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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jan 21, 2014 14:52:34 GMT -5
This might seem a little back wards or pointless, but could I get a Tepary Bean that is tolerant of short periods of wetness through a landrace, while keeping it's drought tolerance? Among it's indigenous people. The tepary bean was planted either with the first monsoon for use as a vegetable, or with the second monsoon to use for seed. I suppose that indicates some tolerance for periods of wetness. I'd say that tepary isn't so much drought tolerant as it is ephemeral or drought-avoidant: Produce a crop of seeds quick while there is still residual moisture in the soil.
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Post by flowerweaver on Jan 21, 2014 14:55:35 GMT -5
In their native locations in the desert southwest it is a short period of intense wetness--the monsoon--that gets them to sprout, followed by a period of drought to get them to produce. So in a sense they are accustomed to both. As for more than the initial period of wetness, I don't know. Perhaps someone outside of the southwest could better answer this, or someone experienced with landrace development.
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Post by blackox on Jan 21, 2014 20:16:33 GMT -5
Looks like I'll have to try them myself to see how they do.
I live in a pretty large valley in a very swampy spot, the soil has good drainage but holds moisture way too well. During wet years, moss starts to grow in the garden and up the stalks of the tomato plants. Luckily the garden is higher than the rest of the yard. Of lately we've been calling spring "the rainy season."
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Post by flowerweaver on Jan 21, 2014 20:35:48 GMT -5
blackox You could always add sand and gravel. Too bad we can't trade some soil. Winter used to be our rainy season, but the last few, including this one, we only got a trace. Come April or May we get violent mesocyclones that drop hail, and heavy rain if we are lucky. We keep used roofing tin on hand in case we need to cover tender crops in the raised beds. Last year the hail was so big one day we had to bring our donkey into the living room since we haven't yet built a big enough barn for him. Never a dull moment here.
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Post by steev on Jan 21, 2014 22:24:44 GMT -5
Well, who wouldn't bring their poor donkey into the house in a bad hailstorm?
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Post by blackox on Jan 22, 2014 9:30:08 GMT -5
Maybe those that don't want their donkey sitting on the couch?
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Post by flowerweaver on Jan 22, 2014 20:56:25 GMT -5
He was a good boy, eating carrots and crackers with us until it passed. With 3 inch hail we don't take chances with our animals, especially our best source of fertilizer!
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Post by steev on Jan 22, 2014 22:24:00 GMT -5
I always park my ass on the couch in bad weather, perhaps more than is good for either of us.
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Post by blueadzuki on Jan 23, 2014 7:21:03 GMT -5
He was a good boy, eating carrots and crackers with us until it passed. With 3 inch hail we don't take chances with our animals, especially our best source of fertilizer! So I guess you could say that, to you, he's more valuable for poopy than as poopy ( "poopy" is to donkey as "beef" is to cattle or "pork" is to pig.)
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Post by flowerweaver on Jan 23, 2014 10:38:03 GMT -5
blueadzuki I never knew that, learn something new everyday! He has been by far our most useful and entertaining pet. He does a good job of keeping the fire load down in places I can't get the tractor, converting grass to fertilizer, which he deposits in the same pile every day, making it very easy to collect. He also stands guard over the sheep. His antics keep us laughing. His lips are very prehensile and he likes to steal and relocate pipe, tools, hoses, etc.
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Post by steev on May 11, 2014 21:23:14 GMT -5
Seeded Blue-Speckled tepary today; got a bag of Bigfield Brown for next week, and some Sierra Gold, if I can find it, as well as some others, equally misplaced.
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Post by flowerweaver on May 12, 2014 5:45:25 GMT -5
So far only the Colonia Morelos has come up. Pretty consistent sprout, too. My Blue-Speckled and two others show no signs of life and were planted at the same time.
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Post by homegrower on May 15, 2014 1:11:04 GMT -5
I received a few varieties i still have to experiment with.
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Post by steev on Jun 24, 2014 21:34:31 GMT -5
My BST are growing apace; the others I've planted are looking OK for seed-increase; found the Sierra Gold which I'll try to plant this week-end, but I have a day-trip to Point Reyes Station with my sweetheart on Friday; one must prioritize: beans? Meh.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jun 25, 2014 23:17:42 GMT -5
Tonight I weighed 100 tepary bean seeds. The largest seed weighed almost 3X more than the smallest seed. Here's a histogram of the data. Before planting this spring I sorted out a batch of the largest seeds and planted them in their own row. That makes this data somewhat skewed because I already removed the largest beans from the seed lot. I also sorted out a batch of the most speckled, and the most plain and planted them in separate rows. I know that during the fall frost emergency that I'll want to lump them all together... Must refrain.
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