2026 Garden Breeding Projects
Spinach Grex Year 2
Last year, I grew several types of spinach
| Spinach | Type |
|---|---|
| Equinox | Open Pollinated |
| Space | F1 Hybrid |
| Seaside | F1 Hybrid |
| LS Bloomsdale | Open Pollinated |
| Viroflay | Open Pollinated |
I allowed them to naturally cross with each other and saved the seed. I didn’t grow spinach this spring, but this fall I will plant the seed collected, along with the original acquired seeds of each variety.
I am also going to add in two landraces acquired from EFN
Spinach plants are dioecious - each plant is either male or female. To produce seed, the female plants need to receive pollen from male plants. This makes them very likely to create natural hybrid varieties. Each row will have mixed cultivars, in order to encourage further mixing.
- Grex
- means flock and involves a mixture of plant varieties growing together and encouraged to cross-pollinate.
Bacterial Wilt Resistant Cucumbers
We have a major striped cucumber beetle issue at my garden. For years, the only way I’ve been able to be successful is by covering with insect netting. The issue is the bacterial wilt - even when plants can withstand the damage, they are die from bacterial wilt.
One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that they don’t seem to touch cucuamelon (mexican sour gherkin).
I acquired some H-19 little leaf cucumber seedlings this year. H19 little leaf is an open pollinated variety, that supposedly is resistant to bacterial wilt. I believe it’s moreso that it’s resistant to cucumber beetles, which are the vector for bacterial wilt. I am trying to grow them without cover and on a trellis. As of 7/13 they were alive and well.
I also purchased a cucumber grex from the Experimental Farm Network called Bhutan meets greg . It’s a mixture of a lot of varieties. The color varies, some of them are Bhutanese heirlooms (with brown skin). I plan to sow as many of these as I can, out in the open, and see what survives. Any that survive will either be crossed with H-19 Little Leaf or allowed to pollinate openly. Hopefully through repeating this process I can end up with a population that is more capable of surviving through bacterial wilt
Luffah Grex
I love growing luffah - it’s one of my favorite things to grow.
I was super excited to try Meikah’s luffah grex this year. However, I’ve had a really hard time getting them to germinate. As of today, only one has germinated. It’s doing well and I’m excited to see what type of fruit it produces. I’m thinking next year I need to scarify the seeds better.