Post by mike on Mar 19, 2014 4:31:10 GMT -5
Just to introduce myself here; I'm Mike (aka mikro2nd all over the interwebs), living in the southern part of South Africa (34°S23°E roughly - about 500km east of Cape Town) on a 1.7hA (about 4 acre) smallholding. Site and infrastructure all designed as a permaculture setup. Been at it about 18 years so far, and recently much revitalised with energy to get some of the more obvious "permie stuff" done that we originally intended but somehow never got around to implementing. 
Plant breeding for adapting to local (and changing!) conditions is a long-time interest.
Climate is Warm Temperate (no frost). Altitude from 200 to 210m amsl, aspect mostly West-facing moderate slope, and we're about 15km from the ocean, so not too much temperature extreme to worry about. Water supply is all from the sky, about 800mm/year on average over the 11 or so years I've been monitoring, peaking to over 1000mm in wet years, and dropping as low as 500-600mm in drought years - no rivers, boreholes or muni supply. Soil is clayish. Lots of predator challenges, both for plants (Baboons, Bush Buck, Porcupines, Bushpigs) and for Chickens (Ratel, various wild cats, neighbours' dogs).
Special "Hiya" to Telsing - was thinking of you with gratitude just the other day while I was sowing some Chickpeas (a Winter crop for me) and Hunter pole beans that you sent me some years back. The Chickpeas (Winnifreds) have told me that they love it here, so this year is a real "bulk up the supply" year if the d**n bush-buck will leave the plants alone. (Time to get fences beefed up, really.) The beans are part of a trial for Winter hardiness - I figured that if those beans have been good for you in your chilly climate, they might actually perform better for me in cooler weather than our fairly long and warm Summer (my normal bean-growing season).
Currently I'm working with or interested in working with:
* Turnips
* Carrots, specifically new colour variations, but only if the flavour is alsogood excellent, and also Carrots specifically for juicing
* Beets and Swiss Chard - Chard just for fun, Beets for food and fodder, so larger varieties
* Lower maintenance Tomatoes
* Planning to try for more Winter-adaptable and Pumpkin-fly resistant Squashes.
* Almost forgot... Potatoes! (We get such boring Potatoes in this country; I'm keen to try and do something about that!)
I am busy with germination testing all of my seed with many sad results after several seasons where I've been unable to put much energy into veggie growing for various reasons. As soon as I know what's good and what's not (I've lost a LOT of Lettuce varieties) I'll update my website with a list and will be happy to share seed with anyone who wants any of it.
Plant breeding for adapting to local (and changing!) conditions is a long-time interest.Climate is Warm Temperate (no frost). Altitude from 200 to 210m amsl, aspect mostly West-facing moderate slope, and we're about 15km from the ocean, so not too much temperature extreme to worry about. Water supply is all from the sky, about 800mm/year on average over the 11 or so years I've been monitoring, peaking to over 1000mm in wet years, and dropping as low as 500-600mm in drought years - no rivers, boreholes or muni supply. Soil is clayish. Lots of predator challenges, both for plants (Baboons, Bush Buck, Porcupines, Bushpigs) and for Chickens (Ratel, various wild cats, neighbours' dogs).
Special "Hiya" to Telsing - was thinking of you with gratitude just the other day while I was sowing some Chickpeas (a Winter crop for me) and Hunter pole beans that you sent me some years back. The Chickpeas (Winnifreds) have told me that they love it here, so this year is a real "bulk up the supply" year if the d**n bush-buck will leave the plants alone. (Time to get fences beefed up, really.) The beans are part of a trial for Winter hardiness - I figured that if those beans have been good for you in your chilly climate, they might actually perform better for me in cooler weather than our fairly long and warm Summer (my normal bean-growing season).
Currently I'm working with or interested in working with:
* Turnips
* Carrots, specifically new colour variations, but only if the flavour is also
* Beets and Swiss Chard - Chard just for fun, Beets for food and fodder, so larger varieties
* Lower maintenance Tomatoes
* Planning to try for more Winter-adaptable and Pumpkin-fly resistant Squashes.
* Almost forgot... Potatoes! (We get such boring Potatoes in this country; I'm keen to try and do something about that!)
I am busy with germination testing all of my seed with many sad results after several seasons where I've been unable to put much energy into veggie growing for various reasons. As soon as I know what's good and what's not (I've lost a LOT of Lettuce varieties) I'll update my website with a list and will be happy to share seed with anyone who wants any of it.
