copse's doings

[steev]

In tilling a bed, I found some bulbs of garlic I'd forgotten sticking in; no idea what it is, but apparently happy where I planted it.

[copse]

Jan 27, 2016 2:27:40 GMT -5 richardw said:

Those bags dont look the best for drying can they get any airflow through them?

Ive still got my Kale seed still in the garden as i have a garden tour this weekend,should be ok with all this rain we are having hopefully.

The pods are drying in the bags last I looked.  The bags aren't a solid plastic, and had layer meal inside them within an inner plastic liner.  Got a better suggestion?

Wish this rain would head your way.  Maybe the tomatoes don't like it, but the pumpkins are all sitting in ever increasing puddles in a saturated paddock, and don't seem to mind so much.

[richardw]

Jan 29, 2016 20:39:45 GMT -5 copse said:

Jan 27, 2016 2:27:40 GMT -5 richardw said:

The pods are drying in the bags last I looked.  The bags aren't a solid plastic, and had layer meal inside them within an inner plastic liner.  Got a better suggestion?

I use bed sheets and then hang from all four corners

Wish this rain would head your way.  No thanks , had plenty now   Maybe the tomatoes don't like it, but the pumpkins are all sitting in ever increasing puddles in a saturated paddock, and don't seem to mind so much.

[philagardener]

The more air movement, the better, as they dry so you don't have mold issues.

I also have had problems with small moth caterpillars hatching and consuming Brassica seed after harvest; the eggs are laid on the seed pods as they mature in the garden. Because of that I try to get them processed and through a freezer cycle ASAP or I can lose a lot of seed. Hopefully, you don't have those pests!

Your garlic look great!

[copse]

I thought these were the only pumpkin growing so far, but noticed one of the grey pumpkins had a larger fruit while out in the paddock this morning.



Yams/okra made it through the mat of grass clippings compressed with netting. Was wondering if they would. The grass clippings have sprouted though, and I meant to deal with that last night when the chickens were shut in for the night.



One of the few moimoi potatoes that didn't get lost when the tray of seed potatoes tipped over, has been flowering for a while. It's got a lot of smaller heads which are coming up.



I've no idea what this is, but it clearly isn't moimoi. By all rights, it should be jersey benne or desiree. I'll probably dehead these and mark the existing flowering moimoi heads and try and save moimoi seed from the as yet immature heads.



Someone gave me large walnuts. I'm tempted to say they said they came from a Chinese supermarket, or some place similar. I had them sitting in the cupboard for maybe a year, and a while ago planted them out in this pot for the heck of it.

[richardw]

One of the different Moie moie's do have white flowers, did they come from me copse

[copse]

Feb 5, 2016 3:51:28 GMT -5 richardw said:

One of the different Moie moie's do have white flowers, did they come from me copse

Yes.  The seeds came from you.

Will the white flowered moie moie have purple stems like the purple flowered one's do?  Or will they be indistinguishable from non-purple stemmed potato plants?  Hmm.. duh, I can just scrape away some soil and presumable see what moie moie actually look like and compare.

Not sure if this is to be expected from potatoes but I discarded the soil the TPS was grown in, into a dirt filled trough that never gets watered and sits under an eave where rain rarely reaches.  Bone dry.  It still grew a decent plant, even if it didn't any grow potatoes.  I transplanted it to a large bag full of soil on the one sunny hot day we had, watered it, and it didn't even blink.  If I'm not too lazy, I might transplant it out by the other moie moie in case it puts out flowers.

[richardw]

Three of the slightly different strains i have of Moie moie came from cesarz , there's not a lot of difference in the colour of the tubers but the white flower one has more purple skin than the others. Apart from that the taste is just as good

[copse]

Finally got my broad beans in. This is year two of my attempt at a landrace. This year I've spaced them further apart with recommended row spacings, and I've got more of the varieties (from last years plants) I'd like to encourage traits of, like crimson flowered or red seeded. This is too much work fitting them into existing beds. I want to just be able to plant them out in the paddock with minimal soil preparation, with each variety in a given row. But that can't happen until I fence in the chickens. I'd also like to see whether it's possible to get two successive plantings within the autumn/spring/summer/autumn cycle, and double the rate of progress.



The seed of green mountain potato onion I got from richardw, and planted a small amount of to test germinate, is chugging along. Will see how it goes through Winter and put some more in in Spring.



Next up is the garlic bed preparation, which will have to be pretty extensive as I've five varieties to plant this year.

[richardw]

Your garden is coming on nicely Richard, your hills are still green too, stark contrast to the brown country side around here

[copse]

Yams / Oca

The yams have finally finished dying back after several frosts, so time to harvest before the grubs eat them.  I harvested perhaps 1/5th of it today, and got maybe 12L (in bucket measures).  It wasn't possible to weed the yams under the netting, as pulling out the weeds would more likely than not pull out the early yam stalks, so I only weeded the once.  And due to the wet summer and autumn, I watered perhaps two or three times.  There's a bit of grub damage on the larger yams, but not as extensive as last year.  I think I read on Rowan's blog that she suggested planting mid to late summer, and that it wasn't worth planting in early spring like I have in previous years.  I'd say I didn't do any worse for trying it.

From this in mid-summer:

To Winter:

I also have to go back to where I planted last year, and see how the self-seeded ones are doing.

Garlic

Three garlic beds in, with five varieties between them.  Here's the first two beds, with in the back bed Ajo Rojo, and in the front bed Rocambole Early Red, Rocambole Early White and New Zealand Purple.  All of these are new varieties I've bought this year.  There's a third bed I dug out in the recent warm weather that's larger and is Takahue Red, which I didn't take a picture of.

Last I looked, most of the varieties in year two of the broad bean landrace have come up.  I double planted the seeds with the idea of taking out the least vigourous of each, and replanting extras into gaps, and it looks like that'll come in handy if it proves possible to separate the twin plantings.  The best consistent growing variety is El Beano, with fully germinated rows of lush small seedlings.  No pictures because I am lazy and it's dark now.  It's possible the lack of vigour in the varieties that are not looking too hot is because of my sheer and utter neglect of them last Spring, and perhaps they self-pollinated.

Pumpkins

I've been getting feedback on the pumpkins.  While some web sites say Atlantic Giant might be usable for soup, I can't say I can say for sure if that's the case yet.  The first of my Atlantic Giant's was eaten and the verdict that it was unripe but possibly edible as a marrow would be here - baked with tomato and cheese on top.  The best pumpkin so far was a Jarrahdale.  I was thinking about it, and my saved Hopi Grey Winter seed were from pumpkins originally planted amongst four or five other maxima varieties anyway, so in theory they're had an extra year of interbreeding.  Not that I could see any sign of it in the fruit.

Winter Pear

My Packham's Triumph pear had a very limited second flowering in the autumn, and gave birth to one pear.  Now halfway into the first month of Winter, and through a couple of hard frosts and several soft ones, it's still growing quite nicely on a mostly leafless tree.   I wonder how long it'll last.

[richardw]

Your yams look like they have done well, i had little grub damage this growing season.

The Packham's Triumph pear, was that the one you gave me?

[copse]

Jun 19, 2016 15:16:12 GMT -5 richardw said:

Your yams look like they have done well, i had little grub damage this growing season.

The Packham's Triumph pear, was that the one you gave me?

No, you got Angelice (or some similar spelling) grown from the seed of a fruit bought at a local supermarket.

[richardw]

Ok, i put it into a larger pot in the mean time.

[copse]

I've been wanting to switch from taking photos to catalog what I have planted and where, and the progress of things like flowering times of fruit trees, so I've finally taken a video.  My theory is that there's possibly a lot more detail in a movie to see what variety I grafted to what branch, than in a photo.  And magpies/blackbirds sometimes steal the odd coke can planting tag, so it's better documentation of what goes where.  It's a little bit shakey, but starts with my garlic beds, moves onto graftings and where they are, then my green mountain potato onion bed, my broadbean landrace bed, and some more fruit trees.