Below is a list of my current vegetable hacks and a brief description. Full details on each project can be found scattered throughout my posts, or compiled on their own page at the end of the season.
To understand more about what motivates me in the garden, feel free to browse my Gardening Manifesto thingy.
Recently Updated:
8.3.17 - Minima maxima squash project
8.1.17 - Misty Mountain corn project
INDEX:
Cross breeding Projects
- "Misty Mountain" flour/andean Corn
- "Minima" maxima Squash
- Heat tolerant bush Cucumber (not yet added)
- Melon Madness - mass cross (not yet added)
- Purple Peacock Pole Bean (not yet added)
- Backwards Buttercup Squash (not yet added)
- Micro Fort Bush Bean (not yet added)
- Micro Mother Bush Bean (not yet added)
- "Olsen" Cucumber (not yet added)
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"MISTY MOUNTAIN"
Corn - Zea mays
Primary Varieties:
Painted Mountain X K'uyu Chuspi
Secondary Varieties:
White Nighting
Primary Goal:
A unique, non-daylength sensitive, hardy Andean style flour corn
Secondary Goals:
Kernels that grind easily with basic household equipment, such as a coffee grinder. Strong, medium height stalks. Multiple cobs per stalk. Visually pleasing stalks and ears. Tolerance to cooler, damp conditions (cannot be tested in my climate) and/or tolerance to arid, hot conditions.
Project Status:
(8/1/2017)
Silks drying on Painted mothers with K'uyu pollen. K'uyu cobs growing but silks not yet emerged. Some K'uyu still to tassel - all still to silk. Single strong Nighting plant has tasseled and was allowed to freely contaminate a few of the Painted x K'uyu cobs.
Further Notes:
While Nighting is a dent corn, it's a formidably stalked monster that sets three big ears per stalk. The goal is to allow minor contaminate of the F1 swarm. K'uyu gets tall but the stalks are flimsy. Painted remains short (so has no issues with lodging) but is also thin stalked. Painted also sets a highly variable amount of ears per stalk, some plants tillering and others not. K'uyu has shown no tillering, nor inclination to produce more than one ear per stalk. Some Nighting DNA worked into the gene pool will hopefully help unite these two disparate varieties: increasing the chances of sturdier stalks and multiple ears. Flintier kernels will be culled in future generations, but allowed in the F1.
Painted has a very diverse gene pool and several of the mothers in this batch are undeniably rogues, even for Painted. Ear tassels, extreme tillers, dwarf plants, etc. These have not be culled, as an extremely diverse F1 is the goal. A second round of Painted was seeded early July to provide pollen for any late silking K'uyu, which has a high tendency towards dyssynchronous tasseling/silking).
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"Minima"
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"Minima"
Squash - Cucurbita maxima
Primary Varieties:
Bush Buttercup, Gold Nugget
Secondary Varieties:
North Georgia Candy Roaster, Mini Red Turban, Gete Okosomin
Primary Goal:
A more diverse selection of tasty bush habit maxima squash.
Secondary Goals:
Medium to Long storage potential. Prolific plants. Fast setting fruit. Semi-bush when full bush is not viable. Visually pleasing and/or amusing phenotypes.
Project Status:
(8/3/2017)
Fruit setting on Buttercup and Turban plants. Oldest fruits have half dried stems, but are not yet ready for harvest. No fruit set on Candy, and pollen fertility in question. Gete Okosomin seeded two weeks ago to provide late season pollen. Also two weeks ago, Nugget plants seeded for late season pollen and potentially a few quick maturing fruit (late start due to acquiring Nugget seeds). Similarly, an additional Candy, Buttercup, and Nugget were direct seeded in a separate bed. They will also provide late season pollen diversity -- with any with quick setting fruit being used in the F1.
Further Notes:
I had hoped to grow out the F1 in 2017. But my late move and time it took to get the garden functional pushed my squash planting back until mid April. Feasibly, could have gotten away with setting out transplants in early to mid march. While it still may be possible to grow out a few F1 seeds to a juvenile plant state to observe their growth habits, viable seeded fruit could not be ensured before frost. To compensate for the slow start, I've attempted to make the F1 as diverse as possible by planting additional seeds to provide pollen for later season fruit.
Early 2018, I will plant the F1 from the bush mothers. Non-crosses from bush mothers will be allowed. Some F1 seeds from vining mothers will be planted, but any clear non-crosses or extremely vigorous viners will be culled early in growth (or once fruit shape can be determined). Existing pollen contamination from this plants will be allowed, but new plants will be seeded in their place: either from the original bush varieties or F1s expressing positive characteristics.
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"Title"
species - scientific name
Primary Variety/ies:
Text
Secondary Variety/ies:
Text
Primary Goal/s:
Text
Secondary Goal/s
Text
Project Status:
(date)
Text
Further Notes:
Text
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BEANCUCUMBER
MELON
WATERMELON