Greenie/Erin DeS
Barley is planted in the pots; I found several radish stalks full of seeds I’d grown intending to play with crossing so I tossed the seeds in the pots too.
I put a couple seeds of triticale in a couple pots too.
joseph z
Oh man, that scene looks like my scene. Aspens. Way too many pots. Dead plant remnants. Snow. A Frame with thin Poly. Conifers.
I actually have 3 Siberian kale plants and 2 rainbow chards that made it through 2 months under over 2 feet of snow, a sheet of ice, and temperatures negative 17F for 4 days straight. Winner. Winner. Chicken Dinners. I’m going to cross these with the Lacinato and Frill types that overwintered in my lean to and are going to seed. I also appear to have 13 collard plants that will set seed - in the same elements BUT covered by one strip of row cover and a single sheet of GH Poly in a 4x 10’ bed. Lots to work with in this miraculous Brassica journey in extremely unforgiving conditions.
Greenie/Erin DeS
Oh, that’s useful info, we’re getting a little tractor at the new place and it’s crawling with Alder, and they grow quick down there. And of course alder is nitrogen fixing. I’ve been trying to figure out a chipper that will actually function.
Interestingly all my kales died out this winter, in the greenhouse they dried out and outdoors they flattened. It may be because all the driveway snow went on top of them though.
Your climate sounds so similar to mine, are you putting Haskaps in at all? They just thrive here, and the newer ones are super tasty. I’ve given a lot of thought to starting them from seed.
joseph z
Aha. Haskaps are on the list for sure. One thing at a time. Do you know of a good seed source? I could get a honeyberry plant anywhere. I’d love to trial seeds.
Greenie/Erin DeS
I haven’t tried them from seed yet, nor heard of someone. Beginning of July I will have some seeds available from the plants I like though, as long as I can be convinced not to eat all the fruit. And since they’re not self-pollinating the results should be more fun than tomatoes but maybe less exciting then apples.
I’m not sure what’s up with the barley I planted, it’s not up yet. Potentially birds ate it, or the pots may just be slow. May presoak and replant, it’s getting late for barley!
Greenie/Erin DeS
2022-05-12T07:00:00Z
Argh. Triticale is up but not the barley. I guess I did plant my barley May 6th last year, and it was as cold as this year is. Maybe I’ll try an in-ground patch; I harvested Aug 11th and that should be fine. Will need to cover it for birds though.
2022-06-03T07:00:00Z
The barley is up… after the triticale. I guess it’s colder than I thought up on the deck.
Greenie/Erin DeS
2022-10-08T07:00:00Z
The dango mugi barley did spectacularly in its pot, but the sumire mochi barley didn’t come up. My 5 seeds are now roughly 1/3 - 1/2 cup.
Triticale did well, one had a ton of tillers and so it ripened unevenly; the other two ripened evenly but had fewer heads-- but those heads were all ripe. I’ll come back with the names when I’m next to the tags. This was a great seed multiplier, and the triticale was all planted super close together so maybe I got some crosses? Went from 3 seeds each to 1/3 cup of each or so. I also got to closely observe tillering behaviour, which was very educational.
Didn’t plant anything else out there except my tomatoes for crossing since I learned the deck was about to fall off and I didn’t want to keep weight on it.
