How did you plant it?
Did you find anything you love?
Send us all those juicy grow reports, and oh please photos!
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I haven’t planted it yet, I can’t decide if it is mainly cold or warm season things so not sure when to plant.
Planted the entire packet mid April, here in Arizona zone 10. All kinds of plants popped up, sunflower, radish, beets, greens, squash, tomatillo, the most beautiful amaranth, red and green. I just raked a bit of topsoil to loosen and hand broadcasted the seeds. Most of the greens bolted as expected, its already 102 degrees here. Justchecked my notes, this was the 2023 Fukuoka’s Grab bag.
I also dotted in more squash varieties and sorghum. The sorghum is producing seed heads now.
I akso put in some of the runner beans to climb up the young mesquite tree and the Bean mix in another location.
I too had to decide when to plant due to the wild mix of various seeds and missed last fall. I opted to plant when soil temps were 70 degrees and a warming trend for my area.
This fall I’ll plant the mix of 2024 seed to see what I get growing as soon as the temperature drops below 90 degrees.
My summer planting temperatures are too hot for most species unless already adapted to the heat.
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I had a third of my grow space set aside for this but a last minute surprise mailing from @DebbieA sent me down the Cushaw squash rabbit hole and I repurposed the space for Cucurbita argyrosperma to see if I can do seed expansion for a possible new GTS squash offering in future.
I do love the photos, keep them coming!
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Looks so lush and vibrant!
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Its mostly good eating. My harvest for meals today, turnips good with mashed potato, not my favorite but they grew well this year.
End of season chard, lots of leaf damage, still ok to chop and stir fry. Waiting for them to bolt so I can collect seeds.
I got this plant from the Grab Bag. I’m pretty sure it’s a watermelon (which I’ve never grown before) because of leaf shape and rapid fruit growth, but the fruit shape looks strange to me. Can anyone confirm whether it’s a watermelon or not?
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Definitely a watermelon. Some of the crook-necked melons may have made it into the grab bag. The shape also might be due to a pollination issue.
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Thanks! I don’t have any other watermelon flowering, so it must have self-pollinated, I wonder if that’s what did it then. I’ve now got a bunch of seedlings planted out from my grex to hopefully cross-pollinate with it.
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In spring’s soft whisper, dreams took root,
Two hundred squash seeds in eager pursuit.
But darkness crept with silent tread,
Squash bugs feasted, leaving dread.
From leaf to vine, they multiplied,
In every stage, they crept and spied.
A garden once so full of life,
Now teeming with this pestilence strife.
Hundreds crawled, a sight so bleak,
Despair etched in each critter’s streak.
Where green once thrived, now death’s domain,
A gardener’s heart weighed down with pain.
Yet in the midst of sorrow’s reign,
A glimmer sparked through loss and strain.
With tender hands, hope found its way,
Fukuoka seeds in earth to lay.
Fukuoka Grab Bag, a mix for hope,
Through soil and tears, a way to cope.
In barren ground, new dreams take flight,
For future blooms, for morning light.
So let the bugs now have their feast,
For in their wake, life’s not decreased.
New seeds shall sprout, new greens shall grow,
Through death and ruin, hope will flow.
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The entire bag was planted today for the fall garden, I am eager to see what takes root.
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Can I submit Wild Edibles Trees/shrubs seeds I foraged for?
Like Raspberries, Pines, Serviceberries, Rose, Kousa Dogwood, Maples, Sumac, Black Locust, Nannyberry, Persimmon, etc?
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Maybe there could be a “tree seed” Fukuoka grab bag? Maybe have to distinguish between cool and hot climates? Perhaps send off an email to Anna? I’d be happy to try and grow wild foraged tree seed, for hot climates…
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That’s interesting, I’d love to do something like that. I’ve seen no opposition in submitting tree seeds, so maybe we can just go ahead & submit. Ideally cool & hot climate tree seeds would be interesting but only if there’s enough interest I feel. Good Questions to ask tho.
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I think it would need to be a separate mix because many people would not be happy with tree seedlings popping up in their garden areas or near foundations.
The hot/cold separation is also good, it would be a lot of wasted seed (and/or time and energy) to send perennial seed somewhere it has no chance of surviving.
It may be worth separating between wet/dry climates too.
Because of those complications, I think the better option may be to just start a separate topic on trading tree/shrub seed.
If there is enough interest for specific species maybe those could eventually be added to the gts seed exchange mixes.
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I see, I hope we do get a chance to make something like this. Altho where would one scatter tree seeds as a Fukuoka Grab bag mix? I may be the crazy one but I separated basically every seed in my Fukuoka Grab bag mix into each separate species.
OOh Smart idea! I’ll Start one today! I’ll put in the Sharing seeds section.
OOh, I’d love that! There are so many species I’d love to have mixes of, would love to See GTS grow to encompass so many amazing breeding projects! I hope GTS brings back a Physalis mix.
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