No I haven't got myself some hens and a rooster! that's me crowing as I am rather pleased with myself. Yes I know pride comes before a fall and don't count your chickens etc, BUT -- and this is the first time I have tried this - OK! I'm going to tell you ! I bought some very tasty tomatoes from M & S a couple of weeks ago, so tasty that I decided to scoop out the seeds from the one I was eating. I dried them on some kitchen paper for a few days.
And now look at them, I am so pleased with myself, I know it doesn't take much to amuse me.
Well that was a little experiment for me in what people have been doing for centuries, which is just as well or where would we be today without men and woman saving precious seeds for us to grow ?
Here's an update on other things growing.
Do you remember my post about chitting sweetcorn seeds ?
Here they are now (below) I potted them on when they looked like little tadpoles. It has been successful so far they need to grow a bit more then they can get planted out in a few weeks. I sowed 2 types : Lark F1 and Ovation F1
Two last photo's. The first is of the beautiful Cerinthe that I have been growing since planting the seeds way back in the autumn they are just beginning to flower. The other photo is of a tree Peony that I took a photo of in my local nursery and now i am lusting after it, I have to buy it ! if they still have it.
Cerinthe
Tree Peony
That's the end of this post, until the next one Happy sowing and growing to all.
15 comments:
I'm lusting after that tree peony, too. It's so beautiful. I really hope you get it (as I can't have it!)
The plants you have grown from seed are very impressive. Congratulations!
Hi Pam, and thank you for the comment. I will be going to see if that Tree Peony is still there tomorrow, but I doubt it. I should have got it when I saw it. Mind you I'm not even sure if i have the space of it, but it's soooo gorgeous.
Hi Maureen. Thanks for all the updates. I'd go out and buy that Peony, if I were you! And that's a beautiful picture you took. Of course, you know that not everything comes true to type from seed, and there's all that cross breeding stuff, so you don't always get what you think you'll get with seeds. On the other hand, you can get something better (always the optimist). Your corn is exactly at the same stage as mine so it will be interesting to compare them in the future.
Hi Prospero, it's always good to hear from you. I'd forgotten that I might not get the exact tomato that I took the seeds from, although I can't get my head around why! isn't that how the plants are grown in the first place ? enlighten me or point me to a website please !
It will be good to compare the corn with yours.
You might want to check out Mendel (not Mendelssohn, I know you like music). Mendel did his genetics work based on pea plants. It's also the reason why certain plants are propagated vegetatively (by cuttings or tissue culture): this way you get the same characteristics (not necessarily so with seeds). Fruit trees are generally grafted since seed grown tree often produce low quality fruit, unless you're very lucky. You wouldn't want to start an orange tree from seed, nurse it for 10 years, and them learn that the fruit is small, dry and full of stones. PS It's been really dry here for the last 6 weeks and I'm starting to worry about my poor corn!
Maureen Isn't it good when you have unexpected successes. i love the tree peony
PROSPERO, thanks for the info, I'll google it and perhaps then I will understand. I hope your corn will be OK. I would hate to have no rain for 6 weeks, we did in 1976 I remember it well and I hated it.
JOANNE It is good when an experiment works, I hope I get some nice tomatoes from the plants. I spent 6 hours on the plot today, so didn't get time to visit the nursery to look if the Tree Peony is still there or indeed if he can get another if it's gone.
I chitted my parsnip seeds the same way as you have chitted your sweetcorn seeds.
I haven't even sown my sweetcorn yet. That's a job for this week.
Keeping my fingers crossed that the beautiful tree peony has not been snaffled up already Maureen. Making a mental note to sow my cerinthe in the autumn so it will flower in time for our garden club plant sale next spring. I don't think that my plants will reach that stage in the fortnight or so until the big day !
JO did you put your parsnips straight into the ground after chitting? as I did and only one came up, so I started again but this time put the little chitted seeds in pots and they are all up.
ANNA it's definitely worth sowing the Cerinthe in the Autumn, I also sowed a couple later on and they are so tiny, but very sturdy though.
I sowed a lot of sweet-peas in the Autumn last year as well and some are already flowering. Good luck with the plant sale that's coming up.
I have planted the chitted parsnip seeds into loo rolls. The only thing with doing this is that you do need to get them into the ground fairly quickly as the tap root grows really fast. Once it hits the bottom of the pot it will cause the parsnip to fork. I'm keeping my eye on mine. They won't be in the loo rolls long before I get them planted out.
JO, thanks for that advice I will check out the roots on mine as they are in loo rolls.
Maureen, I want to tell you that we have no rain in the forecast (so hang in there, my little corn). What you see for 180 degrees on the north side of my house is water (Bermuda's Great Sound). The window shot from my "Papaya By The Sea" post in taken from my kitchen. The water is always different. Sometimes it looks like a lake, sometimes there are white caps. Cruise ships, sail boats, tall ships, fast ferries, jet skies constantly come and go. Who needs television? PS I'm doing a post (very soon) on the urchin (with pictures).
thats some very healthy looking corn.
Well done with the tomato experiment. Pat your self on the back.
Which variety are they?
Rgds,
Cazaux
CAZAUX, thank you for visiting and commenting. The variety of tomato is "Roma" and I have since found out you can buy the seeds! oh well! I had fun drying and sowing them. I have potted them on and they are really looking healthy. I thought it odd that M&S put what the variety was on the packaging, I recall seeing that anywhere else.
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