saving seeds using woven bags
A quick tip – i have found it very effective to use those cheap and abundant woven fabric shopping bags for saving seeds.
In these photos I was just processing some Italian Kale seed clusters. The seeding clusters grow quite high on this kale and sit off the top of the plant and are hard to handle and dry off in any other way without losing a lot of seed.
Usually I just leave them on the plant till the first seed pods start to brown off a little and look ripe and make sure they have some viable seed in them. Then I just cut the whole fruiting spike off the top of the plant and stick it top down into a large woven bag like this one and then hang it up in a dry space in a shed or garage space for a few weeks.
The seed heads dry out nicely in these bags and as long as there is some ok air movement they just desiccate perfectly.
You then just take them down and thrash the seed pods and old growth about inside the bag and all the seed drops to the bottom. I usually get some gloves on and just rub the dry matter till it is totally crushed and then just throw it out as I work down to the seed at the bottom.
You can then tip the remains into a large bowl of some sort and thresh it about a bit and eventually you end up with a fairly high seed content which can be labelled and bagged for next year or planted out directly in seedling trays.
Given that these bags are very cheap and plentiful and easy to handle and hang up, you can store many seed heads for a long time ready for processing till you want to. I find at the end of autumn I will have up to about 20+ of these bags hanging about drying often I just leave them hanging till spring and plant them out directly.
They are remarkably effective at drying if hung in a good spot.
I use them for the Kales, rocket, spinach, chard, carrots, parsley. mizuna, mibuna, radishes etc and also for drying out broad beans and others beans, peas and other such seeding plants.
They are also excellent for processing onions and garlic etc which need a good drying space. I just find laying the alliums all out on drying mesh etc in our unpredictable weather too space and time consuming.
Gastrodia sesamoides
Gastrodia sesamoides – Australian native potato orchid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrodia_sesamoides
Its leafless and saprophytic, so you only see it when it flowers or you dig it up accidentally.
The spikes are quite minimal but attractive when the flowers open.
Our backyard has been fully converted for some 10 years to growing mainly native plants. We have a lot of these orchids growing wild now along with a number of other native ground orchids including various green hoods, caladenia etc. I have been spreading them about the place each year as I find them and there are now about 4-5 significant clumps and about 15-20 other single plants moving about as they wish in the garden. They move location frequently and quickly each season and grow to the size of a small potato [about 10cm long and 2-3cm thick] once growing happy in the environment. You often find about 2-3 of them near each other – I assume they may break up or split or something – its hard to tell as they are mostly moving about underground about 5 cm below the surface in the soil. The flower spikes are about up to 1 meter high once mature and growing strong. They have a very slight scent when they first open in the morning.
They are coming to the end of flowering in December this year.
Please excuse the grass and aluminium plant weeds etc there in the clump photo 
it’s hard to stay on top of that stuff all the time.
Solanum
Solanum is a mysterious group of plants that include potatoes, tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplants and a whole lot of strange berries. Although this is a pretty big genus there are only a few of them that will grow in the local climate here. I have found growing some either inside for most of the year or at least inside the cold glasshouse I have is the only possible way.
They seem to like sun with heat and never too damp and cold. it’s very hard to grow the Australian native ones especially here as it’s just too damp and cold for a lot of the year. They just drop leaves and die at the slightest damp cold period. I have found growing them inside in a very bright dry space on a watering tray seems best and keeps them moving and the fungus and mould from affecting them.
Our growing season is too short for really big crops of Tomatoes and Tomatillos although this varies year to year and the placement in the garden.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanum
The plants I’m growing:
Potatoes – Solanum tuberous - We have a selection of about 20 varieties grown mainly in individual containers. These keep the varieties topped up and growing and then I focus on 1 or two that are grown in larger containers each year so that they can be eaten.
Favourites include Sapphire, Dutch Cream, Purple Congo, Kipfler, King Edward, pink fir, banana.
Tomatoes – Solanum lycopersicum - These are grown in the ground and I usually save the seed for the ones that keep coming back strong. We grow a lot of the small to tiny varieties due to their great taste and also they tend to grow faster and fruit more effectively with a short growing season that we often have here.
Favourites include the Thai pink, tiny tom, black russian, green zebra and the tiny riesentraube
Tomatillos - Solanum - see mexican flavours post – growing about 3 different varieties
Eggplants - Solanum melongena - several varieties but mainly small sizes
Eggplant Ethiopian - Solanum aethiopicum – given to me by someone who spotted it at a food market in Sydney – first year growing 2011
Tamarillos – Solanum betaceum - growing red and yellow varieties in cold glasshouse and both seem pretty happy
Pepino - Solanum muricatum – perennial but need to keep propagating by cutting as they tend to die quickly when stressed by cold
Wonder berry - Solanum retroflexum - fairly easy to grow and fruit
Golden fruit of the andes - Solanum quitoense - large fruit and crazy coloured leaves and plant yet to fruit – also known as naranjilla
Kangaroo apple – probably Solanum aviculture - struggling to survive
I would like to grow bush tomatoes but it’s too cold and damp here.
Also growing other plants in same Solanaceae family such as cape gooseberries but limiting myself here to the genus.
Tamarillo - Solanum betaceum
Golden fruit of the andes - Solanum quitoense - naranjilla
Wonder berry - Solanum retroflexum
lavender
Lavender - Lavandula genus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender
I’m growing a wide range of these plants and have built up a good sized collection. I have a large collection of the most commonly available species and varieties of them. But there are lots of species in other groups that I just can’t find or get a cutting of. They are generally very hardy but don’t like heavy frosts or extended damp conditions. Otherwise they are close to being xerophytes and thrive on neglect and being left alone. They like being lightly fed with dynamic lifter while in growth and hate water on them in winter when mostly dormant. I grow them generally in a gravel/soil mixture and with free drainage and scatter slow release granules round them if they are in pots.
Lanata and Latifolia are a pain to cultivate as cuttings. Best to do this only in mid spring while in full growth.
Dentata is extremely hardy and often is in flower here even in winter under snow.
Pinnata and canariensis are under rated and have both an intense flower colour and are in flower for long periods.
Cuttings can be taken either in spring or autumn for best results. These are so effective there is no need for seeds generally.
For best fragrance use the Angustifolia flower seed capsules left behind directly after flowering which are full of oil.
Viridis and some of the very dark purple flowering stoechas are really sticky to touch and seem to exude oil on their leaves and stems as well as flowers.
Stoechas group [often called Italian - Spanish - Portugese]
- Stoechas
- Kew red
- a very intense dark purple
- Alba large and small (nana)
- Avonview, marshwood etc
- Pedunculata
- Viridis
Dentata [often called French]
- Dentata
- Dentata var candicans
Angustifolia Group [often called English]
- Angustifolia – alba, rosea
- Latifolia
- Lanata
Hybrids
- Intermedia – Angustifolia – latifolia
- heterophylla - Angustifolia - dentata
- allardii - Angustifolia - dentata
Pterostoechis group
- Pinnata
- Sidonie – hard to tell if this is multifida or pinnata as it looks like a cross to me.
- Multifida
- Canariensis
Lavandula Dentata var candicans [note silver hair]
Lavandula Dentata
Mixed bag of sidonie, pinnata and multifida
cape gooseberry
Cape gooseberry - Physalis_peruviana - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physalis_peruviana
Perennial but short lived vine like soft herby plant from Andes in South America
The fruit is a small berry that is marble sized [about 1cm+] and bright orange when ripe. It grows inside a small papery calyx enclosure.
It is a solanum and closely related to the Tomatillo and Chinese lantern plants.
It does not need a lot of attention and appears to grow in a wide variety of climates. It likes warmth and sun and water and some food. I grow it inside a cold glasshouse in large pots but the main fruit appears on the parts of the plant where it hangs outside. I also have it growing ok in the garden area in pots all year round.
It is easy to propagate from seed and from cuttings.
It crops almost year long except in mid winter for about 2 months.
It was an important food crop in South Africa for some time.
It has a distinct taste – but tastes a bit like a white table grape and a little sour and citrusy and not much else. But it makes a nice addition to fresh fruit salads and other deserts, and can be used to make and interesting ice-cream. Apparently it makes an interesting jam but i have not tried this.
feijoa
Feijoa - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acca_sellowiana
Sometimes called pineapple guava or fruit salad guava due to the taste.
This is a really hardy and productive but under rated fruit tree.
The bush is an evergreen from the Andes in South America and grows to be a small tree or large bush. It can be hedged or grown as a small tree. The grow to about 3-4 metres high and wide eventually in good environments.
You need to let them ripen fully before eating them or they have a gritty sour taste. You eat the central pulp no the skin as this stays sour and gritty. When it’s brown and squishy it’s best. The fruit ripens off the tree so you can pick then and let them ripen in a bowl for about a week. They are soft to the touch and smell very fragrant when ripe.
Fruit will start to drop when ripe. So it’s a good idea to leave them till the first ones start to drop on the ground and get soft.
Goes well with apple and rhubarb or just ice-cream. The pulp freezes really well and seems to get better with time. The juice is great mixed with apple.
The flowers look very attractive and the petals can be eaten and taste quite good and sort of like cinamon.
I hand pollinate the flowers with a paint brush when I get the time, which helps, but they seem to flower and fruit profusely after about the 3rd year.
They flower and fruit mainly on the outside of the bush or where it’s best exposed to sunlight. So hedging is actually a good way to grow them as they continue to fruit on the outside of the hedge. They stay on the tree growing for a long time.
They seem to grow perfectly fine in a wide range of climates. We get snow for about 2 weeks of the year and temps above 35c for about 3-4 weeks of the year. This variation seems to suit them well.
They lots of food like dynamic lifter and compost that provides lots of nutrients. I also mulch underneath with lucerne.
They like lots of water to crop heavily but seem to get on ok with average rainfall.
The varieties vary a fair bit in size and taste.
They are almost impossible to grow from cutting unless you use the full propagation treatment with heating and gels etc. I have not successfully grown cutting yet after trying for several years. The seeds seem to germinate and grow ok but are very slow to germinate and grow to start with.
Growing up I remember sitting under small local trees or the ones we had growing as a hedge along a driveway at home, eating them by picking them up and breaking them in half and squishing the fruit pulp out. This about sums up the best way to eat them.
peas
Currently growing:
- snow pea – green and yellow - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_pea
- long pod climbers
- purple pod peas - http://glallotments.co.uk/Peas.aspx
- bush snap - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snap_pea
- chick Pea – actually a bean - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickpea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea
Planted in late July.
Producing peas end of september.
Birds – specifically Currawong and Bower birds – wait for them to get to about 1 cm height then dig them up and et them. I’ve lost about 200 this year that way! grr Probably because at the time there is not a lot of other food for them around.
pleione formosana
pleione formosana in flower in early October- a very nice ground orchid.
This is one of 3 pseudobulbs in a pot together that have flowered for the first time this year. It is a fairly intense purple colour right through. It is a little floppy and hangs over the side of the pot but possibly will be more vertical next year.
They are growing in a fairly good quality normal potting mixture combined with some Cymbidium potting bark mix, in a bright sunny spot where they are exposed to a lot of different weather including the odd bit of snow in winter and up to about 37 C degrees during summer.
There is a bunch or blue basol snail and slug bait scattered about on top of the pot to reduce damage at this time of the year. They love these flowers and growths.
Good reference site here : http://www.pleione.info/
beans
Beans – Phaseolus vulgaris & Broadbeans - Vicia Faba
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaseolus_vulgaris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicia_faba
I’m growing a wide variety but these are my favourites
Green Beans
- Runner – string
- Scarlet runner
- French – Stringless and snap
- Blue lake
- Painted Lady
- Purple king
- Lazy (House)wife
- Cherokee Wax
Shelling beans or dry beans
- Black Beans – commonly used in mexican burritos etc
Growing Black Turtle bean‘Quote’
It is also common to keep the boiled water of these beans (which acquires a black coloring) and consume it as a soup with other ingredients for seasoning (known as sopa negra, black soup), as a broth (caldo de frijol, bean broth) or to season or color other dishes (aforementioned gallo pinto, for example). - Borlotti or Roman beans
- Kidney beans – commonly used in chilli con carne
‘Quote’
Raw kidney beans, and some other beans, contain the toxin phytohaemagglutinin, which is destroyed by boiling for at least ten minutes. Dry beans must be boiled prior to slow cooking to avoid poisoning. Even a few beans can be toxic, and beans can be as much as five times more toxic if cooked at 175°F (80°C) than if eaten raw, so adequate preboiling is vital. - Flageolot beans
- Pinto beans – used commonly for refried beans
Broad beans – Vicia Faba – sometimes called fava
Growing black & white Egyptian and the magenta red flowered varieties
These are the Small pod Egyptian beans on 3 November with lots of pods
Chickpea – Cicer arietinum
Only has about 2-3 peas per pod
- Small dark variey grown in India, mexico, Ethiopia, Iran
- Larger white variety grown in chile, northern africa, southern europe
Mung beans – were previously classified as Phaseolus but are now a different genus.
mexican flavours
A summary of some Mexican style food flavour plants that I’m growing – or trying to grow…
Currently I’m trying to grow as wide a range as possible given the cold temperate climate where even growing tomatoes can sometime be a challenge due to the unpredictable conditions.
Most of these plants have to be grown inside or in my glasshouse for about 4-6 months of the year during winter as the minimum temp just drops too far down to keep them actively growing.
The core food items are:
- Maize
- Beans – Black and Pinto mainly
- Squash – mainly light green white speckled courgette or zucchini looking
- Peppers - Chilli – Chipotle is a dry cooked jalapeno chilli pepper
- Rice
- Tomatillo
- Tomato
- Origano
- Coriander – cilantro
- Eryngium
- Chayote [or Choko in Australia]
- Epazote
- Huauzontle
- Cinnamon
- Cocoa – chocolate
- Garlic
- Onions
- Avocado – including toasted leaves
- Honey
What I’m trying to grow
The photos are mainly of the seedlings or cuttings and simply to help identify them and seedling times.
Epazote Dysphania ambrosioides - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epazote
A very odd and distinctive taste sensation – has 2 parts to it like green coriander and mint with mustard overtones – then a dry followup on the palate a bit like kerosine but not unpleasant – somewhat similar to the hayshed characteristics that you get with a Pinot Noir wine or the kerosine flavour sometimes in Rieslings. Supposedly poisonous eaten in large amounts. You only need a leave or two added to Black beans to impart flavour. The leaves are used for making tea.
Previously known as Chenopodium ambrosioides
Eryngium – Coriander - Eryngium_foetidum - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eryngium_foetidum
Coriander – Cilantro – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriander
Tomatillo Physalis philadelphica - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatillo
Growing a largish purple and 2 green varieties.
Tomato Solanum - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato
Maize and Corn Zea Mays - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize
Growing Gold, Black, Red and the strawberry one for popping – but not sure if it is relevant here.
Chayote (or Choko in Australia) Sechium Edule - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayote
Chilli – Cayenne, Jalapeño, Serrano, Habenero
More note to come on these… photos above taken on 13 August
Huauzontle – Chenopodium nuttalliae - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huauzontle
Related to Quinoa the flowers are mainly used instead of the seed – a lot like broccoli. The leaves need to be cooked for about a minute to remove the oxalates and saponins.
