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Post by richardw on Mar 14, 2018 12:54:46 GMT -5
Sorry to read you have not too well lately
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Post by reed on Mar 14, 2018 20:32:19 GMT -5
reed - Question: If I were to plan on planting out TSPS seedlings on June 01 here when would I start those seeds indoors? In other words, start true sweet potato seeds how many weeks before planting out date? Thanks in advance for the info. I think 8 weeks is probably good. Keeping in mind that my experience is limited to just a couple seasons but I checked back to see for sure and I planted seeds last year the first week of April. I'll probably do about the same this year. I think the strains I'm working with are pretty short season, whatever that means in sweet potatoes. They are very erratic sprouters but all the seeds you got came from ones that sprouted fast and easy so hopefully a good % of the descendants will also. I'm trying to select for that so I'll plant a few hundred and set out the first 50 or so to sprout. This year I'm also gonna experiment with starting in cold frame and maybe even direct seeding but experience so far is that they like it pretty warm, even hot, so my main crop and most treasured seeds will be on a heat mat in south window like last year. They seem to be very easy to transplant. Hope you get to feeling better real soon. |
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Post by steev on Mar 17, 2018 23:57:02 GMT -5
Did you ever get around to trying eating Hosta?
We used to get flocks of robins (Turdus migratorious), but not so for years; must be a result of Chinese climate-change hoax, though how they managed to fool the birds is beyond me.
When I get around to a pond, I expect I'll plant some big-leaf maples; might be fun to play with syruping.
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Post by steev on Mar 18, 2018 10:50:01 GMT -5
I like robins; their migratory arrival was always a seasonal treat. This week I saw a pair of Red-tail hawks doing bonding aerial acrobatics across my street; first time I've seen that in the middle of Oakland.
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Post by zeedman on Mar 18, 2018 16:40:48 GMT -5
TMI, just curious... have you ever known anyone to make syrup from box elder? I have several large trees on my property, about equal in number to the silver maples. I've noticed several times that sap was dripping from broken box elder branches (sometimes forming icicles) and tasted sweet. This year tree trimmers came through just before the thaw, and trimmed one of my box elders where it neared the power lines... those branches are dripping enough to make puddles now.
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Post by philagardener on Mar 18, 2018 20:49:41 GMT -5
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Post by khoomeizhi on Mar 19, 2018 4:17:01 GMT -5
As a side note, although a bit on the bland side I have always loved water chestnuts and bamboo spears in my stir fry as well, I wish I could grow both here as the canned stuff from the store is really not that great. I have often wondered if Apios americana groundnut might make a decent sub for water chestnut. Any opinions from anyone who has tried them? style="max-width:100%;"] I am a huge fan of groundnut, but must admit that they're nothing like water chestnuts. More like a very floury potato. Yacon has more textural similarity to water chestnut (but is probably too short-season for you) |
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Post by reed on Mar 19, 2018 4:45:22 GMT -5
I'm gonna have to give hostas a try. We have several mostly larger leaved kinds. I always favored ones with fragrant flowers, wonder if that has any relationship to flavor in the spears.
I grew eatable dahlias from Joseph last year and the ones I tasted raw had a slight peppery flavor but otherwise reminded me very much of water chestnuts in flavor and especially texture. I didn't try any cooked and left them in the ground to see if they might be hardy but they weren't so they would be an annual crop. I collected a lot of seeds.
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Post by Walk on Mar 19, 2018 8:13:55 GMT -5
TMI, just curious... have you ever known anyone to make syrup from box elder? I have several large trees on my property, about equal in number to the silver maples. I've noticed several times that sap was dripping from broken box elder branches (sometimes forming icicles) and tasted sweet. This year tree trimmers came through just before the thaw, and trimmed one of my box elders where it neared the power lines... those branches are dripping enough to make puddles now. Yes I know of several people who tap them with their other maples but I do not know of anyone who taps only box elder to make box elder syrup. I have been tapping a few of my box elders the last couple seasons but did not do any this year because I am cutting back a bit. It is my understanding that box elder sap is rather dilute, has the highest/poorest sap to syrup ratio of any maple. I have never proven or disproven that because I mix up all the sap that I harvest. The syrup is supposed to taste just as good as other maples and a little bit different, for me to know that for sure I would have to process a batch of just box elder sap. I always get a lot of sap from my box elder taps. In my experience box elders run the earliest and fastest of any maple and go to blossom bud break very quickly, even faster than silver maples. Blossom bud break usually coincides with off flavored/cloudy sap which means the sap run for processing has ended because syrup from buddy sap tastes really bad. This is the main problem with the lesser grade maple trees versus the sugar, norway maples, etc., the lesser grade maple trees run fast and the blossom buds break quickly resulting in a shorter sap collecting season than the premier maple varieties. All that said, with all the fun I have with this hobby if all I had were box elders I wouldn't hesitate to tap them and I would be happy with whatever amount of syrup I get from them, if it was good syrup. Thing to consider is that if box elder syrup really stood out then everyone would be tapping them and making pure box elder syrup. Most people tap them only because they have a lot of them versus other maples, and they cut the sap together like I did. You work with what you got. We made boxelder syrup for many years, usually about 3 to 4 gallons, but we were much younger then with stronger backs. The syrup is lighter in color than other maples and flavor is excellent. The only drawback is that the starting sugar content is lower and so takes more boiling (about 50:1 instead of 40:1). We've taken to making cider syrup instead as it takes lots less firewood. |
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Post by Walk on Mar 20, 2018 8:21:03 GMT -5
We made boxelder syrup for many years, usually about 3 to 4 gallons, but we were much younger then with stronger backs. The syrup is lighter in color than other maples and flavor is excellent. The only drawback is that the starting sugar content is lower and so takes more boiling (about 50:1 instead of 40:1). We've taken to making cider syrup instead as it takes lots less firewood. Yeah, 50:1 would be tough to deal with, that is a long haul boil to get a decent amount of syrup. My silvers have averaged around 28:1 over the years which has always been surprising to me as I was told to expect around a 40:1 ratio. Walk , did you look at that MapleTrader link? Some mention a citrusy flavor or butterscotch flavor to their box elder syrup, I am wondering if you noticed either or did it taste pretty much like maple syrup? Box elder wood is very aromatic when green/wet. When I chainsaw box elder the wood always has a particular perfumy or sour aroma, perhaps some would consider it a citrusy aroma, that is a bit funky but not all that unpleasant. The sap I have collected from box elders always has that same aroma to it but not nearly as strong. I wonder if that aroma is what they are talking about when they say their box elder syrup tastes citrusy. Box elder wood is one of my favorite woods for grilling/open pit cooking. It imparts a very clean, light, somewhat sweet flavor to meats. Makes a wonderful bed of coals but they burn up quickly. reed thanks for the heads up regarding the edible dalhias having similar eating characteristics to water chestnut. I will have to try growing them out sometime. It's been many years (nearly 20) since making syrup so not too fresh in my mind. I wouldn't say, however, that the flavor was "citrusy" but maybe somewhat butterscotch-like. It does have maple essences for sure, just different somehow. That's not probably too helpful. I do know what you mean about the scent of the wood as it's our primary heating fuel. I also love the red interior wood you sometimes encounter. Some wood artists make use of this for projects. I haven't experimented with any of it for dyeing wool, but probably should someday, in all my free time ;>). |
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Post by philagardener on Mar 20, 2018 20:11:33 GMT -5
I grew eatable dahlias from Joseph last year and the ones I tasted raw had a slight peppery flavor but otherwise reminded me very much of water chestnuts in flavor and especially texture. I didn't try any cooked and left them in the ground to see if they might be hardy but they weren't so they would be an annual crop. I collected a lot of seeds. I have grown an heirloom Dahlia variety called Yellow Gem for years and find it both prolific and tasty. It is a good water chestnut substitute in stir fries. Downright pretty flowers too, but the plants are a bit floppy in the garden. |
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Post by reed on Mar 21, 2018 10:08:14 GMT -5
I like when the big box stores bring in a bunch of hardy perennials from southern growers just cause it has warmed up a little and they all get frosted down. I buy em up or dig em out of the dumpsters, cut off the dead parts and sell em few weeks later for just a we bit under what they originally priced them at.
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Post by rangardener on Mar 21, 2018 13:12:01 GMT -5
"I have grown an heirloom Dahlia variety called Yellow Gem for years and find it both prolific and tasty. It is a good water chestnut substitute in stir fries. Downright pretty flowers too, but the plants are a bit floppy in the garden." That is great to know. Using in stir fries was the only reason I tried to grow water chestnut, but so far I have not had much success. Dahlia will be much easier. I looked around a bit for Yellow Gem, I guess it is less popular these days. At least I found it in billw's catalog.  |
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Post by steev on Mar 21, 2018 20:54:07 GMT -5
Many large stores not only won't discount sickly plants, they wont permit dumpster-diving (I lettered in it), having compacters, in many cases; very retentive.
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Post by mskrieger on Mar 23, 2018 12:33:01 GMT -5
Glad to hear you're having a good sap run! The weather refrigidized so I suspect it's similarly good around here, though I don't have local sources to inquire.
My tomato starts are up and sunning themselves in the greenhouse now. Need to sow peppers, eggplant and celeriac this weekend!
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