Welcome and Introduce Yourself!

[Woody Gardener]

Welcome! I've grown many varieties of okra on my hardscrabble Ozark highland soil and tried Moody Family okra this year. I am amazed at the vigor and drought resistance. It will be my okra next year. You might want to try it.
https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/products/moody-family-okra
The Experimental Farm Network aka EFN is an amazing site, look around when you visit!

[Adrian]

Welcome,
the cucurbits are easy to cross but extremly funny!
Its with thr cross of cucurbits that i have understand the genetic!

[Steph S]

Welcome Chad!
I hear you on walking into the garden instead of the water cooler.  It's places like this forum that get me to take the occasional hour and just look more closely at things...  this is usually when I learn something new, and makes me feel that the time off work is really worth it.

[Richard Watson]

Welcome Chad, gardening in a lunar like environment sounds a real challenge. I have a friend SE of Albuquerque, wonder if your soil is anything like his, though he doesn't garden.

[Chad Meyer]

Hi all and thanks for your thoughts.

Re: EFN; I definitely patronize them! I think the only species that I am growing this year that they aren't supplying at least some of the genetics of are the pumpkins and the chiles.

Southeast of ABQ is probably similar soil with perhaps more clay, but hotter and likely a little more dry. Being perched on the side of a mountain has its advantages in that sense. It's not quite as desolate as the moon, the more wild places are replete with natives (a few kinds of cacti, scrubby shrubs like chamisa and juniper, bigger piñon near water sources). But, when we don't have much rain, the sun seemed to bake all life out of the dirt and the wind kicks it up as fine dust.  When the plants are growing and the monsoons are strong, the soil takes on a more organic look, but wouldn't be mistaken for topsoil by a Midwesterner. It's quite shallow; bedrock is about 8 feet down.

[Vesa Tee]

Hei!

My name is Vesa, some may know me as Pippin in tomatojunction. I am interested mainly in tomato breeding, I am growing my first ever F3s this season. I joined this forum as some friendly people recommended me to, as I am looking for people with similar interests and hopefully more experience, knowledge and wisdom on my current passion. I am a bookworm, surprisingly comfortable of reading scientific literature without much formal education on the art of genetics or molecule biology. Not native speaker, often struggling with spelling and terminology. 

I have tried plant breeding as a hobby also earlier but it didn't last. For example, I have propagated blue potatoes by seed just to see what comes up and experimented with colchicine to create polyploidy in Rubus in order to cross different brambles speaces, such as Rubus spectabilis, Rubus arcticus, Rubus idaeus, Rubus caesius etc. But those projects did not survive and are now gone.

I started saving vegetable seeds 20 years ago, and I have some vegetable lines that are hopefully little adapted to my local conditions as they were used and maintained on the site, in situ. I have some cool bean and pepper seed lines originating from open pollinated, uncontrolled crosses.

I have a commercial side to my breeding project as I keep a small organic vegetable and fruit farm as a hobby. I sell vegetables, not seeds, and am planning to keep it that way. 

BR,
Vesa aka Pippin

[Diane Whitehead]

Welcome, Vesa!

Where do you live?

[Steph S]

Hi Vesa, and welcome from the north Atlantic!  You know me as Bower at TJ.   Glad you decided to join!
I'd love to hear more about the vegetable lines that you maintained for your climate.  What else do you grow there?

[Vesa Tee]

Hi Diane,

Sorry, I didn't update my profile yet. Realize now that all I put there originally may not be visible to you.

I live in Finland, in the Southern parts, close to coast line. We have little bit mixed climate, mainly continental, getting sometimes very dry high pressure with either colds and hots from Russia. But also so close to the coast line that springs and autumns are sometimes milder. At least three frost free months but sometimes frost may come also in the middle of the summer. Golf stream does help us.

[Richard Watson]

Hello Vesa, Welcome to the forum. My experience with breeding tomatoes is only limited to one cross, Toms Yellow Wonder over dwarf Beryl Beauty, I am selecting a high flavoured mid size round red and have F3 seed just sown a few days ago, I'm calling this line Rangi.

Steph - I should have made the collection, you go under Bower on Tomatoville also dont you?. You know that I go under Medbury gardens on there?

[Steph S]

Yes indeed Richard - I thought that was you! 

[Vesa Tee]

Hi Steph, and thanks for recommending this forum!

This season, I grow (way too many) tomatoes, chilies, "giant" shishito peppers, orange snack peppers, potatoes, garlic, onions, snap beans, fava beans, eggplants, zhucchini, butternut/hokkaido/spaghetti squash, jerusalem artichoke, mini cucumbers, white cucumbers, melons, parsley, cellery, celeriac, golden purslane, newzeland spinach, blueberries, plums, apples, pears. Some ocra and edamame for myself and some tomatillos for a friend.

[Richard Watson]

Yes indeed Richard - I thought that was you! 

Fantastic, good to be on first name basis.

[Steph S]

Vesa, that's quite a lineup!  Nothing is difficult to grow there I guess.   We don't grow melons here, and two farmer friends tried eggplant in the greenhouse quite a few times before they gave up completely.
Very nice that you have fruit trees as well.  Perennial crops are great.

[whwoz]

Welcome Vesa, hope you enjoy your time here, Impressive list of vegies you are growing.  Must say I am glad that I don't have to deal with frost as much as you.