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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Aug 5, 2017 0:37:36 GMT -5
Thanks for the grow report!
The seeds that produced cobs with sweet corn kernels would have been pollinated by what I am tentatively calling Harmony sweet corn: A hybrid swarm created with [South American Grain Corn Grex X Astronomy Domine Sweet Corn]
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Post by reed on Aug 5, 2017 4:06:19 GMT -5
Thanks for the grow report! The seeds that produced cobs with sweet corn kernels would have been pollinated by what I am tentatively calling Harmony sweet corn: A hybrid swarm created with [South American Grain Corn Grex X Astronomy Domine Sweet Corn] I planted the sweet looking seeds you had packed separately in the Harmony with my early sweet corn. Had three plants, two made two good ears and one made three. Nice strong plants with ears well up the stalks. Just in my own mind I was calling it Sweet Harmony. It and the sweet kernels from the Neandercorn will be rolled into the larger sweet mix next year. I have pretty much achieved chaos in my sweet and flour/flint mixes now, having lost the ability to track much of anything back to any particular named varieties. I decided to put this little plot in the middle of this garden to bed for the season. It's grown corn for the last three years and think it needs a rest so I'm thinking of burying it in six inches of wood chips, throwing a little compost dirt on top and scattering lots of turnip and radish seed. This area has tons of a creeping weed I think called henbit but we call it creeping Charlie which I'm sure will cover it early next spring but I'm hoping I can just rake it off and scratch out rows to plant no-till.  My big weed eater on wheels is not intimidated by corn stalks but I left some on purpose. I like to sit out here sometimes and visit with the wind, the dry corn stalks may have something to add to the conversation. The Neander patch grew next door, I'm leaving the rest of it just in case any happens to have any perennial tendencies. It isn't done yet either, still more silks forming and a little bit of pollen release from the tassel ears.  |
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Post by reed on Aug 20, 2017 12:20:47 GMT -5
Can't complain about this years tomato crop. There were some failures of course. The disease resistant hybrids Rugged Boy and Warrior were neither disease resistant or fit to eat. The heat tolerant hybrids, Heatmaster and Florida 91 were I guess, heat tolerant enough but not very tasty. That being said we got all our canning done a couple weeks ago and since then I'v been picking something like this every three or four days. So like I said I can't complain this year's tomato crop.  |
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Post by steev on Aug 20, 2017 19:11:49 GMT -5
I also can't complain about this year's tomato crop, having none; better luck next year, one hopes.
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Post by richardw on Aug 25, 2017 23:59:39 GMT -5
What happened steevThey look bloody nice reed , no splits either, so what was your top tomato ya reckon. |
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Post by richardw on Aug 26, 2017 0:00:35 GMT -5
...............or have you just turned the split ones over?
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Post by steev on Aug 26, 2017 0:34:04 GMT -5
So suspicious!
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Post by reed on Aug 26, 2017 5:29:55 GMT -5
No, didn't hide any splits or or anything, just didn't include any ugly ones. It has been the best tomato season in along time, so many that anything a little bit blemished just got discarded and never made it out of the patch. The big pink ones with green shoulders are best except for some even bigger red / yellow ones that must have been determinate cause they ripened and finished a little earlier. The big pink ones, I think, are F3 or F4 descendants of the commercial hybrid Red Rose, a cross between Rutgers and Brandywine. They are still segregating with some potato leaf and some regular but the fruits are about the same. The best for juice and sauce were the ones I call Utah Heart, not pictured, that showed up in Joseph's mix a couple seasons ago and the other heart shaped ones from toomanyirons, mix a couple years ago and the ones I call PP Rutgers that just appeared in my own Rutgers patch five or six years back. |
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Post by richardw on Aug 26, 2017 16:23:33 GMT -5
So suspicious Nope probably just jealous that i would be hard pressed to produce a photo with that many tomatoes while revealing no splits. |
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Post by mskrieger on Aug 30, 2017 14:10:28 GMT -5
It's been a surprisingly good season...or shall I say week? for tomatoes here. One thing a steady, continuous supply of rain does is eliminate the splits and bottom end rot. Hoping it stays warm enough that we get at least a few more weeks of beautiful delicious tomatoes. And to let the peppers ripen.
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Post by reed on Oct 16, 2017 4:55:10 GMT -5
About half my garden space is now covered with turnips, lettuce and radishes in various stages of growth. Some volunteer and some recently planted. A lot of the volunteer radishes are setting pods and some of the turnips are too. Throw in some arugula, also volunteer, and maybe a small garlic or onion leaf and it's pretty good eating just wandering around the garden. O'yea don't forget to wrap it all up in a collard leaf, yum. Kind of a green burrito.
It was a great bean and tomato year, don't know how many we canned but it is more than enough for next year or so and same with tomatoes and tomato juice. Plenty of dry beans too. Still harvesting fresh green beans from a late planted row of Blue Lakes. Went through all my beans seeds last night and discarded a lot of older seed. It was probably still good but had new fresh to replace it and needed to compact the seed space a little. I only kept 1/2 dozen or so kinds that we like as green or baked beans separate, all others just got mixed into a dry pole beans landrace. O' except the short vine types are in their own. Next year I want to a grow a seed patch of three rows, tall pole, short pole and bush and then save mostly selecting for short vines, up to 6 feet or so and for early maturity.
Peaches were a bust this year but that's ok, still have a little jam from last year, blackberries and raspberries were the star fruits this year.
Fall planted cabbage, sprouts, broccoli, choi and the like are looking good. Another attempt at creating a winter hardy weed that makes lots of good flower stalks and seed pods early in spring.
Oats, barley and wheat are up 6 inches or so and look beautiful. I have no idea if I planted at the right time or if I will get anything from them but if nothing else they will serve as a nice cover crop.
Various onions and garlic are looking good although I did lose some small onions to dry heat. I could have watered but decided to just let them self select for that. I didn't plant any fall direct seed onions but will do a lot of it in spring.
Wow, Lofthouse dahlias are beautiful things and huge! They are still in full bloom and compete with my fall asters for attention of the little bumblebees. I have lots of seed and dug up one plant to see what the roots were like. Will have to learn how to use them, flavor of this one was pretty neutral, maybe a little peppery. Texture almost exactly like a water chestnut.
Lofthouse bread seed poppies were also beautiful but flowering stage was short lived, got tons of seed though. Enough to let the woman have a bunch for muffins and lemon pound cake. Pretty good stuff.
Got a nice supply of acorn, butternut and small maxima squash on the floor of the spare room upstairs. A volunteer acorn was the winner in fruits per vine but the small maxima stole the show on disease resistance and variety. Just got them all in a few days ago and haven't sampled them yet. My acorn and butternut are bushy, I'm just going to grow them all together from now on. Maybe someday get an interspecies cross.
Got plenty of potatoes, both commercial and also my first nice harvest of seed grown. We don't have good storage for potatoes so they won't last till spring at least not except for seed. I try to balance it so I only grow as much as we can eat up but this year I went over some i think.
Also more than enough sweet potatoes, probably 10 lb total form the seed grown plants and lots more from the slip grown commercial varieties. Will not be growing many commercial slips next year, just a few for breeding.
CORN! lots of wonderful seed in both my field and sweet projects. A lot of it still on the cobs, I'll update my corn thread with some pictures one of these days.
I'll have to figure out what else of interest I'v missed and update later.
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Post by steev on Oct 16, 2017 13:23:43 GMT -5
It's encouraging to hear of such success.
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Post by richardw on Oct 16, 2017 14:22:24 GMT -5
Yep, sounds like a good seasons harvest
Would like to see a photo of the asters you sent me, a sneak preview.
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Post by reed on Oct 16, 2017 17:33:37 GMT -5
Yep, sounds like a good seasons harvest Would like to see a photo of the asters you sent me, a sneak preview. Absolutely I would. I hope you get the full range of colors, dark purple to white and that you enjoy them as much as I do. Mine are blooming nicely right now and I have more pure white than normal. The ones I don't like that have smaller flowers and more petals are often white. I keep them plucked out once identified but they've never totally gone away. The bigger flowers with fewer petals are the ones I like most and pure white is rare in them. I hope you got some but I'm sure they don't breed true to color at least not when left unsupervised with the bumblebees. |
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Post by reed on Oct 16, 2017 17:49:14 GMT -5
It's encouraging to hear of such success. Luck of the draw I think and very nice to have a full pantry after last years poor bean harvest and the last several years not especially good tomato. I won't have to devote so mush space to them next year and can expand on other things. Also got an idea for building an outdoor storage space for potatoes, apples and the like, kind of like my Grandad had except mine will be permanent and easily reclosable. |
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