Messages

1

Legumes / Re: Phaselous Species / Crosses

« on: 2021-04-09, 02:56:04 PM »

The issue is I can't get the seeds to GERMINATE. So far all of it has simply rotted. I think I try drier soil.

2

Legumes / Re: Phaselous Species / Crosses

« on: 2021-04-09, 12:08:11 PM »

Possibly Phaseolus maculatus from Nativeseeds if it returns - Covid panic buyers really hit their limited seed stocks hard from what I can tell.

As of the last time I got their catalog, they weren't listing P. maculatus anymore (and it was members only even when it was listed).  And I'm not sure whether the the NS/S problem is the COVID panic or a move towards selling EXCUSIVELY to tribal people (at the moment about 3/4 of the catalog is Tribal orders only, but whether that is just to make sure they get their seeds or this is a new permanent policy I do not know.

I MAY have some vulgaris-lunatus crosses min my bean stock. At least I have some seeds I found that look a lot like what I would think a vulgaris lunatus cross would look like (they have the sort of angled look lima beans have but are extremely plump for limas.  Whether they will GROW is another matter (I haven't been able to get anything from that lot of seeds to grow yet.)

3

Legumes / Re: Fava breeding

« on: 2021-04-05, 04:10:14 PM »

I know of one other source of a fingerprint fava (now that Joe's store no longer is). Sacred Succulents carries a smallish fava they call "Ojo de Dios" that is 25% fingerprint.

I also OCCASIONALLY find fingerprints when I check the bin of favas at the bodega I go to (thought most of those are very weak fingerprints) But as I haven't been there in about a year, I have no idea whether they still produce any (or even if they still have the bin).

4

Plant Breeding / Re: Wild Raspberries (need help from Arizona / New Mexico!)

« on: 2021-03-29, 07:03:57 PM »

You also might want to try Mysore Raspberry (Rubus niveus) that's probably another heat lover. Tade winds seeds has it (and salmon berry). They also have Rubus glaucus (Andean Raspberry) and Rubus probus from Australia (though that is currently out of stock)

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Tomatoes / Re: Breeding with wild tomato species

« on: 2021-03-26, 11:36:02 AM »

This is a little off topic, but does anyone know (or in their crosses, has bred) a green when ripe pimpernellifolium?  I'm looking for something that combines the flavor of a green when ripe tomato and the fact that pimpernellifolium, unlike most tomatoes, actually grows and produces OK for me (due to various factor, any tomato above cherry size really is a no go for me growing wise, and even cherries don't make much usually.) But I don't have the space for the kind of grow out I'd need to find such a cross myself.

6

Tomatoes / Re: Breeding with wild tomato species

« on: 2021-03-24, 06:23:48 AM »

Looks more like dark green to me. Sort of like a Green Zebra habrochates

7

Plant Breeding / Re: Landrace soy beans

« on: 2021-03-21, 09:00:16 AM »

As I said, I have some wild soy (at least, I think it' wild soy). But it's very old, and I'd feel better giving it a year or two with me to regenerate.

My method of getting it (picking seeds out of bags of other beans) won't work for you, but I think the USDA might have some wild material.

I also know someone who does a lot of soy on another site. I'll check with him to see if he is willing to help you.

8

Plant Breeding / Re: Landrace soy beans

« on: 2021-03-21, 08:39:03 AM »

In a long term project, maybe, but as wild material would also bring back in tiny seed size, heavy shattering, and being mildly poisonous, it probably isn't a great idea for something you plan to eat right away.

9

Plant Breeding / Re: Landrace soy beans

« on: 2021-03-20, 10:00:28 PM »

To be fair, it's not like it is a unattractive green (it ends up looking sort of like melted green tea ice cream)

The tricky part is telling which soy you are looking at. There are two kinds of black soybeans in commerce, the small shiny ones (which are pretty diverse) and the larger matte ones (which aren't as diverse). But unless you have both in front of you (or know what each looks like, like I do) telling one from the other is hard (brands change which one they use depending on season and availability, so that's a dead end.)

Oh, and you might bump into am ENORMOUS (like dime to quarter sized) kind of black soybean from Japan. Skip that one, they get that big by being poly embryonic, so they don't germinate very well.

I'd offer to send you some of my extra, but at the moment I don't have any (the critters were very aggressive last year and since I can't go to Chinatown until COVID is no longer a thing, I can't restock.) I think the only stuff I have at the moment is wild soy, and as that is inedible that would be of no use to you.

10

Plant Breeding / Re: Landrace soy beans

« on: 2021-03-20, 07:18:16 PM »

No, soy won't cross with standard beans. Different species, different genera (Phaseolus versus Glycine)

Before I can really give good advice for making a landrace, it would help to know what your goal is for the resultant soy mix, in particular what you are going to do with the soy.
Animal feed? Tofu/Soymilk? Edamame? Soy sauce/bean sauce? Depending on what you plan to do with the beans, it changes what type of varieties you would want to acquire.

If the use you are planning isn't tofu/soymilk (or another where you need the final product to be snow white) somewhat surprisingly, I have found the best source of soy diversity has been some of the bulk soybeans sold in Asian Markets from China. In particular, I have found the smaller shinier black soybean types to have a surprisingly large number of varied phenotypes. No just variations in flower color and pod position, but even in things such as growth habit (i.e. you can find climbing soybeans in there). You'll also find a lot of green cotyledon ones, hence my "not good for tofu or milk" comment (unless you don't mind green milk).

Also remember that soybeans vary in day length sensitives so you'll need to match to your area.   

11

Community & Forum Building / Re: Species Concept

« on: 2021-02-23, 02:16:19 PM »

I keep being told by the more scientific minded people I know that binomial nomenclature is on it's way out and that eventually, everything will be simply known by it's cladistic placement based on it's DNA karyotype (which I suppose means that eventually, we will be expected to memorize the DNA karyotype of every living thing, or, more likely have some little computer widget that can do it for us.)

Species seem to be more aggressively divided (in that it is harder to get interspecies fertile crosses) in animals than in plants. And there is always the matter of genetic engineering and DNA splicing (if you splice a gene from one species into another one, is it still the same species. If you get to the point where you can put together an organism wholly from assembled pieces of DNA [which I think we eventually will be able to do] how does it fit into the cladistic tree?"

And there are common plants I grow all the time whose species I am unsure of (for example garden pansies, how to they relate to violas and violets? Is the only difference between a pansy and a viola how big it gets?)

12

Cucurbits / Re: Do low temperatures results in bland tasting fruit in watermelon?

« on: 2021-02-17, 04:21:09 PM »

Well, it would make sort of sense.  Watermelon's ancestors are are native to the dry savanna, so you'd expect them to be used to a hot dry environment.  It even sort of explains the mechanism for why excess water would make it bland. Watermelons are probably hard wired to suck up all the water they can quickly since in the wild they have to grab in the rains everything they need for the year, more or less.  Give them excess water, and it only makes sense they take too much in and dilute their sugars.

13

Corn / Re: Clever tricks for dealing with low populations of corn ?

« on: 2021-02-13, 12:22:20 PM »

Technically, the flour corn is ALREADY a grex, as the kernels (unlike most of my corns) came from many many cobs. I just selected and kept those kernels that met my requirements and discarded the others, which has resulted in a seed sample that LOOKS like it all came from one solid white ear (all of the ears were multicolored to start with, but for reasons I don't quite understand there were few that showed full soft starch AND color of either aleurone or pericarp, So the sample looks all white, with the odd pale yellow kernel). That and being miniature corn is all they have in common.  The stuff is actually probably heterogeneous for pretty much everything else including such fundamental things as ear shape (some are probably normal "carrot" shape some are likely the stubbier shape a lot of the early accessions were.  I'm just hoping that with a few generations of pollinating each other, the number of floury kernels (which probably wasn't above twenty per ear on any) goes up (if the colors come back that will be kept as well, since I can't see any use for this or most of my corns except ornamental purposes.) I actually still have three colored ones that passed (two red one speckled) that I will add in once the flour is better esablished.

Besides this I also have

Accession 2: miniature dent, 24 rows, gourdseed kernels stubby cob, white yellow and pink remnants of one ear (about half or 200 or so kernels)

Accession 3: miniature dent  16 rows, possibly gourdseed shape (it's sometimes hard to tell with miniature corns, whose kernels are often longer and thinner than full size anyway) normal cob, white yellow pink magenta and purple  probably about 200 again.

Accession 4: miniature red dent  rice type kernels stubby cob. Almost certainly the result of a strawberry/field corn cross. two ears worth (maybe 300 kernels)

Accession 5-6 miniature sweet corn, small (maybe 20-30 kernels) from two ears (one with wide loaf shaped kernels and stubby cob, one with narrow ones and long cob)

Full sized dent corn with strong stippling 2 ears 100 or so kernels total  (one ear is a little wider kernelled than the other) white yellow and purple

Full sized stippled flint corn wider color mix than above so being added for improved color (has blue and pink and the yellow back red brown and black)

And then of corse there is the bottle where I toss any sweet kernels I find in ears of Ornamental corn and a little named stuff (like some Volta White)

14

Corn / Re: Clever tricks for dealing with low populations of corn ?

« on: 2021-02-13, 09:10:20 AM »

I find this all very useful since I am ALWAYS dealing with less than 200 plants (I only have room for 100, max, and have less than that of most seed lines).

I suppose it also depends on what one is trying to do with the corn.  For a lot of my stuff, a fair amount of inbreeding is desirable, since I am trying to "clean up" random corn selected by appearance in order to make a line that has that appearance consistently (for example, getting the floury kernels of a flour/flint with mostly flint corn to get to a point where it is mostly to ideally ALL floury.)

MOST of my corn lines are, or start single ear or two  since that is what I find. I get the idea of landraces and grexes but these seem to be for when you are trying to get yield for a region, not for any given appearance. If I tried to do a landrace with my stuff, I'd probably get junk of no use for any further breeding.

15

Corn / Re: Black corn with black cobs.

« on: 2021-02-09, 07:38:19 AM »

I have an ear of Black Andean corn in my collection (different from Maiz Morado, as that appears to be a lowland Peruvian corn, and mine is a mountain type). But I suspect that would be even LESS adapted to your growing climate. Plus it's going on 20 years old, so it's probably long dead (also it's my last intact Andean ear, so I am sort of loath to break it up)