ramps and wheat

i have two beds of ramps out back...the plants in the top photo were planted as year old root stock in the autumn of 2014 and had a full season last year making this their third...the plants in the second two photos are year old root stock i planted last autumn so they are embarking on their second season...the older ramps came up later and have three leaves rather than one or two.. ,a clear indication of what an additional, uninterrupted, year of root growth will do for the plants...they will not be harvested at all again this year but i am seriously hoping they will begin bunching so i can separate them and expand the population into a sustainable harvested community...in the meantime the wheat bed is moving along and almost all the plants have produced a true leaf and now the hope is for masses of tillering to fill the bed..the weather is still cool but i am not certain it will remain so long enough to encourage tillering..we will see.

teosinte

the teosinte i planted in the basement eleven days ago ( top two photos ) is coming along well...one has deployed a third leaf and both look robust...the seedlings i planted five days ago have begun to green and two have put out their first leaves...throw in the fact that the plant that has com up outside ( last photo ) has a second leaf in spite of the cold and it looks like there will be a fine season of wild and weedy maize ancestor with many tesointe ears to photograph...now to find space.

wheat weather

Jean and i are still in the bread business...i covered the wheat bed friday evening because there was snow in the forecast and, sure enough, saturday morning we were covered in two senses...this morning it is 37 degrees ( faherenheit ) and the bed is open and we still have wheat seedlings...they are fairly cold hardy and actually need cooler temperatures to stimulate tillering...a tiller is a kind of stolon which can produce its own roots, leaves, and seed head...i was five days late getting this bed planted but the weather has cooperated with me and we could see a much fuller bed than the initial seedling count would indicate...which would translate into more bread at the end of the season...the ramps and the asparagus sloughed off the snow and moved on so there will be more than wheat out there...however what is good for the wheat is causing some issues in the spud world...i have two plants that are producing multiple rhizomes ( or what would be rhizomes if they were in the ground instead of peat pots )...i see the potential there for many tubers but the weather will not permit me to plant them yet...the frustration is palpable...in me and the plant...a zea report in a bit.

eleven days, eleven takers

the reosinte seed i soaked eleven days ago has produced eleven germinated seeds ready to plant...so i did...downstairs in the plant room...they are under the lights now and soon enough they should be sturdy little zea seedlings like the one in the last photo...i have one plant outside from seed i planted last autumn and now fourteen in the plant room...i will be searching for space ...that is no matter...i seem assured of a population of "wild and weedy" maize ancestors this coming season...be prepared for many photos.

early spring

it snowed here saturday...and it was sixty-six degrees ( fahrenheit..what? about eighteen celsius? )..and when i got home from work and went out to take these photos before i covered the beds ( twenties forecast for tonight ) there were flurries out there...shcizo weather at the south end of the inland sea..but it is still early april...what else would you expect? the good news is the spring wheat needs the cold to stimulate tillering so it has come at a fortuitous time...there were quite a few germinated seeds earlier in the week and today there are shoots popping up all over the bed...so the bread from "scratch" project jean and i are working on is progressing well so far...i an looking forward to a good wheat season and have prepared bird defenses to deploy as the grain ripens...i will hold off the starlings even if i have to net the wheat...the ramps are booing..forty-five up now and that is closing in on the entire planted population plus the ones from last year...something browsed the only seeds the single plant that flowered produced last season...hoping for more seeds this year..hoping for bunching too...i would like to fill the beds and move some itno the "wild" directly under the trees...we will be seeing how that works out....it will be summer...eventually...right now all you get is cold hardy...hang on..we are just getting started.

small harvest

if those top two photos aren't teosinte ( the same plant..yesterday and today ) then i don't know what is...this one germinated a few weeks ago and i planted it last week...there are more in baggies just about ready to plant so i do believe my teosinte season is secure...they will be planted and moved outdoors soon enough...there are still robust potato plants under the lights german butterballs and early blue in that order..and while we are talking early blue, one of the plants had reached its end and when i popped the root ball up there were four tubers to harvest...not extraordinarily large but they will produce much larger tubers when they are planted as seed outside later this month...if there's any luck there will be fruits as well...so far early blue is the most prolific fruit producing variety i have grown...i am not sure where this stands in the number of generations of early blue i have grown from the original clones i got from the usda...i will have to mine the notebooks or the blog to get a handle on that...i am rather curious...it must be at least the sixth if not more

cold hardy

it was cold at the south end of the inland sea this morning and has remained so...nothing unnatural in that in early april here...fortunatley plants are adapted and what is up out there is either native ( like the ramps in the third photo )or cold hardy like the chives in the second photo...the crocus and garlic cohabiting in the fourth photo will be just fine as will the asparagus in the fifth...they will need to be with strong winds and snow blowing in off the lake all day and into tonight when the low is forecast to be twenty-eight degrees (fahrenheit )...there is frost cloth protecting the wheat bed that jean and i are growing for bread ( and, if there is enough ) and to make some pasta...and while we are talking ( nicely ) about jean, she is having good fortune with peppers in a sunnier clime ( last photo ) i see a nascent pepper, a bloom, and a bud all in this photo...she has a fine touch...i would appreciate it if she would send some more moderate weather this way.