ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Apr 29, 2018 15:29:54 GMT -5
Found someone who is willing to let me use some of there land, I hope to get more information soon.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Apr 3, 2018 20:35:55 GMT -5
Finished planting the early stuff today so I get a break till mid-late April.
Also started my first go at growing edible mushroom, put freshly chipped branches in a large container, mixed in a couple of minced shrooms from the store and wet it down with some hydrogen peroxide water. I hope maple and aspen wood where ok to use and that I remembered correctly that mushroom don't mind hydrogen peroxide.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Apr 1, 2018 23:28:02 GMT -5
Boy the first few days of gardening are always so ... uh, invigorating. I think I'm invigorated out for a while, (suck it up pansy) a lot more to do tomorrow.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Feb 26, 2018 14:42:03 GMT -5
Slightly off topic, but this year i am growing out a pea mutant from JIC that might have open keels. This would facilitate higher outcrossing peas and could be clever for breeding true landrace peas. There was a fair amount of interest in that if they are what they claim. I think i shared some seed with ethin , so hopefully we can investigate and share this unique trait with others who are even more interested in outcrossing peas. The downside potentially is that yields might be lower from pollen that dries out faster. Yes keen101 you set me some of those. Hopefully they grow for me and are as advertised. An open flower may cause the pollen to dry quicker but at the same time hopefully they will be more attractive to pollinators so it might even out in the end. I noticed last year one of the Lima bean had open flowers, the petals where still the same basic shape but where very narrow and somewhat shortened causing the flower to be very open with the anthers and stigma exposed at the center, not sure if it was genetic or environmental. Perhaps something similar could be achieved with peas. I'm with T. Even with very active bees that were attracted to my peas i don't know that they've been able to get into the flowers to cross them. Though with so many human crossed peas perhaps i would never notice. Some solitary bees can bite into pea flowers so who knows. One thing I've observed in my garden is if a flower is attractive enough the pollinators will lean how to use it. when I first started growing snapdragons 7 or 8 years ago there where only two types of bees in my garden that could get in them, bumblebees with just there weight and anther bee that would ram the flowers at full speed to force their way in. The honey bees would ignore the snapdragons until late fall when they where running out of options but they where too small and weak to get inside them. A couple years ago I noticed that the honey bees had figured out that they could get in if they went to the corners of the flowers lips, now the honey bees visit the Snaps all season long. So even if we can't make the pea flowers more accessible maybe if we make them more attractive the pollinators will learn to do the rest.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Feb 18, 2018 21:45:09 GMT -5
Yesterday it was in the 40s, the ground had been bare since the first of the month and I was pruning trees, today it's in the 20s and there is 10-12" of heavy snow.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Jan 23, 2018 21:15:17 GMT -5
Red - annual vegetables Yellow -biennial/perennial veg/fruit (strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, rhubarb, asparagus, grapes, sunroots) Blue - Fruit and nut trees/bushes (apple, plum, peach, apricot, sour cherry, mulberry, serviceberry, walnut, almond, hazelnut.) Arrows are approximate flow of water
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Jan 18, 2018 1:17:02 GMT -5
From my experience with growing basil it seems to me that most of the varieties I've grown are suffering from being bred for leaf production or flavor and would benefit from some survival of the fittest TLC.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Jan 17, 2018 20:58:35 GMT -5
After doing some actual research instead of just relying upon what I thought I read somewhere it would seem that basil seed doesn't have much if any omega 3(compared to chia). However if any of the other purported health benefits are true (antioxidants, anticancer, antiviral, antibacterial, antimicrobial, antispasmodic, antiseptic, anti fungal) then they might make a good complement for chia. Basil seeds also seems to be mucilaginous and are said to have a slight basil flavor (I wonder if thai basil seed tastes like licorice?).
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Jan 16, 2018 19:59:59 GMT -5
Basil seeds are said to be just as useful if not more so than chia, but that's probably a discussion for another thread.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Dec 23, 2017 15:28:09 GMT -5
Doing roast chickpeas for a family gathering, didn't have enough home grown in the pantry for the recipe so I had to buy some, found an off type in one of the bags(spherical with a smooth seed coat). ! score ! lol
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Dec 23, 2017 3:22:44 GMT -5
I did send you seed for that this fall did i not? If so, maybe you can trial them side by side as they sound eerily similar... Yes. Pea brothers from different mothers.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Dec 23, 2017 2:41:17 GMT -5
Seeds per plant.
I asking 'cause I had a sneaky shelling pea that got it's self planted with the chickpeas this year, I figured since it outsmarted me I would let it stay. That one plant produced 223 seeds, I don't know what's average but that seems kinda high for one pea plant. Other than it's ability to manipulate humans and it's crazy seed production the only other distinguishing(or do I mean disturbing?) feature was that it had 4 or 5 stems.
I guess I need to keep track of it's line, see what else it can do.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Dec 23, 2017 0:33:16 GMT -5
Might not be the best place to ask this. Does anyone here know what the average number of seeds per plant for shelling peas might be?
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Dec 22, 2017 0:22:07 GMT -5
Added a new variety page for my pink flowered golden sweet.
I wouldn't have guessed that modding computer games was actually teaching me something useful.
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ethin
gardener
Plant Breeder and Graphic Designer in Cache Valley Utah, USDA Zone 4b
Posts: 214
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Post by ethin on Dec 21, 2017 18:32:47 GMT -5
Added seed pics for golden sweet, Biskopens, Sugar Magnolia, and Opal Creek. I have more but need to figure out adding new variety pages.
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