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Post by oxbowfarm on Nov 16, 2018 15:53:26 GMT -5
I'd bet it is a combination of age and rough handling. Beans are actually pretty fragile. Damage to the cotyledons or embryo due to getting smacked around in augers etc is without a doubt going to lower the germ, and then who knows how long its been sitting in a bin somewhere. It might also have been force dried in a bin as well, which involves a stirring process which is probably pretty rough. They don't need them to germ so they don't need to be as gentle with them.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Nov 6, 2018 10:06:59 GMT -5
Hi jumping into this thread again, I'd forgotten I'd even posted in this one a LONG time ago. I've just recently been given by reed a few seeds from this project and I am excited to try them. I do have several years of growing sweets here in NY under my belt, and I've got some thoughts about selection. Mostly I've been growing Murasaki/Japanese Purple type and Georgia Jet. Neither has been especially successful for me. I've never seen a flower from the Japanese sweets, and the yield is variable from them. I've gotten huge yields from Georgia Jet, but the root quality of Georgia Jet is abysmal. It either produces huge football sized roots with MASSIVE cracks all over it and lots of black surface scurfy looking discoloration, or tons of orange stringy roots. It also seems to have the clumping root habit reed is selecting for. I think this habit is a bit problematic, at least when they get really big and push out of the ground due to my third big issue with growing sweet potatoes which is Meadow Voles. I have never had less than 50-60% of my Georgia Jet roots without some level of vole feeding damage. And there are usually craters where a previously huge root has been completely excavated by vole armies. My idea for an ideal sweet potato is one that produces abundant seed, abundant slips, stores well, is ORANGE flesh and sweet (although White flesh and sweet is fine), and makes attractive roots that are bratwurst sized up to about the size of an ear of corn. I don't want giant lunker roots. I also want a sweet potato that will form such roots early enough in the season that I can harvest them and cure them in early September when the weather is still warm enough to cure them in a high tunnel or greenhouse set up, and before the voles move in and start destroying the best tubers. I'd love to hear some input on how feasible this is. As far as clumping root phenotype, I love that phenotype except I feel that it leaves the entire harvest vulnerable to vole decimation. So if its going to clump, its gotta be a fast-root-bulking-clumper. I don't know if Georgia Jet has been included in the genetic mix of these seed reed? I will say that it always flowers for me. Its too bad that ottawagardener has left HG, she has posted a lot of stuff on her TSPS experiments on her blog and on Facebook.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Nov 6, 2018 9:50:03 GMT -5
If you plant one, or more, of those tubers of a different color , will they then produce tubers of the same color? I buried all my potato berries but if next year I decide to try to save and plant actual seeds, is there a special process? From those little tubers, great for making Russian Potatoes, if you plant the larger next year, what yield do you get on average. I planted some hold overs of that size and as a average got two to three tubers from golf ball size to baseball size. Plant all were same size, i.e. either gave a few small or a few larger. Now I have always planted hold over tubers, or bought new ones for planting but in over forty years have never had an odd-ball tuber show up. I have planted, replanted Victoria now for three years and it produces on a rather boring level of sameness, i.e. same good yield of baseball or larger potatoes. I have only one season of experience of growing S. jamesii and only from seed, I have never grown them from tubers. billw has stated elsewhere that the Mexican/N. American potato species that show this variable color phenotype do not indicate that it is a fixed genetic phenotype. In other words, if you plant a purple tuber and a white tuber, they will both give you the full mix of colors at harvest. Tuber skin color appears to be influenced by some individual environmental factor specific to each tuber. Possibly age, light, temperature, moisture? It isn't a studied phenomenon. I would expect the tuber size from these to be basically the same grown from tubers as what these are showing grown from seed. S. jamesii doesn't make very large tubers AFAIK
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Post by oxbowfarm on Oct 29, 2018 11:43:25 GMT -5
I saw the threads, they were bot generated spam. I reported them, presumably Joseph deleted them. I'm pretty sure Joseph is the only mod standing.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Oct 24, 2018 10:45:29 GMT -5
This may be useful or not, but Burrell's Seeds sells an F1 orange flesh spaghetti squash already, called Burrell's Mini Spaghetti I grew it this year. Customer acceptance has been high. The squash are quite a bit smaller than standard spaghetti squash. I did cook one, it does do the spaghetti thing. The "noodles" are indeed a bright orange/yellow. Flavor is typical spaghetti squash flavor, meaning bland flavorlessness. I am not personally an eater of spaghetti squash. I think they are pointless as food. But my customers like them. So it would probably be almost no work at all to dehybridize this F1 for those of us not in Australia. Frankly I've got other squash projects and I don't actually want an OP spaghetti squash since this one works OK for me. IF the world came to an end I would be happy if that meant the end to spaghetti squash.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Oct 24, 2018 7:14:47 GMT -5
Option 2 seems possible, but I don't really know what the native habitat for Z. dip is. Lots of grass species go dormant when it is dry, it seems like an easier method than trying to keep it green and growing (if it works).
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Post by oxbowfarm on Oct 24, 2018 7:03:10 GMT -5
Just a quick 2¢ about the slime on the prop root tips. There's been a lot of talk recently about its function for feeding N fixing bacteria, and I think that is very interesting. I do not believe that is its only function though, and it isn't even an important function at the stage andi shows in the picture. When the prop root is up in the air like that and is dropping towards the soil, it doesn't have any feeder roots on it to absorb fixed N, even if there was some being produced. The purpose of the slime is to lubricate the root tip so it can break through the soil surface. If you look at those tips when they are slimy, it is a clear slippery gel/mucus. Later in the day it dries up and then is either reconstituted or the tip produces more overnight. Its clearly a hydroscopic mucus gel of some kind. If you think about what a prop root has too do, the plant is basically trying to stab a pencil into the soil in slow motion. It makes sense that the root tip would produce a compound to facilitate this. I'm sure once the root is below the surface, the bacteria feeding fuction begins to become important, but not above ground.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Oct 23, 2018 6:23:27 GMT -5
All sweet corn does is contaminate field corns with weakness. It is ridiculously cheap to buy too. A colleague at market sells it for $5/dozen. I can grow two successions of 30+ lettuce on the same ground it takes to grow a dozen ears of sweet corn, which would earn me between $150 - $180. Why grow the stuff when they are giving it away?
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Post by oxbowfarm on Oct 20, 2018 20:15:22 GMT -5
Well it appears that even so far away east and north of its range, Solanum jamesii can grow and set seed. I am pretty fascinated by the range of tuber colors in what (I think) was one plant.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Oct 20, 2018 13:46:20 GMT -5
Much closer than 2 foot on center in the row and the squash isn't going to be able to do much. Three sisters type hills are about 6 foot on center in all directions. You need to open the corn way out to grow squash in with the corn. I prefer to just plant it on the edges when I companion plant them, which I don't really do much anymore. If you are planting to maximize corn yield then the squash will be shaded out, and so will P. vulgaris beans usually. My 2¢.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Oct 19, 2018 8:49:06 GMT -5
I am on Frank Kutka's Corn Culture FB page (its not really a group, Frank set it up wrong and then wouldn't change it) and he just posted that he is moving and will be dispersing some corn breeding work that he doesn't need anymore and doesn't want to take with him. It is free to interested amateur corn breeders for the cost of postage (paid upfront). I'll copy the entire post .
"Kutka is moving, so old seed is going to go away. If you would like some 4 or 8 way synthetics of more modern lines to mix into your OP projects, I have plenty of seed. However, I cannot sell it - I have no license to sell seed, the seed is getting older and is not germination tested, and these seeds are for experimental/breeding purposes and not production. So seed is going to be free to fellow corn folks in the USA, but postage and handling will have to be paid up front. Not looking at this as a commercial venture, but would like to have expenses covered. I will send small flat rate boxes with up to @1lb of seed in a 1 qt bag for $12 postage and handling, and I will send large flat rate boxes with many pounds of seed in a plastic grocery bag for $25 postage and handling. Here is what I have to give away: 1. An 8 way synthetic for North Carolina to Arkansas 2. 4 and 8 way synthetics with @110 day RM 3. 4 and 8 way synthetics with @95-105 day RM 4. 4 and 8 way synthetics with @85-90 day RM 5. 4 and 8 way synthetics with @75-80 day RM 6. Rachel Carson 8 way synthetic with ECB resistance 7. Cornell Tetraploid composite 8. Composites of very early flints (not modern) 9. Composite of Falconer early semident (not modern) 10. Small amounts of seed with waxy, purple, floury 2, or gametophytic traits If any of these seem like fun let me know and we can work out details. Please let other home breeders know if these sound helpful. This seed moves or otherwise goes by Halloween. Thank you."
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Post by oxbowfarm on Sept 2, 2018 8:19:41 GMT -5
jamesii berries, much smaller than tuberosum on average.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Aug 31, 2018 16:43:15 GMT -5
did you find some sweet fruits among them? How hot are they? My plants are all on the ground and have very weak stems. There is one large green fruit I still wait for and several smaller (younger) ones. I haven't found any fruits without heat. It is so difficult to describe pepper heat, because it is so subjective, but I'd call the Cañoncitos that I've had to be very mellow, low heat peppers. The burn in on the lips and front of the tongue, and my scalp will sometimes sweat slightly on a stronger one. They really are quite a gentle pepper from a heat standpoint. Which is perfect because you can use a lot of them in a dish and get the intense pepper flavors without burning out your guests. Dried peppers of this type are super versatile in the kitchen IMO, much more than ridiculous super-hots which are only edible by a tiny fraction of people.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Aug 31, 2018 8:31:04 GMT -5
The patch of New Mexico landrace chiles I planted is starting to ripen. I've actually missed several Cañoncito fruits that have ripened and rotted in the rain. Part of the problem is probably related to the way the pepper has been selected for rapid growth from direct seeding as per farmher . Since I transplanted all these peppers, the root systems and stem strength wasn't what a field sown plant would have. So I've got most of my Cañoncito plants are fallen over and are growing on their sides with shoots forcing up vertically. This puts all the earliest peppers on the ground and leads to slug and insect attack and rotting. It also doesn't help that I planted the tomatillos too close and they are starting to try and climb over the Landrace pepper row. 6 feet away was too close. Mostly what I have ripe is Cañoncito and a few Chimayo. San Juan Tsile, Isleta, and the Tarahumara Chile Colorado are all covered in fruit, but no ripening so far. I have to say I really like the plants on the Tarahumara Chile Colorado. Very tall and sturdy with strong branches. Here's my harvest so far, minus the ones I've already put into salsa etc.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Aug 30, 2018 16:07:44 GMT -5
So I had the opportunity to trade with farmermike early in the year, and he gave me some very interesting peppers that sounded like they were a good match for a pepper trial I wanted to do of some Ancho/Poblano type drying peppers. I rec'd Chilhuacle Negro and some F3 Pasilla BajiaX Mulato Isleño seed. I've got about 15 Chilhuacle Negro plants going and I really like them so far. Most of them have a good number of peppers sized up and I have pretty high confidence I'm going to get a huge harvest from these. I also really like the plant architecture, they stand tall on their own, vs flopping over and dumping the peppers on the ground to rot. Just a really nice looking pepper, I can't wait to try them. The F3 PB X MI I have way fewer plants, only three. I don't think I started as many and I believe there were some seedling mishaps, can't really remember now. All three plants are pretty clearly segregating, one doesn't have much of anything sized up yet, the other has some skinny dark chiles more along the Pasilla type, and the third has some really nice ancho style peppers that are pretty good sized. I definitely want to keep some seeds back of this one. There is one pepper in the Chilhuacle Negro patch thats is a cross of some kind. It appears to be a bit longer in season as there are a lot of small fruit set on, but nothing like the Chilhuacle type plants. The peppers are sort of short fluted cylinders. I wonder if the male parent jumps out at you Mike? I also trialed a few different Ancho/Poblano-type varieties as well. Two pretty generic strains, one just called "Ancho" and the other "Poblano", of which the "Poblano" is much more productive and has the rich dark green fruit. A couple commercial hybrids, Mosquetero and Tiburon. Tiburon has about 50% great looking plants with nice big dark fruits and the other half empty. The Mosqueteros are way behind and don't have any reasonable size fruit yet. Ancho Gigante is looking pretty good production-wise but the fruits are quite pale, I assume they ripen bright red. I also got a pepper called "Crimson" that was supposedly an Ancho-type but they look much more like a NuMex/Anaheim type to me.
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