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Seed Saving Circle 2024

Started by JanG, May 07, 2024, 06:35:24

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markfield rover

Are you growing them inside? Mine are outside and are acting as if it is June , I'll get back to you when they get their act together.

markfield rover


JanG

Yes, mine are in my polytunnel. I hope yours make some rapid progress. Some warmer weather this next week might help a little? 🤞

galina

#42
I hope nobody is sick of handpollinating squash photos.  But today there were a few good examples in the garden.  Unfortunately my photo skills are not always the best, but I hope you can all see what it is meant to show and have a go at handpollinating.  As it has been mentioned that matching flowers can be a bit tricky, here are a few.

The basics are that you handpollinate a female flower with the tiny embryo fruit underneath with a male.  You close both the evening before they are going to open naturally, to prevent them from opening.  The following day, pick off the male alltogether, bring it to the female.  Open both making sure no bees try to get to the flowers, pick off the petals of the male flower and brush it gently all around the centre of the female flower.  You can actually see the pollen grains in the male flower.  Afterwards close the female again and mark its stem, so that you know at harvest time which is the fruit with the pure seeds. 

I was lucky to have a corresponding Sweet Meat female and male, both ready to open tomorrow and also the same on Thelma Sanders.  Thelma also has two further females, but they are not yet ready for another day.  Their flowers are greener and not quite full size yet.  However there are no corresponding males on the plants for these two.  Too bad, no doubt the bees will help out with pollen from the courgettes, which are also species cucurbita pepo same as Thelma, and we will hopefully get fruit, but no chance for another handpollination with these two.



galina

Quote from: JanG on August 18, 2024, 09:47:24


Bean success has been mixed ........., and Red Swan, which is very beautiful. Thank you, Juliev.

I sowed mine very late in June and they are currently only just flowering.  Such beautiful pink and white flowers indeed.  And very healthy plants too.  Thank you Juliev. 

JanG

Thank you very much, Galina, for capturing so clearly the different stages of squash pollination for true seeds. That's perfect.

And I'm very pleased you have Red Swan successfully growing. It's always good to have some beans for later in the season.I sowed mine about as early as is reasonable (5th May) and they're past being good to eat now. One observation is that they are not quick to dry down for seed.

My earliest bean by quite a long way, both to produce snap beans and then dry pods for seed has been Black Valentine, (thank you, Markfield Rover) which I grew as a semi-runner up a four foot support. I've been harvesting seed for a couple of weeks or so. Definitely a good and easy doer.

galina

Thank you Jan.

This is how the squashes looked today in the morning.  First the Sweet Meat.  Both the male and the female are bulging and would burst open, if it were not for the ties.  I know I said thick wool, but yesterday I only had ordiniary DK to hand and it works too, just potentially could cut into the petals easier than thick wool.

I picked the male flower and pulled off its petals.  Here it is (bottom right) ready to be 'painted' onto the centre of the female flower for pollen transfer.

The next photo shows the female all tied up again to prevent further pollen being brought in by bees.  Note to slugs - stay away please!




galina

And here are the Thelma Sanders.  Both male and female bulging and would open were it not for the wool tie. 

Male picked and opened.  Pollen grains are visible ready to handpollinate the female.

Female tied up again.  Both handpollinated Thelmas in the same photo. 


JanG

Great photos. A perfect tutorial in the whole process. Now just to find two flowers at the right stage! 🤞

galina


JanG

I'm wondering whether anyone else is as excited as I am by so ,any of the Seed Circle tomato varieties as I am.

Garrett's Girl Girl's Weird Thing keeps producing large beautiful striped fruit. It's very productive for a beefsteak type

Ruud's Grandma Viney's is interestingly coloured (I've seen it listed as Grandma Viney's Pink and Yellow) and absolutely enormous. I had one fruit which was 2lbs 1oz!

Markfield Rover's Seattle Best of All and Blaby Special are both highly productive classically mid-sized red tomatoes.

And Galina's Tim's Taste of Paradise just goes on and on producing small delicious yellow fruit

Ruud's Blue Beauty is very beautiful but for me not very productive. I wonder whether anyone else has found the same

And I love the dusky colouring on Garrett's Piglet Willie's French Black

I could mention others too. Such a rich variety of tomato fruits. I love them all!

galina

I couldn't grow them all, still catching up with last year's and the year before.  The Ambrosia Blue have just been outstanding, not so much blue as chocolate brown, after a 'blue' stage and such depth of flavour.  Ditto Ambrosia Rose UBX.  Yes Blaby always does well and tastes good too. 

galina

Quote from: galina on September 06, 2024, 09:52:57
I couldn't grow them all, still catching up with last year's and the year before.  The Ambrosia Blue have just been outstanding, not so much blue as chocolate brown, after a 'blue' stage and such depth of flavour.  Ditto Ambrosia Rose UBX which tastes fab.  Yes Blaby always does well and tastes good too. 

JanG

Quote from: galina on September 06, 2024, 09:52:57
I couldn't grow them all, still catching up with last year's and the year before.  The Ambrosia Blue have just been outstanding, not so much blue as chocolate brown, after a 'blue' stage and such depth of flavour.  Ditto Ambrosia Rose UBX.  Yes Blaby always does well and tastes good too. 

Yes, I couldn't grow them all either! Such a rich choice, and I wanted to grow a few from earlier years too, either to renew seed or because of fond memories.

markfield rover

Piglet Willie French Black tastes like we have had a glorious and languorous summer !

JanG

The season is advancing rapidly and I hope there's a lot of rewarding harvesting going on, alongside inevitably a few frustrations and disappointments.

Is everyone who has said they'd like to participate in the 2024 Seed Circle happy to work to an end of November deadline again? It means I should be able to redistribute and get the precious parcel out to you before the Christmas rush. Let me know if there's any problem with that.

So, we have in the Circle at present:

Juliev
Markfield Rover
Garrett
Vetivert
Ruud
JanG
Galina

Galina is hoping to be able to get seeds safely to the Circle but is aware she can't guarantee it. We very much hope all will go well without bureaucratic hitches. So when you're preparing seeds, please think in terms of six packets of each variety.

It would be really good to hear what seeds you might be thinking of sharing. I've put together a tentative list of my hopes. It's still very early to be certain with beans so my list is subject to change but so far it's this. I'll gradually add some details about the different varieties day by day.

Lettuce
Brune d'Hiver

Tomato
Artisan Gold Bumblebee
Black Plum
Blue Gold Berries
Dancing with Smurfs
Kumato
Kellogg's Breakfast

Beans possible
Coco Sophie
Cupidon
Faraday
Hamby
Kew Blue
Limka
Old Joe Clark
Quedlingberger Speck
Tennessee Cutshort
Trionfo Violetto

Pepper
Padron

Other
Papaver somniferum - pink peony flowered
Cerinthe Major Purpurascens
Coriander?
Dill?

Very much looking forward to hearing some possibles from the Circle

Vetivert

That's an excellent list, Jan! What did you think of Quedinburger Speck?

Unfortunately it's become apparent that I'm not really in a position to participate this year - at best I think I'll only have 2-3 new veg varieties to share.

JanG

I very much liked Quedlinburger Speck - I was given it with the wrong spelling (which I've repeated above but will hopefully get right in future) and with the information that it's dwarf. Once I'd realised that it was anything but dwarf and moved it, it did very well. Long tender pods which eventually dry down beautifully. Have you come across it or grown it?

I think that given your previous wonderful contributions to the Seed Circle, I'd be very happy for you to participate with your two or three new varieties. And of course seeds don't have to be new varieties. Often people are grateful to receive some which are relatively common or have been in the Seed Circle previously. A couple of my tomato varieties were received from the Seed Circle about five years ago I think. So I do hope you'll still feel able to join in.

galina

#57
Absolutely agree Jan.  Two packets is the suggested number, as Jayb set the circle up all these years ago.  With the background understanding that if one fails, there is still another left to participate with!  That we have mostly surpassed that by a bountiful amount, does not mean we can only participate if we have many to share. 

I hope to get all my packets across the water, but since there are no more guarantees, I may end up with fewer packets arriving than I intended also.  Please Vetivert, do say that you will participate!  You have more than 'paid it forward' in previous years with excellent seed and very tasty, new to us varieties we have come to love!  Hope next year you will have more gardening time available again.   

galina

There are some lovely things on your proposed list, JanG.  :)

markfield rover

Vetivert ,  I still have so many of your seeds to grow , still riding high on those! You will be prominent on my allotment for the foreseeable future and my chums too.

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