Larry's Fall/Winter seed tests

sandhill larry said:
The 2nd day of frost hurt the Peach plants pretty bad. I wasn't able to get to them to wash the frost off. Mine are much worse than the BIL's because his is under a tall tree. He is not getting as much light, but none of his were killed. I think about 4 of the 12 will be worth bothering with. I hate it, but now I know the young tender plants will not do well with 25F and heavy frost.
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Ouf, 25 is kinda cool. Do you think that cloche'ing them might have helped? Back when, when we lived in the woods, we would cover veggie seedlings with fir boughs to protect them from spring frosts. It usually worked. I forget how many seedlings you would have needed to cover. And, my pea seedlings were all in a row.
 
WV: Jetson said:
Ouf, 25 is kinda cool. Do you think that cloche'ing them might have helped? Back when, when we lived in the woods, we would cover veggie seedlings with fir boughs to protect them from spring frosts. It usually worked. I forget how many seedlings you would have needed to cover. And, my pea seedlings were all in a row.
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Since it was about the same temp both nights, and they got hurt much worse when there was a heavy frost, I'm sure it would have been better if they were covered. I woke up after daylight, and had a commitment I couldn't skip. And part of it was the whole seed test thing. {I thought the wind would hang in there, and there wouldn't be much frost}

I had a heavy frost last spring with a bunch of seedlings {in the holding grounds}, and I got in there before daylight and washed the frost off before the sun came up. They were slowed down, but none of them died.

There was 12 of the Peach in 10 holes.
 
I chopped these on Tuesday. For now I'm calling them Bug Top and The Finger. Did find one worm, plus lots of eggs on the leaves. Looks like I was just in time. These were so short and we have had so much rain, there was lots of sand on these.DSCF2675.JPG DSCF2677.JPG DSCF2678.JPG
 
I got 34 grams on the Bug Top, and 28 grams on The Finger. I did smoke a joint of Bug Top Sunday night. It smoked out pretty good. Almost forgot to mention, that I found a few seeds in each. The Finger looked like it had a couple of male flowers in the big cluster of bud at the base.
 
I smoked a bowl of The Finger this afternoon. As the BIL would say, it's got some backbone to it. The cluster of buds at the base of the plant is taking longer to dry. I didn't take it off the stem until Sunday night.

Will be putting out the Spring crop real soon. If I remember my camera, I'll post pictures early next week. I have a big {non garden} project going on, so I'm taking the weekend off from work.
 
Just read through this thread and it's definitely a fun read. Lots of good information here. Hope those bigger ladies come back for ya. That would be cool to see.

If you don't mind my asking, how do you preserve your pollen? Do you just collect it and jar it up, or is there a specific technique that you use?

Also, how long do you usually cook your soil for after adding in all of your manures and composts and such?

I appreciate ya, Larry. Keep up the good work.
-Wax
 
WaxertheRadical said:
Just read through this thread and it's definitely a fun read. Lots of good information here. Hope those bigger ladies come back for ya. That would be cool to see.

If you don't mind my asking, how do you preserve your pollen? Do you just collect it and jar it up, or is there a specific technique that you use?

Also, how long do you usually cook your soil for after adding in all of your manures and composts and such?

I appreciate ya, Larry. Keep up the good work.
-Wax
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Hey Wax. Thanks for dropping by. The Big & Stinky X CP1's look like they will pull through, but they won't be the same. I've got my Spring crop out now, so I can post pictures of pretty plants soon.

I'm not what you would call cutting edge with my breeding. I do save a little pollen in film canisters from my best couple of males, but most of it stays in the paper Walmart Ice Cream bag I put the male flowers into when I cut them off the plant. I store them in an air conditioned space. I had 8-10 males this year that I saved pollen from. Only used 4-5 of them, but I still have the rest, just in case. I doubt it would last too long. {maybe I should start a Pollen Tester thread}

So far all my manures are already composted so I could plant into the soil mix after 2-3 weeks. But I tend to get started on them during Winter when there isn't anything to do in the garden, so they are a couple three months old when I use them. All but the Turkey manure compost was bought, so it's ready when you bring it home. The Turkey manure compost was 3-4 years old.
 
The Peach were touched up by the cold a little more than I thought. Out of 12 plants in 10 holes, this is the sum total of green leaves. {I did move this one in the back of the hole} I put in 10 of my Spring crop in those holes.

DSCF2736.JPG
 
And I accidentally broke the flowering runt plant {that I found in the pot when I killed the Funky Leaf male} pulling dead leaves. I went ahead and pulled it. Looks like about 1/4 ounce of frost burned bud. Haven't tossed it, but it doesn't look very tasty.
 
sandhill larry said:
Hey Wax. Thanks for dropping by. The Big & Stinky X CP1's look like they will pull through, but they won't be the same. I've got my Spring crop out now, so I can post pictures of pretty plants soon.

I'm not what you would call cutting edge with my breeding. I do save a little pollen in film canisters from my best couple of males, but most of it stays in the paper Walmart Ice Cream bag I put the male flowers into when I cut them off the plant. I store them in an air conditioned space. I had 8-10 males this year that I saved pollen from. Only used 4-5 of them, but I still have the rest, just in case. I doubt it would last too long. {maybe I should start a Pollen Tester thread}

So far all my manures are already composted so I could plant into the soil mix after 2-3 weeks. But I tend to get started on them during Winter when there isn't anything to do in the garden, so they are a couple three months old when I use them. All but the Turkey manure compost was bought, so it's ready when you bring it home. The Turkey manure compost was 3-4 years old.
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Well, all the same, I hope you get to pull a bit of tastey from them. I envy the fact that you can even have them outside in the dead of winter. I'm looking forward to those spring girls. Smart call on not growing in FL summer. Too hot for my liking I can tell you that much. Lol

Oh okay! Well that doesn't sound all that complex. I make shit wayyy more difficult in my head than I need to. Have you ever had issues with pollen going sterile after a certain amount of time?

That's great. I am going to start my soil prep with pre worked compost from a friend that has been cooking since mid summer. He just added in some rabbit and chicken manure before winter though so sounds like it should be perfect by the time I need some. How do you get a hold of turkey manure compost? Is there something particular about it that you like or is is just local and easy?

Thanks for taking time to answer my 20 questions!:weed:
 
The 10-12 Peach the BIL had were hurt worse by the cold than I thought. He had 4 alive, and 3 of them were male. I figure the stress was the cause of the high rate of males.

So if it gets down to 25F again, I will have to cover.
 
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