Tomato, Cucumber and Squash Seedlings. 5.9.2021

 About 3/4 of the seedlings are in the ground now.  This is it for planting seeds in containers for the year.

I wanted Pink Banana Squash but none have germinated.  I bit the bullet and ordered a packet on line.  Postage was significant for one packet, but this is the last chance to try to germinate some of this variety for the year.  I found them on the Victory Seeds website, which is a company that I'm coming to like.  They sent the seeds out the next day and I got them two days later.  We'll see if they germinate.

Some of the squash and cucumber seedlings.  Also some Chinese Chives.  These pickle seeds are form ones that I saved last winter, great germination but who knows what the cucumbers will be like, because I didn't isolate the plants or flowers and I don't know if they were hybrids.  Squash seedlings quickly outgrow these little containers.  I planted the Gete Okosomin and one of the Yellow Zucchinis in the garden yesterday.  Others to follow, and giving away a couple of zucchini plants.

I've planted most of the basil but there are still a few to go.  Same with peppers.

A few of the remaining "Extreme Bush" tomatoes.  I'll give away a plant and find a location for the rest.

The Soyu Chinese Cucumber packet was from 2016.  I planted about 6 seeds.  So far, one has germinated.  That's good enough but a few more would be better, so I planted another container.   I'm glad I saved the old seed packets.  This summer I can let one go overripe for seed saving.  [Edit - that photo was yesterday.  This morning I saw that two more seedlings have emerged.]

The rest of the cucumber seedlings.  I planted more than I want, because I didn't know which ones would grow.  Varieties are Alibi hybrid, a Bush type that doesn't designate if hybrid, another Bush type that is F1.  I think I'll plant all of the hybrids together, and try to isolate at least one of the Bush type for saving seeds.  Maybe the ones that I grew form saved seeds this year, and the other Bush type that does not state Hybrid.  These should be ready to plant in the garden in two weeks.

Planting Cucumber and Swiss Chard Seeds. 5.1.2121

 Today I planted old cucumber seeds.  I forgot to plant the cucumber seeds I saved, last fall, so will go back and do that.  The potential problem with those is, I don't know if they were hybrids, so I don't know what they will be like.  I planted these seeds in 4 inch flower pots. 

I also planted some Swiss chard seeds, directly into the garden soil. Swiss chard is my favorite green, although sometimes they are other colors.

I planted a short row from each packet.  Those from 2014 are pretty old.  We'll see if they grow.

Seeds Planted, 5.11.2020

I planted these seeds during the past two days.  All are at least a year old, and some beans are at least 5 years old.

I pre-soaked the Roma II but not the others.

Soil temp was in the 70s.  Ambient temperature was in the 80s.

Last night it rained and is in the 50s.  I think most should be OK.  Certainly, the radishes don't mind some chill.  Beans can require a warmer situation.

I added label packing or "use by" dates for future reference.

Starting More Seeds Indoors. 2.11.19

 Here are the seeds that I started yesterday.  It's too early for tomato seeds. I wanted to test them, and also see how they do in the sunroom.

The Supersweet 100 seeds are from 2015, as are the Sunny Boy hybrid.  The Brandy Boy seeds are from 2018.  If any don't germinate, there is plenty of time to try again.

I'm also teying again with the peppers that did not germinate 2 or 3 weeks ago, and trying a very early start of some perennials, Ridbeckia, Echinacea, and  Goldenrod.  Interesting, the goldenrod seeds were so tiny, they were like fine dust.

Walking Around. 7.31.16

Bean Raised Bed and Trellis.  7.31.16

First New Bean Pod.  7.31.16

 Random notes.

Beans are looking good.  It looks like there will be a bumper crop of these Chinese pod beans, that were recovered from old seed packets.

Encouraged by presence of several okra flowers, and the okra plants do look vigorous and sturdy. 

Morning Glories blooming.  Seeds from plants that I grew last year from seeds.

The Lattarula that I started from cutting in 2014, planted at Battleground in 2015, now bearing it's first figs.  Nice crop from this tried and true variety.

Maxie pears looking OK.  Similar size to most other Asian pears, including Shinseiki which is a distant cousin.

Turnips, Kohlrabis, Broccoli, Radishes, Chinese Radishes, Carrots, Lettuce, Cilantro seeds have all germinated and growing.  They continued to need water once or twice daily.

Okra Flower.  7.31.16

 Yesterday I finished clearing out the second Fava bean bed, saved the seeds on the remaining plants, and turned the soil.  I soaked the dry soil overnight, hoed and evened the soil, and planted seeds for more turnips,  Chinese cabbage - old seeds, mixed together two packets - Parisian Market carrots, and more radishes.

Volunteer Morning Glories.  7.31.16

Maxie Hybriud Pears.  7.31.16

First Figs from this cutting-grown Lattarula Fig Tree.  7.31.16

Turnip, Kohlrabi, and Radish Seedlings.  7.31.16

Walking around. Kitchen Garden, Progress Report.. 6.26.16

Jerusalem Artichoke.  6.26.16

Bulb Onions.  6.26.16

 Jerusalem artichokes are growing the best in 3 years.  I have no idea why.  The first year, they barely grew, then were eaten by deer.  The second year, I did not see any growth.  This year there are 2 gigantic plants.  I did not plant them, so they were either dormant for a year, or I missed them last year.

2nd Scion Take, Chocolate Persimmon.  6.26.16

 The bulb onions are bulbing up nicely.  I have never grown them before.  These are a yellow variety, bought and planted the sets late winter.

The second graft of the Chocolate Persimmon looks like it took.  I don't expect much growth this year.   Maybe next year both grafts will take off and grow.

Collard Greens.  6.26.16

Deer Fencing.  6.26.16

 I think the limiting factor on Collard Greens, is slugs.  Since I put down slug bait, some are growing like crazy, others more slowly.  This is my first try for Collard Greens.

I've been worried that deer will take after the Carini fig and others in the row, that are looking so good.  They ate leaves of a fig tree about 6 feet away.  I finally added a strip of fencing.  This is a fairly protected spot.  The cost of deer fencing can be exhorbitant.  One of the most expensive parts of gardening.  This time, I bought plastic fencing.  Price is about 1/2 the metal fencing, it won't scratch me like 1,000 thorns, like chicken wire, and I think it should deter the deer.  They are not aggressive, just persistant to consume anything they can easily reach.

Methley plums are almost ripe.  We ate a few today.

Methley Plums.  6.26.16

Chinese Beans.  6.26.16

 The resurrected Chinese Beans look pretty good in general.  I hope they continue to grow.

The White Potato Onions, that I started last fall from sets from Territorial Seeds, are blooming.  Apparently, that is a rare event and should be treasured.  In Utah, Kelly Winterton has been trying to resurrect (another ressurection) the variety by taking opportunity of potato onion rare bloom events to collect true seeds.  There are several reasons-
Vegetative propagation of a variety over the decades - possily centuries - may weaken the strain due to somatic mutations ande viruses.  Apparently, growing from seeds can restore the genetic potential and eliminate some, if not all, viruses that do not cross the seed barrier.   The seed-grown onions may be much larger and more vigorous, than the division-grown onions.  Seed grown potato onions have potential to develop new varieties.    Since mine are blooming, I will see if they set seeds and if so, that will be a fun project.  At the very least, I hope I get nice big potato onions from the seedlings. 

Winterton speculates that potato onions are a natural hybrid from centuries ago, which have been maintaned ever since, by vegetatice propagation.  If so, he considers seedlings from this variety to be F2 generation, with a lot of diversity and unpredictablity.  It is also possible, they could be pollinated by other onions around the yard.  I have garlic chives in bloom - don't know of those can cross with potato onions.  I removed all flowers from other onions.

Nikita's Gift Persimmon is looking great!  Fruit are swelling nicely.  I did some thinning but not too aggressive, because there are so many leaves and so few fruits.  Still, it's possible there will be a dozen, maybe more, persimmons this year.  If the persimmon gods smile upon us.  This variety is vigorous, stout growth, very healthy appearing.  Saijo has a few potential fruits as well. 

The first wave of Sweet Corn, Trinity, is as high as my eyeballs.  The secone wave, Bilicious, is waist high.  The 3rd wave, also Trinity, is almost knee high.  Subsequent waves are smaller but growing.  The last ones, seeds planted last week, Bodaceous, have not emerged from the soil yet.

I tried to be creative with a tomato cage, made from bamboo and jute string.  I don't know if that will deter the damn deer.  The pictured tomato plant is a grafted Supersweet 1000.

Flowers on White Potato Onions.  6.26.16

Swelling fuit on Nikita's Gift Persimmons.  6.26.16

First Three Waves of Sweet Corn.  #1 = Trinity, #2=Bilicious, #3=Trinity.

Tomato Cage, maded from bamboo and jute string.  6.26.16

Last corn planted. First Zucchini harvested. Beans planted. 6.19.16

Today I planted another row of bean seedlings.  These are the Chinese bean seeds that are in the range of 10 to 15 years old.  Some of the seedlings had distorted leaves, and two were missing their first set of true leaves.  Most look OK.

I planted the final block of sweet corn.  I don't know if the season will be long enough, or warm enough for long enough, for a harvest of such a late planting.  But if I don't plant it, I could miss out on some sweet corn.  This is the first yellow variety that I planted, for variety sake.  This is a sugary enhancer (se) type, NOT GMO, 75 days to maturity so fairly early compared to some that are 100 days.

I take my I-pad to the store and research varieties that I'm curious about.  This is info on the sweet corn variety, "Bodaceous" via ufseeds.com:
 Beautiful, uniform, well-filled ear.
High quality yellow sweet corn that has large, mouth-watering kernels. Bodacious has 18 rows and 8" ears. Kernels are delicious, sugary and very tender. Bodacious is great for fresh eating, freezing and canning. A popular yellow market variety that holds well once picked. Tolerates cold weather conditions better than most.
 

Product Details

Breed: F1 Hybrid

Zones: 3-9

Germination: 5-7 days
Days to Maturity: 80-90 days
Ear Length: 8" inches
Ear Diameter: 2" inches
Plant Height: 84" inches
Ear Height: 28" inches
Color: Yellow
Genotype: Sugar Enhanced (SE)
Resistance: MS, MR
First Zucchini picked today.  Not bad, June 21.  

Beans from old seeds.  6.21.16

Corn Seeds Planted 6.21.16

Corn Seeds Planted.  6.21.16

First Zucchinin of the Year.  6.21.16

Recovering Old Bean Seeds. 6.15.16

Germinating 10 year old bean seeds.  6.1.5.16

Rinsed Germinating Bean Seeds.  6.15.16

Ning had some old bean seeds.  I've been keeping them in the basement in plastic containers.  These are a Chinese variety, wide bean similar to Romas but with thicker pods.  They are not squeaky like most green beans.

The seeds are 3 types.  There is a dark brown seed, a light brown seed with darker markings, and a white seed. 

I have tried to locate new seeds, but can't find the variety.  At the saturday market, we did buy some once at a Chinese vegetable stand.

I decided to try to germinate the seeds.  There might be 400 seeds.  I did not count.  I used the wet paper towel method.

None grew the first week.  The second week there were some sprouts, and some seeds rotted.  I rinsed all of the seeds in a sieve, planted the sprouted seeds, and incubated the remainder for additional several days using fresh wet paper towel and fresh zipper plastic bag.  Then I repeated the sorting, rinsing, planting, and incubate for additional time.  Now, about 2 weeks having passed, about 40 seeds have sprouted.  It's possible they won't all get to the green leaf stage, since there was some rotting of dead seads.  The purpose of the rinsing is to remove as much detrimental bacterial life, as possible.

Bean Seedlings.  6.15.16

These will get special planting and treatment when they have their first true leaves.  I intend to save a few dozen seeds, so we have fresh seeds next year. 

Seeds at 10 days. Germination Testing. 1.11.15

Sweet Banana Pepper Seeds at 10 days, not 5.  1.11.15

Red Portugal Pepper Seeds, 10 days, not 5.  1.11.15

Of the peppers, the Sweet Banana Peppers are germinating the best.  Red Portugal are beginning to grow.  Tabasco, no growth at all.  Age of seeds is on original post.

The Titan sunflower seeds all germinated at 5 days.  The Mammoth sunflower seeds rotted.

Titan Sunflower Seeds, 5 days

Seeds: Organizing, testing, and starting. 1.5.16

Testing Sunflower Seeds.  1.5.16

 Today placed some seeds in moist paper towel system to test them.   If they don't grow, I can throw them out.

Sunflowers:
Titan packed for 2014
Mammoth Gray Stripe for 2013

Peppers:
Sweet Banana for  2015
Hot Portugal for 2013

These are no big deal if they don't grow.  If they do, I'll keep the packets for later sowing (Sunflowers) or possible keep the plants growing indoors until Spring (Peppers).

I don't throw away partial packets of seeds.  I also fail to check my stash before buying more.

Stored Garden Seeds.  1.5.16

Testing / Sprouting Pepper Seeds.  1.5.16

 These are now filed somewhat neatly.  Some of the envelopes are redundant.  This Spring, I can start planting many of the saved seeds for either our use or the chickens.

The Daylilies labeled Frans Hals bloomed in Sept.  I collected the seeds late Oct, stratified moist in fridge, then sat them out at room temp.  Now about 1/2 are in seed starting containters.  I am curious about this one because the Fans Hals was off - type, should be bicolor brick / yellow but instead salmon / darker eye with hint of the bicolor.  The yellow should have been dark yellow with brick eye ("Playground") , but were very pale yellow with no eye.  I suspect genetic instability due to tissue culture.  I'm curious about their offspring - will there be reversion to type, mixed in hybridization?  Will they be something completely different?

There are many tables online for how long seeds last.  Mine are in cool, fairly dry basement of daylight basement house, except some were in bedroom.
Based on  the link, the Sunflower seeds should keep 5 to 7 years, and the peppers should keep 2 years.  I have sprouted peppers from seeds kept in the kitchen, after 8 to 10 years.

Sprouting Daylily Seeds, Frans Hals X Unknown Yellow 1.5.16

Even More on the Topic of Daylilies. 8.13.15

3-Year-Old Daylily Seeds.  8.11.15

Old Daylily Seeds Float.  8.11.15

Fresh Daylily Seed Pods.  8.11.15

 I got out my seed filing box - an envelope sized file box - to use for saving new seeds.  Discovered some 3-year-old daylily seeds that I collected in 2012.  Some seeds last a year, some last many years.  I don't know about Hemerocallis.

Fresh Daylily Seeds.  8.11.15

Fresh Daylily Seeds Also Float.  8.11.15

One test of seed viability is if they sink.  These floated.

Maybe if I soak them in water for a couple of days, they will rehydrate and sink.  The peach seeds did that.

I found some daylily pods on the variety, "Happy Returns".  The pods do not change to red, or yellow, or brown.  They are green or slightly brown.  When the top starts to split, the seeds are ready.

These are nice shiny black seeds.  Not as wrinkly as the seeds from 2012.  However, a seed I collected one week ago was also wrinkly.

The new seeds floated too.  Since they were fresh, I placed them on damp paper towel, then into a zipper lock back, and into the refrigerator to stratify.  They will need 4 to 6 weeks to stratify, then I can plant them in seed starting soil.

That will be fall.  That's OK, I can grow them under the seed starting light during their first winter.

Germination Testing. Beans and Okra. 12.18.14

Clemson Spineless Okra Seeds.  3 years old.  8/10 Germinated.  12.18.14

Roma II bean seeds.  3 years old.  7/9 germinated.  12.18.14

This is the end of the germination test.

Two to three year old seeds.

Okra Cajun Jewel remained at 9 of 10 seeds germinated.

Okra Lee remained at 1 of 10 seeds germinated.

Okra Clemson Spineless increased to 8 of 10 germinated.

Bean Roma II increased to 7 of 9 germinated.

Pretty good germination rates overall.  I only need a couple of each okra, to test them, and only a couple row of the beans.

This was a quick test.  The rate might be higher if giving a few more days.

It's way to early to grow these.  I added the sprouts to the compost bin.

Germination testing before ordering. 12.16.14

Okra seed packets showing water damage.  12.16.14

Okra Cajun Jewel at one day of germination.  12.16.14

Okra Lee at one day of germination.  12.16.14

 I think it's a good idea to check last year's seeds for germination, before ordering others of the same variety this year.  Not that I heeded my own advice.

Still, I wanted to see if some of the varieties I had but didn't try last year, had potential for this year.

Last spring I spilled water on the envelope holding the seed packets.   I let it dry at ambient room conditions.   Some of the packets are water stained.  I thought that might doom the seeds.

Sunday pm, I placed 10 seeds each of these 3 varieties in small jars, with shallow water.  Monday morning I transferred the seeds to damp paper towels, and placed them in zip-lock bags on seed starting warmer mat.

Now, tuesday am, here is the early result.

Cajun Jewel:  9/10 germination.
Lee:  2/10 germination.
Clemson Spineless.  1/10 germination.

I think it's still very early.  Very surprised at those Cajun Jewel.

I also placed Roma beans, packed for 2012, on damp paper towel, in ziplock, without presoak.  So far, there is 1/10 germination.  I think it's very early.

Okra Clemson Spineless at 1 day of germination.  12.16.14

Roma beans at 1 day of germination.  no presoak.  12.16.14