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Post by oddsox on Sept 4, 2011 19:06:01 GMT 1
If I want to save some seed from this season's veg, eg gherkin, is it likely to come true provided it isn't F 1 hybrid?
That used to be true but there's so many varieties around these days I'm no longer sure.
Have just sown some spring onion indoors with a view to getting it in the ground by end Oct. Has anyone done this before and got edible results by March?
Also sown some Phormium Tenax (ornamental) which I'm told should be sown in Autumn. Anyone had any luck with this 'cos it failed last time I tried?
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Post by Pasha on Sept 4, 2011 19:36:28 GMT 1
If I want to save some seed from this season's veg, eg gherkin, is it likely to come true provided it isn't F 1 hybrid? That used to be true but there's so many varieties around these days I'm no longer sure. Have just sown some spring onion indoors with a view to getting it in the ground by end Oct. Has anyone done this before and got edible results by March? Also sown some Phormium Tenax (ornamental) which I'm told should be sown in Autumn. Anyone had any luck with this 'cos it failed last time I tried? me got no growin skills lol-- but i do grow stuff all year round in the apartment-- mainly herbs and stuff -- and soon --maybe more xx |
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Post by Elkay on Sept 4, 2011 22:18:43 GMT 1
Hi, Oddsox, I've never grown gherkins (not yet, anyway) but am not sure you can trust any curcurbits as they tend to breed with each other so you never know what you might get - e.g. a cross between a gherkin and a pumpkin (a gumpkin, perhaps?) or a cucumber and a gherkin...the list could go on.
I have had several things go to seed this year and may try using the seeds e.g. rocket, chinese cabbage and fennel - I'll let you know the results.
I grow spring onions all the year round in my polytunnel - with some reasonable success
Good luck with your gardening
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Post by oddsox on Sept 5, 2011 15:14:17 GMT 1
Didn't know about 'gumpkins' Elkay, so thanks for that. I grow a heritage variety of gherkin ' cos if you leave them on the plant a bit longer they grow into mini cucumbers, which is just the right size for a singleton like me. Or you can pick them young as a cornichon and gets tons per plant.
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Post by Pasha on Sept 5, 2011 15:19:04 GMT 1
Didn't know about 'gumpkins' Elkay, so thanks for that. I grow a heritage variety of gherkin ' cos if you leave them on the plant a bit longer they grow into mini cucumbers, which is just the right size for a singleton like me. Or you can pick them young as a cornichon and gets tons per plant. Funny you should post about baby cucumbers lol-- tanya was given a big jar of salted ones at work-- and she is sitting opposite me now chomping em like a good em -- and she will not give me one -- mean woman |
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Post by oddsox on Sept 6, 2011 18:15:11 GMT 1
Funny you should mention tanya's chomping, Pasha, 'cos I once flew long-haul with Aeroflot, the Russian airline, (is it still?) and they served giant gherkin with every meal. It's a very productive food plant. It could be the answer to world famine. It must be worth saving the seed, even if what you end up is 'gumpkins'.
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Post by oddsox on Sept 6, 2011 18:26:27 GMT 1
I might have to plough a lonely furrow on the other subject I raised - autumn sown seed - with due acknowledgement to Elkay for her spring onions.
The point is that some seed needs the shock of winter temperatures to trigger germination - it's no good sowing such seed in Spring - but it's very hit and miss to leave a seedtray outside for months. The last time I did that mice kicked it about and I got nothing. There must be a surer way.
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Post by Ali on Sept 6, 2011 21:17:50 GMT 1
I did gherkins a couple of years ago and they did produce brilliantly, pickled them. Wouldn't have thought about saving their seeds tho. Have been saving seeds from things I know will grow but they're common as muck garden plants generally.
I might try some spring onions too - good inspiration.
1/3 of the veggie patch here is now turned over to the hens for foraging and keeping the weeds away til next spring and the rest is root veg, chicory, MM's PSB and curley kale, leeks, fruit. The only thing I tend to sow late in the year is garlic and broads.
I guess an old fridge running may be one way of fooling the seeds into life without the mice? But then again thats not very environ friendly and costs too I suspect.
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Post by oddsox on Sept 6, 2011 21:48:13 GMT 1
I know that spring onions will over-winter happily in the open, just a case of getting them big enough to plant out before winter sets in. You'll have to kick the hens off though, or protect them.
The fridge idea is a good one. If I run a fridge to keep fresh Tesco's Finest Baby Amazonion Guava Fruit then I can surely justify putting my seeds in it. And bugger the cost. It's very sweet of you to consider the environmental impact, Ali, but I don't give a t*ss.
You really are a lovely human being.
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Post by Madame Moorhen on Sept 7, 2011 7:03:37 GMT 1
Spring onions - now this is interesting as I've been succession sowing them since the spring and have had some absolutely enormous leek like spring onions, all doing fantastically, until the last few sowings during July. These have hardly germinated! It's not the seed as it's all new and various different varieties bought in England. Beats me as I've sown them in late summer to overwinter and eat the next spring before.  Well I dunno, there are always mysteries where gardening is concerned. As far as the F1 seeds go, all the self seeded tomatoes here are as near as dammit the same as the plants that I bought last year (various different cherry toms). Potimarrons just self seed here out of my compost and they have never mutated into any other kind of pumpkin even, let alone cross with a cucumber! Don't want any Pottyconcombres here! ;D |
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