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Post by walt on May 29, 2022 10:17:27 GMT -5
I don't have peas in bloom right now. But as I remember them white blending to green near the base of the petals. I haven't paid attention to the flowers in the past. But my daughter, who is an artist, and who loves fresh food from the garden, just had a birthday. She's 47 and has about everything she wants already. Not that she has lots of things, but she doesn't want a lot of clutter in her life. So it is hard to find her a birthday present. But I think that some colorful snap peas in a big pot on her deck might please her. I've googled peas with colored flowers but wasn't much help.
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Post by walt on May 25, 2022 18:46:05 GMT -5
I've only grown peas with flowers of 2 colors. The purple flowers of Dwarf Gray Sugar pea, and the white of all the others I've grown. So are there other colors available? If so, does anyone know of someone selling them? Also what colors of pods are there? Green, yellow, white, and purple I've heard of. Are there others?
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Post by walt on Apr 25, 2021 13:39:33 GMT -5
Finally last frost of the season. I won't miss them. This last winter was exceptionally mild, except one week that was terrible. Plumbing froze. Worse, my citrus were in the basement and most of them were killed. Bummer. My 3 most important ones, for breeding, did survive, as did a few F2 seedlings of US 852 (mandarin x Ponciris).
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Post by walt on Mar 26, 2021 14:06:50 GMT -5
One crop where horizontal resistance is used is Medicago sativa, called Alfalfa in USA and Lucern in UK and some other countries. this crop is a perennial hay crop, and studies have shown that yield is directly related to disease and insect resistance. So Dr. Sorenson at KSU was intercrossing some alfalfa clones and germination the seeds in a pie plate of vermiculite. As soon as the sprouted, the seedlings were sprayed with a suspencion of spores of some pathogen, then another, and another. The alfalfa weavils were turned loose on them, then some kind of aphids. Naturally, at each step of this the number of survivers dropped. Then any seedlings that were left were planted in a vat of wet soil he had been using for years and contained all kinds of root rot germs. Finally those still alive were included in the crosses for the next generation. He been doing this for years and sometime his population would get resistant to the insects and pathogens he was working with. Then he'd trade some of his seed with another alfalfa breeder in another state, who had been doing the same thing but with another set of pathogens and insects. He'd cross his seedlings with the seedlings from the other breeder and continue. He said about every state university had such a program.
CIMMYT in Mexico is breeding for horizontal resistant in barley, wheat, and triticale. They do it by growing these crops, from a diverse origional population, in very humid areas where many diseases are rampant. I'm sure there are other examples I can't recall just now. Even so, I think it should be used more than it is.
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Post by walt on Sept 3, 2020 10:36:30 GMT -5
Had a hard rain a couple of nughts ago. My 1/2 mastif 1/2 Great Dane dog climbed into bed with me when lightening hit nearby. 150 pounds of dog. Thinks she's a puppy.
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Post by walt on Aug 28, 2020 10:51:08 GMT -5
I would. I am not here as often as I used to be. but you can email me at walterpickett@yahoo.com . Anyone can for that matter. I check that address 5 or 6 times a week to keep in touch with family.
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Post by walt on Aug 20, 2020 11:44:13 GMT -5
Last Friday I volunteered to take part in a test of the vacine out of UK. University of Kansas is cooperating in the test, and if accepted, I would be getting the vacsine through them. I haven't been accepted yet. If I'm not accepted, I'm OK with that, too.
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Post by walt on Aug 20, 2020 11:34:12 GMT -5
Reed. Cowpeas are said to have been domesticated in the Sahel, the area just south of the Sahara. The Sahel is plenty hot and dry. Cowpeas are still a staple there, where farmers farm like their lives depended on it. Which they do. Cowpeas spread across southern Asia thousands of years ago, and adapted. So there are cowpeas adapted to hot dry and others adapted to hot wet. There may be some adapted to cooler weather, I don't know. Anyway, not knocking other kinds of beans, peas, etc., but cowpeas should be concidered for anyone counting on their garden to feed them. All that said, my garden was a bust this year. To much else got in the way.
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Post by walt on Aug 17, 2020 11:47:57 GMT -5
There are 44 pages of Solanacae topics. So do we need more? Maybe not, but I'm starting a new one anyway. I've said before, elsewhere, that Chiltipines, wild peppers, are my favorite peppers. But they start blooming around time for first frost in my area, Kansas. Many year ago I crossed a Thai Hot with a Chiltipine and in the F1 I got a plant much like the Chiltipine parent, and the fruits were much like Chiltipines. But they started producing peppers by mid summer. I kept the F1 plants in pots and took them inside over winters. I kept those plants going for 5 years, before a power outage killed them. I never saved seeds from those plants.
So I'm going to cross Chiltipines with some early-blomimg pepper and cross them with Chiltipines. I'll be saving seeds and selecting mostly for early fruiting. And I think I'll be backcrossing 3 or 4 times to Chiltipines.
I bought some pepper plants last spring to cross with Chiltipines. But I didn't get my Chiltipine seeds planted until last week. But seedlings are up, in a 1 gallon pot. They, and the plants bought last spring, will be grown under lights in the basement this winter. I expect to fave F1 seeds to plant next summer. It is possible I'll have F2 seeds by summer. I don't know how well the plants will grow over the winter.
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Post by walt on Aug 17, 2020 11:11:07 GMT -5
You can grow a large population of corn in a smaller space by growing some each year and freezing seed each year. Every few years mix the seed saved from different years. For example, sow 1/5 of your seed in year one.
Take Darjones numbers from above as an example. Save seed from 40 of the best ears. Not all the seed from each ear, but rather 1/5 as much as you will need to replant in the next cycle. Each of the next 4 years do the same. After 5 years, mix all the seed you have saved. That will be the same as if you had grown 200 plants in one year.
For what its worth, I have had good results with much smaller number than Darjone and many other recommend. I am comfortable saving 50 ears per generation. Most people think this is too few, but I'm not having a problem with inbreeding.
Corn breeders who have worked with corns saved for centuries in small isolated fields at high altitudes, found that those landraces show little or no inbreeding depression, nor hybrid vigor when outcrossed. In short, they have adapted over centuries to gradual inbreeding and are doing fine. That is not to say that there weren't problems in the first century or two.
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Post by walt on Aug 17, 2020 10:45:59 GMT -5
I'm having a cool, rainy summer. That's by Kansas standards. Crops are mostly good.
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Post by walt on Aug 7, 2020 11:14:48 GMT -5
My summer, central Kansas, USA, has been cooler and wetter than normal. Very nice. Hot and dry is more common here.
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Post by walt on Feb 2, 2020 14:47:14 GMT -5
I used to breed guppies and sold to pet stores in the Wichita. We also bred platties, swords, gouramis, and kribenzies. The guppies, swords, and platties did great outside, in the summer. They were bigger than those inside with near perfect care. But we always sold them before it got cold, keeping the best as breeding stock inside over the winter.
My grandfather had goldfish in his cattle water tank. When he sold his farm, we brought a few and stocked our cattle water tank. The biggest were about a foot long. I'm sure that when I put my goldfish out in the garden pool next spring, they will be fine for years. I will have to protect them from raccoons and blue herons.
My daughter's second word was "Ish" Her third word was shoe (also pronounced Ish.)
We also had one bluegill in the tank. It liked to hang out where the water went into the tank. I'd try to grab it. It would try to bite me. Fun.
Back to weather. Today, Feb.2, I left my coat in the car. Don't need it. Except for about 3 ice storms, this winter has been extremely warm. Normal is about 15 degrees F colder.
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Post by walt on Feb 1, 2020 15:10:40 GMT -5
What species do you have in mind? Some time ago, I bought some "feeder"goldfish to put in a new aquarium. The plan was to see if the cheap ($0.25) fish would live before putting in more expensive fish. The goldfish are about 6" plus tail fins and I like them very much. But come spring I want to put in a water garden, and the fish should quite happy there. Some other pet store fish, like White Clouds, should do fine with them. But some others would be good. Albino channel catfish might also look good in the garden pond. But channel cats might eat everything else.
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Post by walt on Jan 21, 2020 13:17:13 GMT -5
#1. Can you tell the difference between a dwarf and a runt? I think you can. Make sure the plant is strong with typical leaves. Or let me put it this way. It sounds like what you want are shorter internodes. The rest of the plant you seem happy with. So concentrate on shorter internodes. Don't go for fewer leaves. Or maybe one or two fewer leaves. Look your plants over carefully, then decide.
#4. I don't think the two are linked.
#9. I would be ok with saving seeds from 25 plants. But do be careful to use only the best. Good selection can overcome some inbreeding. But on;y with careful selection.
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