Author Topic: Garden Pictures  (Read 2445 times)

The Future

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Garden Pictures
« on: July 09, 2009, 07:21:30 PM »
I'll be posting some of my pictures here.
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The Future

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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2009, 07:25:29 PM »
This is a sunflower picture I took today.  The heirloom variety is called evening sun and it is a beaut.  This shot (in case you couldn't tell) is taken from the back of the flower which to me look as stunning as the front.  There is another unopened flower in the foreground.  Regarding this variety, it forms quite a few flowers on one plant.  The seeds are small and I'm not sure if they are edible.

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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #2 on: July 29, 2009, 12:00:31 PM »
Pumpkins.  One "Bermuda" pumpkin and one odd shaped cross that turned out to be firm and sweet.  I think it might be a cross between a Hubbard and "Bermuda" pumpkin.

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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2009, 05:12:41 PM »
Harvested 2 pumpkins today.  16 and 14 pounds.  These were volunteers out of our composting in place.


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The Future

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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2009, 06:10:15 PM »
Picked two more pumpkins today. 15 pounds each.  10 more to harvest.
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Atash Hagmahani

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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2009, 08:02:14 PM »
Wow. You must have a big growing area. I hope your pumpkins are good.
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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2009, 08:22:06 PM »
These are admittedly not world class but its food.  This vine ran about 50ft.  I just planted honeyboats, seminoles, burgess buttercups, galeux d'eyesines and a few jack be littles.  These are all relatively quick so a good crop by November should be in order.  I am impressed so far with tater mater dude.  Breeding sounds tedious with a low payoff but still...it would be great to do for squash what he has done for potatoes and tomatoes.  Imagine a 100lb super sweet squash!
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Atash Hagmahani

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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2009, 08:46:03 PM »
His interests include unusual flavors and textures (he seems to be quite sensitive to subtleties of taste), more intense colors (which sometimes enhances the nutritional value), visual aesthetics, and organic growing compatibility (if it doesn't thrive without chemicals, it doesn't make it to the next generation because he won't coddle them).

I should post pix of some of the tomatoes. Maybe the potatoes too once I dig them up. You should see the flesh of some of his potatoes; I have never seen such intense colors in potatoes before.

A 100lb super-sweet squash is asking for a lot! I would like one that is highly resistant to powdery mildew, vine borers, and root rot, is about as sweet as a honey-boat/sugarloaf type but keeps longer (a moschata version), is highly colored, and has a pretty shell (like a Delicata or a Carnival).

Separately, I'd like a shorter-season version of a Styrian Hull-less type, for providing tasty and nutritious seeds at higher latitudes.
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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2009, 08:55:36 PM »
Man.  I have my work cut out!
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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #9 on: September 07, 2009, 09:39:03 AM »
This is what 89 pounds of pumpkin looks like.

Picked another yesterday and gave it away.  Need them to weigh it.  So far we are averging 15 lbs.  Most of the unpicked ones are smaller though.

Attached is also an image of 2 Andean Yam Beans in a pot.  You can see the edges damaged by the Hurricane but by and large they are doing ok.



« Last Edit: September 07, 2009, 09:49:53 AM by The Future »
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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #10 on: October 05, 2009, 03:47:28 PM »
These girls need no introduction.  Started to open in the last day or two.

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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #11 on: October 05, 2009, 05:50:54 PM »
Passiflora edulis? Some kind of Passionflower anyway.

Funny. I was admiring some Passionflowers at the University of Washington today. They have them in huge tubs, and they are growing up a wall, and then up a makeshift pergola above that.
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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2009, 05:56:06 AM »
My apologies.  I thought they needed no introduction but that was presumptious.  Yes passion fruit.  I have about 4 types including the sweet type (orange rind with yellow dots).  It is supreme to my taste buds.  I need to get my hands on the giant one (hand some seed but only got one to sprout and then it died).  The climb like beasts...into the neighbours yard etc.  I have a large wall at the back of the property, maybe 20 feet up that I am going to get the sweet ones to climb.  Fruit fall off when ripe to height is not an issue except I will rely on bug to pollinate (I do that by hand now just to be sure).

I have 6 in pots without any support except a wall and each other.  They do exactly that and this climb the wall.

For those who don't know, the plants has major healing capacity for the nervous system.  A tea made from the leaves is useful as is the fruit itself.  Especially good for (lack of) sleep issues.  Caterpillars love the leaves yet the plant is tough enough that they never seem to decimate it (can't say the same of squash).

Is there anything that caterpillars eat that humans cannot?
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Atash Hagmahani

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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #13 on: October 06, 2009, 11:12:44 AM »
There are hundreds of different kinds of Passionflower and many of them have palatable fruit. P. edulis is the most commonly-cultivated, but not necessarily the tastiest. Almost all of them have fairly similar flowers.

John Vanderplank says that his favorite is P. antioquiensis, and that, generally, the Tacsonias are the best-flavored. They're not grown as much as P. edulis, in part because they are high-elevation Andean species that need "eternal spring-like" climates. Bermuda being north of the real tropics can probably grow some of them.

One of them is actually very widespread, but not cultivated much: P. mollissima. It has gone feral in many parts of the subtropics, and is extremely rampant (listed as a weed in many countries worldwide). But it has a delicious fruit, which is one of the ways its spreads: humans commonly collect the feral fruits, eat them, and spit the seeds out somewhere else. It is common along human foot-roads!

Those caterpillars might be Heleconoid butterflies, if you have those (and probably do). They love Passionflowers. Lepidotists often grow Passionflowers as larval food. Passionflowers are generally so rampant, it doesn't hurt them much to have a few caterpillars grazing on them.
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Re: Garden Pictures
« Reply #14 on: October 06, 2009, 12:04:58 PM »
You won't believe this.  Passiflora mollissima rang a bell and then I recalled....

From the same vendor in Bolivia who sold me the Andean Yam Bean (ahipa!) and the Shark Fin Melon (Curcubit Ficifolia) I also bought the P. mollissima!  I haven't prioritized growing it because I just didn't think it was so special.

And now you tell me, in its own sweet way, it is.  So this Saturday, they are getting planted.  Let's hope their are not short on viability as I've had them a few months.  I know the giant passionfruit is short on viability.

And who knows, maybe I can even cross it with the sweet passionfruit (Passiflora ligularis).

Also, I did a search for Heleconoid but nothing on the entire internet??  Spelling error?  They are the orangey brown spiky caterpillars. 
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