Garden Journal

[Adrian]

Habrochaite is extremly sensitive at the light spectrum.He required light with uvb. A aquarium light is adapted.

Toward a windows is normaly also good but maybe less fast.

[Kadence Luneman]

Hmm interesting.. I have two lights. One is an LED grow light that has different colored bulbs and is overall purple-y light. The second has the regular tube bulbs (blanking on the name!) and the bulbs in it were from the pet store for use in planted tanks with aquatic plants. So both should be decent lights. And I've got them fairly close to the trays and will be raising them as the plants grow.

The Neandermato were the only ones to do this. I plucked out the damaged ones. There is a second sprout in the cell with previously one sprout. I'm putting two new  seed in the failed cell today.

Still no peppers. Have more sprouts in the TPS cells, mostly the red tetraploid but a few of Clancy outcrosses now up.

[Garrett Schantz]

I went out and gathered (bulblets?) from Allium canadense plants all over some sections of the yard.

Unfortunately, the ones in the yard were mostly mowed (there were quite a few everywhere competing with grass).

Since I live in Mississippi now, I figured I wouldn't see this species. Wasn't aware there were 7 or 8 subspecies. Neat!


Small pink flowers, garlic / onion taste. The flower heads / bulblets are edible.


Honestly, I haven't checked the actual bulbs out, if they even have them or what their sizes are.


Anyways, I gathered bulblets. Tried to only grab ones with growth on them.

I found some small groupings with bulblets that were red at the pointed ends, grew a bit more oddly / stood more upright with stiffer stalks. When I found these, they were mostly all in the same patches, easy to spot from the others.


Anyways. These are notable for growing alongside crayfish mounds, under trees / basically a forest - into part shade. That sort of stuff.


Mower makes an interesting scent when those get chopped.


Did find some clover with nice looking leaves, pink flowers. They were closed as it was too late in the day. I saw green leaved clovers with large pink flowers in other yards. I'd say this is a different species, but I'm not used to the near dandelion flower sized clovers / oxalis species.

For whatever reason I dug up some of the Woodland clovers. Well, I tried. I noticed round tubers fall out - the size of a pea. These are also pretty much in mud / standing water.

Anyways, hoping that I can get those to grow well.


Nothing off type in those large populations from what I saw.

Just some off type small groupings Alliums.

[Jeremy Weiss]

Were the flowers (if you could see any flowers) distinct six pointed ones, or did the whole thing sort of look more like a purple pom-pom? If the latter, that's A. vineale, not candense That could also be you stiffer stalked plants (some vineale make flowers, some make bulbils and some make a bit of both).

The little pink clover is probably Alsyke (Trifolium hybridum), the big pink one is almost certainly Red Clover (T. pratense).


   

[Garrett Schantz]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqgoTAluM2D/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqifB11uWEg/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqifSH4uupO/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Posted some of them here.


I need to reset my password or something, can't login on my desktop. So posting images isn't working well.


I'm looking for the odd semi red bulblets that have others like it directly next to them, I'm unsure of what chemicals make up the red color - but those seem to be scant / rare in the big groups here.

They also usually have bigger or faster developing bulblets. Been watching some of them for a bit as they mature.

Maybe they're more likely to spread by seed or something.


Also, these flowers almost never flower all at once or in large numbers together on a plant.


I saw prariemoon has a subspecies with showier flowers, so I might consider looking over there and getting some Alliums if this is A. canadense. Some alliums in the same species can have populations with different chromosome counts too.

Seems like some species are bulblets only, no seed. I really don't wanna bring in diseases. So those would need isolated.


The bulblets I posted are ones I pulled up by a crayfish hole. I had wild spring onions at home, I'm unsure if these get larger but at the moment they aren't worth pulling up. Pea sized bulbs. I'll check other plants just to see if there's bigger ones.

[Jeremy Weiss]

Those are indeed A. Canadense, (vineale looks like below)

The "clover" actually appears to be some sort of oxalis, probably Oxalis articulata (not native, but a common cultivation escapee. I can't seem to tell if it has tubers or not (Oxalis tuberousa, oca, does, of course, but I can seem to find any quick info on whether any others do, and I don't think Oca can grow wild in the US.)

[William Schlegel]

A lot of Oxalis do have small tubers. I think the common invasive Oxalis pes-caprae in Southern California propagates itself by them.

[Kadence Luneman]

Just bought a soil blocker. Was it a necessity? Not exactly... Did I buy it anyway? Absolutely... 😅

They seem really interesting and I'm thinking with the compost I'm getting from the sheep winter pen.. plus our clay subsoil.. I think I can figure it out so that I'm not buying starter mix anymore.

The cell trays I got are little and I'm not sure yet how the tomatoes and things are going to like them.

Dunno. We'll see. I'll post back when it's in and I've played around with it. Also thinking soil blocks would be great to stick tomato suckers in to root. Easy propagation and I can make more plants from fewer seeds. Have some people interested in buying starts and long as it's a nice start it won't matter.

[Garrett Schantz]

Posted this elsewhere, but there's garden related stuff:

https://flic.kr/p/2oygR8C

https://flic.kr/p/2oyhbsY

https://flic.kr/p/2oyeQob

Some other stuff:

https://flic.kr/p/2oybXmM

Strawberries - mostly white alpine. There's also probably F. virginiana and F.chiloensis.

There's also Potentilla simplex visible here. Dug some plants up and they're recovering.

Plus one plant in the middle, related to Raspberries and Strawberries. Can't remember it's name. Then there's the taller plant that I moved in there. I've seen it in the yard with pink flowers and I thought I saw other colors.

To me, thats probably potential hybrids. Or I'd hope so.


It seems like at least one Potentilla canadensis that survived from PA: https://flic.kr/p/2oyfPoM


And of course, found some Mock Strawberries:

https://flic.kr/p/2oyhgCH https://flic.kr/p/2oyf29u
https://flic.kr/p/2oyh17e


And lastly, a ground cover that I like: https://flic.kr/p/2oygXbE

The little white flowers eventually make round red berries.



I haven't updated anything here in awhile. Figured I'd post an update.

[Garrett Schantz]

As mentioned in another thread, I do wanna hybridize Fragaria and other things together.

Finding that Mock Strawberries, Potentilla simplex and the third related species (tall thing) and some sorta raspberries are growing here.

This means that Fragaria virginiana and the other species will probably love it here too.


We might start moving some stuff over tomorrow.


I'll start prepping an area just for these to spread. Probably moving the herb beds when I able to and ready as well.

These will probably be all in the same space.

I lightly buried a bunch of Mock Strawberries in a pot. I HATE digging up things like Potentilla simplex / canadensis and those sorts of plants from clay soil.

They really, really don't like being dug up.


The Mock Strawberries at least have the perk of having red berries that I can grab and bury slightly into the soil.


Strawberries, I would preferably dig up or save seeds from them (also a pain)


If the Potentilla canadensis starts growing well enough, I imagine that it'll start doing its whole thing of spreading with runners.


I think it may cross freely with P. simplex.



Some neighbors have saw me mention Cucamelons. They seem to say they're all over as weeds from Mexico.

I asked some people if they tasted sour. I got responses of how they dried peoples mouths out and were watery.


They might be referring to Melothria pendula. If so, they're probably not invasive pests.

And animals probably eat them.


I will probably try growing some Cucamelons and just compare and contrast them.


If they think the two are the same, I'd like it if they could see the nice tasting ones.

[Diane Whitehead]

I'm quoting from Tamara Clement who sells a lot of seeds on Seeds of Diversity in Canada.

Cucamelons must be eaten very young. When they get older, the size of a large grape, they get too sour to eat. You'll often find these described as 'lemony' - oh, please. They just taste plain bad when too mature. When young though these are actually excellent as a salad addition and come in WAY earlier than cucumbers, but salad addition is about it. They are the size of a raspberry when at the good to eat stage.

[Jeremy Weiss]

The hard part is that the term "cucamelon" is actually used to refer to two different cucurbits, Meliothra scabra and those members of Cucumis melo that are used like cucumbers (like the Armenian Metki, the Italina Carosello, and the Indian Dosaki, among others).

[Garrett Schantz]

I've had cucamelons before. Bur yeah they can get pretty sour.

I've learned some tricks with them.

A bit of experimenting, accidental.


I watered on group of Cucamelons, frequently. Another group wasn't watered at all.


The group that wasn't watered much ended up being very sour.


The other group was just as watery as the other, but slightly sour. Soil and things were the same.



Now, I mentioned Melothria pendula because that's the one that turns black and makes that lovely laxative chemical. From what I've heard, it's watery and not exactly sour.

I tried a third species in Cancun. Wild thing. Grew 8 feet tall, up fences.


Then, there's Melothria scabra.

This species is the most widely used. The others are usually chopped up and added to vegetable things, cooked or canned.

It has the sour taste.


I happen to love sour things. And, I don't care much for fresh cucumbers.

I really seem to enjoy these things, even if they're sour. I don't get a lemony taste from it. Just plain watery and sourness. Reminds me a bit of sour patch kids.


Granted, others have different taste buds.


I was inspecting the one neighbors supposed Mouse melons and how they taste. I wanna say that they're possibly M. pendula.


M. pendula has been described as sometimes having a slightly tart flavor. And it's native to a good bit of the southwest united states.

The further population is in Delaware I think.


Unlike M. scabra, it's considered native to the United States.


But, neighbors saying that these make their mouth dry and some other stuff. Apparently none of them have grown them before.



I also just went out and noticed I have some possible M. scabra and the Delaware Perennial creeping cucumber from the Experimental Farm Network.


They were all small enough that I could move them.


The one neighbor that gets them popping up is actually right across from the property I'm moving to.


I might make a YouTube video or something if everything works out.



I think they said the things are grape sized, so they're probably Melothria.



I'll post updates eventually.



When I grew Cucamelons, they were off to the side, along with strawberries. I'd eat them both are the same time.


I don't know if these species can hybridize at all, but I have no real interest in trying to mess around with their very little flowers.

[Cathy A]

Does canning small cucamelons produce a palatable product?

I was given some cucamelon seed and will be trying it out this summer for the first time.

[Garrett Schantz]

I believe they can be pickled whole like gherkins.

They probably do fine canned. There's probably some stuff online with various recipes for canning them.


They can be cooked, pickled or added to salads, but I usually grow them and let them spread in a permitted area and forage them as a juicy garden snack.