Sunday 5 February 2017
'Space Master' Cucumber days to maturity
We planted some green 'space master' cucumber seeds, they grew into a small shrub instead of a long vine. The cucumbers tasted good, and the plants were reasonably productive over a long season, but I am sure I can find a better variety.
The following were the days to maturity for these cucumbers. Being in Australia, all dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.
Seed Planted 16/10/2016 Day 0
Seed germinated 25/10/2016 Day 9
Flowers 06/12/2016 Day 51
First harvest 28/12/2016 Day 73
Obviously these dates could change significantly if grown differently. They were simply what happened in my garden this season. Even though, it gives a reasonable baseline for comparison against other plants grown in my garden this year.
For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.
Saturday 4 February 2017
White Wonder Cucumber days to maturity
I planted some heirloom 'White Wonder' cucumber seeds. They are an old heirloom variety of cucumber that is rather good looking. The plants grow long vines and were very productive over a long period of time. These cucumbers need to be picked young, if left to grow the skin becomes tough and woody and they become too bitter for my liking.
The following were the days to maturity for these cucumbers. Being in Australia, all dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.
White Wonder Cucumber (Cucumis sativus)
Seed Planted 16/10/2016 Day 0
Seed germinated 26/10/2016 Day10
Flowers 06/12/2016 Day 51
First harvest 01/01/2017 Day 77
Obviously these dates could change significantly if grown differently. They were simply what happened in my garden this year. Even though, it gives a reasonable baseline for comparison against other plants, such as the green 'space master' cucumber, which were also grown in my garden this year.
For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.
The following were the days to maturity for these cucumbers. Being in Australia, all dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.
White Wonder Cucumber (Cucumis sativus)
Seed Planted 16/10/2016 Day 0
Seed germinated 26/10/2016 Day10
Flowers 06/12/2016 Day 51
First harvest 01/01/2017 Day 77
Obviously these dates could change significantly if grown differently. They were simply what happened in my garden this year. Even though, it gives a reasonable baseline for comparison against other plants, such as the green 'space master' cucumber, which were also grown in my garden this year.
For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.
Friday 27 January 2017
Vietnamese coriander
Vietnamese coriander (Persicaria odorata)
is an excellent perennial herb which should be more widely grown at
home but is not easy enough to find. It has
a bunch of different common names including Vietnamese mint, laksa herb, hot mint, Cambodian mint, praew leaf, and
many more.
Vietnamese Coriander is not related to coriander at all, it is not related to the mint family, but it is eaten in Vietnam and is often used in laksa.
I
first saw this herb at a training day (I swapped it for some perennial
leeks), the lady tore off a small cutting for me, then said something
about it not surviving
until I got home as it was the middle of summer and the course still
had a few hours to go. I put the little cutting in my pocket and when I
got home it was bruised, limp and looked dead, so I put it in a cup of
water in the shade. It looked very dead to
begin with but it grew roots within a few days and I have had it ever
since.
Vietnamese Coriander is not related to coriander at all, it is not related to the mint family, but it is eaten in Vietnam and is often used in laksa.
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| Vietnamese Coriander - growing as an emergent plant |
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| Vietnamese Coriander rooted cutting |
I thought Vietnamese coriander was always grown as an emergent plant with its roots and stems under water and its leaves always sticking out of the water. I have grown it this way for a few years and it has done rather well for me. Recently I have seen it for sale with other terrestrial herbs, not sitting in a tray of water, but having a tag that says to water it well and not allow it to dry out at all. I guess it is more versatile and hardy than I realised.
Honestly, I think growing it as an emergent is far more simple than trying to keep it well watered. I grow this herb in the same way that I grow Chinese water chestnuts or duck potatoes or water cress, sometimes I even grow them together in the same bucket. A bucket or something similar with soil a few inches from the top, filled with water is easy to set up and maintain, as is submerging a pot of soil in a bucket of water. Each day when watering the rest of the vegetables you simply top up the water in the bucket. If the water does dry off, the soil remains damp enough for your plant.
If there are mosquito issues either put in some small fish (research which ones to use first and always stay clear of Gambusia) or simply let it dry out once a week. The soil needs to remain moist for this plant to flourish, but if there is no free water on top of the soil the mosquito larvae die or are eaten by ants pretty fast. Doing this weekly will ensure that the mosquito do not have time to hatch, pupate and metamorphose into adults. Not watering once a week is simple enough to do, or to not do as the case may be.
When growing in a bucket of soil and water the waterlogged soil tends to prevent any serious weed growth as few weeds can handle long periods of submerged roots. The presence of open water tends to encourage frogs, superb fairy wrens and other tiny insectivorous animals which are beneficial for the garden.
Other than never letting this plant get dry, don’t let it run out of space or nutrients. It will grow very fast, but if it runs out of space to grow or uses all the available nutrients it will stop growing completely. The plant will not die, but if it is not growing then it is not supplying you with leaves so there is no point having it. I have taken cuttings of this and put it in a glass of water, the cutting grows roots very fast, but then growth stops and it does nothing, absolutely nothing, for months. This is because it needs nutrients, plant it in the soil and let it do its thing. A similar thing happens when grown in a small pot of soil, it rapidly grows to fill the space it has been given, then it stops growing completely. Cutting it back hard does not encourage a new flush of growth, only feeding it seems to make a difference. This is as simple as tipping a little poultry manure into the bucket.
Vietnamese coriander does not like frost and very cold weather will significantly slow its growth. As long as you keep a little of this plant out of the frost it will survive to regrow for you when the weather warms. It is even possible to keep a cutting alive in a glass of water over winter if needed. Try to keep in mind that in a glass of water this cutting will quickly look bad, stop growing, and the leaves may turn red and the leaves may go bitter, or the leaves may even drop off if it is too cold. I know someone in Orange NSW who put bubble wrap over her plant to keep it alive over winter. Any part that gets hit by frost will die off, but if any of the plant is alive it will regrow fast enough in warmer weather.
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| Vietnamese Coriander cutting starting to grow in water |
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| Vietnamese Coriander growing in soil and water in a milk bottle |
I am told that Vietnamese coriander will not flower outside of the tropics due to daylight sensitivity issues as well as strict temperature/humidity requirements. This is not the case at all. I have had Vietnamese coriander flower for me and I have never lived in or anywhere near the tropics. The flowers are small, uninteresting and white.
I don’t know if it needs a second clone for pollination due to self-incompatibility issues, or if the seeds need special conditions or mycorrhizae in order to grow, or if it can even produce viable seeds. All I know is that it sometimes flowers for me but I have never obtained any Vietnamese coriander seeds.
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| Vietnamese Coriander Flowers |
I normally cut a section off the plant, remove the leaves from the lower few nodes, and then place it in water with the remaining leaves in the air and the leafless nodes under the water. I normally remove leaves from several nodes as I am using them in my dinner, the parent plant you cut pieces off should regrow as long as you leave it with at least one node that has leaves. If you do not remove the leaves from your cutting it will still grow roots quickly, but you run the risk that the leaves may possibly rot.
I have even seen Vietnamese coriander grown underwater in an aquarium once. Short term this will work well and the plant will grow roots from every node, but I think that longer term this plant needs its leaves out of the water. I really should experiment with this and see what it is capable of. I would be hesitant to grow it using aquaponics in fear that it would take over and clog things pretty quickly.
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| Vietnamese Coriander Flowering |
I don’t know how to describe how things taste but I am rather fond of this one. Some people say it smells much like coriander, some think it smells nothing like coriander, I think it does smell a bit like coriander. Some people claim it smells like mint, I don’t see how anyone could ever think it smells even slightly minty and the word ‘mint’ in one of its common names probably refers to the aggressive growth. Some say it is warm and peppery, others say citrusy, others disagree completely. The internet says Vietnamese coriander has a “lovely coriander taste with a clear citrus note; refreshing with a hot, biting, peppery after taste” which I think is a reasonably accurate description.
Vietnamese coriander is used in many dishes, as one of the common names suggests it is rather popular in laksa. I like to put some leaves in my bowl and then pour in hot chicken soup. The heat from the soup is enough to cook this herb and make it soft. I think overcooking would make it lose much of its taste. It goes well with chicken and I am told that it combines well with lime, chillies, garlic, ginger and lemon grass.
I don’t eat this herb raw myself as I find it slightly bitter, but have been told that it works well raw chopped into salads. I really should try this one day and see if I like it.
Unlike coriander which some people love and others have a broken gene which makes it smell soapy to them, Vietnamese coriander does not appear to elicit the same extreme response from people. That being said, this herb is not for everyone. I really like the taste and smell of Vietnamese coriander, my wife dislikes it, some of my kids like it and the others are indifferent to it.
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| Vietnamese Coriander - more sunlight makes the purple more pronounced |
Some online places sell Vietnamese coriander, and some nurseries occasionally stock it, but prices vary quite a lot and it is usually far more expensive than it should be. The best thing about this plant is that it is perennial so you plant once and harvest forever.
I sell Vietnamese coriander plants or rooted cuttings, when available they can be found on my for sale page.
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| Vietnamese Coriander Rooting Cuttings ready to plant |
Wednesday 25 January 2017
Pineberries, Strasberries and Bubbleberries
I have grown plenty of different strawberries over the years. I have grown some from seeds, others from runners, others from divisions. Most strawberries available to home growers are complex hybrids of various species of strawberry, most are hybrids of species from different continents. I grow a lot of these complex hybrids, I also have a few wild species that I am growing from seed, but they will have to wait for another blog post. Strawberries are perennial plants, if the right variety is grown under the right conditions they can be extremely productive.
This year, among other things, I grew pineberries, strasberries, bubbleberries and Sweetie (which was sold by the Nellie Kelly brand). Strangely there is little information on the internet from anyone who has grown them, so I thought I should write a post about them.
Pineberry Strawberry
The pineberry is a white fruited strawberry, it will NOT grow true from seed so if you want them you must grown them from plants. Many thieves on ebay have made a lot of money from selling pineberry seeds. Please never buy pineberry seeds or anything from someone who has pineberry seeds for sale.
Pineberry is not GM, it is NOT terribly new, it is NOT a cross between a strawberry and a pineapple or anything else. Pineberries are NOT albino plants, if they were the leaves would be white or yellow and the plant would not survive very long as it could not photosynthesise.
The pineberry is said to be a hybrid of two species of strawberry, the South American Fragaria chiloensis, and the North American Fragaria virginiana but they may also have other species in their heritage or even back crossing. From what I understand they have been around for a very long time but have only recently become more readily available to home gardeners.
My pineberry plants are all female, they require another variety of strawberry growing near by for proper pollination. Being pollinated by another plant does not change the taste or shape or colour of the strawberry, but if you grow the seeds they will not be pineberries. The pineberry flowers have white petals.
My pineberry plants happily grow runners so can easily be allowed to cover an area with new plants. I like strawberries that produce runners as it means it is simple to increase my stock quickly with little effort from me. I can use them as edible ground covers. It also means that if a few die, then it is no great loss.
Our pineberries grew small strawberries, being so small I expected them to be super sweet, but they were not. The pineberry strawberries were white when unripe and ripened a light pink with red achenes. Pineberry is said to taste like a mix of pineapple and strawberry. I can understand this, they did almost taste a bit pineapple like, I guess. They were reasonably sweet, I guess, but we have other strawberries that are far sweeter. I found them a bit sour but they do have a depth and complexity of taste. I don't dislike them, they were a bit sour and they may taste slightly different later in the season.
Strasberry Strawberry
Strasberry strawberries are another hybrid of various strawberry species, these were developed in 1925. They, just like the pineberry, are not GM, they are not a cross between strawberries and raspberries.
My strasberries also only produce female flowers so require a pollinator to set fruit. My plants all had flowers with white petals. The strawberries were very small and dark red with the achenes set deeply in each strawberry. They were not overly productive, but the plants are young and the season is early so things may change as the plants mature.
My strasberry plants set runners, but less so than the pineberries. Again, if the seeds are planted they will grow into a mix of strawberries none of which will be a strasberry. I forgot to take any pictures of strasberries, we ate them before I thought about it and then they stopped floweringnext time they produce fruit I should try to remember to take some pictures.
Strasberries are said to taste like raspberries, I guess if I wish really hard while I am eating one I can kind of almost pretend to taste this. They taste ok, far better than the garbage I can buy from a shop, but I prefer the taste of regular garden strawberries.
Bubbleberry Strawberry
Bubbleberry strawberries, like most garden strawberries are most likely another hybrid of various strawberries. There is also a chance that they are a strain of the European Fragaria moschata. I have seen different sources claim both. To be honest, I don't know.
Bubbleberry strawberries, just like every other strawberry plant that the home gardener will have access to, is not GM. The bubbleberry strawberry is another extremely old variety that has recently become more available (and gained a more marketable name). The bubbleberry strawberry has been around since at least the 16th century.
Bubbleberry strawberries grow runners, but mine have not produced many yet. It has complete flowers so can be used as a pollinator for pineberry and strasberry.
Bubbleberry is said to taste a bit like bubblegum, and others say it tastes of mixed soft fruit. One internet site said bubbleberry "is the strawberry with the strongest flavour and most mouth-watering aroma in the world.". Mine taste like a great tasting strawberry which has a good mix of sweet and sour. They are not the strongest tasting and most amazing strawberry I have eaten, but they are pretty close. Mine also taste nothing like bubblegum, and I am very glad about that.
Nellie Kelly 'Sweetie' strawberries
Sweetie strawberries do not produce runners, which some people like. As a backyard gardener I find the runnerless trait to be undesirable, I want plants that throw runners everywhere to increase my patch and out compete weeds and I can grow them in difficult places as edible ground covers. Sweetie strawberries are a variety of common garden strawberry called Fragaria x ananassa. Being runnerless they are likely to have alpine strawberry in their heritage. Without genetic testing we will probably never know.
These 'sweetie' strawberries flower well and are very strong plants. I should be able to take a spade and divide my plant into many plants when the weather is cooler.
Sweetie strawberries are a reasonable size berry and taste great. Some of the sweetie strawberries are odd shaped, but most are pretty regular. They are sweet, as per their name, and they have a nice strawberry taste to them. They also seem to outproduce pineberry, strasberry and bubbleberry but that may be because all the plants are new and things could change as they become more established. I prefer the taste of Bubbleberry strawberries to sweetie strawberries.
This year, among other things, I grew pineberries, strasberries, bubbleberries and Sweetie (which was sold by the Nellie Kelly brand). Strangely there is little information on the internet from anyone who has grown them, so I thought I should write a post about them.
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| Left to Right, Bubbleberry, Pineberry, Sweetie |
The pineberry is a white fruited strawberry, it will NOT grow true from seed so if you want them you must grown them from plants. Many thieves on ebay have made a lot of money from selling pineberry seeds. Please never buy pineberry seeds or anything from someone who has pineberry seeds for sale.
Pineberry is not GM, it is NOT terribly new, it is NOT a cross between a strawberry and a pineapple or anything else. Pineberries are NOT albino plants, if they were the leaves would be white or yellow and the plant would not survive very long as it could not photosynthesise.
The pineberry is said to be a hybrid of two species of strawberry, the South American Fragaria chiloensis, and the North American Fragaria virginiana but they may also have other species in their heritage or even back crossing. From what I understand they have been around for a very long time but have only recently become more readily available to home gardeners.
My pineberry plants are all female, they require another variety of strawberry growing near by for proper pollination. Being pollinated by another plant does not change the taste or shape or colour of the strawberry, but if you grow the seeds they will not be pineberries. The pineberry flowers have white petals.
My pineberry plants happily grow runners so can easily be allowed to cover an area with new plants. I like strawberries that produce runners as it means it is simple to increase my stock quickly with little effort from me. I can use them as edible ground covers. It also means that if a few die, then it is no great loss.
Our pineberries grew small strawberries, being so small I expected them to be super sweet, but they were not. The pineberry strawberries were white when unripe and ripened a light pink with red achenes. Pineberry is said to taste like a mix of pineapple and strawberry. I can understand this, they did almost taste a bit pineapple like, I guess. They were reasonably sweet, I guess, but we have other strawberries that are far sweeter. I found them a bit sour but they do have a depth and complexity of taste. I don't dislike them, they were a bit sour and they may taste slightly different later in the season.
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| Pineberry Strawberry |
Strasberry strawberries are another hybrid of various strawberry species, these were developed in 1925. They, just like the pineberry, are not GM, they are not a cross between strawberries and raspberries.
My strasberries also only produce female flowers so require a pollinator to set fruit. My plants all had flowers with white petals. The strawberries were very small and dark red with the achenes set deeply in each strawberry. They were not overly productive, but the plants are young and the season is early so things may change as the plants mature.
My strasberry plants set runners, but less so than the pineberries. Again, if the seeds are planted they will grow into a mix of strawberries none of which will be a strasberry. I forgot to take any pictures of strasberries, we ate them before I thought about it and then they stopped floweringnext time they produce fruit I should try to remember to take some pictures.
Strasberries are said to taste like raspberries, I guess if I wish really hard while I am eating one I can kind of almost pretend to taste this. They taste ok, far better than the garbage I can buy from a shop, but I prefer the taste of regular garden strawberries.
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| Left to Right: Bubbleberry, Pineberry, Sweetie, Sweetie, un-named red pollinator |
Bubbleberry Strawberry
Bubbleberry strawberries, like most garden strawberries are most likely another hybrid of various strawberries. There is also a chance that they are a strain of the European Fragaria moschata. I have seen different sources claim both. To be honest, I don't know.
Bubbleberry strawberries, just like every other strawberry plant that the home gardener will have access to, is not GM. The bubbleberry strawberry is another extremely old variety that has recently become more available (and gained a more marketable name). The bubbleberry strawberry has been around since at least the 16th century.
Bubbleberry strawberries grow runners, but mine have not produced many yet. It has complete flowers so can be used as a pollinator for pineberry and strasberry.
Bubbleberry is said to taste a bit like bubblegum, and others say it tastes of mixed soft fruit. One internet site said bubbleberry "is the strawberry with the strongest flavour and most mouth-watering aroma in the world.". Mine taste like a great tasting strawberry which has a good mix of sweet and sour. They are not the strongest tasting and most amazing strawberry I have eaten, but they are pretty close. Mine also taste nothing like bubblegum, and I am very glad about that.
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| Bubbleberry Strawberry |
Nellie Kelly 'Sweetie' strawberries
Sweetie strawberries do not produce runners, which some people like. As a backyard gardener I find the runnerless trait to be undesirable, I want plants that throw runners everywhere to increase my patch and out compete weeds and I can grow them in difficult places as edible ground covers. Sweetie strawberries are a variety of common garden strawberry called Fragaria x ananassa. Being runnerless they are likely to have alpine strawberry in their heritage. Without genetic testing we will probably never know.
These 'sweetie' strawberries flower well and are very strong plants. I should be able to take a spade and divide my plant into many plants when the weather is cooler.
Sweetie strawberries are a reasonable size berry and taste great. Some of the sweetie strawberries are odd shaped, but most are pretty regular. They are sweet, as per their name, and they have a nice strawberry taste to them. They also seem to outproduce pineberry, strasberry and bubbleberry but that may be because all the plants are new and things could change as they become more established. I prefer the taste of Bubbleberry strawberries to sweetie strawberries.
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| 'Sweetie' Strawberry second from left and second from right |
Thursday 19 January 2017
Albino corn, beautiful but useless
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| Albino Corn - beautiful but useless |
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| Albino corn seedling, such a pretty little plant |
This year, I have had some albino corn seedlings emerge. If you take those out as they will not survive (and also do not include the several partly albino plants that possibly would survive but I have culled as they are weaker) I had over 87% germination this year. Not too shabby.
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| Albino sweet corn seedling |
It is possible to keep these albino plants alive for a while, it is even possible to grow them long enough for them to mature and produce seeds, but it is not worth the effort.
I could grow them in tissue culture, I could feed sugars through the leaves every other day, but without me they would die fast. Albino plants can not produce chlorophyll, non-parasitic plants need chlorophyll to produce energy from the sun, without chlorophyll they die. If they are not green (and are not grafted or parasitic) then they can not survive without a lot of effort from me.
On top of issues with not being able to photosynthesize, albino plants also tend to burn in the sun. The chlorophyll in the leaves help to protect them from the sun. Some variegated plants do not cope in full sunlight for this reason. Variegated plants also tend to be weaker due to the reduced amount of photosynthesis that each leaf can perform.
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| Albino Corn |
Albino plants can be caused by several things. It can be environmental, various poisons can cause high rates of albinism in plants. If this is the case you generally see a lot of albino plants germinate close together. This is not the case here. More commonly albinism is genetic, it can either be through a random mutation or the albino genes can be in high concentration in the population. Often older seeds have a higher percentage of albino as the genetic material has degraded slightly. Sometimes, if seed is stored incorrectly it can suffer genetic degradation. Wide crosses, such as interspecific crosses tend to increase the number of albino seedlings as can anther culture and double haploids and a few other things.
I have seen albino corn in the past, but never from this variety, so I am hoping that the gene is not present in the population in high amounts.
I have heard various wild and unsubstantiated claims about one of the initial parents of this variety. I never took much notice of them until now. I had been told that one of the parents, a landrace corn, was often crossed with some of the wild teosinte (most likely Zea mexicanicana or possibly Zea parviglumis) to increase its vigor. If that is true, there is a wide cross which may have caused albinism in this variety.
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| Albino corn seedlings, partly albino corn seedlings, and normal green corn seedlings |
I am wondering, if albinism is present in this variety, is it even possible to remove the gene? Being a recessive gene, and considering how corn pollinates, unfortunately I don't think so. People have been culling black sheep for centuries, yet they still turn up every now and again.
According to the University of Oregon's photosynthetic mutant library, one of over 600 genes could be broken, each with 3 to 4 mutant alleles. Even if I knew which gene was broken I don't think I could remove it from the population.
Considering that I have grown this variety of corn for years and this is the first time I have seen albino corn seedlings I don't think I will have too many problems. I had a few partly albino plants which could have survived, and removed them so their genes would not be passed on. I cull pretty hard. I have also asked a few people I sent seeds to if they had any albino corn and none of them did, so hopefully I won't see much of this in the future.
Where to get albino corn
Some laboratory supply places overseas sell albino corn seed, it is usually F2 cross with green corn to show basic dominant/recessive traits. I am not sure if anywhere in Australia sells them and it is not possible to import corn seed. To be honest, I don't see why anyone would really want albino corn seedlings, other non-lethal traits can be used just as easily to show inheritance patterns.
Wednesday 18 January 2017
Growing Lime Balm
Lime balm (Melissa officinalis ''lime") is a deliciously limey smelling perennial herb. It is related to (ie a lime smelling variety of) lemon balm and my understanding is that it is a spontaneous mutation that appeared in someones garden once and has been kept on ever since. I really like this herb, I have only had it a short time and already it is one of my favourite herbs.
It is related to mint and I assume that much like lemon balm it can be invasive so is best grown in a container and not in the garden.
Lemon Balm
I have grown lemon balm since I was a child. Each year it, along with variegated apple mint, would run rampant and take over the small vegetable garden near the house. Each year I would spend weeks digging these plant out. I have never been overly impressed with lemon balm. It is good enough to have ensured that I continue to grow it rather than replacing it with something else, but it is far from amazing.
According to the internet, lemon balm is meant to have been used as far back as the Middle Ages to reduce stress and anxiety, promote sleep, improve appetite, and ease pain and discomfort from indigestion (including gas and bloating, as well as colic). It is also meant to heal bee stings, but I tend not to get stung so have never tried it out.
Lemon balm is meant to attract honey bees, but honestly I think that is based on superstition more than fact. I rarely see bees on the lemon balm flowers, honey bees much prefer cucurbits or basil or clover or dandelion or many other things which flower at the same time in my gardens.
Lemon balm smells much like lemon most of the time. If it is allowed to flower the smell can change and become weak or soapy for a little while. If it flowers it tends to drop tiny seeds, which germinate and attempt to take over the garden. I suggest not allowing it to flower, that way it will not try to take over and the smell will not change.
I have used lemon balm in cooking, it tends to be overpowered by stronger smells and is degraded by heat so is best added towards the end of cooking. Lemon balm can be stuffed into the cavity of a chicken while roasting, but I find that it is too delicate a smell and gets lost this way.
It is also meant to make a nice tea, strangely I have never tried to make lemon balm tea even though I have had it for so many years.
I do sell lemon balm plants on my for sale page. As I am not overly impressed with it, and make no attempts to deceive people about the plants I sell, not surprisingly it has never been one of my better sellers. It certainly isn't a bad plant, otherwise I would not have moved it with me so many times and would not continue to grow it, but it is not my favourite herb.
Lime Balm
I have heard about lime balm for several years but never wanted to buy it without smelling it first. Too many times herbs are named after something but they smell absolutely nothing like that. I have smelled 'basil mint' several times and can smell nothing other than mint.
A few times I have seen lemon balm mis-labelled as lime balm, a quick smell revealed this to me, so didn't buy any. Apparently lime balm seeds often revert to lemon balm.
Recently I was in a garden shop and found some lime balm, I brushed my hand over it and it was lime balm, it smelled like sweet limes! I bought this little lime balm herb and took it home. The smell of lime balm is amazing. It truly does smell just like sweet limes!
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| Lime Balm starting to flower |
I have made a 'tea' with lime balm several times. This is deliciously limey and sweet enough to my taste that I don't need to add any sugar. It tastes a lot like warm lime cordial. My kids have tried a little of this 'tea' and they all like it too.
I imagine that lime balm is potentially just as invasive as lemon balm, so I am attempting to prevent it from flowering. I also don't know if the smell changes when the plant is flowering, I don't really want to find out and am cutting off anything with any signs of flower buds.
I am told that lemon balm and lime balm do not grow underground rhizomes like mint. My lemon balm does grow underground rhizomes, they are shorter and less aggressive than mint so are not too much of a problem. I am assuming that lime balm will be very similar in growth.
It is simple enough to grow lime balm from taking cuttings. I now have several small plants and plan to increase this number shortly.
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| Lime Balm growing from a cutting |
A few places appear to sell lime balm and it rarely turns up in garden shops. I plan to sell small lime balm plants when I have enough, when I do they will be listed on my for sale page along with the other herbs, vegetable seeds and perennial vegetables I sell.
Tuesday 17 January 2017
Chioggia Beetroot days to maturity
We planted some 'Chioggia' beetroot seeds, the
following were the days to maturity for these beetroot. Being in
Australia, all dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.
Seed Planted 16/10/2016 Day 0
Seed germinated 24/10/2016 Day 8
First harvest 02/01/2017 Day 78
These dates are when we harvested the roots, I normally would have started harvesting the leaves long before this but didn't record these dates this year.
I could have harvested smaller beets earlier, or larger beets later, and these dates could change significantly if grown under different conditions. They were simply what happened in my garden this year. It gives a reasonable baseline for comparison against other plants grown in my garden this year.
For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.
Seed Planted 16/10/2016 Day 0
Seed germinated 24/10/2016 Day 8
First harvest 02/01/2017 Day 78
These dates are when we harvested the roots, I normally would have started harvesting the leaves long before this but didn't record these dates this year.
I could have harvested smaller beets earlier, or larger beets later, and these dates could change significantly if grown under different conditions. They were simply what happened in my garden this year. It gives a reasonable baseline for comparison against other plants grown in my garden this year.
For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.
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