Telephone x Haka

[Silverleaf]

This is a cross I made for my Rainbow Pea project in 2014.

Telephone is another one of those lovely old-fashioned tall peas. I like it a lot because it tastes really good and grows really tall, so I chose it to be the foundation of the project. Flowers are white.

Haka came from GRIN. It's about 60cm tall and has gorgeous violet flowers because of the ar allele.

The F1 was tall with wild type purple flowers as expected, and nice and vigorous.

3/16 of the F2 should show the violet flowers I'm looking for. 4/16 will be white, and I'll eat those. Similarly 1/4 will be short and will be eaten. Overall I expect 9/64 to be tall and violet. I'm growing about 100 plants.

Pictures: Haka violet flowers, Telephone x Haka F1 pods, Telephone x Haka F1 wild type flowers.

[Silverleaf]

Initially I plan to mass-select. Short plants and anything with white flowers will get culled (by being eaten), because they will never produce tall plants or violet flowers. I'll save seeds from all the tall violet plants together, and all the tall purples together.

The tall purples will be a kind of backup, because there's a really good chance of them throwing up tall violets in future generations if I need them.

The tall violets will be what I'll sow next year, and continue to sow until they stabilise. I'll keep culling the short plants and the white plants and only save from violets.

And lastly I'll select for taste once they are mostly stabilised.

[jayb]

Seriously pretty, good luck with these. You are going to have such a lovely pea year

Have you sown yet?

[Silverleaf]

Not yet! Need to pick up some fleece first, because otherwise the blackbirds will dig the seeds up looking for worms. I should get them in over the weekend though.

[Silverleaf]

Fleece is here! Peas can go in tomorrow.

[Galina]

That's brave direct sowing with rare seeds - very good luck! Yes it is such a lovely shade and to have that in a tall plant that tastes good is something to look forward to. Enough plants to see that type with ease.

[Silverleaf]

I know! But I don't have room for 700-ish pea plants indoors...

If the worst happens, I can always regrow the parents and do the crosses again. I'd lose two years, but it's not like it would be impossible to recreate.

I'm confident though, because I've never had problems with mice/voles/etc.

[jayb]

Hope nothing bothers them.
Unfortunately mice and voles are a problem here. I saw some bigger foot prints in the mud a few weeks back, oh joy.
The black birds and possibly pheasants destroyed many of my experimentals last year (those that the dog missed!) by either plucking out the newly emerging shoots or dust bathing. I need to rethink my strategy for this year and get a move on.

[Silverleaf]

My only problems are cats using the beds as a toilet, and blackbirds digging in search of worms. Both are mostly taken care of by fleecing until the plants are big enough to cope.

I suppose all the cats are taking care of the mice!

[jayb]

I should have fleeced last year, but to my loss didn't! We have lots of birds of prey including owls, but very few cats, must make all the difference.

[Silverleaf]

4 cats visit regularly, several more I see occasionally, and there's a black-and white one we've nicknamed Mono that practically lives in our garden!

[jayb]

Is Mono the one we've seen pictures of a little while back (probably on A4A)? I remember thinking he looked gorgeous.

[Silverleaf]

No, sadly I haven't seen the lovely friendly cat for a long time now. I hope their owner moved away, rather than the alternative.

Mono lives two houses away and seems well cared for, but is hardly ever in the house, preferring my fairly wild garden. It's a nice cat, reserved but starting to warm to me now and happy to be petted when it's in the mood.

[jayb]

Shame he was such a handsome visitor, I reckon they moved

Lol, you two must really give off cat welcome signs and so cool to have them as friendly visitors without the hassles.I'm guessing your bunnies are well protected?

[Silverleaf]

Bunnies live inside so they are absolutely fine.

I think we get so many cats here because the garden is quite large for a suburban one and we're on a corner so have a lot of gardens adjoining ours (at least 9). Ours is a haven away from dogs and children too - definitely been more cat activity since we lost Summer.