You are so organized! Lettuce is a superstar in my garden year after year – so easy. And especially with the Seeds from Italy Franchi brand, unimpeachably great.
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It’s just past the three weeks from last frost date here in Tacoma. I’ve got some lacinato kale, parsley, cilantro, and snapdragon seeds going indoors under lamps. I’ll direct sow lettuce, arugula, radishes, and bush beans in April, and get the rest of my seeds going then, too (summer squashes, cucumbers). I always buy starts from a guy at our local farmer’s market who has The Touch when it comes to tomatoes. This is the first year I’ll have a lot of room to spread out in and experiment so I’m just the right mix of excited, hopeful, and disorganized.
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So good! I overbought this year, as one does.
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Agreed! The only complaint I’ve had was the Marina di Chioggia winter squash I got from them was outcrossed/impure. There were 50% off types in the field, so I couldn’t bag and save seed. they all tasted good, but that’s not the point. I’ve had off types with other vendors like Baker Creek. If you don’t bag and hand pollinate, you had better be isolated by many miles from other squash growers. Lately, it has become more of a problem.
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That’s interesting! I am not an experienced squash grower and have only recently started saving seeds. I’ve gotten three Franchi varieties this year, so maybe I should resist trying to save the seeds. Now I’m second guessing whether or not I should bother with the acorn squash seeds I saved from my community garden, hmm.
Ok, it may be helpful to have a short tome on squash. There are several, different species of squash; these are the most common:
Cururbita pepo = Zucchini, Acorn, Delicata, Patty Pan, Yellow Crookneck, Gem, some colorful gourds and others. Fruit stem (peduncle) is hard, without a large swelling at the base.
C. maxima= Hubbard, Marina di Chioggia, Buttercup, Kabocha (derived from buttercup) and many other winter squash. Flesh tends to require curing and aging to develop the best sweet, dry flavor/texture. Peduncle is thick, turns kind of spongy.
C. moschata= Butternut, Tahiti Melon, Tromboncino and many others. Peduncle is hard and usually has an obvious swelling where it attaches to the fruit.
C. argyrosperma=Cushaws, Pepitas, a few others. While a large number have an unpleasant soapy sort of taste, other cultivated selections are tasty. All produce large, nutritious and tasty seeds. Peduncle is variable but hard. Seeds have a prominent silvery, corky edge.
The different species do not interbreed readily. However, bees, especially bumblebees can travel for miles, carrying pollen around. You save Acorn squash seeds and they grow into any number of possible plants, usually a mix of Acorn and whatever your neighbors, or some guy a mile away were growing! It’s usually not worth saving seed unless one “bags” it.
To get pure seed, first learn to identify male and female flowers. That’s usually easy. If you look closely, there will be a swelling under some flowers, indicating a female ovary. Male stems are produced in larger quantity, especially early in the season; the stem is a straight, parallel stalk.
The evening before flowers open, find both male and female unopened flower buds. These flowers have not opened and have not been visited by bees. One old time method used clothes pins to hold the tip closed so the flowers cannot open, but flowers ofter tear open. It’s better to use a bag, tied around the unopened flowers. I use fine mesh bags similar to these. Instead of the drawstring, which can loosen, I use a twist tie.
The next morning, there should be opened flowers inside the bags. Collect the male flowers (soft petals ripped off) in one of the bags and “play bee”: rub the staminode (pollen-bearing center) onto the female’s receptacle (also in the flower’s middle). Close the female flower bags when you are done, so bees can’t get in. 2-4 days later, you can remove the bag and mark the flower/developing fruit with a twist tie (leave it loose), string. stick, anything you can use to identify that fruit as “bagged”. As the fruit grows, loosen any ties. Before harvesting, you can use the tie or mark fruits with a sharpie marker so you know which fruits to save seeds from.
After scooping out seeds to be saved, remove any squash flesh bits and wash them well with warm water. Drain in a colander or sieve, and dry on screen, cardboard, etc. Dry Seeds for at least a month before placing in a jar and refrigerate. Squash seeds, stored cold, can live for over 5 years.
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Wonderful!
I’ve only been gardening since the pandemic (when I left Brooklyn “temporarily” to help my mother in PA manage during the quarantine period.) So 2022 will only be the third summer.
First summer, most everything was in containers on the deck. An out-of-town friend I knew from NYC, who’d left the city herself several years prior to the pandemic and developed a crushingly energetic gardening hobby, mailed me some of her leftover seedlings, all heirloom tomatoes she grew from seed. Oh, and some shishito pepper seedlings. Even limited in containers that I now know were too small, the tomato plants (all indeterminates) exploded, and I spent all summer trying to tie them up to various sticks and posts and to the literal side of the deck railing. My absolute favorites were the black cherry variety, the black Krim, and the cherokee purple she sent me. I had never heard of any of them until I opened the box she sent. I also grew lettuce I got at a garden center, and was astonished how productive and easy it was.
The san marzanos and amish paste varieties weren’t as successful. The string beans I tried to grow initially grew like the dickens, but then both plants died dramatically before any beans appeared.
I’m a canner, so I canned a lot of the tomatoes I grew, and made tomato jam as well. We had BLTs every single week, tomatoes on every salad, and I ate black cherry tomatoes warm for breakfast nearly every day.
Last year, summer #2, I tore up the backyard with a gas-powered tiller and put in something of a garden. I put in:
6 heirloom tomato plants
2 jalapenos
2 red pepper plants
2 shishitos
2 couple Romanesco broccoli plants
some brussels sprouts
and a couple of beets.
I had no idea what I was doing with any of it; some of it was planted at the wrong time, the brassica all got terrible pests, etc etc, but I still had so many tomatoes I didn’t know what to do with myself.
I also tried to grow watermelons and cantaloupe. Not a single melon matured to where it was edible. The amount of water I spent on those plants haunts me to this day.
It was fascinating to have a demanding garden to tend all summer. I missed it terribly when it was over, even though many of the things I tried to grow failed.
This year I might not be spending the whole summer here, but I still want to plant a few things. Once the tomato plants are established and tied, they won’t be too hard for my mother to maintain - they just need water, and to be relieved of their ripe fruit.
It’s really time for me to sprout my tomato seeds!
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Welcome!
I’m going to make my usual plug for Dwarf Tomatoes, among other things, in an Earthbox. Not cheap, but quite a bit easier.
!w
P.S. My daughter lives in Brooklyn, very near where her dad used to live. I grew up in Queens, where my dad grew so many tomatoes, I said I’d never eat another one again!
…]()
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Super interesting, thank you for taking the time to share this.
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Hah hah, I feel this and weep anew. There was nothing worse last year than patiently tending my one watermelon all the way until mid September when surely – surely – it must be ready, only to find that I’d plucked it probably one week too early. curses
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Thanks, I hadn’t known of Franci seeds and just had a spending spree on lettuces and herbs!
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The basil is also terrific. I have seedlings under grow lights in the barn now.
I also endorse their Gigante di Napoli parsley, if you haven’t tried it. It really is giant! I have parsley plants that must be going on 3 years old that just stoically endure winter’s snow and ice. I should probably give them names at this point.
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Thxs good to know. When my Aunt and son passed, we dug up plants from both yards to replant at our home. Very comforting task and we are in great anticipation to see how the garden comes in. My Aunt had a generous herb garden. 
we do.
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And do you then harvest only part of the stems and leaves when you need parsley, or the whole plant?
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Yes – sometimes I’ll just need a few stems, but if I need more, I leave a few stems on the plant and it then sprouts new ones from the base. So far this particular batch of plants hasn’t bolted.
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My sister had the large leaf wrinkled basil last year and I found it as well on franci. It was beautiful as well as tasty.
you always have good tips!
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So good! Grows as a nice house plant! (you are too kind).
