blooms

after seven tenths of an inch of rain in the past couple of days ( and more falling now ) i was reasonably sure i would not find a need to water at the garden...

bed one looked to be in good shape...

the maize is looking ever more curryish and gaining height...one has begun to bloom...so looking for ear(s) and silks there soon...

the transplanted quinoa is verdant and working on blooms as well...

there is a row of happy beans down the center of the bed...

and the "unseasonably cool", wet weather has induced the spuds...

to produce...

an irruption...

of blooms...

including something new ( in my experience though, doubtlessly, not unherad of ...different colored bloms in the same bunch...the blooms are not carbon copies of one another but they usually are of a color...if we do not suddenly return to a sunbaked summer there mnay be fruits out there...more on that as it ( does or does not ) crops up...

and just outside the bed...sweet clover.

chenopodia II ( with a side of potatoes )

that white line in the upper center of the first photo is a quinoa sprout forty-eight hours or so after the seed was planted...the second photo is of a lambs quarters sprout of the same approximate age...there is movement and where there's movement there's morphology...which is what this plant identification project is all about...the wild potatoes are doing pretty well basking in the feeble winter sunlight by the front window...they are slow...they are teaching me patience...the bottom photo is of some better developed quinoa that spent the day reaching for said feeble sun...cold photosynthesis...winter chlorophyll...call it what you want...more as they develop.

thinning and transplanting

the wild potatoes have been up and running for twenty-three days now and i have taken ( with no small amount of trepidation ) the first step in moving them on...i will need the germinating tray they are living in right now soon enough to start some more wild potatoes among other things so i took the two larger ones down to the plant room, put some compost and potting soil in peat pots, peeled back the netting on the peat pellets, set the pellets in the pots, and filled in with more potting soil and compost "hilling" it up around the base of the somewhat leggy plants...then i took them back upstairs and into natural light to see if i have jumped the gun an done more damage than i wanted to...the roots are still safely encased in the peat pellets so i am hoping there wasn't much in the way of root disturbance...the aim is tuber to work with in a few months because i have had zero results with direct seeding in the past few years...more on this success ( or disaster ) as it develops...there are still three more wild potatoes up and i have more than one hundred seeds left...i will start again if necessary...some of the failed kinua seeds had begun to mold in the pellets with the seedlings so i began to clear them out as well...i was going to remove the stunted plants as well but discovered their roots were hopelessly intertwined with those of the larger plants...so the runts stayed...the mold did not.

my back yard on boxing day

the yellow peas in the green manure mix out back have completely died back ( top photo ) as havs the annual rye that is mixed in with the winter rye ( second photo )...i had been somewhat surprised to see dixie clover emerging from the snow in a green condition but i am perplexed no more...further research has shown me that it is an annual that overwinters like winter wheat and winter rye only to reseed the next season...except i will be turning it under next season...the lambs quarters plant in the fourth photo has died back as well but the seed heads have not shattered...the quinoa ( fifth photo ) should closely resemble its relative when it reaches the end of the season...in fact i am told it also closely resembles its relative in the early going making it difficult to tell what is what...since lambs quarters is native and a prolific seeder..just like kiuna ...we may have cousins in the same bed come may...the intermediate wheat grass in the sixth photo isn't nay more dormant than the green manures despite the cold and snow...it is even farther outside its native range than the teosinte but its western asian and souitheast european ancestry seems to have inured it to the cold...so there is still photosynthesis going on outside as well as inside...when you are dealing with perennials the garden never fully sleeps

kiuna

kiuna is a quechua name for quinoa..so is chisiya mama ( mother grain )...at least according to "lost crops of the incas" they are and possibly more appropriate than the spanish quinoa ( what do you think coach? )...whatever you choose to call them the plants seem to be doing fine under the light along with their andean contemporaries the wild potatoes...the potatoes continue to sprout new leaves and the kiuna leaves are developing slowly ( you can see just to the right of center in the third photo a kiuna leaf with part of a seed case still attached )...i have zero experience with either of these ( although the kiuna seems to be growing itself without much of any intervention from me...the potatoes have my attention riveted )so i am all questions and finding answers is proving somewhat painstaking...no one seems to grow wild potatoes...or, at least, they aren't talking about it...that's fine...i had zero experience with teosinte either and i have learned as i have gone along to the point that i am secure in my recognition abilities and i know how and when to plant it...trial end error with a good deal of error...but that's what makes the lesson stick and i am growing my data base on kiuna and the agonizingly slow growing potatoes...while we are discussing trial and error, the yema de huevos in a basket project is winding down its first planting and there is some trepidation as i contemplate digging around for tubers to replant...they are dying back steadily and i wonder if there was any success..the first planting may be the last...either way we will be learning... growing "wild" plants indoors is always perilous and whatever the outcome we will have gained something...the good news is that it is about the right time frame for them to have set tubers...the potatoes that they produced outdoors were not very large which is normal....even small tubers will grow another generation so there is a possibility of success...this was an improvised experiment necessitated by the tubers refusal to be dormant...either way they would have been lost...this was an attempt to preserve them for another outdoor planting...more on this when harvest ( hopefully ) time rolls around.

more leaves, true leaves

the wild potatoes and quinoa are well up and running now so i took the clear plastic lid off the starter box because the potatoes were beginning to get a bit "leggy"...exposing them to conditions as they exist in the house and to natural light in the day has done some good...the wild potatoes ( top two photos ) have slowed their growth and almost all the plants have begun to develop a third leaf...feed the roots, slow the verticality...i want tubers...meanwhile some of the quinoa plants have shed their seed cases and are developing true leaves...both species are tolerant of cool temperatures ( in the 60s fahrenheit in this household ) and they aren't water guzzlers so a low humidity won't be a problem as long as i keep on top of the moisture level in the peat...soon enough i will be thinning the quinoa and then i am uncertain about events...it grows to between three and six feet tall with a root system as deep as the plant is tall...if i pot it for the duration of the winter the roots will surely be pot-bound by spring...a chance we will have to take i imagine...so far so good in my first experience with either plant...of the two quinoa is the much easier one to find information on...few people seem interested in growing wild potatoes...i've found a few but i am mostly wo9rking from experience with domesticated potatoes...with luck their behaviors aren't radically different...if they are it will be empirical data to add to the pile...and a few posts as well..more as things progress.

roots, shoots, and new leaves

for any of you who may be wearying of my prating about wild potatoes and quinoa this may be a good time to tune out because there is more to follow...for the rest of you, have a look at this...there are well defined root hairs in the top photo less than 48 hours after i surface sowed this quinoa and they're looking for the peat...other roots have found pay dirt and the plants are greening with shoots...i don't suppose i should be surprised at the speed...but i am..."lost crops" tells me the distance from germination to harvest can be from 90 to 220 days depending on the strain of quinoa that has been planted...i have emailed the supplier for details but at the moment i am clueless as to what the exact type of quinoa this is...if it is a 220 day variety it is time to start more and get them going indoors...if it's a shorter season we can direct sow them into the garden on planting day ( or, depending on when that is, perhaps a bit later...the plants are very frost sensitive )...a second wild potato has put forth a third leaf so that is going as well as i can expect and whether it's tuber or transplants wild potatoes in the community garden as a concept is gaining traction...i am geeked and pleased...as close to euphoric as i get...stay tuned for more ...if you can stand it.