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Post by richardw on Aug 14, 2013 4:56:07 GMT -5
Thanks bill,seed has arrived,i'll start some this weekend
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Post by billw on Aug 15, 2013 22:37:57 GMT -5
That was pretty quick!
Saw you had a good shake today. I hope all is well.
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Post by richardw on Aug 16, 2013 3:47:56 GMT -5
Yes lots of good shakes,had died down since July's first quakes,i'm 300km south of the centre of the quakes so we are Ok ,but cesarz is really close to them so i hope he and humongous seed collection are alright. www.wellingtonquakelive.co.nz/ |
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Post by cesarz on Aug 16, 2013 5:34:20 GMT -5
We're okay, it just felt like a shakey bus drive which suddenly came to a halt, we were whiplashed at work, 6th floor of an office building.
Planted my oca tubers today after we were sent home from work early.
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Post by richardw on Aug 16, 2013 14:12:45 GMT -5
Yes you would feel them well that high up.
Yes i must think about about getting my oca's in also,noticed mine are growing shoots out in the shed so they are better off in the ground,i'll only plant half of the 6x1 meter beds,the other have will be for Bill's which were sown a few days ago,cant remember how long they took to come up last time i sowed some oca seed.
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Post by billw on Aug 16, 2013 15:11:04 GMT -5
The earliest of mine took nine days to get to this:  |
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Post by steev on Aug 16, 2013 22:04:20 GMT -5
Mine are in the hot-box today; we shall see.
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Post by richardw on Aug 17, 2013 0:29:16 GMT -5
Mine are in the hot-box today; we shall see. Same here  |
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Post by steev on Aug 17, 2013 0:39:19 GMT -5
Good fortune to us all; why not, eh.
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Post by billw on Aug 17, 2013 1:22:29 GMT -5
As of today, I've sent out around 500 oca seeds to 15 people on three continents. Now I can rest easy and not have to suffer nightmares about marauding mice. Another round number passed today - I collected my 2000th oca seed. And, they're still flowering. I've given up on guessing how many I might take in, but it looks like it is going to be a lot. I'm up to eight seedlings from 60 seeds sowed a bit over a week ago and it looks like there is going to be more variability than I expected. Right from the start, I have red stems, green stems, and white stems from a sowing of seeds that were all Hopin x Sunset. Most of us are in rather different climates, so it will be really interesting to see how well these seeds sort out into varieties suited for different growing conditions. |
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Post by richardw on Aug 17, 2013 21:48:49 GMT -5
Ive had problems with mice also,they've been digging seeds that have been sown in the seed raising trays  ive had to wrap up all the trays with netting |
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Post by billw on Aug 19, 2013 18:28:13 GMT -5
Another new variety flowered today. OE Blush (available from Sacred Succulents) is a long-styled type - the first I've seen. So, for those of us in the US, that is another variety that can be used to make crosses with the many short-styled varieties.
As a side note, I dug up one of my old Oregon Exotics catalogs to see if it had anything interesting to say about Blush (it didn't), but I did read in their general oca description that they brought more than 12 varieties in through quarantine. They offered five over two different years of the catalog (Orange, Blush, Red, White, and Yellow). Of course, OE was kind of infamous for offering things that were on permanent back-order, but I wonder if all of those twelve (or more) varieties are still being grown by someone out there.
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Post by richardw on Aug 19, 2013 21:15:32 GMT -5
what year was the catalogue bought out?
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Post by steev on Aug 19, 2013 23:42:37 GMT -5
Those twelve varieties are probably still being grown by someone who speaks a dialect of Quetchua, or some such.
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Post by billw on Aug 20, 2013 0:18:33 GMT -5
Richard - OE went out of business around 2002 - I'm not sure of the exact year.
Steev - Seems likely, although apparently oca diversity has crashed pretty severely over the past century. Unfortunately, the Andean Curtain came down in 2009, which means that there is no legal way to reimport if they've been lost to cultivation in North America. I think there is a pretty limited gene pool slowly equalizing between North America, UK, Europe, and NZ.
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