oldmobie's Doings

[oldmobie]

Sept 9, 2014 20:38:36 GMT -5 oldmobie said:

I finally got a few corn plants to grow to respectable size. The one I circled is 7'- 8'. No idea what corn it is, as it's from my attempt to produce red corn for my red/ white/ blue popcorn project. I mixed red kernels from Astronomy domine, indian corn and rainbow earth tones dent. The day it silked I took a piece of tassle from the same plant and pieces from a few neighboring plants and rubbed them all over the silks. Don't know what I'm doing, but hopefully it'll be well pollinated.

This sad little patch of corn finally showed signs of maturity, so I checked it out today. The good news is that the ear mentioned above was well pollinated. A good looking red ear.




The bad news is this. These were the ears that seemed the most worthwhile to harvest.



My hand pollination appears to lack a bit in consistency. The blue corn finally has ears on the two plants that came up. At least four ears each. They didn't seem to be drying yet, so I left them alone.



And what's up with this? Is that a tassle?

[oldmobie]

Harvested the gourds today. These are the ones that feel firm. They'll be brought in to continue drying. Our best idea so far is to hang them.

We segregated ~10 soft ones. Figure they won't dry down well, but may be good for seeds.

Also cut and bagged all the sunflower heads that seemed likely to have viable seeds. Still deciding between threshing them and drying the seeds vs drying the heads and threshing later.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

oldmobie: Impressive harvest of birdhouse gourds.

I planted a 45 foot row and harvested about 9 fruits... There was one additional phenotype that I collected after the photo was taken that had a bulb on the flower end, but not on the stem end. It was growing inside the popcorn patch so it didn't get killed by the frost that took out the other plants. I ate lagenaria squash this summer. It was very flavorful as expected from the smell, but it was not unpleasant as I had expected.



The other squash in the photo were descended from: 1- the red/orange maxima squash which was my favorite last year. The mother looked very similar to that orange/green squash along the center bottom. 2- the smallest butternuts from two years ago. 3- The dark green butternut-shaped squash is a Mixta that was sent by a collaborator from a high altitude garden in New Mexico. These are special projects, so they were grown in an isolated field.

[oldmobie]

Just finished threshing sunflower seeds. There's a bunch! Saved the Teddy Bear and the Extra Large Seeded seperately. Short is plants that didn't come past my chest that didn't fall into either category. Tall is anything in neither category that is over chest high on me. Mostly over head high. They were grown together, every type we could easily get our hands on. If they crossed like I'm hoping, there should be all kinds of crazy combinations next year.

[oldmobie]

Finally harvested seed from the butterfly weed today. Forgot they were like dandylion seeds. Couldn't find any directions for removing the fluff. After doing several by hand, I tried folding the mess into a washcloth and hitting it on the table. It didn't seal the fluff in very well, so I rolled it and tried again. When I unrolled it, it was mostly threshed, most of the chaff lifting off with the unrolling layer of cloth.

The end results:



Also harvested malabar spinach seed that's been through a couple freezes. Tried to save just the larger seeds. Don't know how to tell if they matured enough. Guess I could germination test before sharing. I'd also welcome any knowledge or advice.

[flowerweaver]

Although I do gather seeds, my malabar spinach also reseeds itself readily, so I'm sure you will have no trouble with your seeds.

[oldmobie]

Nov 15, 2014 11:04:39 GMT -5 flowerweaver said:

Although I do gather seeds, my malabar spinach also reseeds itself readily, so I'm sure you will have no trouble with your seeds.

Since you've saved these seeds before, how have you dried and stored them? Mine appeared to be dried when I brought them in, but had a spoiled cabbage smell (also noticed in the stems). I've left them to dry, stirring them daily. They look, feel and sound the same, but the smell is gone. Do you crush test them or anything? Or should I just put them in a paper envelope in the fridge and call it good?

[flowerweaver]

When ripe, the seeds are like small berries. If I collect them moist, I lay them on a paper towel and let them dry in the house, where we have a fan blowing or air circulating. Things mold pretty easily down here, but I've gotten pretty good at knowing when most things are dry enough by just poking a fingernail onto them (that is to say, I leave everything out a long time to be sure). Once dry, I just store them in envelopes in my seed file. Sometimes I don't get around to it, they just dry on the plant, and I collect them, or they accidentally fall where they may and new plants appear.

I have two kinds of envelopes I use to store seeds; one is plastic and one is glassine, the latter being more breathable and a bit more forgiving if you put up something with a tad of moisture still in it. Unfortunately I put up one plastic bag of teparies before their time and now I have a solid mass of what looks like tempe!

If I've found any seeds (especially precious ones) that seem moldy I wash them off with a little dish soap and or dunk them into diluted bleach water and let them dry on the paper towel and they will sprout just fine if they weren't too consumed by it.

Also, I've read that fleshy seeds often prefer to be fermented first. This has not been necessary for the malabar spinach, but I wanted to point this out so you don't worry about the effects of the mold, it may have helped.

[oldmobie]

Test planted grains today. West to East: Tibetan Purple Barley, Bolero Wheat & Ethiopian Purple Wheat. This post is for my records. More details here.

[oldmobie]

Been trying out one of my new Christmas presents: I got a new leaf blower/ shredder/ vac!





Also got some Jerry Baker books. I guess the squash bugs should just give up now. Maybe they'll have better luck at the neighbors house!

[oldmobie]

A new volunteer showed up yesterday. Wants to help cut down the grass and weeds and keep the fencerows clean. May even provide us with nice gift of meat in a year or so, or help us score some free live-stock! Hope it works out. I've been working with his folks the last year or two, and it looks promising. (Other than his mom having a ghost head... guess my shutter speed was too slow and she moved.)

[oldmobie]

I sowed a bunch of peppers, Easter Egg Plant, malabar spinach and mixed, probably crossed brassicas on the 19th. Most of the stuff that didn't like being WinterSown last year. It's in a cold room, bottom heated. Total germination so far is 4 brassicas. Seems like I should have seen something by now, as sweet peppers should take 6-8 days? So I checked my actual temp. It was 67° at the soil surface. My heat was set at 85°. I've turned it up and will be monitoring the temp. Hopefully things will still germinate.

[oldmobie]

Yesterday we combined two 4'4'* beds (and the walkway between) into a 4'X12'* bed. Planted potatoes, onions, radishes, peas,chard, spinach, mustard, collards, lettuce and turnips. Also planted an out of the way bed with more radishes, to be culled and the best left for seed.

* Measurements are approximate, due to size of materials and utter lack of carpentry skill.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Apr 9, 2015 14:01:54 GMT -5 oldmobie said:

* Measurements are approximate, due to size of materials and utter lack of carpentry skill.

That drives me crazy about my fields... My community was intentional. It was built on more or less level ground: No obstacles that needed to be worked around. The land was surveyed and laid out on a grid. Every field is crooked and lob-sided! And not just a little So I pull my strings, and lay out straight rows. And then I am left over with these awkward angles... So I end up not planting the edges, or putting in vine crops like squash, melons, and cucumbers. Or I space rows 30 inches on one end and 40 inches on the other...

[oldmobie]

Made up a map of one of my gardens today. Finally got smart and kept a blank copy. Should be able to reuse it for as long as we keep this bed configuration.