Messages

1

Seed Saving / Re: Blossom Bags

« on: 2019-08-27, 09:21:58 AM »

Yarn and scraps of lace curtains or paper tea bags.
Depending on how much stray pollen I'm suspecting to be in the wind.

2

Plant Breeding / Re: Some Nice Beans

« on: 2019-08-26, 04:47:27 AM »

Sooo pretty and unique looking!
I've never seen this colour before.

3

Plant Breeding / Re: TPS 2019

« on: 2019-08-19, 01:50:53 PM »

 
Now if I just could find out how to make the carrot fairy happy.
My carrots need help this year lol

4

Plant Breeding / Re: TPS 2019

« on: 2019-08-18, 01:08:32 AM »

That's good to know Bill, thanks! I was half way expecting that, but had some hope that they were actually testing it.

5

Plant Breeding / Re: Dahlias and other edible flowers

« on: 2019-08-17, 05:00:16 AM »

It's my favourite one too. The pale yellow with the deep brick red is a great combination.
Oddly enough the plain white one is my second favourite. It's towering over a bunch of variegated Nasturtiums, which was a really nice display combination all summer.

All pictured flowers are from my seed of last year. I did not give them names yet... I'm rubbish at naming things and usually avoid it as long as possible. My cats are named Mr. and Mrs. Cat hahaha that's the level of my naming skills...
The seeds were taken from Teesebrook Audrey and Pooh. I still have Audrey but the roots of Pooh and all other varieties I grew last year rotted in winter storage. My root cellar is too humid for good storage of Dahlias.

6

Plant Breeding / Re: Dahlias and other edible flowers

« on: 2019-08-16, 09:55:45 AM »

That's a really bright orange/red, so cheerful and eye catching!

My seedlings have really grown in summer. Most of them have reached the same size as tuber grown plants.
But I found huge differences in the time they need to make flowers. I have three plants that are in flower since several weeks already, two more just started this week and the rest is not flowering yet... with night frosts probably not being too far away that's unfortunate.
Which makes me wonder if it is possible to breed them for early flowering. It sould work. I will keep the roots of the early ones for future breeding and collect their seed to sow next spring. Will see what happens

7

Plant Breeding / Re: TPS 2019

« on: 2019-08-15, 12:54:28 PM »

The odd and difficult years seem to become more frequent for all of us. Sigh.

My early and mid season varieties had perfect cool conditions for amazing flowers and berry setting.
The late varieties flowered during our hottest two weeks and hardly kept any berries.
The extremely late ones are just starting to flower, will see if the berries ripen enough to have viable seed, before frost comes.
Staggered planting did not work out very well this year, didn't get to make the crosses I had planned. But next year I'll get a new try

I think potatoes have their own mind regarding flowers, pollen and seed production. I grow varieties that officially flower rarely, yet they flower almost every year in my garden. Others are supposed to not set berries or have no pollen, but in some years they still make the odd seed ball or produce a tiny bit of pollen. I got berries from Asterix, King Edward, Pentland Javelin and Highland Burgundy Red. All of them are labeled as 'no berries' when looking at the potato variety database. Not sure why it worked, but I'll gladly accept it. Maybe bribing the potato fairy with buttered mash wasn't such a silly idea who knows.
I try to keep set potatoes from plants that grew healthy and flowered nicely. Over the years I think they improved by doing this, but I don't have any hard data to prove it. Just a feeling.

8

Plant Breeding / Re: TPS 2019

« on: 2019-08-14, 03:24:59 AM »

So far my TPS plants gave nothing to write home about.
It's been too wet and cold early in the season and now late season is wet and cold again. Just lots of yellow leafs on small plants, cracked tubers and bland colours I'm not excited about.
Also lots of wart issues appearing in some of the crosses, going to discard all those lines. Susceptible to wart (or scab) is something I have to cull hard, it's a dead end in my garden.

But at least berry production is good this year.
I already collected some Asterix berries. It's rare to set any berries, but interesting to breed with in terms of resistance to various sicknesses. Hopefully I'll find some wart and scab free seedlings in this line next year.

9

Community & Forum Building / Re: How's your weather 2019

« on: 2019-07-25, 06:38:10 AM »

After all the rain and thunderstorms and cool wet summer weather (even for Swedish summer) - we have suddenly entered a hot week. 30C with high humidity and no wind.
The plants are suffering from not having developed big root systems, the soil is still moist atm but they can't keep up with evaporation.
I'm also waiting for blight to rise out of nowhere anytime. Perfect blight and mold weather now.

10

Plant Breeding / Re: TPS 2019

« on: 2019-07-17, 11:28:27 AM »

I'm so sorry 

The virus spreads via aphids and it can also infect other plants. Not only potatoes, also tomato, pepper or tobacco.
If you don't want to do a field test of your plants for resistance to virus y, it is a good thing to remove and bin all infected plants quickly and clean all tools.
First year infection (via aphids) can be fairly mild and you might get usable tubers, do not plant them next year though. Second year infection (from infected tubers) is more serious, causing stunted growth and little harvest.

11

Plant Breeding / Re: monocot, dicot, tricot ?

« on: 2019-07-10, 10:26:56 AM »

Tricot is the fabric which is kind of a zigzag weave on one side and smooth on the other side. It is kind of a knitted weave.
Google told me that Tricot is a rock band from Japan though user customized search results are the curse of modern internet hahaha one just gets to see what Google thinks you are looking for. I should switch that off again lol Japanese rockband tz.
Tricot as an abbreviation might be used for plants too, I don't know. The search term 'three cotyledon' gave me some good results.

(And now I'll have to check out that rock band )

12

Plant Breeding / Re: Salsify

« on: 2019-07-06, 02:44:26 AM »

Scorzobianca is just the Italian word for regular salsify, Tragopogon porrifolius. So it should be the same as the swedish seed... at least that's what the seed pack said. Autumn will tell what it is I'd not be unhappy if it's actually black salsify, Scorzonera hispanica. I sowed that too, but with this difficult spring nothing came up in those rows.

13

Plant Breeding / Re: Salsify

« on: 2019-07-05, 06:42:39 AM »

Two of my salsify rows are left, the third row had such poor germination that I removed them and replaced with something else.
The Italian scorzobianca is to the right and the Swedish seed are to the left. They got remarkably different leafs and the Italian one seems to grow a lot better.

14

Community & Forum Building / Re: How's your weather 2019

« on: 2019-07-04, 04:07:06 AM »

We had a low of 3°C tonight, now it's almost lunchtime and it's 11°C. With drizzling rain, just interrupted by heavy rain.
Next week looks slightly warmer and less wet, but still cold for July (8°-16°C).
Ah well, the joy of Swedish summer just saw tourists in winter jackets with hats and mittens at the gas pump, while the neighbours kids walked around in shorts and t-shirts to buy ice cream hahaha.
Anyhow, I'm guessing that the greenhouse will not produce a ripe tomato before August and I might have to build a roof for the TPS seedlings, they are drowning. Lost about 25% to root rot by now.

15

Plant Breeding / Re: TPS 2019

« on: 2019-06-26, 05:38:18 AM »

That's new to me.
And yeah it's eBay. Who knows what seed they will send. Can be a bunch of eggplants sprouting from it lol anything is possible on eBay.


There isn't much to say about my TPS plants. I lost a few to root rot because of the cold and wet weather. The survivors are either happy and strong plants that should start to flower in about a week or yellow sad looking things that can give up and keel over anytime.
It's a good year to select for rain and cold tolerance, but I feel sorry for the plants every time I look at them.