The rainy day allowed me to work in the normally too-hot hoop house and trellis the trial tomatoes (two rows reaching the ceiling on either side in the back) and the seedling dahlias (about 90 plants down the middle). The tall plants on the left in the foreground are Molokhia or Jute (Corchorus olitorius), and those on the right in the foreground are Roselle or Bissap (Hibiscus sabdariffa). I'm experimenting to see if growing them in the hoop house is a viable way to get seed from them, as neither go to seed well in this climate, despite growing well for leaf harvest. #Hibiscussabdariffa #corchorusolitorius #seedkeeping #seedlingdahlias #dahliaseedlings #trialtomatoes #roselle #bissap #jute #molokhia #egyptianspinach #jewsmallow (at Delaware County, Pennsylvania)

Up-potting dahlia seedlings and admiring their babiest of tubers beginning to take shape. The fun thing about dahlias, like apples, is you never know what the plant will produce when grown from seed - 100 plants from the same parent will likely all have different foliage and flowers. Dahlias are an Aztec food crop - the tubers are for eating, but hundreds of years of breeding for pretty flowers has caused a drift in genetics away from tasty large tubers (with some exceptions). #acocotli #watercane #dahlia #dahliaseedlings #babytuber #octoploid #transposons #aztecfood