December has finally arrived, so it is time to share some updates from the this year’s season. It was my second year applying adaptation principles for some crops, and for many it was the first year. My goal was to mix as many varieties as possible to increase genetic diversity of our main crops, but also adapt seeds of some other crops that are not commonly grown here.
We had a loooong heatwave already from June so it was quite interesting to observe how all the crops I got from grexes and mixes with some crosses were growing despite everything while grass was growing more slowly and even drying in the soil due to shallow roots.
I dedicated a new part of 1000m2 for everything adaptation, and went crazy with it. 
all together I got more than 500 kilos of food to eat and soooo many diverse seeds and mixed populations for exchanges and replanting next year. My goal was to increase genetic diversity and collect seeds of those that did great in no-input environment.
I have clay soil… my neighbor prepared it in May with a shallow roto tiller, I sowed 1000m2 by hand in 2 days just before some rain arrived. 90% were directly seeded, while peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplants and potatoes from true seeds were from transplants. I removed the grass only 2 times sporadically to increase chances of cross-pollination, but later in the season there was a lot of grass growing and protecting plants from the heat.
Other crops I sowed directly into the soil were: sweet corn, bush beans, beetroot, summer squashes, buckwheat, amaranths, zinnias, eggplants, hue less pumpkins, watermelons, quinoa, sorghum, cucumbers, Lofthouse and Gregg-Buthan grex together, pole beans, peanuts, French beans, melons, okras, c.moschatas, sunflowers, c. maxima, some edible gourds and c. ficifolia.
I will start with “failures” because there were not many - what didn’t work for me was sweet corn - I would say primarily because of the place I chose for it, top of the hill with quite compact soil. I did collect some mini cobs in the end, but they really didn’t do so well. It was quite a diverse mix, but I guess the combination of shallow and compact soil made it a little bit challenging.
Lufas also didn’t work for me because I sowed them in the part of the garden where I mulch and slugs ate them.
Pole beans also struggled a lot, but they were able to produce some seeds so I am looking forward to see how they will do next year.
Then the successes, because there was so many of them 
The seeds I got from Joseph - wheat population, promiscuous tomatoes and cross of wild lettuce with domestic did very good here, and I harvested a lot of seeds. Most of the wheat is already back in the ground, but I have plenty of lettuce and tomatoes seeds to exchange.
New things I tried: sorghum, quinoa, amaranth and potatoes from true seeds.
Potatoes - got seeds from all around through direct seed exchange and made little transplants. Put them in the soil in May, invested 2-3 hours in the season to add more soil on top of them, and in October got 10 kilos of small seed potatoes. Beatles arrived and tried to attack, but then just disappeared. They received no irrigation or any kind of special treatment. They did flower but this generation didn’t produce and true seeds, so I keep them for next season. I will replant those, but also sow more from seeds since I have more seed leftovers.
Sorghum, amaranths and quinoa did amazing as well… I had no expectations but I was still surprised to see them prosper here. I have some seeds of diverse quinoa to exchange, and a bit more sorghum and amaranth. Majority I will sow next year in a big field to get quantities that I can actually eat it and then have enough for seeds as well.
Here are some of the other successes:
Lofthouse promiscuous tomatoes - later there were the yellow ones as well:
No input tomatoes - mostly heirlooms:
Exserted orange:
Cabbage grex that is currently in the ground, a very nice mix, most already formed heads so I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes well and that they will be able to cross-pollinate because sometimes some pests eat them during flowering, or eat the pods. In between all of them there is a lot of garlic and grass growing, so let’s see
F4 generation of @mare.silba lettuce grex self seeded in my garden and is doing great.
There are many more, but I will write about it another time, now I need to go to transplant some trees before soil freezes next week
Additionally, we have had so many events in the last 3 months, every weekend something, many seed exchanges, cooking workshops, festivals, lectures on the topic, we participated in one huge seed exchange in Northern Italy with thousands of people. And the most important, we started an NGO that is formally registered and the web page will soon go online to collect donations from the community to be able to pull off a bigger project on increasing the genetic diversity of crops in Croatia. As a young organization we are not eligible for public funds, but we also partially don’t want to go in that direction. We are currently building the vision of an organization which will be ‘from community to community’ and we already have many friends who came up with ideas how to raise funds in their communities to support the project.
Also, during our GTS meeting in Croatia, we had a seed exchange and gathered some euros that everyone generously gave for the NGO, and it will be used to organize our first meeting in January for potential new members, the first generation So, if anyone wants to contribute financially, or with seeds, you are welcome <3
