Radishrain

Things pertaining to life: plants and animals, gardening, cooking, food, botany, zoology, farming, ranching, wildlife, genetics, plant breeding, software, media, etc.
Radishrain by Radishrain @ in Life
I harvested a few watermelons today. There are probably plenty more ready to be picked. One of them was one of my heretofore unharvested unlabeled watermelons. It looks like a winter watermelon, which surprised me a bit, as I thought I had labeled them all. I don't think it's King Winter or Santo Domingo Winter. It might be Navajo Winter, Wintermelon, or Winter Queen, but I'm at a loss. My guess is Wintermelon.

Here it is:
A winter watermelon of an unknown breed.
A winter watermelon of an unknown breed.

Here are the other two that I harvested, today (the one in the back is larger than it appears, and it is Santo Domingo Brown Seeded; the one in the front is either Corner Round or from the third plant in the same spot—either way, it tasted and smelled pretty great; I didn't save seeds; Corner Long isn't ripe, yet):
Dark green watermelons.
Radishrain by Radishrain @ in Life
I harvested about 45lbs of West India burr gherkins. They weighed in at 49lbs, but that was including the bowls and leaves, and I was optimistic where the scale was ambiguous.



Closer pictures:


Radishrain by Radishrain @ in Rules and Information
About this site:
This site is essentially my blog (but you can participate).

About me:
I'm a person on the Internet. I have lots of interests. I don't want to go on about myself. Sorry.

About the rules:
The rules might look lengthy and complicated, but if you don't get offended easily by moderation, you'll probably be okay.

About site members:
As a member of this site, you should focus most on producing quality, relevant content for readers (present and future, including the long-term future). The readers you should have in mind do not only include site members.

Similarly, posts are intended to have long-term scope, having users from search-engines in mind. However if you want your comments disabled (or the thread locked), just ask a moderator.

However, please do not treat individual threads like forums, especially if a forum with the same topic already exists. In other words, if it's foreseeable that your thread could have been five hundred threads, please make five hundred threads instead of one (the reason is that a single thread in this context would mostly only be easily useful to the participants, with newcomers having to read a lot of unnecessary material to find out what is appropriate to say). Similarly, try not to derail threads, but if you do, please edit the subject to be something that matches your new thought. Thread subjects should generally be quite specific. For instance, try not to make a thread called Melons, 2020 (because it might absorb everyone's posts that year and make individual ones hard to find). Consider tagging all your posts with a tag for that year instead.

Quality control is an important aspect of this forum. Threads may be edited, moved, deleted, locked, renamed, etc. for quality control purposes. This helps ensure that posts are high quality, on-topic, organized, helpful, in English, ethical, comprehensible, and in accordance to the rules, among other things. There is no guarantee that any particular post will endure a full or partial quality control process, however. One anticipated reason for edits is to add, remove, or adjust tags so that they are standardized and useful.

You should anticipate that some and/or all of your posts will probably endure a quality control process, whether or not you obey or try to obey the rules. This is not a punishment. Even those who obey the rules perfectly will probably have their posts edited, moved, locked, etc. from time to time. This is one of the reasons that you have to become a Member (as opposed to just registering) before you can post (to ensure that you know about this in advance). If, after you have become a member, it becomes clear that you are upset and bewildered about this, you may lose your membership status until you read and accept the rules (again).
Radishrain by Radishrain @ in Life
I transplanted my Tresca strawberry plants (all in the same spot), today (Saturday). they possibly had a disease (maybe rust, by the look of it); so, I put them by the other diseased strawberries. My hope is either that it overcomes the disease or that it produces fruit before it dies (so I can zap the seeds and grow a new generation of plants). I wouldn't have transplanted it today if I weren't trying to protect my other strawberries from potential disease.
Radishrain by Radishrain @ in Rules and Information
Unfortunately, you can't. Fortunately, you can add pretty much whatever you want to your signature instead.

If you are a seed trader or such, it is recommended that you put a link to your profile post in your signature, whatever else is in it.

Links are not automatically functional. You need to use HTML for that.
Radishrain by Radishrain @ in Life
I know I'm not a cat, but I've taken to drinking milk from a bowl (no, not lapping it up, but drinking as if it were a cup). You're probably wondering why:

• Well, one of those reasons is that I dip my peanut butter sandwiches in milk, and it's a whole lot easier to do that in a bowl than in a cup (the brim is wider; so, you don't have to worry about the size of your bread, getting peanut butter streaks on the side, and such).
• Another reason is that our bowls that I use fit a lot more milk than our glasses. I've long wanted some pretty large glass cups, but we just don't have them. The bowls are just a little bit larger than I would strictly want. So, it works out.
• Bowls are easier to wash than cups, IMO.

Anyway, here's how I make my peanut butter sandwiches:

I typically make two sandwiches at a time. I use bread (typically some wheat or multi-grain bread with large slices). I spread Skippy Natural peanut butter on two slices. Then I spread something like jam/preserves/jelly or honey on the same slice (or blue agave sweetener on the slices without peanut butter). Then I stick them together. Then I cut them in half. Then I eat them, typically dipping them in milk before eat bite.

I know some people mix butter with their peanut butter. I've tried that, and it's good, but I don't feel the need to do it, personally. I'd rather use or wash one less knife in making my sandwiches (two is enough: one for the peanut butter, and one for the jam—I definitely don't like peanut butter residue in the jam, or jam residue in the peanut butter). For those who use bottles, more power to you. For those who use bottles of peanut butter and jam mixed together, that's cool, even if I don't know feel comfortable with the idea.

How do you make and eat your peanut butter sandwiches? Does my way sound odd to you?

I know some people just make their sandwiches and have a glass of milk without dipping their sandwiches in their milk. I don't really understand that. It tastes and feels so much better dipped, IMO. I dip my cookies in milk, too, by the way (some people I've observed don't actually do that, even if they like to drink a glass of milk while they're eating cookies; I don't really understand that, either, unless the cookies aren't dry/crunchy; then, I totally understand, even if I think they're still good with milk). So, yeah, I use milk like a permeable sauce, I guess. This reminds me of why I like ketchup:

• Taste
• It makes the food less dry; so, I'm less likely to get the hiccups when I eat it.
• Eating tomatoes (I believe even from ketchup) is said to temporarily lower blood mercury levels. Nevermind the rumors that are hopefully untrue about mercury and high fructose corn syrup (which is in ketchup).
• Lycopene from cooked tomatoes
• It's red. I like red stuff.
• The acidity from the vinegar and tomatoes in the ketchup goes quite well with meat. I like acids and meats together for some reason.
• It improves the texture of some foods.
• It cools down some foods that are too hot.

That's pretty much it. Of course, not all of those things apply to milk.

milk_
bread_
bowl_
cow_
peanut_butter
cooking_
Radishrain by Radishrain @ in Life
https://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/wild-cucumber/

I thought the above link was insightful. It tells of the many things they can do with this plant in Africa. Apparently, they eat the leaves, too!

Just as a note, although the fruits are spiky, the plants themselves are more likely to scratch you as you harvest than the fruits are, IMO. Wear long sleeves and gloves if you don't want to risk being scratched.
Radishrain by Radishrain @ in Life
Here is my first ripe fruit from my Brandy Boy F10 plant (which plant had a very late start). The other two fruits are partially ripe (which is to say, ripe enough to save seeds). The ripe fruit has some concentric cracking and the beginnings of radial cracking, but the fruit is quite firm, and it didn't spoil it.

I plan to try the F11 next year to give it a more fair trial. Fortunately, it's potato leaf; so, if it crosses with something, I should know, unless it's one of my Brandy Boy crosses with a PL allele, Brandy Boy F1, Aunt Gertie's Gold, Bloody Butcher, Matina, Moravsky Div, Early Girl F1, a PL volunteer of an unknown variety, or one of the F1 hybrids with unknown parent leaf types. Yeah, that's still a lot of possibilities.

Brandy Boy F10 tomato fruit, whole.
Brandy Boy F10 tomato fruit, whole.
Brandy Boy F10 tomato fruit, whole.
Brandy Boy F10 tomato fruit, whole.
Brandy Boy F10 tomato fruit, whole.

Here's the ripe one cut open. The stem was tough to remove, just as with my F1 Brandy Boy cross:
Brandy Boy F10 tomato fruit, sliced.
Brandy Boy F10 tomato fruit, sliced.

The seeds are a nice large size (although I've seen bigger). The taste is strikingly like Matina's was in 2017 (grown in drought in crowded conditions without black plastic), except not as intense (pretty close, though). I describe that as a burnt tomato taste. It's as intense as it can get and still taste good, pretty much (it was exceedingly potent in Matina). It's not the taste I was expecting at all, from what I've heard about Brandy Boy, from what I've tasted of Brandywine types, and from what I've tasted of the Brandy Boy cross and its children. I'm guessing the growing conditions are responsible for unexpected taste. The skin wasn't super thin, but almost all of our tomatoes had thicker skin, this year; it didn't have super thick skin, though.

The fruit size is smaller than the size my Brandy Boy crosses usually are, but tha could be due to the late start that the plant got. The first one to three fruits or so of the F1 cross weren't bigger, though, and these are the first few.

I grew this Brandy Boy F10 in drought with black plastic. I'm sure it would taste quite different with regular watering. Acclimatization might make it taste different, also.

heirloom_tomato
Radishrain by Radishrain @ in Life
Here's the actual list of tomatoes that I planted (I enumerated them on 3 April 2020, but I've edited some more in); there are about 93 kinds (a few have two plants each, including Carbon, Ovita, Pink Cheeks, Purple Calabash, and Galapagos Island, but Napoli has 4, Marion has 6 or 7, and Tart Brandyboy cross has 5 to 8):

• Afternoon Delight (I have verified that it's not Blushing Bride, because the plant has lots of anthocyanin)
• Amana Orange (Marsha)
• Ambrosia Red cross F2 (F1 was yellow)
• Amish Rose
• Amy's Sugar Gem
• Austin's Black Cherry
• B.S.X.
• Bear Creek
• Best Boy F1
• Better Boy F1
• Better Boy F2
• Big Daddy F1
• Black Cherry
• Bloody Butcher (potential mutant/sport)
• Blue Berries
• !Blushing Bride (froze; planted Afternoon Delight in its stead, which did sprout, and I did transplant it)
• Bosque Blue
• Bosque Blue Bumblebee
• Box Car Willie
• Brad's Atomic Grape
• Brown Berry
• Carbon (from FarmerShawn)
• Carbon (other source from trade/gift)
• Chadwick Cherry
• Cherokee Yellow Perfection Peach
• !Cherokee Yellow Red (froze or didn't sprout)
• Cherokee Yellow Red Pear
• Chocolate Chestnut
• Chris Ukrainian
• Cold Black Brandy
• Cosmic Eclipse
• !Crimson Cushion (starting seeds indoors in a wet herbal tea bag in plastic bag; they didn't germinate, and they rotted)
• Deutscher Fleiss
• Djenna Lee's Golden Girl (from trade/gift)
• Egg Yolk
• Esterina F1
• Eva
• Galapagos Island (antifreeze)
• Galapagos Island (from 5-chamber fruits)
• Garnet
• Garnet x Black Krim
• !Giantesque (froze or didn't sprout)
• Green Gables
• Homestead
• Husky Red F2
• Indian Stripe (eyegrotom)
• !Indian Stripe Potato Leaf (FarmerShawn; froze)
• Isis Candy
• Italian Heirloom
• Japanese Black Trifele
• Jim Dandy cross F2
• !Juliet F2
• Karma Pink
• Katja
• KBX
• Kellogg's Beefsteak
• Kellogg's Breakfast (purple tape, newest date)
• !Large Red Cherry (froze or didn't sprout)
• Lila Sari
• !Lucid Gem (froze; replanted, but didn't sprout)
• Luna
• Malakhitovaya Shkatulka
• !Malinovoe Chudo (The plant became unusually sick after the transplant. I'm not sure what was wrong with it, as it wasn't normal transplant shock. I pulled it up and planted a Tart Brandy Boy cross #2 in its stead)
• Margaret Curtain
• Marion #1 x 4 (saved seeds)
• Marion (SeedsNow packet)
• Marion B (saved seeds)
• Marion C (saved seeds)
• Marzano Fire (both cells of plants froze; replanted, one plant sprouted late)
• Medovaya Kaplya cross F2 (the F1 was a red plum)
• Mexican Yellow cross F3 (probably crossed with Chapman)
• Moneymaker
• Moonglow (from trade/gift)
• Mr. Brown
• My Sweet Plourde
• Napoli x 6
• !Neves Azorean Red (froze)
• Nineveh
• NM BB cross (Brandy Boy cross F3; PL; near-multiflora, from fruit with huge blossom scar, with taste similar to regular Brandyboy F1)
• Old Brooks
• Ovita (doublehelixfarms)
• Ovita (saved seeds)
• !Pakenham Pear (from fruit with long shelf-life; froze)
• !Pantano Romanesco (froze)
• Pierce's Pride
• Pink Cheeks (doublehelixfarms)
• Pink Cheeks (saved seed from container-grown plant)
• Pink Ping Pong
• !Polaris (froze)
• Porter (2019 saved seeds)
• !Prue (Got Pythium which I doscovered post-transplant; pulled it up and transplanted Marzano fire in its stead)
• Purple Calabash (Heirloomtomaguy via Tormato)
• Purple Calabash (newer trade/gift source; this one have leaves like it's a new species of wild tomato; the other one doesn't but it looks a bit related in leaf shape)
• Queen of the Night
• Red Beefsteak (I planted Red Beefsteak from Gardenboy of TJ, 2020, in the stead of the Crimson Cushion plants that froze; seeds froze that were probably these, but might have been Crimson Cushion)
• Red Calabash
• Red Oxheart (label said Red Oxheart, but the initial trader called it Pink Oxheart)
• Riesentraube (Baker Creek; red version)
• Rose De Berne
• Rosella
• !San Pedro (froze or didn't sprout)
• !Sausage (from 2019, from among six fruits; set aside to give to a friend)
• Sheboygan (from an oxheart-shaped fruit)
• Silvery Fir Tree (saved seeds)
• Sprite
• Stellar F2
• Summer of Love
• SunChocola F2
• !Sweet 'N' Bright (AKA Hellfrucht; didn't sprout)
• Sweet Orange Cherry (saved seed; Diane Seeds was the ancestral source, labeled Orange Cherry; yellow/gold fruit)
• !Sweet Orange Cherry (TomatoFest; didn't sprout)
• Taiga
• Tart BB cross #1 (Brandy Boy cross F3, PL, from a plant with really good, tart, pink fruit)
• Tart Brandy Boy cross #2 x 3 (Brandy Boy cross F3, PL, from a plant with really good, tart, pink fruit)
• Tart Brandy Boy cross #3 x 3 (Brandy Boy cross F3, PL, from a plant with really good, tart, pink fruit)
• Trucker's Favorite
• !True Black Brandywine (Baker Creek; froze or didn't sprout)
• !Tundra (it died in the greenhouse)
• !Wild Tiger (froze)
• Yellow Plum

Volunteers:
• There are at least two volunteers that appear to be either Nodak Early or Mountain Princess (or a cross between the two).
• At least one volunteer appears to be Galapagos Island.
• The other volunteers have yet to be identified.

tomato_growlist
tomato_growlist_2020
2020_
Radishrain by Radishrain @ in Life
My Aji Ammarillo pepper plant, which is extremely tall (without needing support as yet) is finally setting a bunch of peppers! I'm happy.
1 ... 63646566676869 ... 77
New Post
feeds Feeds
Feedback, Links, Privacy, Rules, Support, About