"If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new"
Patrick Edwards wrote:I'll be honest. Definitely didn't read through the whole thread but I just wanted to express my agreement about landrace seeds. Particularly if we want to have plants that can adapt to our changing environment(s). They are hard as hell to find though if you are wanting to get your garden started as such. Obviously, landrace seeds need to be locally cultivated. I was thinking that maybe we could get a database going or something that can show who is cultivating landrace varieties (and selling the seeds) and organize it by region, state, etc. Just a thought.
A build too cool to miss:Mike's GreenhouseA great example:Joseph's Garden
All the soil info you'll ever need:
Redhawk's excellent soil-building series
Trace Oswald wrote:
Biggest issue I see with that is that conditions are so different even in places that are quite close together. My parents live 15 miles from me. My soil is heavy clay. Theirs in nearly pure sand. My answer to that is to plant every seed I can find of whatever thing I'm trying to grow and save my own seeds. Do that for 3 seasons, you have your own landrace. I will admit to only doing it with "easy" plants though. With things that are harder to save, I plant a few varieties that I can find and hope some of them grow. I hope to change that in the future, but that's what I do right now.
Zone 5b/6a, alkaline soil, 12 inches of water per year. For now the goal is a water independent urban homestead with edible landscaping and food forest.
Patrick Edwards wrote:I'll be honest. Definitely didn't read through the whole thread but I just wanted to express my agreement about landrace seeds. Particularly if we want to have plants that can adapt to our changing environment(s). They are hard as hell to find though if you are wanting to get your garden started as such. Obviously, landrace seeds need to be locally cultivated. I was thinking that maybe we could get a database going or something that can show who is cultivating landrace varieties (and selling the seeds) and organize it by region, state, etc. Just a thought.
Aromatic and medicinal herbs. And making stuff from it. Communicating with animals and plants. Stubbornly living by my own rules. Well, most of the time.
Lauren Ritz wrote:
Trace Oswald wrote:
Biggest issue I see with that is that conditions are so different even in places that are quite close together. My parents live 15 miles from me. My soil is heavy clay. Theirs in nearly pure sand. My answer to that is to plant every seed I can find of whatever thing I'm trying to grow and save my own seeds. Do that for 3 seasons, you have your own landrace. I will admit to only doing it with "easy" plants though. With things that are harder to save, I plant a few varieties that I can find and hope some of them grow. I hope to change that in the future, but that's what I do right now.
My soil is sand. 30 miles away my sister's is clay. However, if I grow something and then give her seeds, then she sends seeds back to me of whatever thrives, we have plants that can theoretically survive in both locations.
Joseph has a short growing season but plenty of water. I have little water and a longer growing season. If I plant his seeds, some of them do great and others not so great. But if I then send seeds back to him, the variety is stronger.
A build too cool to miss:Mike's GreenhouseA great example:Joseph's Garden
All the soil info you'll ever need:
Redhawk's excellent soil-building series
Landrace Gardening, author
World Tomato Society, ambassador
Open Source Plant Breeding Forum, founder
Landrace Gardening, author
World Tomato Society, ambassador
Open Source Plant Breeding Forum, founder
"If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new"
Aromatic and medicinal herbs. And making stuff from it. Communicating with animals and plants. Stubbornly living by my own rules. Well, most of the time.
Patrick Edwards wrote:Good points from everyone. Said database may be better organized by climate/soil type. Like a landrace seed sharing network and one could cross reference, "dry, clay, zone 7" or "silty loam, wet, zone 5", etc. It is correct that going simply by state would not be particularly useful. I am presently in Oklahoma and the quantity of highly varied microclimates here is significant. An hour or two east and I am in the forest and foothills of the Ozarks. An hour or two west and there are sand dunes. Still, I think the folks here could pull it off. Here we have the compulsive seed savers and as was mentioned above, after about three seasons one has the beginning of a serious landrace variety. Maybe I will make a separate thread for this. I think it could be super cool to have a network of folks sharing/selling/trading landrace varieties.
Aromatic and medicinal herbs. And making stuff from it. Communicating with animals and plants. Stubbornly living by my own rules. Well, most of the time.
Landrace Gardening, author
World Tomato Society, ambassador
Open Source Plant Breeding Forum, founder
Zone 5b/6a, alkaline soil, 12 inches of water per year. For now the goal is a water independent urban homestead with edible landscaping and food forest.
I think the Koppen classification is unnecessarily complicated, but OK. Why do they use k for "kold" in the B group rather than c as in all the other groups? Why not use a clearer identifier than A-E? If you don't know (i.e., haven't been taught) what the various classifications are, it's meaningless. Simple enough to use Tropical, Sub-Arctic, Tundra, etc., rather than assigning random letters. PH (Acid/Alkaline), Soil (Sand/Clay/Loam)? BSk/Al/SJoseph Lofthouse wrote:My network of collaborators use Köppen Climate Classification to describe our gardens.
It might be nice if we also adopted a Soil Triangle classification.
soil pH might be useful.
Zone 5b/6a, alkaline soil, 12 inches of water per year. For now the goal is a water independent urban homestead with edible landscaping and food forest.
Lauren Ritz wrote:Why not use a clearer identifier than A-E? If you don't know (i.e., haven't been taught) what the various classifications are, it's meaningless. Simple enough to use Tropical, Sub-Arctic, Tundra, etc., rather than assigning random letters. PH (Acid/Alkaline), Soil (Sand/Clay/Loam)? BSk/Al/S
Creating edible biodiversity and embracing everlasting abundance.