Seed starting MAF part 3 5/23/14

For me, picklers seem crisper and tastier- and they have a bumpy surface, sort of three sided. But with any cuke, pick before they grow too mature.

We're having pollination problems which i don't understand - I have a couple dozen vines and plenty of flowers. But the first few cukes are half length and end in a tiny point.

Time to go check now in fact, and cut chard too.

I haven't had any luck pollinating my cuke plant because at any one time, it sees that only one type of flower is open on it. They all look the same, so I'm not sure which is 'male' or which is 'female'! :-(

google pictures of them, here's one
http://completegarden.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/cucumber-how-to-identifying-male-and-female-flower/

I've harvested about a dozen cukes so far from 3 plants in a raised bed. I let the first one go too long before picking and it wasn't that good. I had heard that about picking them before they get too mature, and that seems to be the trick to the better taste. The rest have been fine.

thanks, Sally! As much time as I spend on google, don't know why that never occurred to me--LOL! :-) Anyway, I think the blossoms on my cuke plant are all male. Do female flowers usually follow? What if all the male blossoms are gone by the time the female ones show up?

usually its male first, then male and female at the same time, rarely need to worry about it.

thanks--I'll keep an eye out for the female ones now!

Here is another picture from the Long Island Seed Project site. Site also covers how to hand pollinate and save seed.
http://www.liseed.org/savingcukeseed.html

top row male flowers

thanks, Coleup--good photos and interesting article. Guess if you want to be sure of parentage with cuke offspring, it can be a challenge! :-)

Gita, my FIL does indeed favor the variety 'Straight 8'. But I've noticed that even pickling cukes will get longer than usual without starting to fatten up & get seedy if they happen to be hanging vertically (sometimes they climb my tomato cages).

The hardest part is hunting for the ready cukes in the jungle of unpleasant
sharp leaves. I SWEAR the cukes hide! The leaves feel like fine sandpaper....
They are so hard to see.....then you find one you have missed--and it is past its prime...

My Cuke plants are now climbing everywhere....nothing I can do--
but tie the vines to this and that for support.
Pretty soon they will be all mixed in with my Tomato plants nearby.

I can't say the "crop" has been large. May be all the rain we have had (no pollination)...

G.

Gita, my pickling cukes are also super tall vines this year. And slow going on fruit. Bit of a bummer. I wonder if they need a little more heat and a little less rain than we've had, to be really happy.

I also pulled out a dozen or so plants of Melalpodium nearby. They came up all around under the cukes. Maybe that'll help the ground warm up, and not give the bees so many choices right there.

Sally--
You think we have NOT had enough heat????? Seriously?

You must be kidding.....Too much rain--that's for sure... G.

Should I wait until my fish and aleppo peppers are red before harvesting? What happens if I pick them when they're still green? Would they taste terrible?

Yeah I seriously think, data wise, statistically speaking, that no, we have not had a lot of heat. In the last two weeks, only four days have been at or above average, the rest were below. ( the high of each day was less than average high temp for mid July). I really have hardly used the AC until the last week, this summer.

Speedie, my Monarda fistulosa blooms are done now, and I retrieved a couple of the flower heads for you, hoping they will have the seed you asked about for the swap. I'm not sure where exactly the seed is in the head. What do people think? How can I be sure these have seed in them?

Cat--

My guess would be that the seed is at the base of each spiky thing in the seed-head.head...
kind of like on a Coneflower..

Put your collected heads in an paper bag (lunch bags) and let them dry
completely. Then shake, or crunch them up and sift out the seeds with a strainer.

Just FYI--I have NO idea what Monarda seeds look like.
Did you bookmark that seed ID site I posted some time ago? If not--here it is.
It is alphabetical--just look under "M"....It's there--I just looked....
Save this site!!!! it is a priceless reference site. Very helpful...

http://theseedsite.co.uk/db1.html

G.

Catmint, you might also have better success if you pick a couple of "spent" blooms after they've gone brown and crispy... I can't get a good enough look on this computer screen, but the green leaves just under the bloom make me think the seeds might not yet be mature. As Gita said, if you crunch up a crispy seed-head, you can often figure out where/what the seeds are... Monarda seeds are quite small, but you can still tell them from chaff because seeds have a more regular shape -- a bunch of tiny things that all look the same -- and they'll feel hard, like teeny grains of sand.

thanks, Gita and Critter. I'll let the heads dry out. Hopefully, the seeds are inside the calyx/base.

Cat--

In the link I posted--it the seed pod---the seeds and some comments on where they are
and how to collect them. Then it also shows qhat the seedlings look like...

I thought, by now, you would have looked at the link.......it will have a lot of answers.

G.

thanks, Gita--yes, I did look at the link, plus I also have it bookmarked from when you had posted it before. I browse through it from time to time--it's a very interesting site. Thanks for the link. I hope there are mature seeds inside the calyx as indicated by you, Critter, and the link. If there are not any mature seeds inside these two heads, I've found a few more spent flower heads that are still on the monarda and I'll leave those there till they are naturally brown and crispy.

Gita, the tomato I got from you is delicious! I just picked my first ripe one today. Thankfully the birds and squirrels are leaving the tomatoes alone.

SS--which tomato did you get from me? Was it seeds?

I usually praise the "Cherokee Purple" a lot.....it is my favorite...
Also--the Sun Gold (cherry)--but that is a hybrid...

I have been picking a lot of Yellow pear cherries--as well as some Sun Golds.
My big ones are still green. Coming along nicely...though.

G.

wow, hope that means I'll get a ripe tomato this week. Lots of green ones.

Cat, thank you!!!!!! < =D I peruse the perennials at work, in hopes of finding seeds to collect, but either they're being purchased too soon, or they're not being allowed to hold their dead/dying blooms long enough for me to collect them. =( (dratted on-the-ball Bossman!) =P heeheeheee Thank you so much for your work, I really do love those things!! ♥

Gita, it's a cherry tomato, and yellow, almost orange. I think you said it was a volunteer, so maybe a parent of Sun Gold?

Sounds like a Sungold....

I did not plant Sungolds this year--yet I have some producing.
Volunteers--lost i the jungle.

does anyone want some cleome seeds. Mine have seeded all over and I will have lots to share if anyone wants some. I also have tons of nicotiana to share as well. These are the old Victorian variety that not only have scent but grow to 5 feet tall and bloom all summer. They make the garden store ones look absolutely pitiful. Celosias, 4o'clocks, zinnias and a couple of others are also giving lots of seed. The 4 o'clocks have roots like dahlias and I'll be happy to share because they're producing like mad.

hi, Yehudith. How do the pollinators like the nicotiana?

Yehudith, I'd love some nicotiana seeds for next year.

I'm also looking for the big pom pom zinnias, any size.

Let me know. I can put out the $1.50 for a packet of the pom zinnias if need be.

I know the ones you mean. I have some that went up to about 5 feet last year and were covered with flowers and butterflies until frost. Because everything is self seeded I won't know what's what til it starts blooming and again because its self seeded they come up when the weather tells them to and bloom when it tells them to so we're running a bit late. I'll let everyone know as I have seed and I'm happy to share. I have nicotiana now so give me your address by D-mail and I'll pop some seed pods in the mail. They're ripe now and sprouting as soon as they hit the ground.

It's a bean! Well, several of them. This is one of the biggest. So, does anyone know when is a good time to harvest them? This is Phaseolus vulgaris 'Trionfo Di Violetto', seeds from Critter!

This message was edited Jul 26, 2014 5:48 PM

I'd say it's ready to pick. I usually pick them when the seeds start bulging out like that.

Yeah, those are more tender if you don't let them get too lumpy. isn't it a pretty plant? good growing!

okey-doke--'harvest beans' added to my to-do list! :-D

Jill, I love this plant! Not only is it very pretty, it's also the larval host for *6* different butterfly species common in our area! :-) Definitely hoping to grow it again next summer. Does it re-seed?

I suspect mice or birds would eat any fallen beans, but you can let a few beans mature on the vine... the bean seeds will harden, and the pod will get dry-looking... that's the time to pick & shuck out your seeds for next year!

okay, thanks Critter! I'll be sure to leave a few on the vine! :-)

love love love your violetto beans ^_^

thanks, Wind! DD: "mom, they're *purple*"! LOL

I hope she won't be horribly disappointed by this, but they do turn green when cooked. Fun to see the color change, though.. try them in something like "green" bean soup! (recipe is here; I think it re-ran recently http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1503/ )