Seeds from Siberia

Seeds of turnip (Brassica rapa)

Early december I visited Irkutsk in eastern Siberia. As you may expect, I have brought some seeds back home. I was happily surprised to find an easy accessible and an rich variety of garden seeds in the shops. The turnip seeds I purchased are the former famous ‘Petrovskaja’ and the variety ‘Djetskaja Metja’ (childrens dream), looking to me like ‘Goldball’.

Seeds of pepper (Capsicum annuum)

I hope it’s the earliest varieties I brought home. I’m excited to learn if they are early enough to grow in open ground in my garden. Could it be that just one or two of the peppers or eggplants will be earlier than I seen in other varieties?
Two of the peppers are “housepeppers”, used in Siberia to grow on the window sill. One of those are a F1 hybrid, needing a dehybridizing to be stabilised, if I’m to grow it on in future generations.

Seeds of eggplant (Solanum melongena)

In the shop I didn’t find time to spell my way through all the kyrillic letters. Therefore I had a great laugh, as I later read “Blek Bjuti” on an eggplant seed batch, as I realised it is the wellknown “Black Beauty”. Luckily I also have a white variety, “Vkus Gribov”, translating in to “Taste of Mushroom”. With this name it can hardly be anything but an original russian variety, or at least from one of the neighboring slavic countries.

 

Second eggplant harvest of the year

Second eggplant harvest of the year from greenhouse

Now it’s time to harvest eggplants again. Skorospely with the small oblong fruits have three fruits ready. Rima F1 and Almaz give their first fruit. Rima F1 is the largest fruit, almost supermarket size. A fantastic variety, but a F1 hybrid. I can’t save the seeds and grow the same variety from them next year. I don’t know if I can save live seeds from it at all.

More posts on eggplant

 

First little eggplant

Skorospely Solanum melongena

The first little eggplant in the greenhouse have sized enough to make me wonder if its time to harvest. Since I’m unfamiliar with the many varieties I try, it can be a bit tricky to know when it’s time to harvest. It might be as peppers, where it’s helpfull to harvest first fruits early, to get a larger harvest later.
The russian name Skorospely is most appropriate, as it means “early”. I must remember to harvest seeds from this variety.