Cedar's Garden 2015

[Cedar]

Today I started moving flats around, moving lights around on the seed starting racks. Got into my seed 'box' and sorted all the seeds into large bins by 'like kinds' and got them all reinstalled into the 'box'. I figured out what needs to go in first. Watered down my flats and hopefully will start planting peppers and tomatoes tomorrow.

Cedar

[ResidentCelt]

 

[PorcupineKate]

I am looking forward to seeing how the farm develops this year.   

[busymomx3]

 

[Cedar]

Tomorrow is the day....
Tomatoes are being seeded into flats tomorrow with my friend to keep me company. Here is my tomato lineup for the year. All OP heirlooms.
 
Ailsa Craig - an English Heritage variety dating from 1925
A Grappoli D'Iverno - "Winter Grape" tomato of old Italy
Amber - Bushy plant that produces 2-inch amber-colored globes
Amish Paste - the ultimate paste tomato
Aunt Ruby's German Green - are a cultivar originating with Ruby Arnold (d 1997), of Greeneville, Tennessee
Austin's Red Pear - very productive
Babywine
Baylor Paste - No blossom end rot as is common with other pastes.
Big Rainbow
Black Krim <--- My favorite
Black Seaman
Bread and Salt
Beefsteak
Big Red
Boxcar Willie - 1950's
Brandywine
Brandywine Red
Cherokee Purple
Cherry Roma
Chocolate
Chocolate Cherry
Comstock Slice and Sauce
Copia
Cyril's Choice - An English family heirloom, kept alive by D. Rankilor, who's brother Cyril grew it on his allotment before he died.
Dester
Dr. Wyche's Yellow
Egg from Phucket
Emerald Evergreen <-- makes great salsa verde
Evergreen
Forest Fire
Garden Peach <-- it is really fuzzy like a peach
Gemini
German Gold
German Pink
Gold Metal
Green Sausage
Green Zebra
Gregory's Altai
Hartman's Yellow Gooseberry - A very old heirloom tomato that was popular in the 1830's
Hillbilly Potato Leaf
Homestead
Hungarian Heart
Isis Candy Cherry
Italian Heirloom
Jaune Flamme
jon's Yellow Cherokee
Kentuky Beefsteak
Lemon Drop
Marmande
Manitoba - GOOD early tomato I grew in Canada
Martino's Roma
Mexico Midget <--- great for canning whole
Missouri Pink Love Apple
Moneymaker
Moonglow <--- this is a very pretty one.
Morado
Morning Sun
Mortgage Lifter
Mule Team - Main crop, all purpose tomato
Nature's Riddle
Nebraska Wedding - My favorite golden
Old German
Omar's Lebanese - Disease tolerant.  Huge, pink fruit can grow as large as 3-4 lbs!
Opalka
Orange King
Ozark Pink
Pantano Romanesco - Very rare from Italy and very tasty
Peron Sprayless
Persimmon Type
Plum Lemon
Polen Yellow Pear
Principe Borghese
Pritchard Scarlet Topper
Purple Prince
Red Rock
Red Zebra
Riesentraube-  in Philadelphia by the mid-1800's. Tthe name means "Giant Bunch of Grapes" in German
Roma
Ropreco
Rose
Rutgers
Rutger's Select
San Marzano
Siletz
Silvery Fir Tree - Great as a hanging basket plant. Lovely silvery carrot top like leaves
Sophie's Choice
Speckled Roman
Striped Roman
Stupice -My dad started growing these from some of the first brought over from Czechoslovakia. EARLY!
Summer Cherry
Sungella
Sunshine Cherry
Sweet Pea Currant
Thessaloniki - Greek tomato that was introduced to the USA in the 1950's
Tommy Toe
Tonnelet L.F.
Tula
Uncle Mark Bagby - Named for Mark Bagby brought the seed from Germany in 1919
Wisconsin 55 - developed by plant pathologist JC Walker at the University of Wisconsin in 1949
Yellow Pear

Yes, that is 100 varieties. I am only planting 2-6 of each however. There are at least 5 colours represented. Paste, cherry, giant, slicing... all them them worth preserving their genetic heritage.

I do have history on most of the varieties, but I was trying to rush the post, so I could get SP in bed. If you like tomatoes, look up the history for them.. the history is as wonderful as their taste.

Cedar

[ResidentCelt]

Do you save seed from every one each year? What do you do about cross-pollinating, since I assume you're trying to keep each variety going for years to come.

[Cedar]

Do you save seed from every one each year? What do you do about cross-pollinating, since I assume you're trying to keep each variety going for years to come.

Not each year. I usually have them on a 3 year rotation, planting out 1/3 each year, but I have my new commercial greenhouses, so I am going hog wild. As I want to finally do a good trial and see what works and does not work for our climate and then I will give the varieties which are not going so well for me, out at a Seedy Saturday.

Generally if you can keep insects away, tomatoes are self pollinating, but I use these bags meant for weddings for my "bug screens". 


On the plants I had pollinate, or the tomato blossoms I want to keep, I pop one of these bags over until fruit has formed, and then I pull it off, label the branch/fruit as "DO NOT EAT" and the date, any other into on pink surveyors tape and attach.

I have also grown favorites in the house as a houseplant and saved seed from them.

Cedar

[ResidentCelt]

Woah. I had never thought of those little wedding bags. Such a good idea!

[Cedar]

Woah. I had never thought of those little wedding bags. Such a good idea!

I was helping a friend fill them for a wedding once and I was like, "Hey.. these would be great for seed propagation". So I ordered 400 of them off eBay. Some are printed. Some are red, some are white... but they don't seem to matter what color they are.

Cedar

[SomeOlddMan]

That's a whole lot of tomato varieties!  I envy you the room to plant so many different kinds, and hopefully keep them from cross pollinating.  I figure I would be lucky to work with 5 at a time, and may only go for three.

[Cedar]

You guys realize I let 98% of the flowers cross on ALL my veggies right? I only choose a few select plants to save one section off to keep pure. It is not like every single flower/plant.

So I might choose 1 limb each off of three "Small Red Cherry" tomato plants to bag. Maybe 5 plants of "Yugoslavian Red Butterhead" Lettuce (they are perfect pollinators, which pollinate before the flower opens, so I don't have to bag). Maybe 5 fruits of "Small Sugar" pumpkin to bag.

Not all plants are worthy of passing their genes on, and like those 5 fruits of "Small Sugar" pumpkin, I could easily get 1,000 seeds from. 600 from the "Small Red Cherry" tomatoes.. but by planting alot, I have more of a selection for the traits I want to go into the next generation.. and then alot for us to can up/preserve and the rest to our extremely small community Farmer's Market.

Cedar

[Cedar]

Got all the tomatoes seeded out.. Now I am working on the peppers.

Aji Cristal (4)
Anaheim (4)
Aurora (5)
Beaver Dam (3)
Black Hungarian (3)
Bulgarian Carrot (4)
Bull Nose Bell (0)
California Wonder (0)
Carribean Red Hot (4)
Cayenne Long Red (4)
Cayenne Long Thin (4)
Cow Horn (0)
Cyklon (5)
Early Jalapeno (3)
Fatalii (5)
Feher Ozon Paprika (0) <--- this one I think I will have fun with this year
Fish (3) <-- probably one of the prettiest peppers.
Georgia Flame (4)
Gernika Basque Pepper (2)
Goat Horn (4)
Golden Californian Wonder (0)
Habanero (4)
Healthy (0)
King of the North (0) <--- if this one doesn't do well this year, I am dumping it
Hinkelhatz (4)
Hungarian Yellow Wax (3)
Italian Marconi Golden (0)
Jalapeno (4)
Jimmy Nardello Italian (1)
Joe's Round  (4)
Lemon Drop (4)
Melrose (0)
Miniature Red Bell  (0)
Miniature Yellow Bell (0)
Mustard Habanero (5)
Napolean Sweet (0)
Nepalese Bell (4)
Nosegay (4)
Orange Bell (0)
Pasilla Bajio (2)
Pepperoncici Greek (1)
Portugal Hot (4)
Purple Beauty (0)
Quadrato d'Asti Giallo (0)
Quadrato d'Asti Rosso (0)
Red Cap Mushroom (4)
Red Marconi (0)
Sante Fe Grande (3)
Serrano (5)
Sweet Banana (0)
Sweet Chocolate (0)
Taltos <-- the only one I cannot find info on. Anyone?
Tequila Sunrise (1)<--- one of my favorites
Thai Hot (4-5) <--- my favorite as a houseplant, if I can keep my cat from eating it
Tobago Seasoning (3)

56 varieties to plant this year. The 0 means sweet/not hot, and a 5 generally means stupidly hot. I am not a 'pepperhead'. I do not wish to be one.

Like tomatoes, peppers pollinate themselves, so I will just bag the ones I want to save seed from and then label so no one eats the fruits,to keep insects from re-pollinating them.

Cedar

[Cedar]

Found another tomato... "Gregory's Altai". So seeded those out. They originated near the Altai Mountains in Novosibirsk, Siberia, near the Russia-China border.

101 varieties of tomatoes. We shall see who wins and who doesn't this year. I think I want to dump 10% of the varieties which do poorly this year, since they will all have the same growing conditions for a trial.

Got the peppers planted and then did 19 varieties of eggplant.

Eggplants:
Applegreen - Developed by the late Professor Elwyn Meader in New Hampshire in 1964. Got mine from the UK
Black Beauty - old American standby, introduced in the 1800's, the only type usually seen in grocery stores
Black Long Early - It is early.
Casper - Shiny white fruits are 6 inches long
Cote d'Ivoire - heirloom originating in France in 1850.
Kazakhstan - Seed collected at a state-run market in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, by A.T. Whittemore, donated to the USDA Germplasm Repository in 1991.
Korean Red -Rounded bush to 3 feet tall, red-orange fruits
Lao Purple Stripe - aka Purple Tiger Stripe. Heirloom from Laos
Listada de Gandia - Introduced into southern France around 1850
Little Fingers - These fruits grow in clusters of 3 or more.  They can be harvested when no larger than your little finger
Ping Tung Long - Classic eastern-Asian type
Red Ruffled - Looks like miniature pumpkins
Ronde de Valence - the size of a grapefruit, with deep purple color. French heirloom named after the city of Valence, a quaint city on the Rhone River.
Rosa Bianca - Italian heirloom, light pink-lavender fruits
Rosita - Developed in Puerto Rico in the 1940's. Lovely pink
Thai Green - mild and sweet, the 10” to 12” long, very slender fruit are a beautiful light-lime green.
Tondo Chiaro di Nizza - Seed I got from the UK many years ago. Round green striped eggplant.
Tonda di Manfredonia - Heirloom from Italy. Extremely rare and endangered.
Udumalapet - From India. Heavy yields of pear-shaped fruits are light green streaked with purple, ripening to golden-yellow with lavender stripes

Cedar

[Cedar]

Remembered where my artichoke seed was located. I forgot to put them in my pocket from the truck as I was grabbing 7 other things and a small child to get into the house.

So at 5 am I was planting artichokes. Put in 53 of them. I should put in a bit more, but I did not want to go outside and fill more flats yet. You should sow heavily and expect 70% germination. Of these seedlings, about 20% will not produce high quality plants. Cull out the small and albino plants.

Green Globe
Green Globe Improved
Purple of Romagna <-- new one for me. "Catherine de Medici moved to France in 1533 to be the queen of Henry II, she took her passion for artichokes with her. Her appetite for this vegetable scandalized the people of her day, as the artichoke was considered an aphrodisiac and only eaten by men. In time, artichokes became a culinary delight only afforded by the elite. The French brought this vegetable to Louisiana, while the Spanish introduced it to California. California still produces nearly all of the United States' supply of artichokes, with Castroville, CA being named as the Artichoke Capital of the World. The Purple Romagna variety is the top choice of Italian chefs because of its unusual tenderness and beauty."

I also started on windowboxes and hanging planters.

Crocus mix
Windowbox SweetPeas - Heirloom Cupid.


Cedar

[Cedar]

Just went out to take stock of my grafted apples and pears I did last spring, as well as take their tape off. They have been in buckets for the last year, as I was waiting to get the orchard fence up first before planting them, but I have now given up on that happening anytime soon, so I have gone to Plan B of 4 pallets around each tree, so I can get them in the ground and keep sheep, donkeys, deer and elk from munching on them.

Over the heat of the summer, and failing to water them for a week or more, and then no protection with that blast of cold we had, I only had 2 losses of apples. I am surprised I did not have more losses with the August abuse I put them through. So I will replace those this year in March. I will start putting the remaining 15 live ones into the ground tomorrow. I started to pull pallets out of the dairy barn, but it is too wet to haul them all the way to the new orchard area, it will just leave huge ruts.

I have been researching ancient apple varieties for some years now for various reasons. My main concentration has been on apples of the medieval period in England pre-1500's, although the occasional one from France, Germany and other places/times 'snuck' in. Apples have been cultivated in England for 1,200 years, ever since the Roman's brought them to the area. Many of the varieties are so close to going extinct and stock can be difficult to find. I have been in contact with many different historical orchards all over the world to get information and potential 'seed stock' for these varieties.

In 1900 in the United States alone, there were over 5,000 varieties of named apple trees, today there are less than 1,000 named varieties. That is how many have gone extinct in America in around 100 years.

Looking over my 'want lists' for the HOS Scion event, and writing them down. My criteria is heirloom to ancient fruit mostly from Britian and France pre-1950's, but I do have a few from Americana 1800's. They have to be multipurpose, taste good and store well. They have to be able to pollinate each other (which is why it takes me FOREVER and a half to figure out what cultivars I desire).

So far on my list is:
PEAR 'Hosui' which is an Asian pear from Tsukuba, Japan in 1954. Stores 4 weeks.
PEAR "Red Bartlett", which would be a summer apples, VS all the fall ones we have
APPLE 'Calville Blanc d'Hiver'
APPLE 'Ashmead's Kernel"

But I am researching various figs, medlar and quince.

Cedar

[Cedar]

This morning I woke up the greenhouse and got it ready for the year.

47F outside temps/61F temps inside the greenhouse, 98% humidity at 10 am, then it was 89F inside with the doors open, while 58F outside at 2pm.
SweetPea and I re-laid down the black visqueen again, staked it for the area the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are going into. Then I brought up plants I overwintered in the greenhouse for planting at the house. Took the blueberry cuttings down to the greenhouse. Took all the hanging planters down to the greenhouse ( 8 ) to start  hanging flowers in for the house and the Lodge. SweetPea and I cut the soaker hose to the correct length, and getting the watering system started. It is modular, so I can make single rows or wide rows. Been using the system that I made in Canada,  brought it down and used it in the last house garden, and at the Lodge.

A really weird pic SP took of me, (maybe it is her height?), but I look happy planting.


I tilled three rows (can't do too much at a time, as the exhaust from the tiller stays in the greenhouse) for peas and squash. I have to keep all the doors and windows open when I till it.

Put in a start for the trellis system for the peas, even though the dwarf varieties might not need it. But a couple are 4-5' tall. My summer ones for outside are 10-14' tall for comparison. Tall varieties are becoming lost, as they cannot be machine picked, so I tend to 'specialize' in tall varieties. But these are early for Farmer's market.  In this photo, it was taken just before the second row went in, and there will be four total to the right side of this greenhouse. Lettuce and strawberries are the next to go in.



Planted today:
Peas - Green Arrow (Alaska origin) <-- this takes really COLD weather
Peas - Opal Creek (Oregon origin) <-- golden pea
Peas - Parsley Pea (British origin?) <-- First year for this one
Peas - Dwarf Grey Sugar (pre-1856)
Peas - British Wonder (British origin)
Pea - Feltham First (British origin pre-1890)

Summer Squash - Tondo Chiaro di Nizza Zucchini <-- round
Summer Squash - Lebanese White Bush Marrow <- I have not grown before
Summer Squash - Yugoslavian Finger Fruit <-- Awesome looking
Summer Squash - Cocozelle Zucchini <-- my fav



This evening figuring out my final plan for tomato, pepper and eggplant trellises.

Cedar

[Cedar]

Pretty sure it froze last night. 35F when I looked at the thermometer at 8 am

"Red Zebra" and "Riesentraube" tomatoes won the germination contest.. they are both up.

Cedar

[ResidentCelt]

You might have explained this somewhere else, but I gotta ask. Do you grow for farmer's markets? Or is your production primarily for your use? I know you give away seed sometimes, but do you sell to seed companies?

[Cedar]

You might have explained this somewhere else, but I gotta ask. Do you grow for farmer's markets? Or is your production primarily for your use? I know you give away seed sometimes, but do you sell to seed companies?

I have a SMALL farmer's market that I attend locally, at the weekly community get-to-gether. There are two vendors there at best, usually I am the only one. But I sell to the local community of about 82-120 people (depends on if the other community comes in too), not everyone buys, or buys each week, but they usually come by and talk to me. I am diversified in freerange eggs (chicken, duck, turkey and usually quail), USDA pork, USDA lamb, usually 20 or so varieties of vegetables (which change weekly, and I will often have 4-5 varieties of lettuce, beans, peas at a time), jams, honey, soon 6 varieties of mushrooms, and the odd thing here and there. Most of my vegetables are unique, my customers now know it and they like being able to support a local community member and get cool produce (picked an hour before or so) that they have no other way of obtaining, as the stores do not carry them.

My main things are growing for ourselves (fresh, freezing, canning, drying), surplus plants/produce to the farmers market to sell, and then seed production. Will I sell seed under our farm name at some point? Maybe. I just want to make sure these seeds stay viable and that someone is raising them. I have sold seed to seed houses before, and they marketed it under their company name. Many of these varieties of seeds, I think there are only 3 of us growing in North America, so they could easily be lost/go extinct. Not every plant is good to pass on its genes, so they get culled as food, which is why I grow out many of each kind. Usually seed varieties are on a rotation. Some plants have to go through a second year to go to seed, and I want varieties/individuals/genes which will survive through various weathers.

Cedar

[ResidentCelt]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing I had my first conversation where your name came up the other day with my wife. I told her some day I wanted to grow as many varieties as Cedar haha.

[Cedar]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing I had my first conversation where your name came up the other day with my wife. I told her some day I wanted to grow as many varieties as Cedar haha.

OH NO... be careful what you wish for. I would pick no more than 10-15 tomatoes. 1-2 carrots. 1-2 cabbages...

I started seed saving as my dad was a seed savers. It was not the 'in or cool thing' then. He was just saving tomato, pepper and lettuce seeds back to acclimate in our area.. which can be cool, wet and rainy half the summer. So I am guessing he was saving back traits that grew well in that weather.

When I really started saving seeds was after dad died, when I found his stash of seeds in the winery, in the bottom drawer of a cabinet. I actually still have those seeds, but over time I have collected varieties that he often grew or were favorites of his.

Then I found out we are losing 10,000 named varieties of named vegetables each and every year from our agriculture heritage. Since 1900, when we had 5,000 named varieties of apple trees in North America we are below 800 varieties today, and only 10 of them can be found at best in a grocery store.

I did not mean to have so many. I honestly was going to stop at 50, then 100.. and then 200, then, OMG I have 400.. 500... and now after 500 varieties, it it s huge responsibility. Well, it was a huge responsibility at 100.. especially with some of the varieties I have. Like one corn variety I have, I sent up to an Experimental Station in Alaska this year. I am pretty much returning it to where it originated, to the work of a well known corn breeder (who has since died), but someone else has picked up his work, or trying to recreate it. So the corn I have, was lost commercially. Unknown if any seed bank has it, or if anyone else is growing it. But I came across some from one of those commercial houses before it went out of business (mice ate the other corn seed at the other seed house) and I have grown it in two countries. Last summer, I had a neighbor across the valley grow this variety out for me, and I have had a TSP moderator grow out a variety called "Howling Mob" for me. I can never grow out more than 4 varieties of corn a year, so sometimes I will find someone who I can trust to grow it out under my instructions to keep the line pure.

But having a huge collection like this, is indeed a huge responsibility. If I die, what will become of them? Will my family respect my wishes and send them into someone else who cares about them more than just 'gardening seeds'? Will they get grown out and preserved? Will they get thrown away? Will they sit for years? Since 2000, I have had them in some kind of container, that I can grab and run in case of a house fire. Currently they are in a wheeled job box. Sometimes I wish I had never accumulated so many in my collection, other times I cannot dream of being without them.

Even if you only have 1 tomato variety, just start saving seeds from it. It will take 3 generations to acclimate to your soil, climate, weather, what traits you desire in it. You will still be protecting agriculture biodiversity.

Cedar

[ResidentCelt]

I can imagine the responsibility. This coming year will be the 4th generation of sunflower I've grown and that one variety already feels like something that I could never just let go of or toss away.

[ResidentCelt]

Do you have a recommendation for a seed-saving reference or book? Which vegetables can be bagged, which must be separated by time/distance, which ones it doesn't matter? There's so many out there.

I know in the end I can just save seed haphazardly and see what works, but some varieties I'd like to keep pure.

[Cedar]

Do you have a recommendation for a seed-saving reference or book? Which vegetables can be bagged, which must be separated by time/distance, which ones it doesn't matter? There's so many out there.

I know in the end I can just save seed haphazardly and see what works, but some varieties I'd like to keep pure.

This is a good book for beginners and honestly, you probably won't ever need another one, unless you go crazy on genetics and such like I am.



Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners
by Suzanne Ashworth
ISBN-10: 1882424581
ISBN-13: 978-1882424580

Many libraries have it too.

I think I have it on another year of "Cedar's Garden", but the Easy 5 to collect seed from are:

1. Pea (you can't mess up unless you try REALLY hard)
2. Bean (you can't mess up unless you try REALLY hard)
3. Lettuce Pea (you can't mess up unless you try REALLY hard)
4. Peppers
5. Tomatoes

and I would probably add potatoes to that list actually.

Cedar

[ResidentCelt]

I've saved those 6 before plus pattypan squash and sunflower (can't imagine you could mess that one up). Thanks for the recommendation on the book.

[Cedar]

I've saved those 6 before plus pattypan squash and sunflower (can't imagine you could mess that one up). Thanks for the recommendation on the book.

If there are other sunflower varieties around, they would cross. Same with the pattypan if you have other Cucurbita pepo where bees can get to them.

Cedar

[ResidentCelt]

If there are other sunflower varieties around, they would cross. Same with the pattypan if you have other Cucurbita pepo where bees can get to them.

Cedar

The nearest sunflowers are probably a half mile away across town. Not too worried, but even if they cross I don't actually know what variety they were to begin with. So now they're just "Virginia" variety

The pattypans I wasn't too worried about crossing, though I only saved it 1 year. I decided I don't like the taste much so I probably won't keep that one going. It's common enough among gardeners and farm-market folks in our area that I'm not worried about adapting it or maintaining a genetic line.

[soupbone]

Heritage Plants, Cedar? For your enjoyment:

http://archaeology.about.com/od/historyofagriculture/tp/The-Eight-Founder-Crops-and-the-Origins-of-Agriculture.htm?nl=1

Enjoy,

soup

PS: Mrs. s said, "Hi and thanks for asking about her".

s

[Cedar]

Thanks soup. I love reading on the history of the plants. One of the first I learned was the carrot. Where it originated, that the original colour was not orange and how it became orange as we know it.

Cedar

[soupbone]

Cedar,
Came across this and thought I'd pass it on, just in case your looking for a cash crop. Don't know how much work is involved, or if your soil is right for it, but.......

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/02/hop-farming-hops-beer-aroma-alpha-ruhstaller

soup