Shayok Mukhopadhyay

Hello, I'm looking for a cold climate- (Zone 5) friendly softneck garlic. I grow hardneck quite well but they don't keep past March/April. Fruition used to sell a cold-weather adapted Lorz (https://www.fruitionseeds.com/shop/vegetables/garlic/organic-lorz-italian-softneck-garlic/) but since they're stopping selling stuff, I don't feel so sure about trying Lorz from a different supplier.

Any suggestions?

Here's an update after using soil blocks for 4 seasons and Winstrips for 2 seasons.

I think I'm getting better at soil blocks and honestly it doesn't feel like that much more labor than Winstrips. I've tried the Mini Wini Large (this is equivalent to the 50-cell tray) and the Mini Wini Small (equivalent to 128-cell tray). The former works well for me. The latter I'd say is actually more work than soil blocks as the extra seeding mix doesn't readily fall through the gaps between the cells - I have to use a pencil to poke them through. Moreover, I had a significantly lower germination rate of onions with the Mini Wini Small than with soil blocks. I have no idea why that would happen and I should probably repeat the experiment to be certain. I wish the Small worked well for onions as they don't really need that much space/soil as seedlings.

Here's a very belated update on my effort to grow mulberry trees from locally (Broome County, NY) obtained cuttings. I collected hardwood cuttings from a couple of healthy trees from a neighbor. I put them in potting soil. The leafed magnificently, but not a single one of them rooted. I probably had 20 odd. Moral of the story is that it very much depends on the variety of mulberry. Some root easily, some don't. See Akiva Silver's experience: https://www.twisted-tree.net/propagating-mulberry-trees

Mk Neal wrote:That’s unfortunate! Try putting any undamaged beans in cold part of freezer for a week, in hopes of killing any remaining bugs.

Any chance that any residual moisture in the beans might damage them from being frozen? Or that doesn't happen if the pods had dried and the beans feel hard?

Thank you all for sharing your insights and experience with this. I went through the harvest looking for the bigger beans without the yellow powder to save as seeds and noticed a few with holes in them in the process. I'm a bit surprised that I didn't see more beans with holes given how much yellow powder there is.

Some of the 2023 harvest is in a plastic jar with a plastic screwtop and the rest in a glass jar with a metal screwtop. They seem secure enough. Did not notice any bugs. The 2022 harvest (which is unaffected) is in a tupperware one shelf over.

Hello, some time in the last one month my stored 2023 fall harvest of dry runner beans have developed a coating of yellowish-green powder. (See photos.) I rinsed it off (easily) and cooked, ate it, and survived, but I'm curious to know what this is, if it will eventually ruin the beans or their usability as seed. Interestingly, this hasn't yet happened to the remains of my fall 2022 harvest. Any info will be greatly appreciated.

Good answers here:  

Hello,

Would love to hear about people's experiences with the Winstrip tray. Its advantages over soil blocks (which I've done for past 2 seasons) that seem credible are: (a) less work - you're just dumping the dry potting mix into the tray (b) less potting mix - you're just using loose dry, potting mix, not wetting it and making it into tight blocks that will hold together.

It isn't intuitively obvious that it air prunes as well as soil blocks, but may be it does a good enough job?

The page above links to a ton of their videos about the product. Would love to hear thoughts, but specially experience using them.

Thanks,
Shayok

Following the excellent advice on https://permies.com/t/192682/Mulberry-planting-gender-dilemma, I have located someone nearby with a couple of fruiting mulberry trees to get cuttings from. The general advice on the internet seems to be that it is easier to root from new growth softwood than from hard wood. I'm in Zone 5b, so I'm guessing it would mid-June at least before I can get some new growth from the parent tree. It seems it will take 2-3 months at least for the cutting to root and put out enough growth to be strong enough to be transplanted to its permanent location. I'm wondering if by then it will be too late into fall. Will it reduce the tree's chance of surviving winter? Is it better to take a chance on hardwood cutting from the dormant parent and get the process started sooner? (It's not someone I know very well, so I don't feel so comfortable asking for hardwood cuttings first and then softwood, which of course would be the safest route.)