Miscellaneus projects southern Finland 2026

JesseI · April 19, 2026, 11:52am

Started the season at the end of last month with sowing sweet potato seeds that I got from last year. I had saved some 120 seeds, but I had any hope for about half and was most optimistic about 20-30. I ended up getting 22 seedlings, which is not much, but at least it’s proof of concept. There was still huge variance in how many viable seeds each variety produced and the overall production relative to number of flowers was miniscule. That’s probably the first that I need to tackle, al though natural selection will favour that automatically. Although I didn’t get seeds from erato white, that has been the best producing variety, I did get seeds from erato purple. Erato purple itself has been poor at making tubers in the north, but so are all purples. It has grown quite vigourously which makes me think that there might be something if I get seedling that is other than purple fleshed.

I really sacrificed myself when filing the seeds to help the germination. I thought my fingers were just getting numb, but I had actually filed down my nail down to the flesh . Once I get more seeds the plan is to stop filing the seeds and let the natural selection do the job. If filing 120 made this, it would be quite hard to file thousands, which is my goal.

Germination was quite fast even if this time I didn’t use extra warming, but instead was testing a bit how more normal room temperature would affect the germination. It took a little longer, but still first were up in 3-4 days and rest in a week.

As the sweet potatoes didn’t fill the tray, I used the rest for direct sown tps micro tubers that I got from last year. All but one looked to be in good condition and all but one of those planted have emerged.

I’m growing some peppers and eggplant to transplants so I thought I would make little more hard selection. Plan is only to plant some 100 transplants out of all the seeds. I moved them to the balcony where I can give them some cold treatment and then select only the fastest to emerge. I’ll still do mostly direct sowing outdoors, but I wanted to keep hard selection even in transplant growings. I have saved so many seeds that there isn’t really no point of being frugal.

remobec · April 20, 2026, 6:50pm

Where did you get the seeds? I’m trying to grow some sweet potato from grocery store tubers. So far no luck, but I think perhaps it’s not warm enough yet.

Do you know if I’m likely to get viable seeds from this?

JesseI · April 21, 2026, 5:07pm

I grew them myself this year. I have grown many varieties that have flowered for years, but they haven’t produced. It was only after I got some seeds and from those I got some plants that flowered. After that also the other varieties I had made seeds so there must be something in those seed grown that made the others also produce seeds. Generally sweet potatoes need another variety to pollinate them, but also it needs to be the right variety. They have gotten really bad at making seeds. Some don’t even flower or make barely any flowers. So just one store bought variety is not going to make it. Better try to see if you can get someone there to send you seeds or varieties that make reliably seeds.

kelpy · April 22, 2026, 7:39am

Have you heard of the work theyre doing over at SLU (Swedish university of agricultural Sciences) on adapting sweet potato to northern climates? Theyre breeding them using a mix of gene editing and traditional selection in the field. They chose gene editing to make adaptation happen quicker, which is a shame i think

JesseI · April 22, 2026, 2:06pm

I have heard from a member here, but not more than what you said. I know there is some cold climate breeding in Ireland. One of the bigger sweet potato breeding companies is working there and they posted a picture of a trial few years ago, but haven’t heard of the results. They had big field planted with cuttings, no plastics/biofilms or cloth. Temperature averages there are fairly similar to here, just less variance between high and low and about month more of “decent” weather. The best varieties don’t seem like they are that far of being stable crop here so it doesn’t seem like an impossible project.

kelpy · April 22, 2026, 5:01pm

Oh wow, i didnt know about the work in Ireland, that does give some hope that a northern sweet potato is possible. If only it was easier to get true sweet potato seeds i think it would help adaptation projects. How did you manage to make yours flower and set seed? As i understand it, sweet potatoes dont normally give seeds.

JesseI · April 22, 2026, 5:35pm

Flowering seems little 50/50. Some varieites don’t flower at all, some can flower quite extensively and anything between. Problem is, like said before, that pollination for some reason isn’t so simple. As with flowering, some seem to have forgot how to get pollinated/pollinate. Not sure which way the problem is. I got seeds from @Tanjaeskildsen and some of the ones that started flowering early enough must have had something that made them possible to pollinate others as varieties that I have had flower for years suddenly made seeds. Now I hope that the ability has moved to the offspring so that I’d have more those that can pollinate. I lost the seed grown variety that was the first of those seed grown to flower, but as it was probably the pollinator of most seeds it has put it’s genes forward. I have another seed grown that wasn’t as fast to flower, but this year I’m more prepared so maybe that also can flower earlier. At least to have some more options depending how this years seed grown do the pollination. Last year I had only about 10 plants that flowered any significant amount. This year I have place for maybe 80 plants of which most will be flowering varieties or seed grown. So hopefully I can get the wheel turning. Still they didn’t make seeds very effectively so that would be the first selection along with generally flowering early. Not sure how I can fix the pollination as permanent trait, but I assume it will get more common as only those that have it can pollinate.

I do have extra cuttings if you want. Last time I sent it didn’t work out so I’d have to figure out better way. I’ve ordered them before so it it does work.

kelpy · April 23, 2026, 2:11pm

Is it that the plants are self incompatible or that some varieties just dont accept any pollination whatsoever?

Id love to receive some slips, if i can get permission to garden in a public park. Otherwise I’d have to guerrilla garden them, as I dont have any space for them at home. I could let you know if i manage to get any space and you still have the slips available by then

JesseI · April 24, 2026, 4:10pm

Yes…? Probably both. I really don’t know since even those that haven’t made seeds before last year seem to make pollen. What I don’t know if the pollen is infertile or if it’s compability issues or both. Would think that there must be something in the pollen since it all fixed so easily with right variety. Even still only well less than 10% of flowers that were open after those seed grown started making flowers actually made seeds so there seems to be something else also. I did actively pollinate them with those that came from seeds, but maybe there wasn’t enough pollen to go around. We’ll this year if it starts to improve. Then I might be able to scale up to thousands of seeds next year and start proper selection.

It doesn’t work so easily. I tried it before and it failed. Only way would be start them now so that they are fully rooted before posting them and can dry up a little. They would need better space and probably covering to extend the flowering/ripening of seeds. Might be just as well if I send you tubers next year if you have the space for it. It could include then also tubers from those grown from seed this year that flowered/produced seeds.

Have you tried to find community gardens where it would be possible to rent piece of land for the summer? At least over here those are everywhere in bigger and even some smaller cities.

kelpy · April 25, 2026, 1:30pm

Oh Yeah you’re right, by then ill hopefully have more space to grow things on, and hopefully ill have some diverse pepino seeds to offer you in return

Yes but unfortunately the demand for Gardens is higher than what there is available, so to get a community lot you have to put yourself on a waiting list which might take several years before you get a lot. Its a pretty annoying system. I might just find some unused city area and claim it for myself lol, guerrilla gardening style

JesseI · April 25, 2026, 4:25pm

Yes, I have heard about the same problem in Helsinki too. Maybe you could go directly to city council etc to ask for a permission if you have found a suitable spot to turn it to community garden. Or find out who owns plots, if they are little further away and are owned by private individual. Might be more sustainable solution in the long run and I would say growing conditions also turn more favourable if you have it in the long term rather than have the change of being told to leave before you got it even going.

JesseI · April 28, 2026, 2:21pm

Fastest patches had the first emerging just after a week and I moved them to trays few days later. Now also the last patches have at least something up. Took a little over 2 weeks for them, which is not unusual considering that they only had warmer temperatures in the afternoon depending depending how much sun shined. Might have been briefly 30C, but then went fast down in the early evening. I had heater on just in case for sweet potatoes if it seemed it might go closer to 10C or under, but only kept around 18-20C. I didn’t have it on/ turned it off if remained at least 12C so every day they have had long periods of 12-15C, which seemed like it had wanted effect. Only eggplants would have had plenty more emerging fast after the first to emerge. Peppers have had only few to cull after had wanted amount. Or less since some could have had more, but better this way.

There was quite a big difference in how fast which patch had first to emerge. It seems that those that came from direct sown were the slowest. There was similar difference also last year when I direct sowed from those that came from those direct sown in 2024 versus those that came from transplants 2023. I’m thinking reason might not be that they are worse adapted to cold, but that they had such bad time to ripen fruits. My theory is that the shock from cold weather made them to hurry up making the seeds ready and so the seeds might have lacked early vigour. Last year those did catch up and weren’t really more behind by the time they started flowering. So it might be just good natural selection. Those that can make the seeds most vigourous in the cool late season are likely better in other ways also. Eggplants don’t seem to have this “problem”, but they seem to make the seeds ready faster as it is.

This was interesting case. First of the 25%praetermissum/75%baccatum F2 was up same time as eggplants and way earlier than the next. Must have sown over 100 seeds there and selected the 5 fastest. This one must have been 3 days earlier than the others and who knowns how long it would have taken the rest to come up. Will be following closely how it develops.

Eggplants needed culling 2 times a day. The seedlings started to come so fast day after the first were up, that it would have been hard to distinguish which were fastest. Saved 11 of the fastest. Hopefully that 1-2 day advantage turns to many more over the whole growing season.

Tomatoes I would have prefered to direct sow, but there were some special cases that needed using transplanting. Mostly because these are crosses the are futher along and I didn’t want to mix them with random volunteers. Also last year taught me that habrochaites F2 crosses mainly go back to F1 and so besides selecting the fastest, I will also select from those the most domestic looking. Hopefully I can get a lot more of those than last year. Thera are also some half wilds/wild crosses that I got from @stephane_rave . Tomatoes don’t get extra warmth except those from @stephane_rave . Otherwise they can be in my classed balcony. Cooler period came just in the right time for harder selection. At night/morning it has been extented periods 10C or little under and during afternoon got up barely to round 20C briefly. Their first week looks like that and in a few days it will get warm again.

Also bought some varieties of ground cherries in p.grisea to add to my mix and p.virginiana to test for crossability. From last year I started around 30 seeds from 3 lobed fruit to make a grow-out to finally see if the trait is inherited. Maybe only have to wait until june when they flower as it should also show in the number of petals, similarly as in tomatoes.

JesseI · May 24, 2026, 4:38pm

Some of the tomatoes now month from sowing. Back is 4 species cross (50%domestic/25%habrochaites/12,5%cheesmaniea/12,5%pimpinellifolium) and front are half habrochaites F2s from last years 2 best plants.

Few days ago potted the domestic looking plants from half habrochaites F1s. At the time the habrochaites traits were just becoming more visible, but I wasn’t quite sure if I could pick all so I just left them and added some soil. Now few days later and it looks like there aren’t any domestic types. I might still plant out the whole trays just to see what grows out of them. This time the ratio between domestic and habrochaites types was about 50/50 which is quite different from last year, even if I assume that some of the ones I atributed to volunteers as “too domestic” were actually not domestic volunteers. The habrochaites types probably are just stronger and thus stood out. Hopefully some of that has also made it to the domestic types. Interesting to see what they actually produce and if there are many of those that have fairly domestic fruits.

JesseI · May 24, 2026, 5:16pm

Sowed sweetcorn 12-13.5 and yesterday the first that had emerged. Biggest must have been quite fast to germinate as the temperatures weren’t that warm. Way ahead of the others, but whether it’s genetic or luck (for example being sown closer to the surface and warmth) remains to be seen. Yet not many that are poking to the surface so can’t say if it’s better success with germination as last year.

Sweetcorn I have separately yukon chief crosses and other little longer season types. I sowed some with a lot of extra and some with little less extra, favouring in surface area those that produced the best. Interestingly I noticed while looking at the notes when selecting which to so how much, that the best producers in weight were all those that didn’t have any tillers and those that produced less (but still sufficiently) had all tillers. It was so clear cut difference, that it’s definetely worth keeping track of.

Sowing squash mid may is a little risky here, but I decided to take a calculated risk as the forecast sowed good weather for the next 10 days and only risk would be sudden change at the turn of the month. Frosts that late are fairly rare so I calculated that the risk is quite small. Next week looks quite cold, but at the moment frosts don’t look likely. Not that any are up yet, but I’d expect some any day now. Just in time for the coolest weather. This year no black mulch or cloth for maximas, sweetcorn and half of the moschatas. Maximas and sweetcorn it isn’t maybe that necessary, but moschatas are breaking new ground. I sowed half of the bare ground row from last years best plant that made female flowers early and thus would have time to ripen. Other row covered with black mulch in an effert to speed up the growth and hopefully get some male flowers at the same time as those with fast femaly flowering, if they have the trait this year also.

Corn and squash are in every other row and later I’ll so favas in the middle of each row to test my own version of tree sisters that would be better suited to our climate. I can also patch with favas if there is poor germination. I have always had hard time finding space for beans and peas so this would a way to incorporate them to a large area.

Maximas.

Moschatas.

JesseI · July 2, 2026, 11:14am

Sweetcorn didn’t start well. First there was some inconsistent germination from last years seeds. probably the seeds weren’t developed and didn’t have the full vigour. Later also they started to suffer from a problem I have had before, but never this bad. My theory is that it has something to do with the dry weather, possibly unable to get some nutrients (which might be in short supply in the first place) because of the drought. Resowed with yukon chief crosses and painted mountain x atomic orange grain corn (which I will detassel) because those would be only ones that had change to make cobs early. Pregerminated them to make sure, but from yukon chief crosses not all came up despite being germinated. Probably because those were from late crop and also had problems with vigour. Also both of those had some of the same problem as in the picture, but not as much. Possibly because it started to rain? Still a little patchy with corn, but those are interplanted with bush beans, favas and squash so should be full of something anyway. There were still few plants that seemed unaffected so maybe there is something to deal with this problem aswell. Sorghum on the right of the second picture doing a lot better. Despite being close relative, no signs of the same problem.

Moschatas with black mulch are starting to vine so not too long till flowering. Still have about twice the final amount in squash to be able to make some late selection based on earliness of flowering.

Without the black mulch still doing really well, about 4-5 days behind to those with. Even without they are really early. Partially because of the early sowing and partially because june was slightly warmer than average, preceded by significantly warmer than average may. Still they wouldn’t grow that fast without having some adaptability to local conditions. Looks like both will have females early, especially if they have early female trait like some last year. Question is do I have also males early this year?

Also maximas are starting to vine. It’s not surprising for them, but still they have had to go through some dry conditions with very little help.

Sweet potatoes are doing really well despite having problems keeping the plastic tightly on top and thus it being little ventilated there. Especially the side of the second picture is growing well. Those on the right bed are from erato purple seeds and they have been considerebly faster than any other grown from seed. Erato purple was vigourous, but as it is case with purple rooted, didn’t produce much. It might be as simple as some of them having other than purple flesh and I already have good base to work with.

Those pictures were taken few days apart. In the first I barely could barely lay newspapers before the mulching at the other end. Few days later it was all grown over. Now I could barely lay the newspaper and mulch on the sides. Onions on the sides are still several weeks away and so I can lay the cloth only until them. Gonna be tight under the cloth before I can harvest the onions.

Eggplants before transplanting. Actually they grew little better than I estimated and so are little bigger than I hoped.

Eggplants transplanted and other transplants put back under the cloth before transplanting.

Peppers after transplanting.

June was maybe little cooler than eggplants hoped for. Growth was quite slow at first, firstly because of transplant shock and later rainy and cool weather. Most started to recuperate towards end of the month and are now in full swing. Half of the normal eggplants haven’t still recuperated and are trying to flower despite clearly not being proberly rooted. So I will remove flowers of them new few weeks and they will be just for eating. I suppose it’s good that there are so clear differences, but before making bigger trials I need to find perfect sized trays/pots. These were little hard for getting transplants off without breaking the roots so it might be that differences are due to different amount of root damage.

Peppers also had slower start, but started to grow later last month. Some doing better than others.

JesseI · July 5, 2026, 10:02am

Trying out jute string to support my tomatoes. Trying to decrease the use of plastics, but also because I don’t have to removo other than wooden boards at the end of the season, which reduces couple of hours of work. Not sure how well it holds, but I generally don’t have a lot of weight on the supports. They mainly are on their own main stem or leaning to others and I only need to keep them from coming to the pathway.

These are mainly 50/50 habro/lyco and 50lyco/25habro/12,5chees/12,5pimp from transplant. They are growing well, but there is quite a difference in terms of flowering. First had flowers 2 weeks ago and have now first fruits and several trusses of flowers where as some only are starting to flower. It seems that some are clearly taking after habro. Mainly in those that are 50%, but also some that are 25%. There are still quite a few of those that have desired traits (for this stage).

Interestingly some of the 50% habros do resemble those that I got last years direct sowing and wasn’t sure if they could be random volunteers. So it seems that there are those that already look fairly domestic even in F2 generation, but numbers are quite small overall. I must have had close to 100 plants in the germination boxes, from which I chose little over 30 most domestic looking and got maybe 10ish plants that seem like they are worth saving from.

One that I damaged while setting up support and other that I scraped earlier with a hoe while weeding. Luckily nothing too important.

One of the better F3 plants from last years direct sowing of 50%habro F2s

JesseI · July 12, 2026, 3:06pm

Clearly visible female flowers on first of the moscahtas with black plastic. There were 2 with the trait from mix with total of over 20 plants. About half are on bare ground so maybe I missed some, but doesn’t look like any will have that. On the other hand I have 5 plants that are from one that had the early female flowering trait and 2 of those have early flowering trait. So it seems like it is strongly inherited. I don’t know/remember which pollinated which, but probably worth at some point selfing/crossing with others with the trait when there are enough of them and when I also have early males from same plants. Still don’t know if any males will be as fast as females.

Moscahtas on the right with the black plastic and in the middle. Maximas on the left side row with squash.