Author Topic: Seed Saving Circle 2021  (Read 24038 times)

ruud

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #120 on: April 08, 2022, 16:56:42 »
You only can keep broad beans kind of real if there are no other variety in a cirkel of 500 meter.Broad beans mix very easy.

JanG

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #121 on: April 09, 2022, 06:54:37 »
Thanks Vetivert. Great to know. Mine are hanging on but I’ll certainly come asking if they succumb further.

And yes, broad beans are difficult to keep pure. I’ve tried mesh covers. Last year I bought, very cheap, some bridal veil material and made some net bags, but you need to cover the whole plant which in my case kept growing taller and probably made my bags ineffective!

When you’ve had broad bean seeds to offer, Ruud, did you grow just one variety or did you manage to bag them somehow?

ruud

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #122 on: April 09, 2022, 16:51:01 »
I just grew one variety but that wasnot 100% safe because of my neighbours.I am now creating a landrace broad bean.

JanG

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #123 on: April 10, 2022, 06:19:42 »
Yes, that’s definitely one very sensible way to go. Will that be a free-for-all, or will you select for certain qualities?

ruud

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #124 on: April 11, 2022, 10:51:48 »
That will be free for all,but if there are special ones i will try to isolated them and grow them next year.

galina

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #125 on: June 04, 2022, 10:29:18 »
Big wave to MarkfieldRover and Vetivert.  Hangman's door is growing extremely fast and the generous number of blood red purple pods are filling nicely already.  Senposai is proving to be a very nice 'green', we have been picking individual cabbagey leaves for the kitchen for a month now.  Unfortunately the slugs love them too.  Great 'hungry gap' crop.  Will try my best to save seeds for future years. 

galina

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #126 on: June 05, 2022, 18:58:07 »
Forgot to mention the super lettuces from 3 sources.  Well here is a picture of my lunchtime lettuce plate. 

JanG

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #127 on: June 06, 2022, 06:23:58 »
Yes, I second your appreciation of the lettuces. I’m looking forward, in the next day or two, to the first harvest of some impressive looking heads of White Seeded Samara

galina

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #128 on: June 10, 2022, 08:03:35 »
Joy this morning, at long last the nasturtium has 'pepe'd out of the soil.  Did not appreciate that it could take such a long time, but clearly it does.  The foliage is very dark.  Excited, as I had given up on it.   

JanG

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #129 on: June 11, 2022, 05:52:07 »
It’s a lovely dark leaf, isn’t it? I grew it last year and again this year from my own saved seed. This year I’ve gone rather overboard with different nasturtiums so imagine I won’t be able to save it as a pure variety again but hopefully it will share its dark-leaved genes liberally.

galina

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #130 on: October 30, 2022, 04:26:11 »
Senposai seems to have a second life.  I harvested seeds which I was very pleased about, but the plants did not perish.  I cut off the flowering stems that had dry seed pods on them, rather than pulling up the whole plants and with the cooler autumn weather, they have put on a lot of secondary growth.  Both from the ground (from scattered seeds perhaps?), and from extra shoots that are trying to flower now.  These are smaller rosettes with mini broccoli type buds. 

Still feeding us well.  I wonder whether the winter cold will put an end to the bounty or, if they survive, how 'perennial' they might be from dropped seeds and shoots developing as a consequence of the main flowering shoots having been cut off.   Love Senposai - it is such a rewarding veg. 

JanG

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #131 on: October 30, 2022, 05:34:46 »
I sowed mine later - in mid-June. I have a very healthy row of large green leaves. In my case, too, it will be interesting to see whether the leaves remain lush and edible over winter. Presumably they will flower in late spring and I’ll follow your method, Galina, of cutting off shoots rather than pulling up plants.
There will also be the question of what other brassicas they might cross with.

galina

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #132 on: October 30, 2022, 10:20:42 »
Might cross with just about everything, given its mustard and cabbage ancestry. 

Vetivert

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #133 on: October 30, 2022, 11:04:49 »
Senposai is the same species as rapeseed and swedes (Brassica x napus) so would presumably cross with those, and probably also the parent species B. oleracea and B. rapa but from what I've read it would be at a greatly reduced rate. A Virginian farmer says it is cold hardy down to -11C.

No wonder the seed pods stayed alive and green for so long last season, as the plant itself had no intention of dying back. Unfortunately I pulled up the whole plants with the seed harvest. It could possibly make a continuous broccolini crop, which would be a joy to behold. Enjoy the volunteers, they won't stop coming  :tongue3:

Next season I'll start reselection for the leaves I find most appealing, and to eliminate the hairs found on some of them.

JanG

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Re: Seed Saving Circle 2021
« Reply #134 on: October 31, 2022, 06:06:40 »
My guess is that my Senposai might well flower at the same time as the rapeseed with which I’m surrounded here! We’ll see.

 

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