Pink Dandelion

Pink dandelions (Taraxacum pseudoroseum) are probably a little different than you may think.  Pink dandelions are available in Australia, I have been growing them for a few years.  They are a pretty little flower that should be grown more commonly.  

I wrote an earlier post on pink dandelions and after growing them for a few years thought it may be time to do an update.  All of the photos on this post are of my plants, you will notice that there is a bit of diversity in colours, this is mostly due to the age of the flower.  

Pink Dandelion

I like regular dandelions (Taraxacum officionale), you know the ones in the lawn with yellow flowers.  They have a huge number of uses in an organic garden.  Pink dandelions are a different species Taraxacum pseudoroseum, they are just as useful and perhaps a little prettier.  

All parts of dandelions, both regular ones and the pink ones, are edible.  The leaves are incredibly high in vitamins and minerals, far more nutritious than most leaf vegetables.  Leaves are especially high in vitamin C.  The roots can be roasted and eaten like a parsnip, or they can be dried and ground to use like a caffein free coffee.  Even though I have never tried this myself, the flowers can be made into cordials or wine.  

Dandelions are great in the compost, they are often referred to as a 'compost activator'.  What this means is they contain high amounts of all the nutrients needed for the microbes in compost.  If you compost something that is low in a certain mineral, adding a compost activator is adding something that is high in that mineral.  Dandelions are high in pretty much everything, so they make a good compost activator.  

Starts white and gets pinker each day

Pink dandelions look superficially much like lawn dandelions, but perhaps a little smaller and the leaves never get very upright.  When not in bloom I would not be able to tell them apart.

When the flowers first open they are either all white, or white with a yellow center.  The white slowly becomes light pink the first day, and then gets darker pink each day.  

The photo below shows some pink dandelions blooming.  The white one opened that day, and the pinker one opened the day before.  It is fun how they change colour and become more pink as they age.  

Pink Dandelions blooming

The flowers almost always retain the yellow centre.  That being said, I have had a few that opened completely white and turned completely pink.  This is rare, and I believe has more to do with environment than genetics as other flowers on the same plant had the usual yellow center.  

Pink Dandelion Blooms

Beneficial insects are attracted to the flowers.  Larger pollinators such as bees, beetles, and hover flies love dandelion flowers.  If you are a beekeeper you would already know just how beneficial dandelions are to a honey bee hive.  Native bees and solitary wasps also benefit greatly from dandelion flowers.  They seem to flower for much of the year, which means pollinators almost always have a food supply.

The pink dandelion flowers also attract and feed many other beneficial insects such as the tiny parasitoid wasp in the picture below.  

These tiny parasitoid wasps kill pest insects that would damage other plants in my garden.  I grow everything organically, so this is important in my garden.  

Tiny beneficial wasp

I don't have any photos of this, but even though dandelion are not native several native birds like dandelion seed heads.  

Some of the smaller birds eat a lot of dandelion seeds.  Superb fairy wrens mostly eat insects (and are more than welcome in my garden), but I have also watched them eat dandelion seed.  We have a few tiny birds that migrate through each year, such as double bar finches and zebra finches, which I have seen eat dandelion seeds.  

Much more interesting than this is some larger birds eat dandelion seeds.  I have seen crimson rosellas eat dandelion seeds many times.  There are a few grass parrots that I have watched eating the seeds.  I have seen galahs and even a cockatoo eat dandelion seeds.

More pink dandelions

Pink dandelions are great

Pink dandelions are easy to grow, but they need a little water.  The pink dandelion are not as hardy as regular lawn dandelions.  I have missed collecting their seed many times, and am yet to find one of these in my lawn.  They grow equally well in a small pot or in the garden bed.  They seem to do well in full sun but appreciate afternoon shade in summer.  

Pink dandelions are simple to grow from seed if the seed is fresh.  I should write another post on growing pink dandelion from seed, even though it is simple the seeds need light to germinate.  I had a plant in a pot that flowered and set seed that I collected.  This original plant died one summer when I did not water its pot and it dried out completely.  All of the plants I now have are seed grown from that original one.  

I do sell pink dandelions from time to time, I should start selling their seed as they are simple to grow from seed.  If you are interested they are listed along with various perennial vegetables for sale.

Grow water chestnuts and other aquatic vegetables

Chinese water chestnuts (Eleocharis dulcis) are a perennial vegetable that are incredibly simple to grow.  I wrote a post about growing water chestnuts in a bucket.  It is simple and the yield was exceptional.  Each bucket often gives me a dozen or so edible size corms, and well over a hundred smaller ones to replant.  You could eat the small ones, but I find them too fiddly to peel.  

I grow duck potatoes (Sagittaria sp) in the same way.  They are just as simple to grow, and while the yield was nowhere near as large as water chestnuts the duck potatoes also give a great yield for a small amount of space.  

I am told duck potatoes are better suited to cooler climates than water chestnuts, but I find they both perform much the same even in the Canberra region.  Chinese water chestnuts are dormant over winter, so are not impacted by frosts.  I tend to leave some in the soil and as long as it doesn't freeze solid some always survive to grow the following season.  Below are photos of plants in my greenhouse where they are protected from frosts, until this year I have only grown them outside next to the fence where the water is covered in ice regularly over winter.

To grow them I would fill a bucket a bit over 3/4 full with soil and leaf litter.  Plant a water chestnut into this.  Then add water until it over-flowed.  I would put this in the sun, top up the water as needed, and harvest in autumn after the foliage died off.  Gardening really doesn't get much easier than this.  

The buckets would last about 4 years before they would start to fall apart.  Some lasted a lot longer, I still have some that have not yet fallen apart.  

Recently I started to wonder why some buckets degraded at 4 years, and others are still going after ten years.  I think the bucket degrades slightly from the sunlight and becomes brittle, but is able to stay together because there is no stress placed on the sides.  When I harvest I think I must put too much pressure on the bucket and it falls apart.  The ones that have not fallen apart are the ones I have been very careful of when harvesting.  

These buckets are very cheap (less than $1 each), so this isn't about money, I don't want to be wasting plastic if I can help it.  

This year I am trying something a bit different.  I am submerging a pot of soil in the bucket of water.  Come harvest time I can lift the pot out, harvest what I want, and return the pot, all without stressing the bucket.  I think it should work, and it should make harvest easier for me.  

Below are photos of what I am trying.  

I got a cheap 10 liter bucket, and a slightly smaller pot.  The bucket is the cheapest I can find, the pot was given to me second hand.  I already have water chestnut corms, and I use soil that I dug out of the drain in front of my garage, so it is not a huge financial expense.  

10 L bucket and the pot

I filled the pot with soil and leaf litter from a drain in front of my garage.  I didn't fill the pot the whole way, simply because I didn't have enough soil.  It would probably be better if it was filled higher.  These plants need soil if they are to return a decent crop.  

Had I thought about this earlier I would have done this a few months ago and added manure from the chicken house.  Poultry manure is great for the garden as it contains all essential nutrients for plants growth, but it can't be used fresh.  If I tried this now it would burn my plants as it would not have time to 'age' enough.  

Fill the pot with soil

I put some water in the bucket, and submerged the pot.  From here I will plant a water chestnut, or a duck potato, and top up the water.  

In autumn or early winter I will lift the pot out of the bucket, and tip out the soil for harvest.  This sounds much faster and easier than harvesting by digging through frigid water and mud in search of corms with my cold hands. 

Pot of soil submerged in bucket

In this bucket I planted one water chestnut in the soil.  The water level was slightly too high, so I lowered the water level so a leaf could emerge into the air.  

Chinese water chestnuts and duck potatoes both need their leaves in the air, otherwise they may rot.  For now the plant is still tiny and using its leaf as a little snorkel.  Once the plant grows taller I will increase the water level to the top of the bucket.  

  

Water chestnut planted

I tend to grow azolla on top of the water in buckets like this.  Azolla sequesters nitrogen from the atmosphere, and acts as a high nitrogen fertiliser when it dies.  I normally let the water level drop to the soil level every week so ants can carry off all the mosquito larvae.  Placing a pot in a bucket like this will make that impossible as there will always be free water in the bucket.  Azolla is also proven to reduce the number of mosquito larvae surviving to adulthood, so hopefully it helps.  

Water chestnuts ready to grow 

I put a few pots in buckets.  The plants will survive, and divide, and provide an edible crop, so even if this method proves inefficient I won't have lost anything.  

I have high hopes for growing them in a pot submerged in a bucket this, but I am also starting to wonder if I will have mosquito issues doing things this way... perhaps I should put fish in one bucket and no fish in another and see if what works better.  

Keep an eye on my blog as I plan to update how having a pot in a bucket works (or doesn't work) for growing water chestnuts and duck potatoes.  

If you want to grow water chestnuts in a bucket, it is far easier than you may think.  The most difficult part is being able to buy the plants.  I have a for sale page where I sell water chestnuts and duck potatoes and other perennial vegetables in Australia.  I update the page regularly, and it has my email address that you can use to contact me.  

Solanum acroscopicum - wild potato relative

I sometimes grow potatoes from true seeds, each seed grown potato is unique and can create a completely new potato variety.  I do a little potato breeding, and have developed some nice varieties that taste better than anything you can buy from the markets and better than any variety you have grown at home.  

Supermarket potatoes, and most heirloom potatoes, are tetraploids.  I grow some tetraploids, which yield high but lack any great flavour (I grow some tetraploids which taste almost as good as a diploid).  

I grow some diploid potatoes, which taste incredible and often have remarkable colouration, but often tend to have lower yields and smaller tubers (some of my lines are yielding higher than some tetraploids).  

As well as these, I also grow a wild potato, Solanum acroscopicum.  I don't think it has a common name.  This potato is very rare, and not many people in Australia grow Solanum acroscopicum.

Solanum acroscopicum flower 

Solanum acroscopicum produces tubers with white skin and white flesh, mostly round or oblong, and small to medium size.  The skin is smooth and simple to clean (or simple to peel, if you are so inclined).  The taste is good but about as uninteresting as regular potatoes.  

Small yields of unimpressive tasting potatoes that don't have vivid colours makes it sound like it is not worth growing.  Even so, this variety has a few features that make it well worth growing.  It is great in smaller spaces, the plant looks nice, and its certainly worth considering in breeding projects due to its disease resistance.  

Solanum acroscopicum grows large, pretty flowers.  This plant would not look out of place in a flower garden.  I keep forgetting to take photos when it is covered in blooms (or when there are other flowers I can hold next to it for comparison).  Growing food in a flower garden is a good idea.  

Solanum acroscopicum flowers

The plant looks like a potato plant, but with pointier leaves.  The leaves mostly point upwards, which helps keep the plant looking compact.  It grows rather short, neat/compact plants that do not tend to sprawl unless they are shaded.  Being such a compact and neat plant also makes it look good in a flower garden even when not in flower.  

It dumps all of the tubers very closely together directly under the plant, and very close to the soil surface.  It is a good idea to hill soil around them as they grow to prevent light getting to the tubers.  You don't have to search for the tubers, they are all together rather neatly.  Unlike most potato varieties where you always miss some when harvesting, it is simple to get every tuber as they are all so close together.  

Solanum acroscopicum - tubers get a little larger than this

Being such a compact plant, and dumping the tubers so close together and close to the soil surface, make it better suited to growing in pots than any potato variety I have ever grown.  Even growing in soil in the vegetable patch, there is far less digging as the tubers are all right there, all bunched together.

I am told that this species is much lower in toxic alkaloids than regular potatoes.  I have never eaten them when green, and do not encourage people to do this.  I only include the next sentence for informational purposes.  I have been told that it is so low in solanine that this can be eaten when green, when regular potatoes are highly toxic and would cause severe stomach cramps and intense vomiting.  This is important: if you try eating them green please be careful, please only eat a little at first to see how you go, and if it tastes bitter stop eating.  I don't eat them green, and I don't encourage other people to eat them green, but if you are going to do this please be careful.

Solanum acroscopicum growing in a pot of soil

Solanum acroscopicum has genetic resistance to many potato diseases and tolerates light frost better than many other potato varieties.  From what I have read, this species seems unaffected by things that would destroy regular potatoes.  If you are into potato breeding, this variety would be useful to consider due to its disease resistance.  

I grow everything organically, so am interesting in plants that are resistant to pests and diseases.  This makes it suitable to breeding, or for growing in the flower garden where you may not look after it all that well.  

Wild potato

I have grown these for a few years and have tried to share them with some enthusiasts who I have encouraged to share them further.  Hopefully they don't go locally extinct in Australia.  

I have reached a point where I will sell some seed tubers for growing (not true seed) through my for sale page when they are in season.  I am not sure what the rules are in each state for sending potatoes from NSW for growing, so you may need to look this up if you want any.  If you are in a state that does not allow them, I may be able to send ware potatoes for eating.  Again, not really sure about this so you would need to look up what is allowable in your state.

Immali corn 2023

Immali Corn is a pink/purple and white sweetcorn.  This is the first purple sweet corn developed in Australia.  For some reason we don't have many coloured sweet corns in Australia.  I bred Immali corn myself, so am biased, but I really like it.  

Immali corn is a short variety, which tillers (ie grows several stalks per plant which increases the number of cobs).  It is very sweet, and higher in antioxidants than yellow corn.  

It needs to be cooked not long after it is picked, otherwise it starts converting sugars to starch.  This means it tastes far better.  It is a great variety for backyards, and entirely unsuitable to mechanical harvest and interstate transport.  

This year I didn't grow many Immali corn plants, and didn't get to eat any.  Instead I saved all the cobs for seed.  This year, due to the weather and the soil, the cobs were smaller than usual and less were produced per plant than usual.  That is ok, they are still large enough and numerous enough.  I will fix up the soil over winter and next year's crops of all my vegetables will hopefully be back to normal.

Some interesting things happened this year in the cobs that I thought I would share.

Immali corn cobs drying

Some cobs were mostly white, with just a few coloured seeds.  When picked at the milk stage (ready to eat as sweet corn) they are white with a few blue or purple kernels.  

This is what I was aiming for when I first started to breed Immali corn.  I then decided that a higher percentage of purple was better (there are vastly more antioxidants in purple corn), so pushed the variety to have more purple.  I don't see many of these mostly white cobs.  They sure are pretty.

Immali corn - small cobs this year

Immali corn - lots of white

Some plants produced entirely purple cobs.  The colour genetics behind this is relatively simple, but I alternate white seeds and purple seeds when planting, so tend to only see cobs with a mix of white and purple.  

Finding some entirely purple cobs like this was fun and unexpected. 

Immali corn - some cobs entirely purple

Most plants produced the regular looking "Immali corn" cobs.  They have mostly purple seeds and some white seeds.  

When picked at the milk stage, the colours are lighter, and they look pink/purple and white.  It really is very pretty for a sweet corn.  When you let the cobs age and dry the colours change to darker purple like in these photos.

Immali corn ready for shucking

Immali corn - dry seeds

I started breeding Immali Corn about a dozen years ago, and it is now a stable and beautiful variety.  I have only ever grown it organically so it has adapted to become relatively resistant to pests and productive under less than ideal conditions.  One thing I love about Immali corn is that you can save seed each year and grow it again and again without ever having to buy seed a second time.

Sweet corn seed only lasts a year or two before germination drops off.  I now have plenty of fresh seeds.  If you would like to buy seeds of organically grown Immali Corn, I sell them through my for sale page.  

Semi Aquatic Vegetables

A few years ago we bought a 'self watering' pot.  I put a nice fern in it.  After a short while I needed to transplant the fern into something else as it started to die.

Unlike other self watering pots that we have which work perfectly, this one was poorly designed and does not work.  The soil gets all swampy and wet, which rots and kills most plants.  There is no little gap for air/drainage, and is essentially a pot with no drainage.

Instead of throwing away this pot, I decided to try and grow some water loving herbs and vegetables.  Perhaps they would like to grow in this pot.

I have some things such as Vietnamese coriander, water celery, fish mint, and various types of mint that I know would do well in here.  I also suspect that water chestnuts would do well in there.  I didn't want to grow any of these as they are doing so well under other conditions.

I also have a few other edible plants that do ok where I currently grow them, but I think may thrive in this pot.  Hopefully I will stumble across a better way to grow these plants.  

I decided to try willowherb (Epilobium parviflorum), Watercress (Nasturtium officinale), Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica), Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri), and Kangkong (Ipomoea aquatica).  All of these plants are known for loving water and growing on the edge of ponds or even growing submerged with their leaves out of the water.  I hope one or more of these will be well suited to this bog garden life.

Other than kangkong which were transplanted seedlings, all the others were cutting grown.  The first photos were taken 23 December.  Everything is looking limp after being transplanted the previous day.

Willowherb, Watercress, Gotu kola, Brahmi, and Kangkong

Everything was pretty small

The next photos were taken 04 January.  In under two weeks the plants have grown very fast!  

The willowherb is slowly growing, and the Gotu Kola hasn't done a great deal yet.  You can't really tell from the photo but the Brahmi has done a lot of growing over the two weeks.  Both Watercress and Kang Kong appear to be loving this new pot and their growth is rocketing along.

Less then two weeks of growth

Willowherb, Watercress, Gotu kola, Brahmi, and Kangkong

For soil I just used what I cleaned out of a drain that is in front of the garage.  It is mostly made up of soil and leaf litter that has been broken into small pieces.  This soil has weed seeds in it so I remove grass etc as it germinates.  Other than that it seems ideal for this purpose.  It holds water well, seems pretty fertile, and has plenty of organic matter that will break down to release further nutrients over time.

I am growing this little pot of herbs and vegetables in my greenhouse.  It is pretty warm in there over summer but also has some shade from the sun.  

The photos below were taken 13 January after three weeks of growth.  

The water cress is the standout and is growing like mad, it is flowering, and spilling over the sides of the pot.  Before I took these photos I had already been removing some of the watercress.  

The kangkong seems to be growing well and has large fat leaves but not much stem length.  Hopefully I get to eat some kangkong this year as well as grow the plants large enough to over winter in the greenhouse.

Brahmi seems to be growing well and has almost covered the surface of the soil.  I'm surprised that it is not flowering yet.  I quite like brahmi but it doesn't grow fast enough for my liking.

Willowherb is getting longer leaves and is larger overall.  This plant seems to be dividing, which is what I was hoping for.  

Gotu kola seems to have disappeared.  I think the runner I used was too tiny and may not have had enough roots, so I may put in another plant to see how it goes.    

Three weeks of growth

Kangkong growing larger, water cress spilling over the sides

Watercress flowering

After seven weeks I took the pictures below.  

Kangkong is looking healthy and getting bigger, but growing far slower than I would like.  I had hoped that my kangkong would be large enough to harvest by now, but it isn't.  I can pick a few leaves here and there, but not enough.  If it is going to have any chance of survival the kangkong will need to get larger before winter.

The watercress is spilling over the sides, flowering, and dropping seed.  I have allowed some of the seed to drop into the pot.  I have also harvested some of the watercress.  Water cress seems to be well suited to life in this pot.

Gotu Kola is in there, and appears to be alive, but isn't doing a great deal of anything.  I really should have tried this using a larger plant with more established root system.

The brahmi is in there, and flowering, but it is not all that huge and its growth is not at all rampant.  I have a feeling that brahmi needs a little more shade than this pot is getting.

The willow herb is getting big.  It has grown a bit of a stem and is reaching over the side of the pot, it now has long leaves, and appears to be dividing.  I think willowherb is well suited to life in this pot.

After seven weeks

Willow herb on left, kangkong on right 

This pot constantly has wet soil and there is water in the reservoir.  Unlike good self-watering pots this one has no space for air/drainage, so it functions more like a pot with no drainage hole.  If plants work well in here I can replicate the setup by getting a pot of soil and putting it in an ice cream container or something with a little water in it.

From this early progress it appears that some of these plants should flourish in this pot.  Hopefully this proves true over the longer term and is not just things doing well in the short term.  

From here I plan to keep it growing, harvest what I want, and see what survives winter.  

Variegated wasabi herb Diplotaxis erucoides

I have been growing Diplotaxis erucoides for six or seven years.  It is commonly called wasabi herb, or wall rocket, white rocket, white wallrocket, and it probably has a few other common names.  This is not related to true wasabi, but the leaves do have a similar (yet far milder) taste.  

This is an edible herb/vegetable with spicy leaves and sweet/spicy edible flowers.  Honey bees and other beneficial insects love this plant.  It holds up well to frost, it prefers mild temperatures, and it survives heat.  For me, this plant generously self seeds through my garden and lawn. 

I think this plant is underutilised and should be grown by more people if for no other reason than to feed beneficial insects.  

Variegated wasabi herb

Wasabi herb grows and matures fast.  They can be annuals and die after flowering, some are short lived perennials that survive (and flower) for a few years before they die.  I'm not sure if this difference is genetic but I assume it is at least somewhat influenced by the environment.

They pop up in my vegetable garden, in my lawn, in the chicken run, and I sprinkle seed on bare soil between crops to dig in as a green manure.  It matures quite fast.  I think that having something that feeds hover flies, parasitoid wasps, and bees on what would have otherwise been fallow soil is a good thing.  

This year, out of the many hundreds of self seeded plants that appeared, one had variegated leaves. 

I have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of wasabi herb plants and this is the first one that has shown any observable difference to all the rest.

This plant is growing amongst my sweet corn plants.  I had planned on weeding it out once the corn was established.  After noticing it had variegation I decided to leave it.

Variegated wasabi herb - young plant

I don't know if this variegation is a genetic mutation, or if is caused by the environment in some way.  I suspect it is not caused by spray drift as I don't spray things, and this plant had many other self seeded wasabi herb plants surrounding it that do not show any variegation.  Perhaps this is a spontaneous mutation, perhaps it is not, I don't know yet.

I plan to try and save seed from this plant to see if they produce variegated offspring.  

If you look closely you can see only one side displays variegation.  As only one side is variegated I plan to try and save seeds from this side separately if I can. 

There is a chance I will leave it too late and the seeds will scatter.  If this happens I will try to allow some of the seedlings to grow out and see if any are variegated.  Even if none of the seedlings are variegated there is still a chance that future generations may be variegated.

Hopefully this variegation is hereditary and not caused by the environment.  If it is, I may eventually be able to stabilise a variegated line of wasabi herb.  

Variegated Diplotaxis erucoides flowering

I currently sell seed of wasabi herb through my for sale page.  They are a good little plant to grow even if you don't eat them.  

If I ever stabilise a variegated line (this will take some time) I will also list them on my for sale page.  If I do stabilise a variegated line I will probably post a few updates along the way.  

Black Nebula carrot flowering

I like dark purple carrots.  Unfortunately there are few varieties of purple carrots in Australia, and  many of the purple carrots have lovely purple skin, and a disapointingly orange core.  

I had started a breeding project to develop carrots that were purple all the way through, then I found Black Nebula carrots.  

Black Nebula carrots are great.  They are purple/black all the way through with only a few areas of lighter colour.  They taste almost like a cross between beetroot and carrot, which I quite like.  They also grew well for me.  

I grow everything organically in my garden.  Generally speaking, pollinator insects seem to like carrot flowers.  Honey bees never seem overly interested in Apiaceae flowers, but there are many other pollinator insects and other beneficial insects that seem to enjoy them.  

Black Nebula carrots are a stable variety of carrot so seed can be collected from them and will grow true to type.  They (like any/every vegetable variety that I can access) are not Genetically Modified.  

I am told that, unlike many modern varieties of carrot, Black Nebula carrots do not have the genes for cytoplasmic male sterility.  This is a great thing for the home garden as it means they can easily be open pollinated and makes seed saving reasonably simple.

Black Nebula Carrot Flowers

I had cut off the tops of the carrots we ate and was going to grow the carrot tops to produce seed.  Unfortunately after a mishap the tops all died.  

I still had some black nebula carrots growing in the garden that I was planning to eat.  Instead of eating them I have let them all flower and hope to collect their seed.  

Strangely enough, even though 'Black Nebula' is a stable carrot variety, they do display some genetic diversity.  Genetic diversity is a good thing, especially in carrots!    

Organic black nebula carrots are dark purple

All of the black nebula carrot roots were dark purple, all had varying amounts of white.  I believe the white to be environmentally induced rather than genetic.  All of the roots were similar length, shape, and thickness.  Strangely enough the genetic diversity could only be seen in the flowers.  

Some of the black nebula flowers were almost white with a very faint purple tinge that you can't see in my photos.  

white/light purple carrot flowers 

Black nebula carrot flowers

Others black nebula carrot flowers were various shades of purple.  Some light, others darker, and some had a patch of flowers in the centre that were darker purple.

Black nebula carrot flowers

I may only collect seeds from the darker flowered plants.  Or I may collect seed from all of them.  I am not sure at this stage what I will do.

Genetic diversity is a good thing, even in a stable (inbred) line like this.  It allows me to apply selective pressure and have some genetic drift.  This enables me to make this variety more suitable to my climate and more able to withstand the pests that it will encounter in my garden.

Carrots are also known for suffering from inbreeding depression, so I want some genetic diversity in my plants.

As I want at least some genetic diversity I am allowing all of these plants to flower and have a chance of their pollen being used for the next generation.  This will increase genetic diversity in my seeds.  

I also  want the highest anthocyanin line possible, and I am unsure if flower colour has any linkage to root anthocyanin levels.  Perhaps when I learn more about carrot genetics I will rogue out some plants in favour of others, until then I will just try to keep the darkest ones.

Various black nebula carrot flowers

If all goes to plan my plants should produce copious amounts of seed with a reasonable amount of genetic diversity.  Once this is ripe I will collect some to plant and some to save for the following year.  

Carrots generally produce a lot of seed so I should have some extra black nebula carrot seed at some stage.  Once I have some fresh seed I will list it on my for sale page.  

Litchi tomato Solanum sisymbriifolium

A generous friend sent me some seeds of litchi tomato (Solanum sisymbriifolium) a while ago.  I had never eaten, grown, or even seen this species before so this was something new to me.  

Litchi tomato is also called Morelle de Balbis, vila-vila, sticky nightshade, red buffalo-bur, or fire-and-ice plant.  My kids call these 'prickle tomatoes'.

Litchi tomatoes - can you see why my kids call them prickle tomatoes?

Litchi tomatoes are somewhat related to tomatoes, tomatillos, and ground cherries.  Like many of the vegetables we grow, they are a perennial that is treated as an annual.  

I left my plants where they were over winter, fully expecting frosts to kill them.  To my surprise they handled mild winter with frosts down to about -4C with minimal damage.  I have no idea if they would survive a cold winter, but a mild winter didn't seem to bother them too much.

They flowered through winter but didn't set fruit in the cooker weather.  I transplanted them in spring and with warmer weather they started fruiting pretty quick.

Litchi tomatoes flowering

The leaves look deceptively soft and velvety, but have prickles on them.  The stems and fruit husks also have prickles.  The leaf shape varies a little from plant to plant, some have deeper divisions in the leaf while others are not as deep.

Litchi tomato leaf

Leaves look soft, but have prickles

I am told that they need more than one plant in order to set fruit.  I don't have heaps of space to use so I plant several plants in the one hole.  This ensures a pollinator is never far away.

I probably get less fruit per plant by having them this close, but it frees up space to grow other things so I am happy with the result.

I grow several plants in the same hole

Litchi tomato stems are prickly

Litchi tomatoes produce reasonably large, showy flowers that were white or bluish.  They varied from plant to plant but were always rather ornamental and showy.

Litchi tomato flower

Prickle tomato flowers

Flowers vary slightly from plant to plant

Fruit are born on a small truss with up to a dozen red fruits per truss.  I found they took a while to flower, then the wait from flower to ripe fruit felt like it took some time, once they started to ripen they were nicely productive.

Fruit can be harvested once the husk starts to turn brown.  Either individual fruits can be picked, or the entire truss can be snipped off and brought in.

I am told that ripe fruit slips out of the husk, but didn't experience that even once.  I assume different strains act differently, and this one does not slip from the husk.  

I was able to harvest carefully bare handed, but think using gloves would make harvest a lot faster and easier.

Litchi tomato truss

Unlike many other fruits, I found that picking them when fully ripe made them taste bland.  They were sweetest earlier, and got progressively less sweet and lost complexity of flavour the longer I left them.  

Their taste varied from plant to plant, as well as varying as the fruit ripened.  Some tasted a bit like cherry, some a bit fruity.  Some tasted like kiwi fruit mixed with something nice, I liked those ones the best.

Ripe Litchi Tomatoes

The fruit were glossy red on the outside, orange on the inside, and had a lot of small hard seeds in them.  

I didn't mind the seeds at all as I didn't really notice them, but my wife disliked them and found them annoying.

Litchi tomato fruit with seeds

I don't tend to grow many things with thorns and prickles.  Unfortunately Litchi Tomatoes have a lot of prickles on pretty much all parts.  

If you ever grow Litchi tomatoes be sure to stake or cage them to prevent them sprawling, and try not to grow them anywhere that you will be brushing past.

Litchi tomato - so thorny

I am glad I got to grow these, and I am growing the overwintered plants again this summer.  I really like the taste, plus the plants are intriguing and ornamental, so will likely grow them most years.  

I don't have endless space, and there are a lot of things I want to grow, so going forward may have them on rotation and grow them every second year.

I do sell seeds of Litchi tomatoes, as well as a few other interesting edibles and perennial vegetables in Australia through my for sale page.