GERMINATION: My first three seeds went into baggies on the evening of 9th September. The first popped on 11th and the remaining two popped on 12th. They are in cups in Western Cape coastal, mountain soil, and the first has popped it's cotyledons. The remaining two look set to pop cotyledons later today or tomorrow.
The weather is now suitably above 13 degrees most of the time, so the sprouts will be able to metabolize. Spring has sprung and new leaves are starting to show all around the garden.
Of our local landraces, I favour the Transkei. It has a beautiful clean high, creative, sociable and euphorically energizing. I am hoping to do a comparative grow with a different batch of Transkei origin seed and if I get lucky I might get a male out of this grow. I have tried harvesting pollen and it is not easy for me, but I hope to get it right this season if I am lucky enough.
I am going to grow in the dark loamy soil in the garden, which is on a mountainside overlooking a bay. I am strongly considering Hugelkulture with some homemade amendments. I will take some Myccorhizae samples from the fynbos and inoculate my soil before transplanting. Last season I developed my own basic kasteel combo bug control juice, which I will treat the leaves with as a preventative measure. I will feed with Lactobacillus, kelp, castings and chicken poop. I will also mix in some bokashi bran when building my pile. If I can get hold of a small quantity of alfalfa pellets I will mash some of those in too.