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Messages - David Pilling

#1
General Plants and Gardening / Re: Peanuts
Today at 02:08:14 PM
Quote from: CG100 on Today at 04:38:32 AMa minimum of 20C for the entire growing period,which wouldn't happen in any greenhouse anywhere in the UK without heating.

That was where I went wrong with most crops this year, it was cold but I didn't keep the greenhouse shut up.

When I had the idea, I thought, peanuts are available everywhere, but then you find they are often roasted. They're not supposed to have long viability.

I still hold out hope, in a good year, maybe in a warmer spot in the UK than here.

Have to mention  Tanganyika groundnut scheme
a failed attempt by the British government to cultivate tracts of its African trust territory Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania) with peanuts.
Launched in the aftermath of World War II by the Labour Party administration of prime minister Clement Attlee,[1] the goal was to produce urgently needed oilseeds on a projected 3 million acres (5,000 sq miles, or over 12,000 km2, an area almost as big as Yorkshire), in order to increase margarine supplies in Britain and increase the profits from the British Empire


Notice they didn't try doing this in Yorkshire.

#2
General Plants and Gardening / Re: Peanuts
Today at 03:30:14 AM
Quote from: CG100 on Today at 12:22:05 AMfun plants for kids to grow but given how large they should grow - a couple of feet high

Yes they sell them for kids, and I wondered about how dispiriting the first three packs of seed which rotted would be.

Mine never got beyond 6 inch pot size, they were not root bound either. Again perhaps due to the weather. But interesting to read how big they should be.

The tomato plants only got to normal size late in the year.

'pod' good word - escaped me.

Good crop of peanuts in the video, South Utah, sounds more the place than UK.
#3
General Plants and Gardening / Peanuts
Yesterday at 02:35:59 PM
2024 was the year of growing peanuts. The first three packets of seed all rotted (well known vendor). The next packet (ebay) almost all germinated.

Interesting plants - similarities with peas. Flowers appear on stalks from near the ground and are supposed to plunge back into the earth when (self) pollinated and grow a nut.

I got quite a few flowers, but none seemed to set seed. Not far past mid-summer the plants appeared to succumb to powdery mildew in the greenhouse.

Today I got around to tipping out the pots, which I'd abandoned outside. I did find two nuts (shells? with three nuts in) - see photos. Also plants which had attempted to produce many nuts. There also seem to be nodules on the roots, not to be confused with nuts.

It's been a bad year - cold and wet in Spring. In 2022 and 2023 there were more tomatoes than one could deal with, in 2024 one questions if it is worth growing them.

So everything has been hard work - I will try again next year. The well known vendor sent me some replacements, and I've got the nuts I grew, soon I will have bred a peanut tuned to the coastal climate in the North West of England.
#4
General Discussion / Re: Gloriosa superba seed
October 07, 2024, 03:22:55 AM
Quote from: CG100 on October 07, 2024, 12:03:30 AMI am pretty sure the ones that I have seen have used the word ephemeral.

This very PBS for example, in this list post:

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbslist/2023-August/20hssdsm33p4jqsa01lncm5b66.html


"Ephemeral seed distribution organizer
Jan Jeddeloh via pbs (Tue, 15 Aug 2023 13:05:12 PDT)

I know there was someone on this list you had volunteered to deal with ephemeral, short viability seed. "

Ephemeral seed or ephemeral plants.
#5
General Discussion / Re: Gloriosa superba seed
October 06, 2024, 05:43:22 PM
Quote from: CG100 on October 06, 2024, 01:50:42 AMSeveral societies have specialist ephemeral seed distributions, where the viability of the seed is extremely short

Do you mean "specialist recalcitrant seed distributions"
#6
Current Photographs / Re: October 2024
October 05, 2024, 01:45:19 PM
Hi Uli, I suppose bloom from 2017 isn't quick, but I have been growing some Amaryllis belladonna seed since 2010 with no flowers. Also of course full size purchased bulbs.
#7
General Discussion / Re: Gloriosa superba seed
October 05, 2024, 01:42:38 PM
I looked them up, because I didn't really know

Ephemeral plants survive by passing unfavorable periods as seeds. Their seeds are well-adapted to their habitat and can remain dormant for a long time.


Recalcitrant seeds are seeds that are unable to survive drying and freezing, and therefore cannot be stored for long periods of time. They are also known as desiccation-sensitive seeds.
#8
Current Photographs / Re: Worsleya bloom
September 26, 2024, 07:59:10 AM
It is the dream, find expensive plants and grow them for profit. But you'd have to have the knack of growing them.

Like being a professional.

Whatever field of interest you may have as a hobby, if you're good enough it can be a career.

The UK nursery Rare Plants feels like that.

"change in supply due to increase in price is called Expansion of supply"

No good saying it will take you 14 years either.

#9
Current Photographs / Re: Worsleya bloom
September 26, 2024, 03:37:28 AM
Quote from: CG100 on September 25, 2024, 02:33:44 PMthere is a pic' of a raised bed with several plants in flower.

Perhaps here (although only one plant):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2NkftDShAM


You can use the search function, top left to find Ken's blooms in 2022 here on the PBS forum, search for worsleya (all lower case).

350 quid a bulb, be interesting to see if high price begets more supply, or if they're just difficult to grow, or is it all fashion. Tulipomania.
#10
On behalf of Judy Glattstein

Attached are two pictures of  F. imperialis. One from April 2006 and the other from April 2024 I have not added any new bulbs. So they've been here for 18 years. I'm happy. Guess they must be happy too.

Judy
#11
Quote from: janemcgary on September 19, 2024, 03:53:35 PMI will paint spots on a F. imperialis bulb this fall, and look at it next summer to check to see if the paint is still in place

Hmm. I've always wondered about the tunics on things like Tulips, do they grow afresh each year. I'd imagine paint could degrade, or the surface of the bulb could be replaced, but it would be an interesting experiment.

There's the Ship of Theseus (modern, a broom that has lasted 25 years and has had six new heads and five new handles). If one injected dye or radioactivity or a piece of metal into the bulb would it remain and if it didn't would that prove anything.

I'd suggest a loop of string through the hole, new hole, new bulb.

YouTube gold would be a crystal clear growing medium where we could observe what goes on.

There are bulbs where replacements are grown every year - crocus, pleione - why no argument, because one can find the old bulbs. (Corms and pseudobulbs).

Quote from: janemcgary on September 19, 2024, 03:53:35 PMsome F. raddeana are more than 30 years old

Well done. Of all my frits not a one remains.
#12
Quote from: Uli on September 19, 2024, 12:41:42 AMI don't remember if the hole goes right through or not.

As I said in the quoted text:

"often bulbs are sold with part of the old stem in place blocking the hole."

Remove the old stem before planting might be equivalent advice to planting sideways, but you'd still be left with the problem of what happens the next year, new bulb, new blocked hole.
#13
Quote from: janemcgary on September 18, 2024, 10:07:55 AMI don't understand this statement, which generalizes an observation of one species (or its section) to a whole genus.

Citation needed. At the time I wrote the above I was under the influence of Mr. http://www.fritillariaicones.com/ and he assured me all frits formed replacement bulbs every year. There is a paper on that site:
http://www.fritillariaicones.com/info/Baranova_Hasson_Hill_2008.pdf
which describes the process.

Now you mention it, I would be more comfortable with "many" Fritillaria bulbs. There'll surely be some for which the general rule does not apply. Wouldn't it be interesting to know which ones.

Quote from: janemcgary on September 18, 2024, 10:07:55 AMI'm tempted to uncover a F. imperialis bulb right now, replace the soil with a removable layer and observe what happens to it through the growing season.

Go for it - science is about experiments challenging theories.



Ian Young states in his bulb log:

"Unlike true bulbs such as Narcissus which just get bigger each year, Fritillaria bulbs are completely replaced annually. As the stem grows this entire bulb will slowly shrink away as its resources are either used up or passed on to the new bulb that will form at the base of the flower stem as the flowers fade."

https://www.srgc.org.uk/bulblog/log2006/190706/log.html#:~:text=Unlike%20true%20bulbs%20such%20as,stem%20as%20the%20flowers%20fade.

#14
Quote from: Judy Glattstein on September 18, 2024, 07:37:07 AMTrue bulbs add internal scales while outermost scales wither. But do not, as far as I know, replace entire storage unit.


I found my photo here:

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/AsianFritillariaThree#persica

"Two things about Fritillaria bulbs which can be difficult to believe are that they have a hole through them, and a new bulb forms each year to replace the old one. Photo 3 shows development in Autumn, with a new bulb forming around the shoot; the green stick has been inserted through the hole in the original bulb. Photos 4 and 5 show flowers in Spring."

#15
Quoting the PBS wiki:

https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/AsianFritillariaTwo#imperialis

Some people say bulbs should be planted on their side, because of the large hole in them which may accumulate water. Others retort that the hole goes all the way through the bulb and so drains. Photos 1-4 are of commercially supplied bulbs of 'Garland Star' and show the hole, the bottom of the bulb and water being retained; the coin is around an inch in diameter. At first sight this disproves the idea of a hole all the way through the bulb. However often bulbs are sold with part of the old stem in place blocking the hole. Photo 5 from Laurence Hill shows the hole in a bulb of 'Lutea'. Since Fritillaria bulbs replace themselves every year, their original orientation in the ground will be lost anyway.


It is hard to beleive Frits produce new bulbs every year, I can't find it at the moment, but I planted some bulbs with a stick through the hole, excavating them next year, the stick was outside the current hole.

First time I bought some Imperialis, they had rotted before I got them home. Wonderful flowers.

Quote from: Judy Glattstein on September 17, 2024, 06:31:26 PMI did not plant them sideways.