Sawyer '15 - Killing frost 11/22 + pics

Pulpiteer · Mar 16, 2015

That Shooting Star is beautiful!

Also, I bought some seed for ramps this year, I supposed i better start them soon. They sound pretty cool - how do you like them?

Sawyer · Mar 16, 2015

Pulpiteer said:
That Shooting Star is beautiful!

Also, I bought some seed for ramps this year, I supposed i better start them soon. They sound pretty cool - how do you like them?

Thanks, Andy. I haven't tasted ramps, but the chefs I know are all anxious for me to have product for sale. The do smell nice, though. Kind of like a mild garlic. Have you read up on starting ramps from seed? I think you have to plant them in warm soil for two or three weeks to break root dormancy, then move them to a cool area to break shoot dormancy. I need to get on that if I'm going to use the last of winter cold as the cool period.

capsidadburn · Mar 16, 2015

John, the seed packet recommended a 21 day cold strat mix of 50/50 fine sand and fine vermiculite with a touch of moisture. I followed that by spreading that mix like a thin paste on top of a two soil filled 3 x 3 containers with a lite covering of soil layer. Then the container goes in my germ. area. I'm not using a heat matt these days, just a small space heater that has a thermostat and keeps the small enclosed space, except for one curtain at or about 80° F. I have stopped using the space heater a few weeks back due to the warmth outside.

I've got some new seed that I think you already have established, Trout Lily or Dog Toothed Violet that has the 60 days warmth followed by 60 days cold. I'm going to try to cheat this down to 20-30 days each. Did you germinate any of yours previously? The small dog tooth root is one of the items found in the "Earth oven" I spoke about. Probably very bland and starchy tasting.

Later

Sawyer · Mar 16, 2015

Mike, thanks for the info. I need to get on that. No, I got my Trout Lily/Dogtooth Violet starts from collected plants. I have access to ~340 acres of private land and the owners' permission to conduct sustainable collecting. As long as I achieve >90% survival rates with collected items and I don't significantly impact the remaining population, they are cool with me collecting. I achieve such high rates by only collecting when it has recently rained, or is currently raining. I'll tug on a stem and if the plant wants to come home with me, it'll let me know. I almost never dig to get a plant. (The soil there is very gravely, so it's easy to loosen a plant.) I haven't collected anything in a few years, since I have established populations of most of the interesting things there here on my own place. Still looking for a few things. Their place is mostly forest, so I need lots of prairie plants. For the most part, those are what I'm starting from seed.

PS - The trout lilies I have do self-sow. I see new baby plants every spring, sometimes as much as a couple of feet from the parent patch. I've tried collecting seed, but either lose them or they don't germinate or something. For me, apparently it's better to let nature take care of it.

meatfreak · Mar 16, 2015

Glad to see you getting some good germination rates, of course I follow your updates closely

Sawyer · Mar 16, 2015

meatfreak said:
Glad to see you getting some good germination rates, of course I follow your updates closely

Yes, I'm pleased so far.

gnslngr · Mar 16, 2015

Man I saw that AR Reaper...thought you had the magic screaming through you , and suddenly felt even further behind......then I saw the 2013 reference....WHEW!
Would that be what you had as Funky Reaper seeds?

Sawyer · Mar 16, 2015

gnslngr said:
Man I saw that AR Reaper...thought you had the magic screaming through you , and suddenly felt even further behind......then I saw the 2013 reference....WHEW!
Would that be what you had as Funky Reaper seeds?

Hah! Yeah, I thought I'd throw a head fake out there. Yes, those are what I was originally calling Funky Reaper. Scott and I grew both his and mine side by side last year and they are not the same. Mine are somewhat larger, but his are way more prolific. I didn't do a taste comparison, but Scott said he couldn't tell much difference in that regard. In any case, I renamed mine AR Reaper, just so there's no confusion. (or at least, less confusion) This past year, one of the AR Reapers put out peach colored pods, so I'm calling it AR Peach or Peach Reaper, not really sure which. It doesn't have the stereotypical reaper phenotype, so probably the former. If you still have some of those seeds, they might be worth giving a shot this year, if you have the time and room.

Pulpiteer · Mar 16, 2015

Sawyer said:
Thanks, Andy. I haven't tasted ramps, but the chefs I know are all anxious for me to have product for sale. The do smell nice, though. Kind of like a mild garlic. Have you read up on starting ramps from seed? I think you have to plant them in warm soil for two or three weeks to break root dormancy, then move them to a cool area to break shoot dormancy. I need to get on that if I'm going to use the last of winter cold as the cool period.

Oh crap! I did not know any of that - thanks for the heads up. I'll get reading. Maybe I'll have some luck.

Sawyer · Mar 16, 2015

Pulpiteer said:
Oh crap! I did not know any of that - thanks for the heads up. I'll get reading. Maybe I'll have some luck.

Yeah, if you read Mike's post, #143, up above, he describes a similar approach to germinating Trout Lily seeds. Given they and ramps have similar habit, habitat and range, I guess that's not surprising.

Pulpiteer · Mar 17, 2015

Sawyer said:
Yeah, if you read Mike's post, #143, up above, he describes a similar approach to germinating Trout Lily seeds. Given they and ramps have similar habit, habitat and range, I guess that's not surprising.

Oh man, you're right. Just read through this.

I'm now thinking about taking most of the seeds and finding a proper place outside, marking it, planting and hoping they come up next spring. That way nature will do its thing and I won't have to keep track of all that stuff. Wow. I'm glad you said something or I would've wasted that seed. The instructions on the packet were nothing like that.

Sawyer · Mar 21, 2015

Pulpiteer said:
Oh man, you're right. Just read through this.

I'm now thinking about taking most of the seeds and finding a proper place outside, marking it, planting and hoping they come up next spring. That way nature will do its thing and I won't have to keep track of all that stuff. Wow. I'm glad you said something or I would've wasted that seed. The instructions on the packet were nothing like that.

Good find on the link. I'm going to plant mine in pots and put them in the germination stand, maybe on top of the lights. After a couple of weeks there, I'll put them outside for the last of the cold weather, or if that doesn't happen (I hope, I hope), I'll stick them in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Then I'll put them outside in the shade on the North side of the house and forget about them. This is the main reason I bought some bulbs in addition to the seed. I need to post a new picture of those, because they are growing like crazy. They're not taking anymore orders for this spring, but I got them from Ramp Farm.

More good news on the AR Reaper front. I had one germinate in PF3-27 from the 3/11 resowing. Either that or a Charapita germinated after more than a month. I guess I'll find out as it grows.

I'll post a more comprehensive update soon.

Sawyer · Mar 21, 2015

Okay, new germination numbers for PF3, PF5, PF6, and PF7 over here. For the most part, I'm happy with the results. I am disappointed the Jigsaw are apparently Jigwas. I have one, tiny, stunted sprout that isn't growing at all in PF3-1 from the first sowing (that is so puny I haven't even included it in the chart), but none of the rest have popped. None of the Moruga Scorpion Red OP seeds have popped, but I have 3 from my isolated seed, so that will be good enough. I have 2 Heritage Big Jim from the first sowing but none from subsequent sowings and none of the Heritage 6-4 have germinated. I harvested those seed from ripe pods left on the plants through a freeze or two or three. I am assuming freezing/thawing undried seeds is not a good thing.

By and large, though, it's been a successful germination season and there are still a few popping up here and there. I haven't counted the total, but I think it is substantial. I'll try to get some shots up soon of PFs 1-4. They're looking less like toddlers and more like proper young ladies for the most part.

PaulG · Mar 21, 2015

Awright, John! Even with the no-shows,
you will still have an awesome grow!

Can't wait to see how it all develops.

Sawyer · Mar 21, 2015

PaulG said:
Awright, John! Even with the no-shows,
you will still have an awesome grow!

Can't wait to see how it all develops.

Me, too, Paul. With all the other projects I've got going (details as the year progresses), this is going to be my busiest year in awhile. On top of everything else, I just got "requested" to go to D.C. again this year. In May. Thought I was going to skate on that this year. Hopefully we'll have an early spring so I can get the plants in the ground or pots before I leave. To save time, I'll probably fly this year. I prefer to drive, but that's 18 hours each way and it leaves me pretty wiped out for awhile after.

I just did a quick count. Without checking my math, I came up with 1052 plants growing. A very few of those are helmet heads and probably won't make it. I also expect a few more to pop in PF6.

PaulG · Mar 21, 2015

"I came up with 1052 plants growing"

:shocked:

John!

stickman · Mar 21, 2015

Growing Ramps from seed is a pretty interesting project... we have them growing wild around here but not in great numbers. Scott's Funky Reapers made a great infused vegetable oil last year. I bed you'd like it if you made it too.

Plantguy76 · Mar 21, 2015

Got your seeds yesterday plan on sowing seeds Monday.
My peach Congo's are starting to pop up.
My barazilian starfish did not have a viney growth pattern until my transplant blunder
I think I am going to sow more seed of the starfish as I think I am really going to like them.
Some datil are strange some are like dwarfs one is like a midget and one I notice has just the fake leaves but decent height there in a v.
Some of those stragglers are not putting on leaves .
I think there may be some crossing or mutation going on just werid

Sawyer · Mar 22, 2015

PaulG said:
"I came up with 1052 plants growing"

John!

Yep, I be crazy. :crazy:

stickman said:
Growing Ramps from seed is a pretty interesting project... we have them growing wild around here but not in great numbers. Scott's Funky Reapers made a great infused vegetable oil last year. I bed you'd like it if you made it too.

I'm going to give it a try. I'll start today if I can get to it. I'll keep that in mind about Scott's Funky Reaper. I bet they'd do well in refined avocado oil.

Plantguy76 said:
Got your seeds yesterday plan on sowing seeds Monday.
My peach Congo's are starting to pop up.
My barazilian starfish did not have a viney growth pattern until my transplant blunder
I think I am going to sow more seed of the starfish as I think I am really going to like them.
Some datil are strange some are like dwarfs one is like a midget and one I notice has just the fake leaves but decent height there in a v.
Some of those stragglers are not putting on leaves .
I think there may be some crossing or mutation going on just werid

I hope they grow well for you, Jason. Sounds like you're livin' and learnin' like all the rest of us. Don't know what to say about the Datils. Sometimes plants just do weird things.

So, the big new for today is that a Jigsaw has popped in PF6-16, as has a Heritage Big Jim in PF7-5. :woohoo:

This may be the only viable Jigsaw I get since the other one is just sitting there with no sign of true leaves.

Plantguy76 · Mar 22, 2015

Sawyer said:
Yep, I be crazy.

I'm going to give it a try. I'll start today if I can get to it. I'll keep that in mind about Scott's Funky Reaper. I bet they'd do well in refined avocado oil.

I hope they grow well for you, Jason. Sounds like you're livin' and learnin' like all the rest of us. Don't know what to say about the Datils. Sometimes plants just do weird things.

So, the big new for today is that a Jigsaw has popped in PF6-16, as has a Heritage Big Jim in PF7-5.
This may be the only viable Jigsaw I get since the other one is just sitting there with no sign of true leaves.

Thanks John the peach Reapers are 2014 so I think they will grow fine it seems I am digging the peach color this season.
I am going to be doing sowing this week the capsicum annuum's ,some more capsicum chinense & some capsicum baccatum plus one Capsicum Frutecens .
Also going to sow some giant red mustard ,tomatoes /tomatillos/tamarillo's .
I will be moving the stuffing scotch bonnets in plant room 2 along with the other blunder transplants .(I think the stuffing scotch bonnets are going to make it will end up being more bushy in the long run but not too pretty now)
going to transplant the moa's and some datils all &all things are moving along.
I have peach congo's coming up it certainly been a learning experience .
Spring started out with spider mites took care of them I think and some kind of black ants that over stayed there welcome think I took care of them as well.
Best of luck as always to your season John