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Post by oxbowfarm on Nov 19, 2011 6:59:02 GMT -5
I just got an email from GRIN stating that my Kenaf samples have shipped! I'd ordered it so long ago that I'd forgotten about it!
I'm hoping to trial these ones to see if any of them will set viable seed this far north in my little frost pocket of a farm. I usually get two weeks later frost and earlier frost than my neighbor on the hill. Such is life, I have nice silt loam and he's got nightmare clay so it all evens out. Interestingly we both have the identical amount of channers (stone and gravel) of the same general composition. So the glaciers gave us the same rocks but different soil textures.
Anyway, very very excited about kenaf trial next year. Here's hoping it goes well. I'm interested in its potential as a smother crop green manure for the market garden, its usability as a bedding material for my livestock (its got that spongey pith), and in a potential post oil scenario as a coarse fiber source for twine and rope possibly.
That is all assuming I can find a strain or breed a Joseph style "oxbow landrace kenaf" that will cut the mustard and set seed here in zone 5 which is supposedly really pushing it for kenaf.
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Post by steev on Nov 19, 2011 10:00:39 GMT -5
That's exciting for sure; I hope your having gotten it so long after ordering means I can still expect to get some asparagus seed I ordered from GRIN, which I had forgotten.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Nov 19, 2011 14:12:34 GMT -5
I think the different crop curators are all at different locations with different organizational response times. Order some corn and it will practically light your mailbox on fire it arrives so quickly.
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Post by 12540dumont on Nov 19, 2011 19:09:17 GMT -5
Tim, I did Kenaf too this year. I ordered the two that were not day length sensitive. I used them as chicken shade, I'm going to put some through the chipper shredder as bedding. Some I'm going to rett and then peel and see if I can spin it. I did not get seeds. I think I needed to plant them earlier. This photo was taken on November 4. They have kept blooming, even though they are out of the ground! I had a issue when I pulled them, I got a contact dermatitis from them. Of course I get the same from amaranth, sunflowers and corn. The get a little thorn that scratches, so I was glad I had them on the edge of the field and not where I had to tromp through them. Let me know how they do for you. I really liked the way they looked. Attachments:
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Post by blueadzuki on Nov 19, 2011 19:37:43 GMT -5
Tim, I did Kenaf too this year. I ordered the two that were not day length sensitive. I used them as chicken shade, I'm going to put some through the chipper shredder as bedding. Some I'm going to rett and then peel and see if I can spin it. I did not get seeds. I think I needed to plant them earlier. This photo was taken on November 4. They have kept blooming, even though they are out of the ground! I had a issue when I pulled them, I got a contact dermatitis from them. Of course I get the same from amaranth, sunflowers and corn. The get a little thorn that scratches, so I was glad I had them on the edge of the field and not where I had to tromp through them. Let me know how they do for you. I really liked the way they looked. The two I brough in in the pot now each have a pod, but only one apeice, even though they make a new flower every day or two. I think on top of everything else, they're self incompatible, so I can only achieve fertilization when there is an open flower on each of them at the same time which doesn't happen often. I'm not sure about dermatitis, but i did notice the aborted ovaries in the ones that didn't fertilize appear very furry, so I'm a little worried that when the pods are ripe, I'll find the hairs urticatiing, so I likey harvest with gloves (can't be any worse than dealing with the spineweed) |
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Post by 12540dumont on Nov 20, 2011 23:26:07 GMT -5
Oh, I forgot to say, makes darn great kindling.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Nov 21, 2011 6:58:08 GMT -5
Holly,
I may be totally wrong but I once saw a demonstration at a Living History Farm in PA where they were using Kenaf stalks as a stand-in for flax to show the fiber processing steps. The reason the guy said they were using Kenaf was that you didn't have to rett it and they'd run out of retted flax to demonstrate the flax brake. You might try it without retting it just to see what happens. A brake would be pretty easy to throw together with some scrap wood.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Nov 21, 2011 17:51:15 GMT -5
And they are here!
PI 532874 02 SD- EVERGLADES 71
PI 603071 01 SD- DOWLING
PI 603072 02 SD- WHITTEN
PI 639889 01 SD- GREGG
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Post by blueadzuki on Dec 11, 2011 21:54:49 GMT -5
Quick question for anyone who has grown this and HAS gotten seeds. As of this point I have 3 pods. my question is as follows, when the pods are ready, will they simply naturally open on top or do the pods only open when they dry out. also do they eventually fall off naturally. I's been a LOONG time since two of the pods formed and I'm beginning to wonder if, as long as the plant is alive and feeding them (which given they are indoors and get watered constantly may basically be "forever") they will just stay in stasis. On the other hand, with only three, I really can't risk pulling pods off prematurely.
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