Renay Newlai

I'm getting two female dairy lambs near the end of June. And I just remembered my wife is allergic to wool (as well as everything else under the sun).

Has anyone had experience with wool allergies and sheep exposure?

When building the sheep pen do I need to take extra precautions regarding manure, or wind directions (blowing dander around), etc?

This probably means I'll be the only one milking them....What else do I need to consider?

I'm looking for suggestions as to how to prune this apple tree. It had multiple cultivars grafted on it originally but now has only 2 cultivars left. Without a central leader I'm worried that a big storm will split it.  I would like to try to keep both cultivars but am not sure where to start.

Amit Enventres wrote:As for earlier,  I had learned a while ago that tomato fruiting is triggered by the reduction of daylight that starts at the summer solstice. Theoretically, saving seed with a specific attribute will get you more of that attribute, but I found my tomatoes to be pretty uniform in this aspect,  so the fruit and flowers appear all about the same time, so breeding an earlier tomato is unlikely here. However, if I did insert into my collection an early variety and then hand cross- pollinated,  I could probably go some where with that breeding program.  

I noticed that too with my own seed saving. I too save the best most vigorous plants to save seeds from. My tomatoes are always a bit later than the growers around me, and I attributed it to the STUN practice that I use. However, my neighbour's comment made me wonder if that's all it was.

Ironically enough, said neighbour gave me some of his tomato plants that he started from seed. The plants were beautiful compared to mine started at the same time. Yet mine started producing this week and the plants he gave me are still just in flower....

My neighbour told me today to save the seeds from the first tomatoes harvested. He said that they will produce earlier each year this is done. I'm skeptical but I have no evidence one way or the other. Anyone have an opinion, or better yet experience with this?

I would try.

I had a racoon kill a momma hen in the night. I thought the week old chick was taken too, but found it the next day under a broody who hatched her first chick that night. She hatched 3 more over the next week and had adopted the orphan no problem.

As others have said, it really depends on the hen.

Maureen Atsali wrote:They aren't interested in the squash, only the leaves, which they eat as a vegetable.

I would never had thought of squash leaves being edible! It's really amazing how many different ways there are to use the same plant.

I planted things closer together this year, so close that I am having difficulty identifying which plants are thriving as opposed to mediocre. (It's easy to tell which plants are succumbing to the pests or environment) My squash are all criss-crossing their vines over each other and are so intertwined it looks like different squash on the same vine. My tomatoes grew up, fell over on each other and grew up again. My beans are clumped together as large bushes. I can't make out individual plants. I can't tell which I should keep for seed...

William Schlegel wrote:Carol Deppe breeds her vegetables without any inputs to control disease and advocates that students of her works should not either.

One of her books is enroute to me as we speak. I can't wait to read it!

William Schlegel wrote:I also bought seed from Joseph Lofthouse and other sources online as well as a few packets of organically grown seed from the local seed co-op.

I can't seem to find landraces in Canada and more specifically, my growing conditions. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong spot! The farmers at the local farmers market are almost all using some form of conventional inputs. The local organic seed seller uses lots of extra inputs, plastic mulch, and irrigation.

I already grow with very little intervention on my part, but my seed needs more diversity! I have difficulty with many crops when adversity hits them. Probably due to the fact that I was sold on the idea that keeping heirloom strains was the only way to go. And now my gene pool is shallow from selectively taking only the best from such a small selection to begin with.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:
My strategy is to include some modern homogeneous varieties, and some hybrids, and some heirlooms. Then let them creolize, without applying fertilizers or crop protection chemicals, until they become locally adapted.

So, add what I can and let the weak fail? Just get as much diversity in as possible?  

That's what I thought too. And it makes sense that a lot of landraces start with what's available.

When I started talking about it to another farmer, she was very convincing that I would be doing harm. She insisted that the only way to go was organic. When I started thinking about it, I wondered how plausible it was that it could negatively affect the offspring. Or worse!

Landrace gardening is a new concept to me and I can't wait to jump in! I've been collecting seeds from friends and local farmers this summer to start trying to build diversity next year. My question is this, if I get seed from produce that has been treated with herbicide, pesticide, or other chemicals, will I be adding in undesirable traits to my gene pool? Has anyone tried this, and if so, what kind of results did you get?