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Post by reed on Apr 27, 2018 19:42:18 GMT -5
So 5 of the 18 seeds are sprouting first. Should these five be singled out for having some kind of importance or value in the selection process? I think so, although it may be less important for you and the others who are having such good success with sprouting. I say that cause I suspect your and their methods and set up are better than mine. My little heat mat barely works and the window they set in is a bit drafty and I don't have any lights. I wonder if a better environment may inadvertently hide the ones that don't need it among the ones that do. Still I suppose, the first ones may have genetic tendency to easier sprouting. I suspect my shoddy methods applies a greater "survival of the fittest" aspect, so the ones that sprout fast in these conditions are the ones I really want. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. It took a couple weeks but I also have 3 sprouted out of 25 seeds in the cold frame. it's supposed to be in the 80s next week so will be interesting to see what happens then. Those first 3 however are the only ones that for sure earned a space in the garden. I'm gonna direct plant another 25 seeds in another couple weeks and see what happens. I'm focusing on the fast sprouters and the ones descended from my favorite plants last year. I'm also regrowing those same ones from clones. |
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Post by reed on Apr 28, 2018 9:56:39 GMT -5
I agree but considering their reputation, by some strange chance I do have lots of sweet potato seeds. If I lose a couple hundred either to late sprouting or having to be discarded due to no space to grow them I'm OK with that. Also for me it isn't just survival of the fittest for the sake of it alone. Maybe survival of the ones in the conditions I can provided is more accurate.
I also don't really know if fast germination is the first evidence of a superior line. I think maybe so at least for now with an initial goal of seed production. I'm thinking maybe if lines that sprout easy and make lots of seeds can be discovered and propagated that they can later be used to unlock breeding with others.
I'm really just kind of stumbling in the dark, but seems to be working so far. I fully expected at first that if I did get a plant to make seeds that it would have nasty stringy little roots and a lot do. Turns out though and I have no idea if the traits are in anyway related, but the two best plants last year as far as seed and root production were both in the fast easy sprouting group. The 10 fastest sprouters from each of those mothers along with clones of the mother plants and another 10 - 20 new sprouts will make my project this year. Well and maybe a new commercial clone or two.
They are odd plants I think and tons of fun. I just discovered one with fuzzy stems, I don't think I'v seen that before and I'm waiting till I know for sure to take a picture but it looks like a 4" tall seedling is growing a flower bud.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 28, 2018 12:17:59 GMT -5
My general philosophy towards plant breeding, is that I can't do plant breeding if the species doesn't produce seeds in my garden. So the ability to produce viable seeds is the number one priority of my plant breeding efforts. The corollary of that, is that a seed must produce plants that are viable under conditions that can exist on my farm (without too much effort). Sure, I coddle a plant once in a while in the beginning of a plant breeding project, but in general if I species is going to make it long term on my farm, it needs to be reliably seedy.
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Post by reed on Apr 29, 2018 3:07:55 GMT -5
I'm still trying to get seeds from carrots and Swiss chard. Might pull it off with carrots this year but again no chard overwintered. I feel real behind in my garden overall this year, just not much planted yet and stuff that is sprouted long after being planted and isn't very big. Overwintered onions and garlic look very good but most else is pretty small. Do have a few interesting things out there. A nice patch of Leeks from richardw , still small so I focused on just a few in the patch.  Same with onions from Joseph Lofthouse and toomanyirons  I was worried about the leeks and onions but they finally came up and are doing fine. Plus I didn't have to piddle with them in the house or cold frame and I don't have to stoop over to set them out, just need to thin a little hear and there. Also have some that overwintered fine and a big row I just put out of those that kept well all winter. Barley and oats from Joseph Lofthouse were the first things to come up, seems like forever ago when I planted. They were snowed on and frozen a couple times but finally stating to take off good. Barley  Oats  My lettuce that either overwintered or sprouted very early, all the other volunteer and spring planted lettuce is just tiny seedlings. it comes in two kinds, green with a little red and red with a little green.  My patience dock plant from steev , don't know what to do with it but it's pretty. Leaves are wider than our wild version.  I think this is wild mustard, I been rubbing it's flowers on those of my two winter survivor turnips. I WANT my hardy early spring greens!  And a cool bird that I have never seen around here before. Two of them sat and sang to me for a long time yesterday.  On sweet potatoes, I might try to find a spot to shove all the extras in the ground instead of discarding them. Any early bloomers could be discovered that way but it would be hard to dig them up and know which one a root came from. Also it is a real pain inspecting the capsules and collecting the seeds at ground level. Ultimately they are an in the ground crop so I don't want to breed exclusively for container growing, but for now the seeds are still most important. Other selection criteria are nice sized sweet roots that keep good all season, compact growth and early production. By happy chance most of those criteria are already being met. Disease and insect tolerance hasn't been considered much yet cause I haven't had much issue with that except for the all purple ones last year that had black streaks that looked like some little worm or something had tunneled through them. Fortunately those plants were not good bloomers so their pollen isn't much influence and I didn't save any of those roots. |
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Post by philagardener on Apr 29, 2018 5:51:34 GMT -5
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Post by richardw on Apr 29, 2018 14:28:21 GMT -5
What does your wild version look like because your patience dock plant looks so much like the wild stuff that grows around here.
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Post by reed on Apr 30, 2018 7:29:49 GMT -5
I can't tell much difference between them either except I think the patience dock has wider leaves.
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Post by steev on Apr 30, 2018 20:47:26 GMT -5
Yes; much larger leaves and I think a more refined flavor, less oxalic.
richardw: it's possible your dock is patience dock brought to NZ by Scots/Brits; I think it's well-regarded in Great Britain, which is why it was brought to NorAm by the Pilgrims; I think there are places there that have competitions for the best dock-pudding; trust the Brits to compete on very narrow fields. Gotta love 'em for their focus. Don't suppose they'll ever have tractor-pull competitions though.
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Post by richardw on May 1, 2018 0:48:15 GMT -5
Yes i was thinking that today as i was wondering around the garden, there seems to be a range of leaf width with what plants i noticed , i'll pay more attention to them.
Dock puddings? gees, guna have look that one up......
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Post by reed on May 6, 2018 5:08:47 GMT -5
I ordinarily clean out the little garden pond in early spring. The frogs like the rotten leaves and stuff left in over winter to bury themselves in but then in spring all that plus the accumulated fish poo causes an explosion of algae when the weather warms up a little. I didn't get to it in time this year and now I have to wait a while longer as the toads have already done their thing. Every surface is covered with the little buggers, thousands of them. They apparently eat the surface algae but don't seem to like the stringy stuff that most needs removed and doing so now would no doubt kill a lot of them. Frogs live and overwinter in the pond but don't breed there. Toads breed but don't live there. Anyway it will be another week or so till they go on their way and I'll get it cleaned up then. FYI, toads in the frenzy of breeding are extremely loud!  |
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Post by richardw on May 7, 2018 2:53:25 GMT -5
Noticed you blokes using that 'bugger' word at bit lately, good on ya, down under lingo is spreading.
What sort of toad are they reed, ive got a large number of Australian tree frogs about my garden that spread out from my pond where they breed, they are a introduced species but they do more good than harm as they take the pressure off native frogs from predation.
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Post by reed on May 7, 2018 7:15:55 GMT -5
I think we only have one kind of toad, don't know their proper identification. A couple kinds of frogs live in the pond and we have the little tree frogs with the sticky feet. Sometimes find them stuck to the side of the house after a good wind storm.
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Post by reed on May 8, 2018 7:47:48 GMT -5
Well my overwintered or late winter sprouted lettuce that I was so excited about tastes pure awful. Nasty, nasty bitter stuff. I plucked it all out and pitched it in the compost.
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Post by richardw on May 8, 2018 14:09:25 GMT -5
So you dont think the bitterness was temperature related?, any idea why that was?
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Post by reed on May 10, 2018 12:59:56 GMT -5
So you dont think the bitterness was temperature related?, any idea why that was? I don't think so, it is basically the same bitterness as old lettuce gets in the heat but much more intense. Also we have had some hot days but lots of cooler ones too. I even kind of like lettuce when it develops a little more bite but this was just bad all round. Speaking of heat we have been in mid 80s last few days and heading into 90s next few. The first bout of 90 + days in a row. A little ominous for the time of year. Still cooling off pretty good at night though. I'm way behind on planting. Got in potatoes, lettuce, peppers, sweet corn, some beans and a few other things but 75% of my planting is still left to do. All my beds are ready, I just got them done yesterday when a brief, intense lightening and hail storm put an end too it. Light wind now and sun shining. it wasn't terribly muddy this morning so when I get home I'm gonna go ahead and set out tomatoes, plant more beans and field corn, squash and who knows what else. My sweet potato pots are not quite ready, they are about full of path scrapings. About 1/2 weeds and 1/2 dirt, just need to add 3 - 4 inches of compost to the tops. |
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