Basil comparison

Last summer I trialed some different basil (Ocimum basilicum) varieties.  The seeds were all planted on the same day, once they germinated and grew a little the seedlings were all planted out on the same day.  The difference in growth was rather amazing.  I should have put something in the pictures for scale but didn't.

I also grew a few other basils, but they were not part of this comparison, or the seeds were planted at a different time, or they were grown from cuttings, so I have not included them here.

Lettuce Leaf 185
I liked this one, good taste, nice basil smell, nice large leaf, productive.  I should grow this one again.

USSR 87
Good taste, good size leaf, not productive enough for my liking.

Usbekistan 146
The purple splodge looked nice, but they were not very productive and smelled too much like licorice for my liking.

Gigante
This was ok, slow to produce well

Dwarf Greek Basil
Strangely productive for a little plant, flowered very late, tiny little leaves, great taste.

Lettuce leaf 180
Not very large leaves for a 'lettuce leaf' type.  Flowered too early.

Grand Vert de Genes
Already flowering in this picture.  Too much work trying to remove flowers.

Mexican
Not productive, look how tiny it was.  I probably won't grow this one again.

Minette
Grew larger than greek dwarf.  Very productive with little leaves.  Great taste.

Genovese
Large plants, very productive, great taste, large leaves.  I like this, it is the benchmark that I compare all other basil to.

Skirret plants Australia

I have had a few questions about skirret lately so thought I would write a post to answer them.  Skirret (Sium sisarum) is a rare perennial root vegetable that should be grown more widely by home gardeners.  I have written a few blog posts on skirret before, you can use the 'search' button at the top right side of the page to find them.

Skirret was once grown and eaten throughout Europe, then fell out of fashion when vegetables such as the potato were brought back from the new world.  Now, especially in Australia, almost no one has ever heard of skirret, let alone eaten it.  It is too bad because skirret tastes amazing.

Skirret can be planted as a seed in spring, it produces a crop, flowers and produces more seed all in one year.  Not many perennial vegetables can produce a crop this quick from seed grown.  Skirret plants also produce offsets, so when the plant dies down over winter the offsets can be divided, the seeds can be planted and you can increase the number of plants that you have.  Skirret seed shows a surprising amount of genetic diversity, that combined with how many seeds it sets, plus its perennial nature, makes breeding improved skirret varieties relatively simple.

Skirret likes water and thrives in cool climates, if in a hot climate it grows well enough if given more water.  It can survive with less water, but does not crop well.  You really can't over water skirret.

Skirret roots, it was the end of the season when I had eaten all the large roots that I remembered to take a picture, many were a bit longer than this

Skirret is dormant over winter, no matter how cold it gets here the plants always survive.  We have had frosts below -8C this last winter and my plants were completely undamaged.  Skirret flowers attract beneficial insects to the garden, they seem to be visited often by wasps.  I have never had any pests damage my skirret other than snails and slugs when it is very small.

Young skirret plants

Skirret is very simple to grow, productive, and tastes great, but it is not suited to mechanical harvest and the roots don't store well once dug so will never be a main crop anywhere.  The amazing taste, ease of growth and high yield means that it is well suited to home growers.  Being perennial means it can be left to do its own thing and just dug up at harvest time.  We dig up roots when we need them for a meal, anything we leave behind we will either dig up later, or if we miss it this year it will continue to grow larger for next year.

Skirret is such an amazing vegetable that everyone who I have given some to has loved it.  Kids even love the taste of skirret.  I have never heard of anyone eat some and not love it.

Skirret leaves, stems and seeds can be eaten, and they are not without their charm, but it is the roots that are the main crop here.  The roots can be eaten raw, and they are ok, much like a sweet crunchy carrot, but skirret is far better roasted.  It is easily the best tasting roasted vegetable that I have eaten.  It doesn't need to be peeled, just scrub off the soil and roast away.  Skirret tastes incredibly sweet and rich once roasted.

Skirret plants - crowded but still good

Most people plant skirret about 30 cm apart, or about 9 per square meter, as this gives them plenty of room to grow.  I plant them far closer than that.  I am limited by the amount of space I have, I am not limited by the number of plants.  The yield per plant declines when planted too close like this, but the yield per area is increased. 

Skirret starting to flower in late summer

Skirret roots can have a woody core.  This is mostly seen in young plants or plants that have not had enough water over the growing season.  I have culled pretty hard and most of my plants no longer have any woody core at all.  I am hoping to completely eliminate the woody genes from my population and only grow superior plants.  I don't know if I will ever achieve this as I don't know anything about the genes that cause woodiness.

Skirret also seems to be good when planted near leek.  The skirret is the same, but the leeks appear to grow faster and larger.  I should do some little tests to see if this was just a coincidence.

Where to buy skirret in Australia
Not many places in Australia have skirret for sale, hopefully that changes as skirret is a delicious vegetable that is well suited to growing at home.  Skirret needs some breeding work done to make the roots fatter.  I sell skirret offsets over winter, small plants over spring, and seeds all year.  They are listed on my for sale page if you are interested.

Land Cress as a Cabage White Butterfly Dead End Trap Crop

Land Cress (Barbarea vulgaris) is also known as Upland Cress, American cress, Rocketcress,  Bittercress,Yellow Rocket, and has a few other common names.  Common names can be deceptive, for example a sea horse is not related to a horse and a sea cucumber is an animal and not even a plant, so always try to go by the binomial name when buying plants to ensure you get what you want.

Cabbage White Butterfly is a major pest of brassicas in Australia and many other countries.  They quickly decimate brassica crops and controlling them organically can be problematic.  There are a lot of superstitious myths about controlling them which do not work, as well as a few techniques that help quite a lot.

We have controlled cabbage white butterfly in the past by using white strips of plastic (cut from a white plastic bag), tied in the middle to a piece of string, so it looks like a lot of white butterflies are flapping around.  This results in less butterflies laying eggs on your plants, apparently the butterflies do not want to lay where there are heaps of other butterflies to help ensure their young will have enough food.  It does not completely eradicate the pest, but it lowers the numbers to a level where they can be picked off by hand each day.  This has worked well for me many times in the past.  This is a lot of work unless it is a very small area, and if you fall ill a day or two the caterpillars sometimes eat out your crop, surely there is a better way!

I have heard people claim that egg shells will deter cabbage white butterflies as they also think it is other butterflies.  I have tried this several times and had no noticeable difference.  Not only has this never worked for me, but birds tend to steal the egg shells.  Before you ask, no, the birds did not make any noticeable effect on the butterfly population but they often caused damage in the garden.  This appears to be one of those superstitious garden myths that fill gardening books, are spouted by people who should know better, and actually prevent people from growing food organically.

Many people claim that Upland Cress can be used as a dead end trap crop for cabbage white butterfly.  They claim that the butterflies are attracted to land cress, they lay the eggs there instead of on other brassica crops.  Once the eggs hatch the young caterpillars are meant to bite the leaf and some toxin kills them, other places claim that the caterpillars can't eat the upland cress so they die.  The information varies between sources, but the cabbage white butterfly caterpillars are not meant to survive and grow to be able to complete their life cycle.

This sounds like a perfect solution to cabbage white butterflies.  I was extremely excited when I first heard about this.  I did some research so ensure that it was Barbarea vulgaris that was referred to and not some other plant with the common name of 'land cress'.

I bought some Barbarea vulgaris seeds and planted them near some other brassicas.  I have done this twice now with the same result.

I wanted to see if Barbarea vulgaris:
1) prevented cabbage white butterflies from laying eggs on other brassica plants
2) killed the young caterpillars
3) prevented the caterpillars from completing their lifecycle.

Achieving any of these things would be fantastic as it means that upland cress could be used as a way to reduce cabbage white butterfly damage.  I will break down my experience under similar headings so other you can learn from my mistakes.

1) Does Upland cress prevent cabbage white butterflies laying eggs on other crops.
No.  My upland cress certainly attracts the butterflies and they lay eggs on it.  Unfortunately they also lay eggs on all the other brassicas in my garden apart from water cress (which was somewhat protected).  If the upland cress kills the young caterpillars it could be used to lower the numbers of cabbage white butterflies and be of some benefit.

Land cress with cabbage white butterfly larvae and frass

2) Does Upland Cress kill Cabbage White Butterfly Caterpillars when they feed on it?
No.  The eggs hatch and the caterpillars happily eat it to the ground leaving nothing but tiny stems.  The picture above shows some growing and it has third instar caterpillars on it.  This means that they not only can survive on upland cress, they can grow on it too.  Perhaps they will eat out the cress but some chemical in its leaves will prevent them from completing their lifecycle.  I decided to leave some caterpillars to see what would happen.

3) Does Upland cress prevent cabbage white butterfly from completing its lifecycle?
No.  The caterpillars grow and pupate into butterflies, thus completing the lifecycle and rendering upland cress useless as a bio-control for cabbage white butterfly.


Upland Cress does not control cabbage white butterfly

Clearly Upland cress does NOT kill cabbage white butterfly larvae and can not be used as an effective means of controlling this pest.  I had such high hopes that this would be used as a way of at least lowering the number of cabbage white butterflies or lessening their damage.  I guess I could grow upland cress and pick off the caterpillars, but I could grow any brassica and do the same so upland cress provides no benefit here whatsoever.  I am very disappointed by this result.

Some very reputable sources claim that Barbarea vulgaris works as a dead end trap for cabbage white butterfly, but as I have demonstrated clearly it doesn't work under all situations.  Thanks for nothing Gardening Australia and Jerry Colby Williams!  Thanks for nothing seed sellers who have a vested interest.  They should know better and stop spreading this nonsense.  This is one of the reasons why I try not to read organic gardening books or magazines, they are often filled with inaccuracies such as this that cause far more harm than good.

Upland cress is useless against cabbage white butterfly

Apparently there is research that suggests that Upland Cress (Barbarea vulgaris) does control cabbage white butterfly under certain situations.  I have not read this research myself so don't know under what specific circumstances it has worked.  Unfortunately it does not work in my garden, so there is more to it than simply growing upland cress to control these butterflies.  Perhaps there is some predator or some disease or something else that is at work that is simply not present in my garden.

Regardless, upland cress does not control cabbage white butterflies in my garden and there is no guarantee it will be any different in yours.

Fake Blue Venus Flytrap Seeds and other FAKE ebay seeds

I have written several  posts about commonly sold ebay seeds that do not exist: blue and black strawberries, blue roses, blue watermelons, and more fake ebay seeds.  Please have a look at them, they may help you stop ebay thieves selling you seeds that don't exist.

I have had a few messages about fake ebay seeds, so decided to do yet another post in the hoped that perhaps I can help people not get taken advantage of.

Below are some pictures that I have found on actual ebay listings, many of them have made a lot of money from selling fake seeds that don't exist.  Others claim to sell seeds of things that do exist (such as orchids), but they will actually send you some other seeds.  By the time you grow them out and notice something is wrong it is far too late for you to do anything about it.


Fake Blue Venus Fly Trap Seed
Blue venus fly traps look awesome, unfortunately blue venus flytraps DO NOT exist.  Someone got pictures of green venus flytraps, digitally tinkered with the colours, and then use them to steal money from people.  I know a bit about breeding venus flytraps, and I know a little about breeding blue things, and I can say with complete confidence that blue venus flytraps not only don't exist but they will never exist.

Some people buy these fake ebay seeds in bulk and then on sell them at a profit.  This is illegal as they don't exist.  If you do this you are not only profiting from someone else's crime, you are also committing a crime.  Being ignorant doesn't mean that you are not acting illegally.  Stop doing it!

Blue Venus Flytrap do NOT exist

Blue Venus Fly Trap - beautiful and does NOT exist

Amazing colourful berries
Some of these colours exist, but many don't.  Anyone who is selling seed of things that don't exist can't be trusted.  Blue raspberries kind of exist, as do purple ones but they look nothing like these pictures.  Red raspberries and yellow raspberries do exist.  Unfortunately people sell seeds of red raspberries and claim that they are yellow, and by the time you work it out it is too late to do anything about it.

This blue and this purple and this green do not exist!

Rare Buddha fruit tree
There are several listings on ebay for seeds of rare buddha fruit tree seed and similar things.  The photos are genuine and mostly have not been tinkered with.  These fruit have been grown in plastic moulds, as the fruit grows it squishes into that shape.  Spending lots of money to buy seeds is a waste of time, you can buy moulds of heaps of shapes!

Rare Buddha fruit seeds do NOT exist

Plastic fruit moulds DO exist, feel free to buy and use them

These pumpkins were grown in moulds to make this shape

These plastic moulds CAN turn cucumbers into fun shapes!

Amazing colourful pumpkins
Ebay thieves sell pumpkin seeds and show the following picture.  The blue, green, purple and this yellow do not exist.  As the seller is selling a mix of different types and some don't exist who knows what they will actually send you.  If you want random un-named pumpkin seeds please don't fund these thieves, get a pumpkin from the supermarket and plant its seeds.

Blue pumpkins don't exist

Hybrid fruit
Hybrid fruit does exist, almost all fruit you know of is a hybrid of a hybrid, but the picture below is not of hybrid fruit.  I have seen this picture in legitmate places and I have seen someone on ebay take the picture and claim that they are selling seeds of it.  Hopefully people are smarter than to be taken in by this.  This image has been changed digitally

Hybrid fruit like this do NOT exist

'Watermelon man' seeds do NOT  exist

Rainbow eucalyptus (Eucalyptus deglupta)
Also known as the rainbow gum tree.  This tree exists and grows in tropical places, it is the only eucalypt that is native to the northern hemisphere.  As the bark peels off it leaves patches of colour.  The colous are never very brilliant outside of its natural range.  Most people who claim to sell seeds of this are selling fake seeds.  In the off chance you get actual seeds it takes many years before you see any colour at all.  Don't fund ebay thieves, don't buy seeds of these! 

Blue Bamboo
These Ebay thieves claim to be selling seed for blue bamboo. Don't the pictures look stunning?  Unfortunately blue bamboo does not exist.  Most bamboo rarely flowers and sets seed, some types only flower once every 100 years!  Who knows what seeds these ebay thieves will actually send, the only thing you can be certain of is that it will NOT be blue bamboo.

Blue bamboo does NOT exist

Blue bamboo - beautiful and digitally enhanced

Orchid seeds for sale
Wow, where do I start...the short version is NEVER buy orchid seeds from anywhere EVER.

There are some amazing orchids, and orchids can and do produce seeds, this is true so far.  Technically speaking, orchids can be grown from seed.

In reality, growing orchids from seed is incredibly difficult.  Many require aseptic tissue culture techniques, others require intricate mycorrhizal interactions to ever germinate, others need various treatments with specific acids in the right dose at the right time etc.

Some orchids look amazing, and while they grow in the wild they have never been grown by collectors or enthusiasts.  The flying duck orchid (Caleana major) is an example of this.  I have seen them in the wild, they are lovely, but have never heard of anyone being able to grow them successfully long term.  If someone does grow them successfully they will NOT sell seeds of them as germinating orchid seeds is beyond the abilities of a backyard grower.  I don't need to tell you but if you have the skills and technology required to grow orchid seeds you certainly won't be buying them from ebay.

Actual orchid seeds are tiny, very tiny, so tiny they are difficult to see.  If you ever get fooled into buying orchid seeds, and the seeds are not ridiculously tiny, then you have been sold a fake.  I found a picture comparing actual orchid seed to some ebay fake orchid seeds.

NEVER buy seed of tiny orchids

You won't grow orchids like this from seed

Fake seeds on the left, real orchid seeds on the right (look how tiny).  Look close, they are tiny specks!

Flying duck orchid (Caleana major) exists, do NOT buy seeds for them as you won't get them to germinate

Fake Berry seeds on ebay
Will the ebay thieves stop at nothing?  They claim to sell seeds from one type of berry, but show a picture of another.  They change the colours digitally.  They offer growing notes that are nonsensical garbage.

It drives me crazy as berry seed is not difficult to produce if you have a plant, and many berries are not overly difficult to grow from seed, but it is difficult to find anyone that actually sells berry seeds.  Please don't buy any berry seed from ebay!

EDIT TO ADD: I have recently found out that in some places mulberries are also occasionally called 'blackberries' and that sometimes this may cause confusion.  The pictures below were from people trying to use this confusion of common names to deliberately deceive people and steal from them.  The descriptions from the ads below were clearly referring to Rubus plants and NOT any form of trees.  These people are the worst kind of thief, they know that there is confusion and they try to cash in on it.

The ebay thieves call this "Thornless blackberry" seeds - but this picture is of mulberries!!!

Ebay thieves were selling seed of "Long blackberries" - these are also mulberries!

Another ebay thief selling "Thornless Blackberry seeds" - two are the same picture of mulberries that have had colours digitally altered, one picture is of raspberries, what seed will these ebay thieves actually send?

The thieves call this "wholesale mulberry seed" - these are not mulberries AND the colours have been altered

The list goes on and on...
This list is not by any means all of the fake seeds that are being sold on ebay.  I have made a few other posts on fake ebay seeds, they are all labelled with  "things that don't exist".  If you click on that label on the top right hand side of this page you should be directed to the other posts I have made on fake ebay seeds.

This kind of theft frustrates me.  It means that it is more difficult for me to track down rare or unusual plants.  It means that people are less likely to buy any of the unusual plants or seeds I sell.  By putting up blog posts like this my page seems to have dropped way down on google searches (probably because of all the photos of fake things that I got from actual ebay ads).  Hopefully I have helped a few people not get taken advantage of!

As always, if you are one of these ebay thieves, or someone who works for ebay, feel free to leave a comment and try to justify your deception.