Gilbert's Garden reports

[gilbert]

I'm going to start one thread here for all my stuff so that I can easily update it even during a busy summer.

My overwintering dahlia and canna lily experiment is uncertain. I put a plastic pot over the crown of each plant and mounded mulch over them: no new sprouts yet, which is just as well, since we're still getting frosts. I also included some purple fountain grass in this experiment, just for fun.

Tomato breeding: over the last few days, I planted a bunch of seeds from Joseph's Big Hill plant that was surrounded by Neandermatos, in hopes of finding a cross. I also planted out Neandermato (Solanum habrochaites) and a bunch of crosses with S. habrochaites that Joseph sent me: G3 Fern x LA1777, G2 Domestic x S. habrochaites, G2 Domestic x S. pennellii, and a bunch of "standard" tomatoes: Fern and Ot' Jagodka from Joseph, Ananas Noire, Blush, Green Zebra, Black Cherry, Cosmonaut Volkov, Taxi, my orange landrace, my black landrace, and Siberian.

Joseph, what does LA1777 stand for? 

I planted Malabar Gourd and Buffalo Gourd to attempt a wide cross; I will also be trying to cross the Buffalo Gourd with Tetsukabuto and standard moschata squashes.

And, of course, lots of uninteresting brassicas going in.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Cool! Keep us updated! Looking good!

tgrc.ucdavis.edu/Data/Acc/AccDetail.aspx?AccessionNum=LA1777

[richardw]

Good work gilbert, dont forget the garden photos too.

[gilbert]

Planted seeds of Ipomoea leptophylla from Plants of the Southwest and I. Lacunosa from an ebay vendor, soaking both in warm water before planting; the leptophylla seeds are surprisingly large.

I'll be trying to cross the two, as well as attempting crosses with sweet potatoes, though I'm not sure how possible success is with that route.

Very few of my perennial tree kales came back this year, after coming back three years in a row. Since the weather this year was mild, I'll attribute it to the plants growing older and wearing out. I've started some new tree kale seeds, including some I harvested from the plants last year.

Various tomatoes starting to come up.

[gilbert]

One Malabar gourd is up; no signs of life in the buffalo gourd. A few Ipomoea starting to sprout. I didn't have very high germination on Joseph's Domestic x S. habrochaites seeds; I'll plant another batch. My Big Hill tomatoes that are possibly crossed with neandermato are coming up, it will be interesting to see if there are any hybrids.

[gilbert]

All the Ipomoea plants are growing vigorously, and I may finally have figured out how to obtain seeds for I. costata.

I now have both buffalo Gourd and Malabar gourd seedlings up, enough to do crossing and grafting experiments.

My various tomatoes are up, as well as some of Joseph's tomato crosses. He told me that some of the Big Hill seed I sent back to him may have crossed with Neandermato, as I hoped. My batch of seeds from that plant have failed to produce any true leaves, and are a yellow color.

This issue is effecting many of my seed starting projects. I think it probably has something to do with the potting soil. By and large, I'm starting in soil bricks, lining them up in flats; I mixed the brick mix up myself. Rows of various varieties go across the flats. In some flats, there are obviously columns of bricks, cutting across the rows of varieties, where either nothing has grown or the plants are weak and stunted. I've used this mix recipe before, and always got good results. Further, the columns of bricks should (in most cases) represent the same batch of mix. That probably rules out herbicide or other contaminants in the compost I bought for the mix. ( I doubt the peat or sand would be contaminated.) It also rules out bad seed or pathogens.

The only think I can figure out is that I didn't stir the mix well enough, and the dead bricks are ones which got too much or not enough fertilizer and lime, probably too little. But I thought I mixed it up well.

Just to throw a wrinkle into things, the Big Hill plants, which are the sickest of the bunch, are in a different batch of potting soil that I bought pre-mixed. And some other plants growing in the same look OK, though a little pale. I tried watering everything with fish emulsion, but the worst plants didn't perk up. So I just moved all the brick into larger containers of soil mix, which I took care to stir. The larger volume should also cancel out any discrepancies in the mix.

[gilbert]

My overwintering experiments on canna lilies and dahlias have not show any signs of life so far; they probably didn't make it.

Partially due to the troubles mentioned above with my tomatoes, and partially to test for a wider range of traits, I'm going to be planting Big Hill ?x Neandermato seeds directly in ground, along with neandermatoes to test for cool soil emergence, vigor, and screen for hybrids.

I'll be tilling up my squash patch this week.

[gilbert]

Some of the Dahlias are coming back, after all.

[gilbert]

I've not put many reports on here, because I've been sick so much this spring and garden work has been neglected. But I'm finally done with the spring planting. I'll have to hope for a warm fall to bring stuff to maturity.

Of interest to the folks here, I've planted: seeds for a delecata x costata romanesco zucchini cross, seeds I saved from Joseph's Maxima squash, Joseph's moschata squash, watermelon X citron from Keen, cantaloupes I'll be selecting for bush growth from Joseph, buffalo gourds and malabar gourds for an attempted cross, tetsukabuto winter squash to cross with the maximas and moschatas, and some neandermato x domestic plants alongside standard tomatoes. None of my S. pennellii crosses and pure S. habrochaites plants survived. As well as being sick and thus behind, I ran into some trouble with my potting soil; I still haven't figured that out. Once the tomatoes were planted out they all did much better.

I didn't get Keen's pea seeds in, so I'll be using them for an overwintering experiment. I didn't get any tree seeds planted either, but I still may do so; I guess a little growth before the Fall is better than none.

[gilbert]

Well, things have not progressed much. I spent a lot more time sick, and the weather has not been cooperating; very hot and dry up until this week, when we got torrential rains and high winds.

I'm not going to attempt any overwintering projects, except possible some tree seeds for stratification; I'm just so overwhelmed keeping up with what I've planted.

[walt]

Sorry to hear you were sick.

[gilbert]

The Maximia and Moschata squash look like they will proved some seeds and food. The watermelons have some really tiny melons, but I'm not sure if there is enough time. After various losses due to a bunch of different things, I've got three neandermato x tomato plants left. One of them is really wispy, with divided leaves, and another has larger divided leaves and is more sturdy. Both are setting fruit; the fruits look much like neandermato fruits. A third is a very strange looking plant with long stems and extremely sparse, potato type leaves that are curled in an odd way. It seems to be sterile, with flowers simply falling off instead of setting.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

This year has not been a kind gardening year for me, but i had so much going on. It happens. Don't be discouraged.

That sterile tomato plant sounds like it could be self-incompatible, which could be good. Pay attention to it at the very end of the season, it may yet produce a few fruits late. I had an F3 fern x hab. tomato from joseph like that last summer and i got a few sparse fruits very late at the season when everything was dying.

In terms of the watermelon, mine are not much bigger than small tennis balls or baseballs, but there is still some time left that i am not giving up complete hope. Baseball sized is still generally big enough to produce enough mature seed for planting again the next year. Such was when joseph and i originally started out original watermelon proto-landrace projects. The first year was terrible. The few years after were still pretty measly, but they steadily did better and better. The best year was when i had improved my soil with mowed apple leaves which provided an abundance of organic matter and used a soaker hose to give plenty of water. I did neither this year. But i am hopefull that whatever has survived thus far this year is much better than whatever croaked off earlier in the season.

[gilbert]

I hadn't thought about self-incompatibility. If it does not set fruit I'll probably try to nurse a cutting through the winter.

My watermelon and cantaloupe are getting bigger; with a few more weeks of warmth, I'll probably get some.

My dahlias that came back for a second year are blooming profusely.

[gilbert]

Two days ago, I planted short rows of 13 types of peas that Keen sent me, as well as a few others I had around. I didn't plant very many, since I wanted plenty of back-up seed. We will see how they overwinter, and how the overwintering peas perform compared to spring planted.

The watermelons and cantaloupe still don't look ripe, but the winter is holding off, for now.

Joseph's Luffa gourds are growing enormous!