Author Topic: Seed sharing circle 2011 (Read 112654 times)

Jayb · « **Reply #420 on:** October 14, 2011, 16:22:56 »

Nice posts and thoughts :)

Quote from: galina on October 13, 2011, 12:08:46

MR,
Last year we had 5 seeds of Black Turtle bean. Here 4 of them grew into strong healthy plants and produced seeds plenty enough for a proper 'grow, save and eat' in future years. With beans, tomatoes, peas and squashes it is fine not to have a lot of seeds from many different plants, because we can save from just a few plants without creating a problematic genetic 'bottleneck'. More is better obviously, but unlike sweetcorn, brassica, root crops and alliums, there is no big genetic deterioration, provided all plants are healthy and true to type. If there is a chance to get more Black Turtles or 'Tuts' in years to come from another source, I shall grow those separately and compare to make sure they are the same, and then combine the batches.

In the meantime I cherish and save seeds from my Black Turtle beans, as I will cherish your King Tut peas, whatever the quantity. We are all seedsavers here and can make more ;D

Quote from: markfield rover on October 14, 2011, 14:35:15

Thanks galina I guess every little does help. I also think every seed is a minor miracle!

Jayb · « **Reply #421 on:** October 17, 2011, 16:15:32 »

Yayyyy I’ve finished shelling the dried seeds of Painted Mountain corn today :)

galina · « **Reply #422 on:** October 17, 2011, 19:04:04 »

The kernels look amazing. So colourful, very pretty.

pansy potter · « **Reply #423 on:** October 17, 2011, 19:05:39 »

Is it decorative or can you eat it?

Jayb · « **Reply #424 on:** October 17, 2011, 20:53:32 »

It's listed as corn rather than a sweet corn although it can be eaten fresh, I've only tried it raw, which was suprisingly good and tasty. I think you would need to pick and cook fairly rapidly :) They can be used for decoration and milled for flour. It has been bred to do well in not so good conditions where others would fail.
I'll have some spare seed if you fancy trying some, it's pretty and easy to grow, flavour is good but it won't replace sweetcorn.

goodlife · « **Reply #425 on:** October 19, 2011, 15:49:05 »

Right..I've got this circle's seeds just about sorted too..with a little change for the original plans.. ::)
First lot of lettuce bolted straight away without any proper growth..so those were not good for seed prodution.
Second lot that I sowed have been growing brilliantly..but they only just started produce flower stem.. ::)..too late..
As for Leek bulbils..well they have produced them..but not the usual quantity...Instead producing bulbils the bulbs have put the all the effort for the bulb growing. They've grown from tiny bulbils into much larger bulbs..they've never grown that much in a year before.. :o::)..I can only put it down to our odd weather this year.
I don't have that many bulbils now to offer for everybody in the circle..but if anybody (from this circle) is interested to have a growing my (what I assume is wild 'sort') leek..drop me a PM and I'll sort them in 'private' .
What I can offer this year is..Swedish One Dot and Magpie beans, Paula and Skånsk Märgart peas, Bolivian coriander (now rogue's sorted out so just one variety)..Is that selection ok?
..and I WILL get round to do entries into the list...soon...

SueK · « **Reply #426 on:** October 28, 2011, 16:22:14 »

Hi Jayb,
Have sent you a pm with email address for the google doc! Do we have a deadline for sending in the seeds?

The borage is all bagged up and ready, just dried out some rice in the oven to give the tomatoes a thorough dry.

Exciting times! :)

Robert_Brenchley · « **Reply #427 on:** October 28, 2011, 17:27:57 »

Most of mine's ready but the beans are still drying.

galina · « **Reply #428 on:** October 28, 2011, 18:02:16 »

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on October 28, 2011, 17:27:57

Most of mine's ready but the beans are still drying.

Similar here. Have started putting seeds in baggies, but holding off on putting the walking onion and Babington leek bulbils into their bubble wrap baggies until much closer to the sending-in deadline to keep them in good condition. Have only just harvested the last achocha, so their seeds will need a few weeks drying too.

goodlife · « **Reply #429 on:** October 29, 2011, 12:56:17 »

All seeds bagged, labelled and ready for sending.. ;D ;D
I just need to do my entries for the list.. :-X
Ahh...one thing came to my mind..Jayb..any chance of confirmation for the total number of members for this..just so that I know how many packets to send..;)

pumkinlover · « **Reply #430 on:** October 29, 2011, 13:15:36 »

Hmm you are very organized, I got off to such a slow start that some things still on the plant :-[

goodlife · « **Reply #431 on:** October 29, 2011, 13:30:18 »

Well..you still have time..I think the sending is not supposed to happen until end of November.
I've had to get myself..organized..I've got seed trays everywhere drying out..and I don't bag and label as soon as they are ready, I get everything in such a mess... ::)
My seeds are quite organized..the rest of the hourse is another story.. :-X ;D..one can only have energy to go so far..

galina · « **Reply #432 on:** October 29, 2011, 13:56:01 »

Quote from: goodlife on October 29, 2011, 12:56:17

Ahh...one thing came to my mind..Jayb..any chance of confirmation for the total number of members for this..just so that I know how many packets to send..;)

We started off with 20 participants. Are we still all in? Hope so :)

Ian Pearson · « **Reply #433 on:** October 31, 2011, 19:53:49 »

Parsnip, Avon Resistor is bagged (a generous amount).

Turkish Rocket is bagged.

Pea, Biskopens Graart is a problem. Mice took most of them from the plants as they were drying, so I don't have anything like enough for the group. If anyone is desperate for some, contact me directly.

I'm going to put in some tomato, He-Man (rootstock variety) to make up for it.

goodlife · « **Reply #434 on:** October 31, 2011, 20:53:44 »

Oh..root stock tomatoes....interesting.. ;D..I can already see experiment coming on... ;)
What kind of fruit does it have?

pumkinlover · « **Reply #435 on:** October 31, 2011, 21:17:30 »

So would they be used to graft on other varieties? like the ones you can buy now?

Ian Pearson · « **Reply #436 on:** November 01, 2011, 16:15:38 »

Goodlife, the fruit are small, with unremarkable taste, yellow, and very slow to mature. The plants do not reflect the name. They are slow to germinate, and make feeble seedlings. They need to be sown a few weeks before the scion variety so that the stems are of similar thickness.
However, they show good resistance to disease, and vigorous roots.
Pumpkin lover, yes, this is a common commercial rootstock variety. There are plenty of articles on the net explaining how to do the grafting.
And I'll add my experience of the process to the Google doc.

galina · « **Reply #437 on:** November 07, 2011, 09:33:23 »

Is Jeannine ok? Haven't heard from her for over a month. Does anybody know how she and OH are doing?

galina · « **Reply #438 on:** November 07, 2011, 09:36:29 »

Ian, this is going to be so useful in the greenhouse. Despite attempts at some sort of a crop rotation and scraping the top layer of compost off and replacing with new stuff, the tomatoes are sometimes not as happy as they might be. Where I had beans last year, I have really good tomatoes, but not all over the greenhouse.

Thank you for including such a very useful rootstock seed.

goodlife · « **Reply #439 on:** November 07, 2011, 09:38:00 »

Yep.... I think those He-man 'roots' will come handy with 'biggest tomato' competion.. ;) ;D

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Author Topic: Seed sharing circle 2011 (Read 112654 times)

pumkinlover

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