Seed Sharing Circle 2012

[ruud]

those mange-tout from hong kong are growing well over here,definatly a keeper.Huge pods look like big sugar snaps for me.Sugar snaps and carrots famous dish over here.

[ruud]

[Nigel B]

  Superb reviews of the Eat Me Mange-tout. I'll pass them on to Steve, I'm sure he'll be impressed.

Ruud. Your Kale varieties are brilliant! Just what I was looking for. They have a sort of Cabbage-light flavour about them. Very good germination and strong plants. Thanks again!

Galina:
Brilliant! Just brilliant!
My greenhouse if full of pairs of tomatoes of all shapes and colours. Tomatillos too. Large and small. I have cucumbers climbing all over the grapevine and turning the roof yellow with their abundant flowers.
Wonderful stuff!

[aj]

I would like to agree with the Eat Me Mange Tout - flippin marvelous and so huge whilst staying snappy.

I have resisted eating them all and am saving for seed. It took alot of willpower though.

[Jayb]

'Eat Me' mange tout, still kicking myself for not sowing them, I've got them top of my list for next year 

[Robert_Brenchley]

Oldambster Wierboon broad beans and Black Pod runners both did well this year. I've put them both into mixes, so it'll be interesting to see how the hybrids come out! 

[Jayb]

Sounds interesting Robert, if you need some more Blackpod runners, I've some growing as isolated as I can, not yet harvested, but hopefully looking good for ripe seed. I also put some in a different spot along with some other varieties in a hope to hybridise, but they have been hammered by slugs and I don't think there will be any to harvest this year.

[pumkinlover]

Yummy........... just picked some of the cossack pineapple ground cherries. I grew them in a greenhouse as tomatillos have not ripened here for me in the last few years. Got a huge crop to come too, jam session coming on.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Did you get any Blackpod seed, JayB?

[Jayb]

Happily, yes. They did really well here this year 

[Robert_Brenchley]

Any chance of a few? Mine did well, but then the seeds rotted. Maybe they got frosted since I left them so long in the hope of getting them dried off.

[Jayb]

You're very welcome to some
I'll add them in with the seed circle stuff.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Thanks.

[Jayb]

I'll un-sticky this and put a link to it in a new thread

[galina]

https://sites.google.com/site/seedsharingcircle/seed-parcel/seed-parcel-2012

A little update on the pea 'Elisabeth', seeds for which were shared in the 2012 parcel.

Seeds from my Elisabeth pea variety always produce plants that flower uniformly pink and white here, and have done for many years.  Right at the end of the season the pink and white gets washed out and the flowers get tiny.  But I have not had a big white flower like like Jayb had (from Elisabeth seeds I had shared with her previously) and which is shown on the photo in the seedsharing booklet.

In 2014 I grew a batch of Elisabeths from seeds only from Jayb's white flowered type -  and none came back white flowered!  All were pink and white as usual, except for one plant that had pretty  pink (rather than white) standards, see photo on site above.  Are these environmental/cultural changes that happened when Elisabeth seeds transferred to Wales and back again?

I would appreciate reports on flower colour from anybody who has grown Elisabeth.  If occasionally a plant can change to white flowering in Wales, maybe they can change in other locations too?  And with the seed circle members we have a wide diversity of locations to check this out.

[galina]

Has anybody grown this and can report please?

[Silverleaf]

You know about mine already, right? All grew pink flowers and it made a lot of smallish pods. I'm growing it again next year!

[galina]

You know about mine already, right? All grew pink flowers and it made a lot of smallish pods. I'm growing it again next year!

Yes thank you very much Silverleaf.  That was what I had here for donkey's years without variation.  And why I was so surprised when they showed different flowers in Wales.   

[Jayb]

My Elisabeth's all look to be present and correct so far this year.

[galina]

My Elisabeth's all look to be present and correct so far this year.

Thank you, Jayb.   

[galina]

I know this is by now a very old post, but I have only just got around to growing Robert's Mummy White peas.  I expected a normal crown pea, ie half tall with one top tuft of flowers.  These are not like the crown peas I am familiar with.  They grow a little tuft of flowers, then carry on growing, another tuft of multiple flowers, then more growth.  In the end they were actually tall peas and the yield was pretty good.  Sweet too, lovely shelling peas. 

Rather than crown peas, I wonder whether these are some sort of multiflowered pea.  We are used to one or two flowers per node, but according to the gene list in the John Innes Institute, there can be quite a few more flowers per node.

Did not help that I had the plants on short support sticks, so they buckled rather than being supported properly.  Next time I will know how to grow them better.

Just putting it out there that Mummy White may not be a crown pea.  Would love comments on this from others who have grown this pea.