Forum Reopening: Greetings!

Hello!
I’m glad to see the forum reopening. I look forward to seeing people from the FB group migrate over here. Feel free to post introductions including roughly where you live on this topic. I’d love to see where others are growing!

I’m in the Seattle area myself, on a little suburban plot that I’ve been fixing up. I try to grow a little of everything and had a lot of fun with TPS, yacon, and mashua last season. This year I’ll be growing those as well as some other exotic things I’ve ordered like Manchu Tuber gourd!

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Yes, I hope it takes off, but it will take time.

I live in Southern Victoria, Australia. I had a rare and unusual vegetable farm for some years but now don’t have more than a backyard to grow things so I concentrate on a small amount of potato breeding and selection.

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I live on a patch of sandy loam at 46.66 north in Minnesota, USA. I’m right on the line between zone 3b and 4a, and with the sun coming up, it has warmed to -24 F (-31 C) so far this morning. I’ll be growing my first TPS this year.

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Wow I can’t even imagine that level of cold!

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Welcome to the forum! It will probably never be as busy as the Facebook group, but that’s OK. In the long run, more people will read what is on the forum even if they don’t actively participate. I still regularly find useful information in posts that were made more than a decade ago on forums, while social media forgets everything within a month.

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Greetings all!

Firstly, I would like to thank Cultivariable for all their efforts and specifically for reopening the forum.

As a non-user of what is being called “social media”, I find it invaluable to have forums to disseminate knowledge.

To frame myself, I am currently located in Northern Ohio, USA.
I have a particular affinity toward bulbous rooty things that can survive the harshness of winter.

I began a passionate interest in tending the earth and its various inhabitants in 2016 and have been growing in such endeavors continuously ever since.

Here in Northern Ohio, Potatoes do very well with little to 0 tending.
Most varieties I have seen have no trouble fruiting without any coercion.
I have yet to collect the seeds however, as I just let the fruits fall to self propagate.
Garlic also grows as a weed here and I find feral specimen from time to time.

I have moved more or less every year since exploring the depths of cultivation, so I often am restricted to growing in containers or if in the ground, a new growing space.
As such I haven’t really been able to yet explore the depths of a perennial garden space and on such topic I won’t be able to provide any knowledgable feedback.

However, I very much enjoy foraging in my locale and am very fortunate to have some amazing species very close to me.

In February of 2017 I discovered American Groundnuts on the bank of a local river and collected a few specimen to bring home and grow.
I have a bin of them that is still thriving.
I have yet to find any seedpods in the wild and of the ones I am tending, I have only seen 1 fruit which died before any seeds matured.
I am not so much sure as to if it is due to ploidyness (such genetics I have yet to grasp) or if it is due to the local weather patterns.
Such time of year when the plants begin to flower is when we have our greatest period of drought.

I also have many Wild Leeks in my area such that during the spring I can eat some 20 leaves a day without a visible dent.
I know of acres in the spring that are a sea of green of nothing but such leeks.
Furthermore, I collect and spread the seeds.
I am currently in the process of tending a Wild Leek which sprouted from seed alongside a wild Spicebush that I transplanted.
If anyone has interest in Wild Leek seeds, feel free to contact me.

As well as such, I have been experimenting with “Hog Peanuts”.
The propagating habits of them are particularly fascinating to me in my own quest for sustainable food plants for a full future.
I have yet to collect enough to eat however, and have no comment yet on the subject.

Carrots grow well here also and with ever warming winters will probably continue to do better and better.
I have yet to collect any carrot seeds, although with “Wild Carrot” being so pervasive I am curious as to what end yields will be.

I ordered Oca in 2017 from Cultivariable and have been able to keep a few specimen alive since then.
A-amazing how the tiniest root (not even a bulb!) can grow in to a full fledged plant, eh?!
Here the greatest difficulty in growing Oca are the plants consistently getting dug up by squirrels.
They don’t seem to eat them, just really enjoy digging around in the loamy dirt which I grow rooty plants in.

As for less fortune, I haven’t had much of what I would call success with true Peanuts up here.
I personally have much trouble getting onions to germinate and grow in this region, whilst others in my same region have many successes.

Generally, I am a “soil-based” grower and am ever-exploring ways to enhance the fertility of earth by creating densely diverse communities above and below the soil.
In the essence of mimicking nature, I have a keen interest on companion planting through seed-broadcasting and experimentation as well as soil building through drop-and-chop and tending to the needs of the fungal communities.
To be a bit boastful, I would say that the overwhelming majority of weeds in my garden are directly beneficial to my garden and in many cases were tended plants from various past cultures.
Goosefoot immediately comes to mind.
My favorite weed is tomatillos with groundcherries and tomatoes coming in a close second.

When it comes to seed collecting and growing successive generations, I have the most experience with Sunflowers.
To leave with something useful: Oca grows well here in the understory of Sunflowers.

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