Started 2025 season by sowing c.praetermissum x c.capsicum F2s and it’s backcrosses (25% c.praetermissum/ 75% c.baccatum) on 18-19.3. I started a bit earlier than in the years past as both c.praetermissum and .cpraetermissum x c.baccutum F1 had had bad germination. However, it seems like that’s not a problem with this generation. At least there are enough of those that have germinated within normal timeframe (8days for the first). I did sow hundreds of seeds, but only will keep maybe a hundred at most so there will be some culling early on to eliminate that slow germination once and for all. Otherwise I’m not planning to do that much selection, but instead make cross pollination by hand between them and direct sown baccatums to increase genetic variability. Possibly some separation based on fruit size and preferential sowing from bigger fruits the next year and eliminating those that have reverted to fully c.praetermissum sized fruits (maybe more in F2s with 50% praetermissum). Have to see what I get. Backcrosses have so much variability that it’s completely open what they will produce. Then after this season they will get hard schooled, given that there isn’t too much work to be done with the fruit size.
Same morning I didn’t see anything, but afternoon they were already visible and the next day with cotyledons open. Now a day later there are dozens and it’s soon time to cull all that come after.
Thanks. I have a stupid question. I am a beginner at landrace. So, how do I start doing this. What do I combine? The seeds? The stems? The roots? All of the above? Thanks. Daniel Weinberg. gardener in Chicago, IL usa.
Got some seeds from @ThomasPicard and @Tanjaeskildsen to start new projects. From Thomas kiwano, luffas and litchi tomato (s.sisymbriifolium). Kiwanos I’ll direct sow all and see how possible it is to direct sow them here. If it fails, then I’ll more information next year.
Litchi tomatoes I got 5 distinct strains so I’ll grow transplant to make certain F1 crosses to speed up the hybridization and diversification. They took a little more to germinate than I expected, more like chilies than tomatoes or eggplants. Not long, but it’s still interesting whether it’s because of germination temperature or is it that they are still quite wild and for wilds fast germination isn’t always the best trait. Several of the traits have already germinated and I expect that all will do so sooner or later.
Luffas I started transplants, but also direct sow just as test to see how much they need to improve. They will get clear plastic tunnel and black mulch, but still it’s going to be difficult for them (unless summer is extra warm). Usually it’s recommended to start them already during winter here, but I don’t think that’s not necessary even in general if they have good conditions. One of the varieties have really started fast and it looks like it might be even a bit early if it continues like that. Not sure if there is some indication that they would be more cold tolerant as they germinated fast even in quite mild temperature.
First of Tanjas sweet potato seeds took less than 24h to germinate. I nicked the seeds a little, soaked in water for some hours and put them in germination box in a warm place. I didn’t really expect them to have germinated when I checked on them this morning, but couple of them had clear roots which had in couple hours grown to almost a 1cm so I potted them. Seem like I have to keep a close eye on rest of them. Seeds took a bit longer to arrive for many reasons and yesterday I was dreading that what if they take long to germinate so that it would not make it worth trying this year, but it looks like it doesn’t come to that. Summer might still make it hard to get tubers to keep them alive for next year, but that I can’t do anything about. Not even dreaming about seeds, but interesting to see if they flower like mother variety.
Hope you get seeds! One of my seedlings that I started a month or so ago is starting to flower already. I don’t know what’s up with that😂
I have managed to keep cuttings alive in a window over winter, so that’s always an option, but an annoying one.
Yeah, better have low hopes so any success is greater . Sweet potatoes do seem to quite possible to induce to flower if they just have the flowering trait. I have had some slips flower fairly early with just little stress with heat and irregular watering in a small pot, but only varieties that flower otherwise.
Tell me about it. Just have kept alive basils from cuttings that I took last september. Constantly forgot about them during the winter, but didn’t quite kill them. It’s certainly one option with the ones that don’t make good tubers, but we’ll cross that brigde once we get there.
10 sweet potato seeds out of 13 eventually made seedlings. Even one that had cotyleon leaf stems glued together pushed growth point through and is only a little behind. At the time of the picture they were just over 3 weeks old and I was expecting that I would grow them in the pots a bit longer, but since they were so fast to germinate they had grown enough to be planted with the others a few days ago. Everything looks good so far. Tunnel is keeping them warm even now when it isn’t really sweet potato weather.
Some of the best varieties I have also without the plastic tunnel like years past, but with the difference that most I planted directly from rooted slips. Wanted to see how that works and compares to using transplants. At least it was way easier to care and plant them. Some wilting after planting, but seems like they recovered quite fast with the help of two layers of cloth.
It’s said here that you should start luffas during winter, but even these that I started late april were getting too big for my liking a few days ago and I was kinda forced to plant them. Originally I thought I would have a plastic tunnel for them, but they were too big for me to strech the plastic on top of them. So they will have to do with cloth. So far they look good even if weather isn’t that warm. Same day I also direct sowed about same area. They will have plastic on as long as I can keep it on.
Direct sown luffas emerged a couple days ago.Didn’t take them long under the plastic. They have now plastic tunnel and cloth over them. Also the transplants got plastic over them. They were looking like it was little cold for them, even though they still looked like they had grown. They can have it on as long as it’s possible to keep it or it warms up more long term.
Some of the direct sown basil had emerged. It seems that this year also it’s fairly sporadic emergence even if it’s not as bad as last year. I’m not sure if they would need to be closer to surface to germinate. There are still enough of them. Maybe it’s some selection pressure at work.
I have one around 2 meter bed that is half seeds from last years direct sown and half is mix of whatever made seeds last year. Another similar piece of bed is from 2023 seeds sown separately in lines. Idea was to see if I can pick out the crosses, but right now it seems like there is room for most to grow. I still keep an eye out for possible crosses.
Squashes (mostly moschata) and sweetcorn. Sweetcorn seem to be a failure here too. Seeds that I got from last years survival plot failed almost completely. Last count was 8 plants out of hundrds of seeds. Some have just emerged so there might be more to come, but some others are already a lot futher along so something did not work. Also some seeds from years past (that have worked) had bad germination. Good news is that assumed sweet kernels from grain corn had 80-90% germination. My plan was to detassel them to just have backcrosses, but that might not be possible now. I did sow some yukon chief to fill in gaps, but have to see how they work first. I had left some spots for them to sow around this time because they are so fast that I need to give others couple of weeks headstart to have them tasseling about same time.
Squash worked well. Only one beds seems to have high failure rate. That bed looked quite wet so it might be wet and cool ground that affected sweetcorn aswell. Did some early culling of squash and will do a proper culling in a week or so once the weather settles a bit and the growth really kicks in.
Ground cherries are still so small that it was hard even to do weeding. I just took of the biggest to give these a better change to grow. They should outgrow weeds in no time.
Time for little weeding and thinng for ground cherries aswell. Fairly good growth dispite unfavourable conditions, but not quite going to start flowering this month. It’s gonna be close though. With more space to grow and better weather expected they should really explode into growth now.
Couple days ago after 30mm rain. There has been even more after that, but looks like it will dry and warm up a bit this coming week. Collected some of the water to barrels and used it to water sweet potatoes which shouldn’t mind a little wetter ground for now. It looks like we got some 30mm more during yesterday and last night so I might have to start using it to water adjacent plot, which doesn’t need watering, but is generally drier and should absorb the water more easily. At least the wettest spot is where squash and corn are which should use quite a bit of the water once it warms up a bit.
Another 30mm of rain to total of 70mm for the week. Luckily I could open the other side of the plot to let water that came from outside of the plot to flow through, but that still leaves the water that fell to the plot. I have tried to plan the plot so that water doesn’t flow more than few meters. If it’s wet, it’s equally wet to better absorb it. I only had forgotten to take proper preventive measures to deal with the water that comes down the hill. I’ll remember the next year. Luckily it is supposed to rain less (maybe some 10mm over the weekend), and more importantly, get warmer. Last week it’s been 18C/65F at most when it’s not raining and well under 15C/59F when it’s raining/cloudy, which was about half the time. Now it looks like highs are at lowest 17C/63F and often getting around 20C/68F. No hot days in forecast yet, but getting over 20C/68F is plenty nice enough.
This is the part where it overflowed to the plot, but it also can be drained quite well. I’d expect it to be 10cm lower today. I’m not sure if the tilt allows more to flow off, but at least then I can properly plug where it overflowed so that it doesn’t get any more than what falls to the spot.
while in central France we spend our time fetching water and watering… you’re trying to drain it away!
The distribution of resources is so bad in Europe…
Think of creating a rice landrace for 2026
I suppose weather here has always been very variable, but it’s propable that warmer summers make it feel even more. Only remember droughts and floods from the past several years. Luckily it’s only half of the record amount. After draining excess that came from ouside of the plot, there isn’t that much extra. Should dry in couple of days. Squash and corn look great and and are starting to be that size that they already consume quite a bit of water.
There are some areas on the coast where it does seem like they should grow rice instead of potatoes. Low lying areas that in many parts mast be bog turned into farmland with very little forest sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Found 3 volunteer potato seedlings while cleaning tomatoes. One of them I culled as a weak tomato before I noticed. Replanted it to other spot. I wonder how many I have culled/weeded off. Not that it matters that much. I don’t even know what seeds they are from. If I see them I try to keep them. Changes are that they come from something that makes fruits well. Two of these had grown quite a lot in little over a month of cool conditions that they have had to grow. One in the bottom picture looks like it doesn’t have a growing tip. Have to wait and see.
Just when it was starting to dry (only occasional little shower) it rained 40mm in few days. This time this part of flooding was preventable. Cloth went over the walkway and it must have been blocked. Again had to let it drain as much as it could and then gather rest of the water. Used it to water sweet potatoes and onions on the other plot that is not soeked yet. Other rows on this plot have also quite a bit of water, but also growth is starting to pick up. Biggest squash are just about to start to vine. Now it looks like weather is turning warmer, although with possibility of thunderstorms. If it doesn’t rain that much in the coming week, plants should use so much that it doesn’t flood as easily anymore.
Next year I have to go back to design I had after previous years when it flooded. Alas, the subsequent years were so dry that I forgot the necessity of it.
. Sweet potatoes do seem to quite possible to induce to flower if they just have the flowering trait. I have had some slips flower fairly early with just little stress with heat and irregular watering in a small pot, but only varieties that flower otherwise.
