On 6/10/2015 5:04 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
On 6/10/2015 1:34 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
T wrote:
On 06/09/2015 04:42 PM, David Hare-Scott wrote:
Terry Coombs wrote:
T wrote:
Hi All,

I planted zuke seeds in these cute little 3" peat moss
cups. Three per cup. Not all the cups have sprouted
(I know, PATIENCE!).

When I go to plant them in my garden, can I separate
the multiple sprouts from the same cups, or should
I just prune out the two small ones?

Many thanks,
-T

I like to leave the 2 strongest in each hill . You think zukes
take patience ? Try sprouting Anaheim peppers . My record is zero
sprouts for two years effort . Grrr . Which reminds me I need to
get the okra seedlings in the ground .

Unless your seed is old it is common to get very high germination
rates for curcubits so I wouldn't be putting more than one seed per
pot anyway. If you do, chop the weakest and don't disturb the
roots of the best, curcubits resent this and it will tend to set
them back. This is the reason that the traditional planting
advice is to sow directly. My system is to plant them in tubes,
the square-section plastic sort
that you buy tubestock in that are about 15cm (6") deep and 5cm
(2") across. These encourage the roots to go down not around and
you can get the whole plug out in one chunk at transplant time so
there is no transplant shock. These are much more effective than
shallow jiffy pots. If you want (say) 3 plants you can sow 5 or 6
and plant out only the best. This system costs almost nothing and
invariably produces strong seedlings that take off in the ground
quickly.

Thank you!

Toilet paper tubes work well too ...

Yup, took your advice on those last fall, also can include paper towel
rolls, neatly cut of course. They rotted out quicker than the peat
moss cups and just disappeared.

Hot as Hades outside now, having to water the raised beds daily.
Squash is dying out from the heat, green beans are blooming again,
crowder peas just started blooming, tomatoes are coming in ripe
heavily as are the eggplant and cukes. For some reason the sweet
chiles aren't doing well, haven't found out why yet as last year we
got tons of chiles.
George

I finally got off my butt and planted some more green onions today ... and
decided to go ahead and plant some herbs , a couple of hills of gourds ,
some habaneros and a row of red ripper peas and some whipoorwill peas .
Pretty late , but most of that seed came from the seed swap a couple of
weeks ago . The swap was supposed to be in Feb, got snowed/iced out .
This is my first attempt at growing dried peas/beans , we'll see how that
goes .

We've always let some beans/peas dry on the vine and kept them over for
seed for the next season. I pick some of the biggest and best to be seed
and mark them with twine or a piece of cloth just so I don't forget and
eat them.

Just got the power back on here after loosing it for about an hour. 96F
outside and it got up to 86F inside before the power came on again. I am
seriously thinking of installing a natural gas generator since we have
so many outages here. There are at least a thousand more homes being
built within a square mile of us and outages can only get worse.

George Shirley wrote:
On 6/10/2015 5:04 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
On 6/10/2015 1:34 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
T wrote:
On 06/09/2015 04:42 PM, David Hare-Scott wrote:
Terry Coombs wrote:
T wrote:
Hi All,

I planted zuke seeds in these cute little 3" peat moss
cups. Three per cup. Not all the cups have sprouted
(I know, PATIENCE!).

When I go to plant them in my garden, can I separate
the multiple sprouts from the same cups, or should
I just prune out the two small ones?

Many thanks,
-T

I like to leave the 2 strongest in each hill . You think
zukes take patience ? Try sprouting Anaheim peppers . My record
is zero sprouts for two years effort . Grrr . Which reminds me
I need to get the okra seedlings in the ground .

Unless your seed is old it is common to get very high germination
rates for curcubits so I wouldn't be putting more than one seed
per pot anyway. If you do, chop the weakest and don't disturb
the roots of the best, curcubits resent this and it will tend to
set them back. This is the reason that the traditional planting
advice is to sow directly. My system is to plant them in tubes,
the square-section plastic sort
that you buy tubestock in that are about 15cm (6") deep and 5cm
(2") across. These encourage the roots to go down not around and
you can get the whole plug out in one chunk at transplant time so
there is no transplant shock. These are much more effective than
shallow jiffy pots. If you want (say) 3 plants you can sow 5 or
6 and plant out only the best. This system costs almost nothing
and invariably produces strong seedlings that take off in the
ground quickly.

Thank you!

Toilet paper tubes work well too ...

Yup, took your advice on those last fall, also can include paper
towel rolls, neatly cut of course. They rotted out quicker than the
peat moss cups and just disappeared.

Hot as Hades outside now, having to water the raised beds daily.
Squash is dying out from the heat, green beans are blooming again,
crowder peas just started blooming, tomatoes are coming in ripe
heavily as are the eggplant and cukes. For some reason the sweet
chiles aren't doing well, haven't found out why yet as last year we
got tons of chiles.
George

I finally got off my butt and planted some more green onions
today ... and decided to go ahead and plant some herbs , a couple of
hills of gourds , some habaneros and a row of red ripper peas and
some whipoorwill peas . Pretty late , but most of that seed came
from the seed swap a couple of weeks ago . The swap was supposed to
be in Feb, got snowed/iced out . This is my first attempt at
growing dried peas/beans , we'll see how that goes .

We've always let some beans/peas dry on the vine and kept them over
for seed for the next season. I pick some of the biggest and best to
be seed and mark them with twine or a piece of cloth just so I don't
forget and eat them.

Just got the power back on here after loosing it for about an hour.
96F outside and it got up to 86F inside before the power came on
again. I am seriously thinking of installing a natural gas generator
since we have so many outages here. There are at least a thousand
more homes being built within a square mile of us and outages can
only get worse.

That's why there's a 5500 watt genset set up out in my machine shop . We
don't often get power outages , but when we do they can last for days - if a
tree falls on a line out here in the woods , they often have to bring in
specialized equipment to even get to it .

I kept seed from last year's spinach , bok choy , romaine lettuce , cukes
, some tomatoes , acorn squashes , etc . I have found saved seed has a MUCH
better germination rate than bought seed . Another big plus is that you know
exactly what the seed came from ... last year I planted "beefsteak" and
"Rutgers" tomato seeds from WM . What I got was some mutt slicers and a LOT
of cherry toms .
I'm heavily invested into saved seed , all heirlooms , and plan to be
present again next year at the Ozark Seed Swap .
I been schooled now , and have discovered that black eyed peas are
probably the least desirable of the cowpea/crowder pea types . we are going
to eat well this coming year , assuming things continue to go as well as
they have started .
--
Snag

On 06/10/2015 07:51 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
I kept seed from last year's spinach

Hi Terry,

Is it the crinkly heirloom stuff or the flat commercial stuff?

And, if the heirloom stuff, does it taste any better than
the commercial stuff?

Inquiring minds want to know!

-T

T wrote:
On 06/10/2015 07:51 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
I kept seed from last year's spinach

Hi Terry,

Is it the crinkly heirloom stuff or the flat commercial stuff?

And, if the heirloom stuff, does it taste any better than
the commercial stuff?

Inquiring minds want to know!

-T

It's the crinkly heirloom , and I don't know how it compares . We don't buy
spinach and I only eat it raw in salads . Just based on everything else
commercially grown , I'd have to say it tastes better ...
FWIW , I only grow heirlooms , and from now on I think pretty much
everything in my garden will come from seed either saved or swapped .
--
Snag

On 6/10/2015 9:51 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
On 6/10/2015 5:04 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
On 6/10/2015 1:34 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
T wrote:
On 06/09/2015 04:42 PM, David Hare-Scott wrote:
Terry Coombs wrote:
T wrote:
Hi All,

I planted zuke seeds in these cute little 3" peat moss
cups. Three per cup. Not all the cups have sprouted
(I know, PATIENCE!).

When I go to plant them in my garden, can I separate
the multiple sprouts from the same cups, or should
I just prune out the two small ones?

Many thanks,
-T

I like to leave the 2 strongest in each hill . You think
zukes take patience ? Try sprouting Anaheim peppers . My record
is zero sprouts for two years effort . Grrr . Which reminds me
I need to get the okra seedlings in the ground .

Unless your seed is old it is common to get very high germination
rates for curcubits so I wouldn't be putting more than one seed
per pot anyway. If you do, chop the weakest and don't disturb
the roots of the best, curcubits resent this and it will tend to
set them back. This is the reason that the traditional planting
advice is to sow directly. My system is to plant them in tubes,
the square-section plastic sort
that you buy tubestock in that are about 15cm (6") deep and 5cm
(2") across. These encourage the roots to go down not around and
you can get the whole plug out in one chunk at transplant time so
there is no transplant shock. These are much more effective than
shallow jiffy pots. If you want (say) 3 plants you can sow 5 or
6 and plant out only the best. This system costs almost nothing
and invariably produces strong seedlings that take off in the
ground quickly.

Thank you!

Toilet paper tubes work well too ...

Yup, took your advice on those last fall, also can include paper
towel rolls, neatly cut of course. They rotted out quicker than the
peat moss cups and just disappeared.

Hot as Hades outside now, having to water the raised beds daily.
Squash is dying out from the heat, green beans are blooming again,
crowder peas just started blooming, tomatoes are coming in ripe
heavily as are the eggplant and cukes. For some reason the sweet
chiles aren't doing well, haven't found out why yet as last year we
got tons of chiles.
George

I finally got off my butt and planted some more green onions
today ... and decided to go ahead and plant some herbs , a couple of
hills of gourds , some habaneros and a row of red ripper peas and
some whipoorwill peas . Pretty late , but most of that seed came
from the seed swap a couple of weeks ago . The swap was supposed to
be in Feb, got snowed/iced out . This is my first attempt at
growing dried peas/beans , we'll see how that goes .

We've always let some beans/peas dry on the vine and kept them over
for seed for the next season. I pick some of the biggest and best to
be seed and mark them with twine or a piece of cloth just so I don't
forget and eat them.

Just got the power back on here after loosing it for about an hour.
96F outside and it got up to 86F inside before the power came on
again. I am seriously thinking of installing a natural gas generator
since we have so many outages here. There are at least a thousand
more homes being built within a square mile of us and outages can
only get worse.

That's why there's a 5500 watt genset set up out in my machine shop . We
don't often get power outages , but when we do they can last for days - if a
tree falls on a line out here in the woods , they often have to bring in
specialized equipment to even get to it .

I kept seed from last year's spinach , bok choy , romaine lettuce , cukes
, some tomatoes , acorn squashes , etc . I have found saved seed has a MUCH
better germination rate than bought seed . Another big plus is that you know
exactly what the seed came from ... last year I planted "beefsteak" and
"Rutgers" tomato seeds from WM . What I got was some mutt slicers and a LOT
of cherry toms .
I'm heavily invested into saved seed , all heirlooms , and plan to be
present again next year at the Ozark Seed Swap .
I been schooled now , and have discovered that black eyed peas are
probably the least desirable of the cowpea/crowder pea types . we are going
to eat well this coming year , assuming things continue to go as well as
they have started .

We grow heirloom brown crowder peas and I am looking for black crowder
peas to plant. My family grew black crowders for over a hundred years
but after my Dad died my Mom tossed out the saved seed as she didn't
intend to garden anymore.

I've found that tomato plants bought at big box stores, even the fairly
decent "Bonnie" plants, are most often not what the card says. I'm in
the process of going back to starting my own seed. Slowly cleaning out
and reorganizing the garage and will set up my starter shelves again.
Like you I'm tired of getting "weed" plants that aren't what they were
supposed to be. Grow lights are much cheaper than they used to be.

I've always had good luck with off the shelf sugar snap peas for fall
planting, last year the seed bought at a big box store had very poor
germination and the few plants that did grow didn't produce very many
pea pods at all. Total loss of crop ensued. I've moved away from the big
box stores and back to mail order. Ordered spring seed from Territorial
Seeds and had 98% germination, actually had to pull some plants to make
room for the growth.

On Thu, 11 Jun 2015 09:26:26 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:



We grow heirloom brown crowder peas and I am looking for black crowder
peas to plant. My family grew black crowders for over a hundred years
but after my Dad died my Mom tossed out the saved seed as she didn't
intend to garden anymore.

Tried these guys? Have not gotten the BCPs, but they have been a
decent source in general over the years.

http://www.victoryseeds.com/peas_southern.html

On 6/11/2015 10:24 AM, Boron Elgar wrote:
On Thu, 11 Jun 2015 09:26:26 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:



We grow heirloom brown crowder peas and I am looking for black crowder
peas to plant. My family grew black crowders for over a hundred years
but after my Dad died my Mom tossed out the saved seed as she didn't
intend to garden anymore.

Tried these guys? Have not gotten the BCPs, but they have been a
decent source in general over the years.

http://www.victoryseeds.com/peas_southern.html

I have added them to my list of seed companies. Here's another that I've
been looking at, not cheap but have a goodly list of seeds.
http://sustainableseedco.com/

On Thu, 11 Jun 2015 11:42:46 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:

On 6/11/2015 10:24 AM, Boron Elgar wrote:
On Thu, 11 Jun 2015 09:26:26 -0500, George Shirley
wrote:



We grow heirloom brown crowder peas and I am looking for black crowder
peas to plant. My family grew black crowders for over a hundred years
but after my Dad died my Mom tossed out the saved seed as she didn't
intend to garden anymore.

Tried these guys? Have not gotten the BCPs, but they have been a
decent source in general over the years.

http://www.victoryseeds.com/peas_southern.html

I have added them to my list of seed companies. Here's another that I've
been looking at, not cheap but have a goodly list of seeds.
http://sustainableseedco.com/

Thanks!

Sustainable is great. I have ordered from them.

I tend to be a bit odd in my seed ordering and order a lot of
leftovers at the end of the season in fall, to be used in spring.

And I am an inveterate keeper of seeds.