Weed'em & Reap, Weed'em & Reap

Posted Tuesday, May 10, 2011, at 7:24 AM

Coming up this Friday at the New Century Chinese Restaurant in Shelbyville. WE start at 7:00.

We had a request to discuss saving tomato seeds so that will be open for discussion. We have read about fermenting the seed and that seems a little intimidating so, does anyone else have a successful method they want to share?

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I was given 4 Egyptian Onions last year. Now I have 4 times that many. They are also called walking onions. Fascinating, exotic looking and extremely hardy.The stem grows up to 3 feet all and tiny onions form at the tip. The stem then bows over to the ground where bulblets take root to repeat the process. The bulblets are very tasty. Just wondering if you have ever seen any of these. If not, I'll be glad to send a picture.

-- Posted by cherokee2 on Fri, May 13, 2011, at 1:48 PM

As for the fermenting tomato seed, I did it last year. Very easy to do. I bought no tomato seed this year. Grew mine in my computer room with containers and grow light.

-- Posted by cherokee2 on Fri, May 13, 2011, at 1:51 PM

I thought I had walking onions one year, but the seed must have been swapped. Send us a picture cherokee2.

Some of our folks were expecting you last night. Not sure what they read that made them think that must we were all watching any new faces to see.

After all the discussion of seeds last night, we developed a concept that I am sure has been developed past what we are thinking, but we are not immediately aware of such.

We noted how strong "volunteers" coming up the next season are compared to our newly planted seeds. Has anyone else noticed that?

We were hypothesizing that this could be the result of several factors.

1. The seed was generated by a plant living in OUR soil and OUR environment.

2. It went through Nature's selection process by overwintering in the garden and therefore the hardiest of seeds.

3. It germinates the next season when Nature says to germinate

4. Even more natural "weeding out" of the weaker plants not able to take the swings in weather for that environment and the resulting plants have been hardened off naturally

Any other ideas why "volunteer" plants seem hardier than others?

This does not always apply to hybrids. The resulting seed might not come back true to form (probably won't) and that variety may not be good in your garden at all.

Has anyone noticed if seed they extract from a plant grown in their garden comes back stronger than the original? Is it weaker, or about the same?

Most of my tomatoes from seed packet or store bought plants do not do that well in my gardens. Certainly not like I remember in my parents garden. I can not remember if Dad saved seeds.

I want to explore this in its' own post, so don't be surprised to see this first statement show up in a few minutes.

-- Posted by stevemills on Sat, May 14, 2011, at 8:08 AM

Bedford Ramblings

Steve Mills

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Steve Mills and his wife have one daughter and live on a farm outside of Bell Buckle. They previously owned two coffee/ice cream shops, currently operate an internet sales company and teach classes, but his primary job involves the paper industry worldwide. Hobbies and interests lie in gardening, photography, recorded music and of course, their pets.

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