can be one of my experiments in 2009. I've got about 25 years gardening experience since the last time I tried them. Perhaps this time, I will be successful? Or not, LOL
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Post by americangardener on Oct 6, 2008 22:54:09 GMT -5
Well Dave, that certainly sounds exciting! I think that now is a great time to be in the seed business, as interest in growing food is on the rise. Good luck with your plans. Exciting isn't exactly what i'd call it.. frustrating, challenging and alot of hard work maybe. But, i figure you may be right bout the timing. It's not something i relish doing.. but it is something i'm capable of doing. And i got no better options.. so here i go. What i'm doing is setting up a sub chapter S corporation.. it's something i have some experience with. It's bout the best choice for a business type i know of that i can handle. And it's gonna be my last attempt at starting a business whether it makes it or fails.. so really failure isn't an option. My past experience with business formation was most successfull with a 501c3 corporation i co-founded back in 1990, which to this day has a multi-million dollar annual budget. That's something i am quite proud of.. but it's also something i never took a penny out of for the entire ten years i ran it. I retired from that board of directors bout 8 years ago. Now, this will be a whole different kind of undertaking. This time it's for profit. I know i can do it... but, doing it alone isn't appealling. I can do everything myself.. but i just can't do it all at once... not to mention the time involved will be greatly stretched out if i do. So, I'm probably gonna be looking for all kinds of help, and advice from everyone here. And ya i'm gonna be looking for shareholders and people for suppliers, and lots of customers when it does get going. Lots, and lots of hard work still ahead... boy is that exciting? |
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Post by americangardener on Oct 6, 2008 23:05:09 GMT -5
Tomatoes= dirty green hands Potatoes = dirty gray hand Peppers = one or the other Luffa =GOOD SCRUBBING Now I get it. Still, you're weird If I can help in any way with the seeds, you know you can call me. Bravo for doing it my friend. Can I be your first customer? Yah.. and ya call me weird.. I'm just insane! You're much weirder than me. You know i'm gonna be calling on ya for all kinds of help Michel.. if i knew how to set up an international corporation i'd be asking ya to be president of it or something.. but i don't. I'll find a million and one ways to use the heck outta ya though. You know you're a good friend.. and i'd always give ya anything i got for free.. but if ya want to be a customer when i start up.. well..what can i say. I do intend to sell worldwide once i get set up. May have to do some more researching on different countries laws and regulations.. but fortunately canada isn't gonna be any problem that i can foresee. It'll be next fall before i actually start up operations for sales Michel.. i gotta do alot of tasks before that'll be ready. In the meantime.. i'm sure we'll be swapping some seeds. Just let me know when you want something. Dave |
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Post by americangardener on Oct 6, 2008 23:15:27 GMT -5
OOOOO, This is soooo exciting!! A new seed company. Dave, put me on the customer list as well. I've only tried luffas once and they were a miserable failure. Perhaps that can be one of my experiments in 2009. I've got about 25 years gardening experience since the last time I tried them. Perhaps this time, I will be successful? Or not, LOL Ok.. blue.. you can get your first order free. It'll be next year though. In the meantime i'll see if i can't scounge up some luffa seeds i can send ya. I may have planted all i had this year.. and then, well when the flats got knocked upside down on the ground i sorta gave up on the broken seedlings. So, i didn't get any seed increases this year. I may have one or two varieties where i'll be harvesting a few seeds from later on this month if ya want some though. Then i'm sure i'll get more this winter thru trades, i know where to find em. When i do get some if ya want to try em.. i'm sure i'll get a couple extra. Oh.. and Michel.. i forgot to mention.. i grow em to eat.. the scrubbing is just a bonus. They make great summer type squash in my opinion. Course you probably only grow the dishrag kind. |
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Post by canadamike on Oct 6, 2008 23:18:39 GMT -5
Well, the french, belgians and others buy their seeds on this side of the Atlantic, and if Gere had a translated site, he would make an even bigger killing. Even some small companies in Québec are actually better known across the pond because of that. Our european friends envy our laws and freedom to trade and sell heirloom seeds A LOT, and the variety we have access to. This year biggest client of my friend Patrice, who reads us here and should join after the crazyness of the summer and harvest, was a ''conservatoire'' in France, some historical domaine that has been classified and is now devoted to growing historical vegetables. They have to cross the pond to buy THEIR seeds from us!!! Translate my friend, translate, they are waiting for you eagerly... I know a guy with a degree in marketing, experience in sales and strong language skills that could help you out on this one...  |
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