Showing posts with label Saving Seeds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saving Seeds. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

So here it is! The hole for the grape vine!
After planting, and proud daddy.
Here's the opposite angle
Now for some backyard news: We decided to keep the Russets as they seemed to tolerate that nasty frost-kill much better and look how they've recoverd! I'm planning on planting another row of Russets and it'll be ready a bit later than these.
Mom cut half of the Feijoa Guava tree, since it's always blocking one of the beds and it's not a great fruiter. Or that the fruit will not be very tasty. It can produce as a compact bush, so we shall see this year.
The Guava tree is the same size as the fence now, on the ground you can see the cut branches
The bed closest to us is now a little more sunny. The middle front bed is growing Garlic and some Carrot seedlings. I just planted some lettuces as well. The far left front bed is growing Bulb Onions and Carrots. The back left bed has Spinach, Beets and Chard, although the latter 2 are still very small seedlings. The middle back bed has Bulb Onions that we started last year and some Lettuces. The right back bed has Daikon Radishes, one Chard plant that survived all torture, and Spanish Black Radish seedlings in pots waiting to be planted (not shown)
Lori found something in the orange tree, and was curious enough to climb a rock to take a closer look. Maybe it's a butterfly... I couldn't see it from the angle I was in, from the inside the house.  I thought it was interesting that the shadow on her face looks like a swallowtail butterfly with an extra long tail.

Indoor plants. These are the plants in our dining room window sill. The far left plant (it has a tiny 2" pot) is a Vanilla Orchid climbing on top of the flowering Christmas Cactus. I really have to repot that thing, but I've heard that orchids flower better under stress. Do you know anything about orchids? Next to the Cactus is a white Phalaenopsis.
We've decided to try the lazy way of preserving heat loving plants, taking the cuttings and keeping in them water, indoors.  The Blue Basil responded wonderfully with tons of new roots and is blossoming(it had small buds when I picked them)! The Sweet Potato was just started this week, so we'll see if they'll root. The far much has a leek and chinese celery bought from the store. I'm trying to see if they'll root so I can grow them and harvest seeds. These are the lazy ways of acquiring seeds or starting new plants. It WORKS! Raising Basil this way is by far the easiest. Instead of fiddling with tiny seeds that have a low germination rate, rooting the cuttings is almost a sure fire way. Plus, it's pretty in the window. :-)  These are sitting on the ledge of our front window. Lazy farming is the way to go when you have so many other chores to do around the house!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Garden Updates April 18

Lots of Roma Tomato blossoms
Diamond Eggplants starting to come along
Romaine Lettuce starting to flower
Mango blossoms in full bloom. We'll see if there will be any fruit set this year. Last year there were 3 or so, but the tree dropped the fruits prematurely.
New plant alert! This is a perennial tree kale plant. I received 2 cuttings of these from a generous friend.  It can supposedly grow 6' tall!
Canna Edulis. Edible Canna or Arrowroot plant. The tubers can be eaten
Apios Americana or "ground nut".  They are very small still.  It's not peanut, but a tuber. The plant is a climbing legume that fixes nitrogen, grows tubers and also flowers and beans that are edible
Just a view
Amish Paste Tomatoes in pots already flowering. The big problem... we're out of beds to plant them in!  The older beds have all grown the Solanaceae (nightshade) family and I want to make sure I don't keep repeating crops to avoid diseases.
Daikon radishes growing well among the others
Cucumber needed a stake to climb on, so I placed a bamboo post right by
Fresh, healthy snack right out of the ground!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Saving Seeds for the next season

Here are some British Wonder Shelling Peas drying for seed saving. I bought a pack of 100. Only about 40 sprouted. (probably due to my fault for seeding them too deep)
But this is about 300 and more to come from the 40 plants. I've more than tripled my initial investment! We ate most of them as snow peas, since fresh greens are less available during winter months when you eat what you grow.
They were delicious in stir-fries.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Harvest Updates

This carrot weighed in at 11 oz on it's own. It also won the ugliest carrot contest. I think it wants to be in "Veggie Tales", since it's growing eyes. Root knot nematodes?
A sneaky bitter melon got away and matured to have seeds. The yellow flesh doesn't get sweet, but the red pulp surrounding the seeds do have slight sweetness to them. Very pretty too.
Harvesting the front yard Sweet Potatoes, C found a "duck" shaped one!

Mom found the "BIG one"
Tthe vines now ready for composting. Looking at this pic, you can see it's in the front yard, the asphalt is right there.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Accidental Heritage

I recieved my new packet of short-day bulbing onions from the University of Hawaii. I've discovered these are rare Heritage seeds!

The Seeds of Diversity, Heritage Plants Database says,

Awahia Onion
Seed Availability:
STATUS:Rare
DISTRIBUTION:Poor
Not currently propagated by Seeds of Diversity's seed-savers.
Available from only a few mail-order seed companies. Very difficult to find.
Not maintained by the Canadian gene bank.
Maintained by the U.S. gene bank.

I'm proud to have these seeds. I hope I am able to keep this line of Awahia onions going. I want to save it's seed for next season. I hope I can do it successfully.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Saving Seeds

The Plate is full of tiny Hopi Red Amaranth seeds. It came from one plant.
The Tubes have Passion Fruit (from Farmer's Market) and Bok Choi from the garden. The quarter is there for size.

Jerusalem Sunflower seeds drying. Some will be toasted to eat. The biggest will be saved for seed stock