I have a friend who uses water washable markers to indicate her seed when they are similar. Or you could just call it happenstance that you are having a different kind of pickle. Green beans? Carrots?
I bought some very small brown envelopes and keep them on my kitchen windowsill. That way, when I am peeling / cooking veg I simply pop the seeds straight in and mark what they are.
I rotate my pickle making and this was the year for cucumber dills. I suppose the lesson is that when one eats what one grows, some years you just end up missing out!
Well, we've all heard of watermelon pickles . . . nutmeg melon pickles?? (Or maybe you should pass on those.)
Just curious . . . if you planted (in good faith) cucumbers for pickles with your green beans . . . how would you get in there to harvest without smooshing the cukes or bean plants? I know there's more than one way to accomplish the same end, but my beans always require a wide berth on either side of the row for me to navigate up and down the row for picking, and I grow my pickling cukes on trellises so I don't step on the little buggers when picking.
Dani, don't you have to dry them first? Things like cukes, tomatoes, and melons are so pulpy that I use the soaking method, and then dry thoroughly before storing. I sometimes have half a dozen towels with various kinds of seeds drying on them. Some how my labels got mixed up, as this post illustrates! Do you not have trouble with the seeds molding with your method?
I do tend to "crowd" my plants, which does make the garden something of an obstacle course. The beans and cukes were planted in about 3-4 foot wide beds, with the beans on the outside and the cukes planted down the middle.
One thing I've figured out is that if my rows and beds are planted more thickly so that the wiregrass is shaded out, I have less trouble with it. The ground holds moisture better too. That doesn't solve the problem of incorrectly planted seeds, however!
Even so trellises would be helpful. When my beds were permanent, I had t-posts in the ground in rows so i could attach cattle panels as needed for vining plants. With the permanent beds gone, the t-posts have been removed and I don't do as well with my trellising. That's something else I need to work on.
I learned this year that pill bugs eat green bean seeds. :( Each day I've been having to pick the bugs out of that area of my garden. No idea how they're getting in as the beans are in a container. :-/ I'm trying cucs in a pot this year...I should water them more than I do.
I planted a handful of saved squash seeds this year and only discovered when I looked up a related blog post which squash I was planting - it cracked me up! My blog is turning out to be a very useful memory bank :)
Do you have time in growing days for another try at cucumbers? Ralph (who is bucket crazy :) wondeed if you had a stray corner for a bucket planted with cucumbers?
Great trade off for desert, snack, or even breakfast. Cucumbers would be nice to have to make pickles however, you have to work with what you have. Now they're recipes for watermelon pickles.......don't know if they're are recipes for cantaloupe pickles.
I could certainly try, except I couldn't find cucumber seeds available locally. One of my seed saving rules is to save enough for more than one year, and I appear to have broken that rule!
I always thought that they were harmless also, until this year when I caught them munching my barely out of the seeds. I planted 8 seeds, got two plants. :p
Yours turned out to be melons, mine 'cucumber' seeds turned out to be yellow squash. Guess we're both going to have to learn from that one. But I did plant some real cucumber seeds later on that are just now beginning to bloom.
I learned early on that melon leaves are rounded at the corners while cukes and pointy. (Found out when I forgot to label my vine seedlings.) Bet the melon was yummy.
I too need to do a better job of labeling EVERY start. A couple of things not planted where they should have been had I been able to correctly identify it.
Leigh - Obviously things like tomatoes seeds have to go through the "mould" phase before they are dried and packed away.
Yes - I put the (pumpkin / squash) seeds straight into small glass bowls and add the appropriately marked envelope under that bowl. I leave them on my (afternoon) sunny kitchen windowsill. They dry out and get packed into their envelopes in 2 - 3 days.
We don't eat many cucumbers - so I don't grow them. And, like melons, they are water thirsty plants to grow, so I would prefer to use our precious water for other thirsty plants like pumpkins / butternut.
Dani, that's an excellent system. I tend to be more haphazard (obviously!), which has it's pitfalls.
I hadn't thought about water requirements, but that's a good point, although Dan loves his cucumbers and cucumber pickles. Cuke and tomato salads are a summer mainstay, although I confess we've been adapting our diet more and more based on what we can produce ourselves.
One thing that's never done well for my is pumpkins. That's a pity because it is such a wonderful storage food.
Gill, I've found odd things show up as well. Sometimes I figure they're volunteers, but from purchased seeds, I've gotten some interesting additions. Still, I need a better system for saving and labeling seeds!
Karen, my other fail is not jotting down when and where I plant things. Because of such a long rainless period I assumed some things didn't make it. Now I've got various squashes growing and I a little fuzzy on what they are because I failed to mark down exactly what I planted!
38 comments:
Funny!
Well they do look very similar in their natural seed state :)
That's my only excuse!
I have a friend who uses water washable markers to indicate her seed when they are similar. Or you could just call it happenstance that you are having a different kind of pickle. Green beans? Carrots?
I bought some very small brown envelopes and keep them on my kitchen windowsill. That way, when I am peeling / cooking veg I simply pop the seeds straight in and mark what they are.
I rotate my pickle making and this was the year for cucumber dills. I suppose the lesson is that when one eats what one grows, some years you just end up missing out!
Well, we've all heard of watermelon pickles . . . nutmeg melon pickles?? (Or maybe you should pass on those.)
Just curious . . . if you planted (in good faith) cucumbers for pickles with your green beans . . . how would you get in there to harvest without smooshing the cukes or bean plants? I know there's more than one way to accomplish the same end, but my beans always require a wide berth on either side of the row for me to navigate up and down the row for picking, and I grow my pickling cukes on trellises so I don't step on the little buggers when picking.
Dani, don't you have to dry them first? Things like cukes, tomatoes, and melons are so pulpy that I use the soaking method, and then dry thoroughly before storing. I sometimes have half a dozen towels with various kinds of seeds drying on them. Some how my labels got mixed up, as this post illustrates! Do you not have trouble with the seeds molding with your method?
I do tend to "crowd" my plants, which does make the garden something of an obstacle course. The beans and cukes were planted in about 3-4 foot wide beds, with the beans on the outside and the cukes planted down the middle.
One thing I've figured out is that if my rows and beds are planted more thickly so that the wiregrass is shaded out, I have less trouble with it. The ground holds moisture better too. That doesn't solve the problem of incorrectly planted seeds, however!
Even so trellises would be helpful. When my beds were permanent, I had t-posts in the ground in rows so i could attach cattle panels as needed for vining plants. With the permanent beds gone, the t-posts have been removed and I don't do as well with my trellising. That's something else I need to work on.
I learned this year that pill bugs eat green bean seeds. :( Each day I've been having to pick the bugs out of that area of my garden. No idea how they're getting in as the beans are in a container. :-/
I'm trying cucs in a pot this year...I should water them more than I do.
I planted a handful of saved squash seeds this year and only discovered when I looked up a related blog post which squash I was planting - it cracked me up! My blog is turning out to be a very useful memory bank :)
Ha! Ha! Glad to see I'm not the only one!! I'm always messing up with my beans....oh, and my cukes/cantaloupe!
Do you have time in growing days for another try at cucumbers? Ralph (who is bucket crazy :) wondeed if you had a stray corner for a bucket planted with cucumbers?
Seems like a good trade off though. That melon looks scrumptious.
Leigh,
Great trade off for desert, snack, or even breakfast.
Cucumbers would be nice to have to make pickles however, you have to work with what you have. Now they're recipes for watermelon pickles.......don't know if they're are recipes for cantaloupe pickles.
Hugs,
Sandy
What! I have tons of pillbugs but always hoped they were harmless. :(
I have to agree about the blogs. Very useful for record keeping!
Then I'm in good company. :)
I could certainly try, except I couldn't find cucumber seeds available locally. One of my seed saving rules is to save enough for more than one year, and I appear to have broken that rule!
Harry, I never complain about melons. :)
That's true, except Dan won't eat cantaloupe or watermelon pickles on his burgers. :)
I planted early peas and found several mange tout plants among them. I obviously really mixed my seeds up. hey ho/
Gill
I always thought that they were harmless also, until this year when I caught them munching my barely out of the seeds. I planted 8 seeds, got two plants. :p
Yours turned out to be melons, mine 'cucumber' seeds turned out to be yellow squash. Guess we're both going to have to learn from that one. But I did plant some real cucumber seeds later on that are just now beginning to bloom.
Fern
The cucumber seedlings I bought turned out to be squash.
I learned early on that melon leaves are rounded at the corners while cukes and pointy. (Found out when I forgot to label my vine seedlings.) Bet the melon was yummy.
hahaha. The "not a cucumber" pic cracked me up. Too bad but maybe you still have time to get some cucumbers in?
I too need to do a better job of labeling EVERY start. A couple of things not planted where they should have been had I been able to correctly identify it.
Hi! That is funny but at least it was yummy! I am no help. Not organized and I don't save a lot. Nancy
Leigh - Obviously things like tomatoes seeds have to go through the "mould" phase before they are dried and packed away.
Yes - I put the (pumpkin / squash) seeds straight into small glass bowls and add the appropriately marked envelope under that bowl. I leave them on my (afternoon) sunny kitchen windowsill. They dry out and get packed into their envelopes in 2 - 3 days.
We don't eat many cucumbers - so I don't grow them. And, like melons, they are water thirsty plants to grow, so I would prefer to use our precious water for other thirsty plants like pumpkins / butternut.
Dani, that's an excellent system. I tend to be more haphazard (obviously!), which has it's pitfalls.
I hadn't thought about water requirements, but that's a good point, although Dan loves his cucumbers and cucumber pickles. Cuke and tomato salads are a summer mainstay, although I confess we've been adapting our diet more and more based on what we can produce ourselves.
One thing that's never done well for my is pumpkins. That's a pity because it is such a wonderful storage food.
Gill, I've found odd things show up as well. Sometimes I figure they're volunteers, but from purchased seeds, I've gotten some interesting additions. Still, I need a better system for saving and labeling seeds!
Fern, how funny. Glad to know I'm not the only one! I need to get a late planting going. Even a few cucumbers would be nice. :)
And that was purchased plants? Interesting!
Kris, good tip! Not that it would have changed much except that I could have gotten those cukes into the ground earlier!
Tanya, I'm going to try!
Karen, my other fail is not jotting down when and where I plant things. Because of such a long rainless period I assumed some things didn't make it. Now I've got various squashes growing and I a little fuzzy on what they are because I failed to mark down exactly what I planted!
Obviously I'm not organized either. :)
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