Hi all,
I'm off and running for this years grow, although I got a late start, life gets in the way. My wife has been going through chemotherapy for leukemia (ALL, for those who know anything about it) so my attentions were focused on her more than the garden. With that said, I popped a bunch of seeds from last years cross of Moroccan Beldia x Rasol Village landraces. I got 100% germination using wet paper towel tek, and all are in pots now and starting out life as they should. Although it seems like I started late, they are growing right along in time with the "volunteer" seeds that fell in the soil last year.
One nice surprise that I've got is a triple leaf set, something I've read about but not seen in the past. After breaking soil, there were three cotyledons instead of the expected 2, and subsequent layers are growing in three instead of just two. Of course google results are all over the map, with some people claiming this is a sign of polyploidy or triploidy, and others saying it's just a neat freak that happens sometimes, although those who have grown them consistently claim it's sure to be a female plant. Time will tell, but at least it seems to be growing healthy for now.
The two attached photos are about 5 days apart, I'd be interested to hear if anyone has grown such a plant in the past. Not that it will have any impact on my plans, I'm going to grow everything out, looking forward to how they all come out, but this one in particular.