Culinary Thyme: comparison of five varieties

I have grown a lot of varieties of thyme over the years.  People often describe a variety, yet irritatingly no one ever seems to compare different varieties.

Jekkas Thyme, Tabor thyme, Lemon thyme, Orange peel thyme, Regular thyme

I wrote a comparison of thyme varieties a while ago, and thought I would do another quick comparison.  

My tabor thyme and regular thyme are just about the be phased out.  They take too much effort to grow for too little reward, they grow too slowly, they don't produce enough leaves, and my Jekkas thyme has largely swamped them with its incredible vigorous growth.  

Jekka's thyme grows so fast, and produces so many leaves and tremendous numbers of flowers in spring, it really is hard to go past this variety.

Five varieties of edible thyme

I thought I would show you the amount of leaves per sprig of each variety, as well as the different sizes of leaves between each variety. 

All of these photos from left to right have: Jekka's thyme, Tabor thyme, Lemon thyme, Orange peel thyme, and regular kitchen thyme.

As you can see, regular thyme (on the far right) has few leaves per stem, and the leaves are small. 

Orange peel thyme has tiny leaves, and the plant doesn't grow very large, but nothing else really smells of orange peel.  I am growing this for now but will eventually lose it as it grows slow and will likely get over run by something and starved of light.

The lemon thyme has small leaves, but makes up for that in smelling like lemons as well as thyme, and having a lot of leaves per stem. 

Tabor thyme is good, it has large leaves and good numbers of leaves per stem.  It needs a bit of extra water to get through summer.

Jekka's thyme (on the far left) has larger leaves and the leaves usually aren't too sparse.

Five leaves: Jekka's thyme, Tabor thyme, Lemon thyme, Orange peel thyme, Regular thyme

It would take a lot of regular thyme to get a decent amount of leaves as they have so few leave on a stems, and the leaves are so tiny.  Jekka's thyme and Tabor thyme each have a lot more leaves, and the leaves on both are much larger than regular kitchen thyme.  The taste of all of these is much the same.

The incredible rate that Jekka's thyme grows and spreads means that getting a decent harvest really doesn't take too long.  Any place a stem touches the soil it seems to put down roots.

Thyme leaf comparison - ruler for scale

All of these thyme varieties seem to cope well with heavy frosts.  They don't grow much over winter, but they don't die or decline either.  

I know garden books always speak of how thyme is drought resistant, but none of them love dry conditions.  Tabor thyme seems to perform the worst in the dry.  Perhaps my garden is drier and more harsh than most, but I have never seen any variety of thyme that can survive drought without extra water.

Jekkas thyme, Tabor thyme, and regular kitchen thyme all smell and taste much the same.  I sometimes think Jekka's thyme may be a little stronger, but that changes with the weather or something.

Jekka's thyme also flowers like crazy in spring, while my other varieties of thyme always flower very sparingly.  The bees and other beneficial insects seem to love thyme blossom so the huge numbers of them on Jekka's thyme is a benefit to spring bees.

Jekka's thyme flowers

Jekkas Thyme starting to flower

Out of these thyme varieties I prefer Jekka's thyme as it is the most productive and very simple to grow.  I won't grow many varieties of thyme for much longer because it is too hard stopping Jekka's thyme from overrunning the other slower growing but similar tasting varieties.  There is no real point trying to protect a poor performer when I have a stand out like Jekkas thyme.

Jekkas thyme used to be rare in Australia, but I am happy to say that it is becoming far more common.  I sell bare rooted Jekkas thyme plants through my for sale page, and I may sell other varieties of thyme on occasion.

Venus Flytrap Winter Dormancy

I have been growing carnivorous plants for more years that I care to admit.  I have grown a lot of different species over the years, some were simple while others had more complex needs.  As with most people, the Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) started it all for me.  

Venus Flytraps perform best with winter dormancy.  At first their dormancy was a scary mystery, now I understand dormancy a little better I know it is nothing to be worried about. 

Last year my son wanted a venus flytrap.  I gave him a small typical venus flytrap, and he looked after it really well.  The thing grew really large, got some great colouration, then when winter hit it went dormant and looked like it was dead.  All of this is fantastic and shows he was looking after his plant properly.

Contrary to what most people have been told, venus flytraps are not tropical plants.  They do well in areas that are frosty over winter.  I grow them outside, certainly never in a terrarium, and allow them to be hit with frosts and ice and hail and snow.  When days get short and cold my Venus flytraps experience partial or complete dormancy. 

My son's venus fly trap looks horrible over winter, and he worried that he had killed it.  I had to assure him that this was a great sign and that he was doing everything right.  We repotted the plant ready for spring, and I showed him the healthy fat white rhizome, and he felt a lot better about his plant.  I expect this to grow well and divide in spring.  It should make three or more plants for him.

Pictures of my son's dormant Venus flytrap are below.  Once repotted it still looked utterly dreadful, before being repotted it looked like the moss was going to over take it.  

To be clear, (apart from the moss) this is normal and healthy for a venus flytrap in my climate.

Dormant VFT repotted (ignore the tiny sundews) and ready for spring growth

The same vft before repotting - not much to look at

Different varieties of venus flytrap seem to cope with winter differently even if they are growing side by side.  This different in growth is due to their genetics.

The picture below shows how they some of my plants coped with dormancy this year.  Note that all have small traps and short leaves, just as they should over winter.  None of them are large magnificent plants over winter.  If they did look great over winter then something would be terribly wrong and they would likely rot and die in spring.

Various Venus Flytraps at the end of winter

Some of the venus flytraps pretty much disappeared, like Nanuq's plant, but the rhizome under ground is strong and healthy.  This is normal and healthy.

Others retained some above ground growth, but looked very shabby.  Leaves were shorter and sometimes the traps were weird and mis-shapen.  This is normal and healthy for these ones, and in spring I expect them to grow well.

These Venus Flytraps retained some growth over winter

Some of my larger, more upright venus flytraps go dormant in a different way.  Over summer they have large traps and upright growth.  Over winter they grow shorter leaves that stay close the the ground, and the traps produced over winter are much smaller.  

Again, this is normal and healthy.  That is how they do their dormancy.  If they kept growing large upright leaves over winter I would expect them to rot and die in spring.

Once the weather warms they will have upright growth and large traps again (and probably a flower stalk).  For now they are doing everything they should be doing.

'Big Vigorous' VFT has short leaves low to the ground over winter

 

Breaking dormancy, low winter leaves and tall summer leaves

Other vft varieties never have upright growth, 'Low Giant' is an example of this.  Over winter the rosette becomes more compact than normal as the petioles are shorter and the traps much smaller. 

This plant is also healthy and strong, exactly what I would expect to see over winter.  You may notice at the top of the picture some tiny plants, these came from a flower stalk cutting.

I need to repot and divide this plant soon.

Low Giant VFT over winter

Towards the end of winter/beginning of spring I usually try to repot my Venus Flytraps. 

Often they have divided a little and most have a large plant and one or two small offsets.  Some varieties are a bit more vigorous and will have up to half a dozen small divisions.  Others, such as Wally, can have a dozen or more divisions.  This has a lot to do with their genetics, and a bit to do with how well they were grown.

Sometimes when I am dividing plants that are emerging from dormancy I will also take a few leaf pullings.  I probably should wait until warmer weather for leaf pullings, but depending on the variety many will grow a baby plant or two even at this time of year.

Tiny VFT divisions - super cute but will grow fast

Vft divisions, and some leaf pullings

If you want to buy a venus flytrap it is sometimes difficult to find a good variety unless they are posted.  Luckily Venus flytraps do go extremely well through the post.  Apart from the ones I have grown from seed, I think all of my Venus flytraps were posted to me bare rooted.

I will have some 'typical' venus flytraps for sale and should have some named varieties for sale in late spring.  Many of my typical vfts are superior named varieties but I have lost their names, others are seed grown, and I think that all of them are pretty great.  Keep an eye on my for sale page in late spring/early summer if you are interested.

Drosera binata over winter

I have always wanted to grow Drosera binata because I really like the look of them.  They are a common, easy to grow, relatively hardy, Australian native carnivorous plants.  

I have grown carnivorous plants for many years and always wanted a binata.  For some inexplicable reason I was never able to get a binata until last year.

Last year I bought a D binata t form.  The t form is meant to be small but hardy, I am told this one will survive pretty much anything and is not meant to have any problems with the winters here. 

The plant turned up looking rather shabby, and declined very quickly.  Not too long after it arrived all above ground growth disappeared completely.  Spring came, and still no growth.  After a few months of warm weather and no signs of growth I figured it was dead.  I kept it in a tray of water, but was pretty sure it was never coming back and had planned to plant another sundew in its pot at a later stage.

A very generous person (Shane) then sent me some of his binata plants.  They were a different form, the leaves were thicker and more branched, and they looked great.  I had no idea if they would be likely to survive my winter but was more than willing to give them a try.

Drosera binata t form last winter

A few weeks after that my original binata t form came back to life.  Apparently it was just dormant, and it stayed dormant really late into spring.  

All the plants grew through summer, they flowered and set seed, and looked tired at the end of autumn.  Having several genetically different plants meant that they all set seed and there were not self-incompatibility issues.

I planted some seed, and now also have some tiny binata seedlings.

Then winter came.  My binata t form has lost all above ground parts.  The other plants have died back a lot but still look alive.  I can still see the growing points and a few new leaves unfurling.

I kept the binata seedlings sheltered, they sure don't love winter, but are appear to be surviving.  I expect to see some nice growth from them once the weather warms in spring and I give them more sun.

Drosera binata over winter

Drosera binata t form this winter

It appears that my binata t form loses all above ground parts over winter, and the larger form dies back a lot but still looks alive.  This is good to know.  

I have no idea how the seedlings will fare, I have a feeling that there is a bit of genetic diversity amongst them and I may end up with a range of things.  I have some seedlings in pots with venus flytraps out in the frost, some of these seedlings seem to be growing through winter while most of the others are dying back.  

Olive herb (Santolina rosmarinifolia)

I am growing a few new plants this year.  Some are species that I am familiar with but varieties that I have never grown, others are plants that I have never grown, and some I have only ever heard of but never actually seen. 

One edible herb I have been looking for years is called olive herb (Santolina rosmarinifolia).  

This is not 'olive leaf', which is just the leaves of the olive tree, this is a little perennial edible herb that smells like olives.

Olive Herb

I have been searching for this plant for a few years, but never seem to be able to buy it.  I am told that this plant withstands light frosts, but not heavy ones.  I am also told it smells and tastes like olives.  Other than that I know little of this herb.

Recently my kid's swimming teacher offered to keep an eye out for it.  Amazingly within a few weeks she found it and bought one for me!  Then a few weeks later I went to Bunnings and they had these plants for sale too.  

I now have a small olive herb plant.  I am keeping it partly protected from frosts in its little pot for now, and once the weather warms up I plan to plant it in the vegetable garden and see how it performs for me.  

This plant smells nice.  Other than brush my hand over the plant and smell it I haven't done anything with it yet, so can't comment on the taste or anything like that. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what this little plant can do.

 

Update 12/11/2021: my plant survived winter, grew a little taller, has been planted in the veggie garden, and is starting to flower.  I really like the smell of this plant, it has quickly become one of my favourite herbs.  I have cut a little and used it as 'garnish' on top of spaghetti bolognese and similar meals.  Olive herb goes really well with spaghetti bolognese!

Venus Flytrap - Wally

A year or two ago I was sent two lovely "Wally" Venus flytraps from a very generous friend as a surprise.  I had no idea that this was being sent until I opened the package!  All the pictures below are of my Wally Venus Flytrap plants.

I grow a few different flytraps, some are named varieties, others are seed grown, some have upright growth, some always stay close to the ground, some produce clumps, some are colourful, and others are very green.  Plants grown side by side often look and perform differently as they have different genetics.

I'm not sure how many different venus flytrap clones are in Australia, out of all of the ones I have grown so far my favourite clone, and the easiest venus fly trap to grow, is this Wally Venus flytrap.  

Wally Venus Flytrap

Wally VFT

I made a blog post with pictures of the growth rate of Wally VFT over a year.  This is the most vigorous flytrap I have ever grown.

Wally has large traps, stays low to the ground, has great colour, is very vigorous, it either grows impressively large or clumps like crazy (I don't know how it decides which to do), and it survives some really harsh conditions that would kill many other varieties.  Wally is my fastest growing Venus flytrap, and it produces far more natural divisions each year than any of the other varieties that I grow.  

Being so hardy, and so impressive looking with incredible colour and very large traps, I think Wally would be a great Venus flytrap for beginners.

I wish I understood what makes it clump and what makes it grow into a large plant.  The two larger plants above produced the two clumps lower down in this page.

To give you a better understanding of Wally Venus Flytraps I figured I would cut and paste some descriptions from the breeder and a few other places.

Wally Venus Flytrap

Descriptions 

1) Description from Sam1greentmb (the breeder of this variety who has also developed more VFT cultivars than I have ever seen):

This is an incredibly beautiful cultivar which I grew some time ago. It came from the seeds of a "Big Mouth" Venus flytrap. The plant sometimes clusters into many plants, or it grows as a single plant and turns gigantic in size!

What does Wally have that many other Venus flytraps do not?
It always has red purple traps throughout the seasons, not just during cool weather. Wally also can give out the most amazing dark red purple traps when grown under artificial lighting. This colour is the most darkest red, intense red purple colour of any venus flytrap cultivar that I know!

Wally Venus Flytrap - my baby plant is growing well

2) Description from FlytrapStore:

If you like Big Mouth and Low Giant, you'll love Wally! Wally is very similar in neat growth habit, with its year-round ground-hugging big traps, but can impressively develop even more exceptional and eye-catching bright red coloration on its trap interiors. It reproduces more than most other Venus flytraps, producing baby Wally flytraps so you can have more Wallys! Not to mention, it's one of the hardiest Venus Flytraps we know of. Everything to like about this one - it has become one of our favorites since being able to acquire it.

Wally originates from Venus flytrap grower and breeder, Sam1greentmb. In his description, Wally distinguishes itself from other flytraps by its ability to get very large or clump a lot and because it has red-purple traps throughout all seasons (provided it gets good sunlight), not just in cool weather. And it gets the deepest purpled-colored traps Sam has ever seen.  'Purple Ambush' is the most colorful Venus flytrap we've ever seen.

Wally vft clumping - divided into 2 very large plants and 12 smaller plants

Another Wally VFT clumping over winter

 3) Description of Wally VFT from https://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/wally-has-arrived-t16844-15.html 

Some of the features Wally has that I think are catching are its low to the ground growth and it seems to hold its coloration even in the hot hot parts of the summer while most of the rest of my VFTs lose lots of their color and it tends to be a clumper.

Wally won't get deep purple traps without strong light but does get deep red traps without strong light. In that way it colors up very easily. Even my Wallys from Matt, have a lot of color on them for plants not too long out of TC and not in one of my sunnier spots in my yard either.

Wally gets about as big as a Big Mouth, which was its parent plant. But it has even shorter leaves than Big Mouth does and can get even more purplish in its traps than Big Mouth too. I've seen my Wallys red all over with purple traps before. It almost can be called a red clone. 

It also tends to multiply like crazy. One large plant can make 15 or more natural divisions a year easily. Keep in mind this is strictly from natural division, unaffected by TC at all. Who knows what the TCed ones will do. Wally also is a pretty fast grower and I have found can grow at a good pace in cooler temperatures as well just like B52 can, unlike all other clones that I know. For example, Wally can put on decent growth even in the high 60s (16-21C) and overcast.

IMO, there's not much point in buying a Big Mouth if you can get a Wally instead. Wally has more pronounced features of all the features that Big Mouth has that has made it popular. It's like a super Big Mouth.

Wally has darker color, not just that it tans darker and easier as well but the green non-tanned color is a darker hue of green as well. Wally grows faster than Big Mouth too. The deep purple tan it gets in its traps is darker than the purple tan that Big Mouth gets. When I saw my Wallys tan really dark the whole plant was red. There may have been some dark green in a few tiny spots not well exposed to the sun but the plant was basically 95% red or purple. I've never seen my Big Mouths do that though I have seen them mostly red and purple all over before too.

There is not much more I can add to these descriptions, these people have grown far more venus flytrap varieties than I have even seen, so they really know their stuff.

I plan to divide more of my Wally venus flytraps in spring.  If you are a carnivorous plant collector and would like to swap some plants please let me know as I have divided my plants and should have a few extra plants late spring/early summer.  My contact details can be found on my for sale page where I sell other carnivorous plants and perennial vegetables and things. 

Wally Venus Flytrap colouring up nicely

Burdock and salsify - obscure root vegetables

This year I grew some vegetables that I had never grown or eaten before.  Burdock (Arctium lappa) and salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius).  Although, now that I think about it I did find salsify growing as a roadside weed once, collected some seeds, grew some, and moved house before getting to eat any.

Budock and salsify are ancient root vegetables that are pretty rare here.  Only a few people seem to have heard of them, and they often talk highly about both of these vegetables.  So I thought I should grow some and taste them myself.

Both plants grew in similar conditions, I gave them full sun and a little water.  They grew over summer and died back over winter when we harvested them.  The salsify didn't die back completely, the burdock went from large impressively lush plants to nothing above soil in the blink of an eye.  Luckily I remembered where I planted them so I could dig up some roots to eat.

Burdock, Salsify, and Skirret

Burdock

The burdock grew rather large leaves that look similar to rhubarb.  The hottest days of summer scorched the leaves a bit, but it didn't seem to bother the plants too much. 

Burdock is said to be biennial, I am told it will flower and die next year.  I dug up some roots to eat, and replanted the stump to grow/flower over the warmer months.  I'm not sure if that is the best way to do things, but it seemed to make sense to me.

The roots were very long and went deep into the soil.  Most snapped off as I dug them and I didn't dig deep enough to get them all.  The yield per plant, had I dug up all the roots, probably would have been pretty decent for the amount of space they took.

Burdock plant - large leaves

Burdock in the garden

Salsify

Salsify grows as a roadside weed around here.  It has long strappy leaves.  I am told that it is perennial, but have a feeling it may be biennial too.  These easily handled summer heat, and seemed to cope with little water.

I expected the roots to grow long and fat like carrots, but all were thing and short and twisted.  I found the yield per plant to be disappointing, but that may have been my fault for not growing them properly.  They were very easy to grow, so a small yield isn't a deal breaker.

Salsify plant has strappy leaves

Harvest

I dug up some burdock and salsify during winter.  

I don't know the best way to cook them.  I tried some of each raw, that wasn't terrible but I won't be doing that again.

We washed the roots, cut them into small lengths, and roasted them.  We also roasted some skirret, pumpkin, and potatoes too.  I figured that would give us a good comparison of roasted root vegetables.  

The burdock, salsify, and skirret needed far less cooking time than the pumpkin and potato.

Burdock on left, salsify on right

 

The big fat things are the burdock crowns, you can see the growing point where the leaves will emerge from.  I removed the roots for cooking and replanted the crowns.  Hopefully they will grow and flower this year to produce seed.  I don't know if this is the right thing to do, but it made sense to me at the time.  Hopefully I haven't killed them.

I have never grown burdock before so this is all part of the learning curve.

Burdock crowns - roots removed before replanting

Burdock and Salsify Taste

Both burdock and salsify were simple to grow, burdock gave a decent yield and salsify a very small yield, but none of that matters compared to their taste.  I am glad we roasted them with other root vegetables as a comparison.

Out of all the vegetables I ate that evening I love the taste of skirret the most.  It is sweet and wholesome and delicious.  I rank potato and pumpkin next, they taste both good. 

Far behind them I would rank burdock as a distance fourth place in my preference.  I didn't hate it, but didn't particularly like it.  I would eat it again, but there are plenty of other things I would prefer to eat.

Salsify didn't taste great to me and I rank it as fifth.  I didn't hate it, but it sure didn't impress me.  To me it tasted kind of like carrot but without any sweetness.  Perhaps roasting is not the best way to cook salsify?

Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe I am becoming a food snob after eating all the other things I grow, maybe they taste ok but the other roasted veggies we had that night were all better so by comparison it was lacking, maybe these taste better if they were cooked in other ways, maybe other people love the taste and it just doesn't appeal to me, I really don't know.  If you get a chance to try burdock and salsify I still say give them a go.  Who knows, perhaps you will love them.

Venus Flytrap - Low Giant

Last year I got a 'Low Giant' Venus flytrap.  This is a registered cultivar that was developed in Australia.

Low Giant seems like a good name for this venus fly trap.  It grew reasonably large traps, and the leaves stayed low to the ground.  The inside of the traps turned deep red which I quite like.

My plant attempted to flower in its first spring, but I cut off the flower stalk so it had more energy to put into growing leaves and getting strong.  I planted the flower stalk to use as a cutting, and it has produced some baby plants.  Not all of my VFT varieties are happy to grow from flower stalk cuttings for some reason, but this one threw several baby plants from that one cutting.  The original plant also divided.  

Over winter my Low Giant vft has died back a lot and looks terrible, which is actually a good sign of a healthy vft in my climate.  I often find the ones that die back in the frosts tend to come back strong in spring, while the ones that grow through winter tend to struggle or even rot when the weather warms.

Low Giant Venus Flytrap - note flower stalk cutting on the left

I was a little disappointed when Low Giant arrived as it was very small and I paid a lot for it, but it grew into a very colourful plant.  

Low Giant arrived bare rooted through the post, and like most Venus flytraps it coped really well being posted like this.  It arrived late winter, and had not experienced frosts before it arrived here, so it took a while to settle before it started to grow.

Below are some photos of its growth over the first two months:

Low Giant VFT the day it arrived

Low Giant after one week

Low Giant VFT - one month getting colour but not growing much

Low Giant vft ~ 2 months and still pretty small

The following is a description from the Flytrap Store:

The Low Giant Venus Flytrap clone is a spectacular plant that produces very large traps (rivaling even the B52) with broad leaves that grow prostrate (near the ground) year round in dense rosettes. It often develops a very deep red color in the traps.

 Predatory Plants has the following description:

Venus flytrap 'Low Giant' is an extremely vigorous clone with large traps. As this Venus fly catcher's name suggests, 'Low Giant' tends to grow close to the ground in a tight rosette.

While it took a while to do much after being posted and then hit with frosts, towards the end of spring/beginning of summer my Low Giant started to grow well.  From there it went from strength to strength and seemed pretty vigorous in my climate.

I grow a few different varieties of venus fly traps, some named and others from seed.  I don't have unlimited space, or unlimited water, so I can't grow anything that does not perform well for me.  So far Low Giant is performing well, is pretty vigorous, it has large traps, has nice colour, it divides, and it hasn't needed too much care from me.  While I think Low Giant is a good clone, at this stage 'Wally' is still my favourite venus flytrap. 

I plan to sell a few Low Giant venus flytraps, if you are interested keep an eye on my for sale page in late spring.  While I prefer pick up these things cope well being posted bare rooted pretty easily.  If you grow carnivorous plants and would like to swap, please let me know as there are a few carnivorous plants that I am trying to get.

Kangkong - perennial vegetable from South East Asia

A number of years ago I heard of a perennial leaf vegetable called kangkong (Ipomoea aquatica and/or Ipomoea reptans) that is not very common here but is extremely popular in south east Asia. 

It has heaps of common names including ong choy, Chinese spinach, Chinese watercress, Chinese convolvulus, swamp cabbage, water spinach, river spinach, water morning glory, and water convolvulus.  I am sure kangkong has a lot of other names too.

Kangkong was reputed to be fast growing (~10cm per day), high yielding, undemanding to grow, and tastes good.  Kangkong is absurdly healthy to eat, it is high in many vitamins, high in various minerals such as iron, high in essential amino acids, and has reasonable amounts of fiber.  It also has few calories and almost not fat.  Kang kong is said to reduce cholesterol and has blood sugar stabilising effects (which I need).  To me kangkong sounded intriguing and well worth trying.

Kangkong was said to grow in water and do very well in aquaponics.  I keep hearing how this is sold in bunches at the markets and that it is simple to grow from cuttings, but have never actually seen it for sale in a market anywhere.  

I occasionally see kangkong plants for sale online, but not very often.  So I tracked down some seed and grew some myself.  Back then kangkong seed was difficult to find anywhere, so I think I was lucky to be able to get it.

Kangkong

The seedlings produced rather distinctive forked cotyledons as they germinated, and seemed to germinate in soil better than they did in water.  The ones in water rotted, the ones in soil all germinated quickly for me.

I have since heard that kang kong is very difficult to germinate, but I didn’t do anything overly special and they germinated just fine for me.  The pot below I planted five seeds and had five seedlings germinate.  Maybe I was just lucky.

Kangkong seedlings germinating

Kangkong leaves and spent flowers

My kangkong seedlings grew reasonably slow at the start and after germination seemed to sit there doing nothing for some time, eventually they got large enough to eat a little.  It felt like they took a long time to reach a reasonable size, after that they grew very fast.  I grew most of them crowded in small pots of soil, where they did surprisingly well.  

I thought that kangkong didn't taste very strong, it certainly never tasted bitter.  To me kangkong was good raw or cooked briefly in a stir fry.  My kids happily ate raw kangkong leaves that they picked as they walked in the garden.  The fact that my kids would graze on this says a lot about it.  Our chickens and guinea pigs also liked to eat kangkong leaves and stems. 

I also grew one kang kong plant in a floating pot in a classroom aquarium, this plant did extremely well.  From what I have seen kangkong is well suited to aquaponics.  I have read a few academic papers that demonstrated that kangkong is vastly superior in reducing nitrates and phosphates in water than fast growing brassicas.  It seems to have potential in cleansing water and for soil stability in wet tropical areas.

I doubt I grew my kangkong properly.  I gave them next to no attention, they were crwded in a tiny pot of soil, and they were not in very fertile soil, but they still produced a reasonable amount of leaves pretty much constantly over the warmer months.  Some flowered towards the end of the season, but I never saw any sign of them producing seed pods.  This lack of seed setting may be due to my short growing season, but I have a feeling it may have been due to the lack of attention that I paid them and the poor growing conditions.  The pots were far too small, the soil too poor, and they did not get enough sunlight. 

Like many other vegetables that we commonly grow, kangkong are tropical perennial plants that do great over summer and tend to die over winter in cooler climates.  I didn’t want to grow from seed so I protected some plants over winter by keeping them out of the frosts.  They suffered badly through winter, but they survived.  Temperatures below 12C made them lose leaves and die back to depressing little stumps.  Any frost killed the plants completely, but keeping a pot of kangkong out of the frost was simple enough to do.

Kangkong struggles over winter

Once spring came I had a pot of sad little stumps with no leaves and a lot of dead bits, I doubted that these would recover so I also planted some more seed.  These sad little stumps took off and flourished as soon as the weather warmed, and considerably out grew any seeds I planted that spring.  

There was no comparison in growth rates, the overwintered plants were larger and produced far more leaves earlier in the season.  Again they flowered but did not set seed, I never cared about seed from them as I still had some seed in my packet, plus they are true perennials that were simple enough to get through winter in that climate.  In hind sight I regret not valuing these vegetables enough.   

Even though my climate was not ideal for them, I grew the same kangkong plants for a number of years then moved house and brought some of my plants with me, they kept producing leaves for me to eat which I really appreciated.  At the time due to work I was living away from home during the week, and coming back on weekends where I would eat handfuls of the stuff.  

As I had my garden in pots of soil sitting on concrete, kangkong was one of the few things that produced anything edible for me over this time.  Having a few hand fulls of kangkong as well as Vietnamese coriander, really helped me during this time as I was producing nothing else edible at the time.

A few months later I moved house again.  I don’t remember what happened to my kang kong because I had a lot  going on during that time, but I somehow lost them all, and I haven’t grown any kangkong since. 

Kangkong growing in a 10cm pot (in an ice cream container) and flowering

It has been a few years since I last grew this, but I keep thinking of growing kangkong again.  It was so simple to grow, was so productive, very undemanding, kangkong is meant to be really healthy, and it actually tasted alright.  Much like many other great vegetables I can’t buy this in the markets, meaning if I want to eat it I have to grow it myself. 

I found some of my very old seed (from 2013) and have planted some to see if any germinates for me.  I also bought some new seed just in case the old ones are no longer viable and have planted some of that.  I didn't know if they can germinate with the temperatures so low, so I planted them with bottom heat.  Some are already germinating.  I didn't plant much of the seed, I will plant more in spring if these sprout and die off due to the cold or something.  

Kang kong flower bud

Last time I grew some kangkong in soil as well as some in a floating pot of gravel in a fish tank.  This time I will try the soil again, but I would also like to grow some using aquaponics as I think that is the only way for it to reach its potential in my climate.  I have heard of it exploding in growth in aquaponics and being too productive - that's what I want!

The floating pot of gravel performed incredibly well last time, but I have plans to pump aquarium water through a bed of gravel and I think kangkong may do even better in a set up like that.  I am kind of excited to see what kang kong can do in my goldfish barrelponics as I think kangkong may be perfectly suited to that kind of growing.  Being outside in full sun, having constant access to a stream of nutrient rich water, it should really take off over summer. 

I enjoy vegetable breeding and (as well as many failures) I have produced some incredible plants.  A large part of me wants to buy seeds of as many different varieties of kangkong as I can find, cross them all, and see if I can produce a superior variety.  Being a perennial means that if I do stumble upon an exceptional plant I don’t have to breed it for generations to stabilize the superior traits, I can simply take cuttings and clone the thing.  

Another part of me does not want to do this as regular kangkong is already pretty great, I have no experience in collecting kangkong seed, I don’t have a lot of space or water to use on yet another vegetable breeding project, and this sounds like a lot of work.  I guess time will tell, it sounds like something I will eventually do but I may not invest a lot of effort into it just yet.

Kangkong flowering - this plant needed more nitrogen and more sun

I will probably sell kangkong through my for sale page at some stage in summer.  I am interested in getting a few more kangkong varieties and would love to track down the red stemmed kangkong.  If you have some red kang kong in Australia and are willing to sell or trade it let me know.  Or if you are overseas and are willing to post me some seed of red kangkong I would also love to hear from you.

Growing Peanuts

I always wanted to grow peanuts (Arachis hypogaea).  I gave it a go once when I was in highschool, and we had early (February) frosts that killed them all.  I haven't tried growing peanuts gain since then.

This past summer I decided to give growing peanuts another go.  I am told that you can buy raw peanuts and plant them, but I don't remember the last time I saw raw peanuts for sale so I bought seeds of a variety called 'Virginia Bunch'.  

The seeds were very expensive, and didn't have a lot in the packet.  Unfortunately most were broken when the packet was sent to me.  Still, there were a few good seeds in there, so I planted them and gave it a go.

The plants grew well, looked like any other legume, and had unremarkable small yellow flowers.  The flowers died, as they should, and then the flower stems buried the forming fruits.  Each peanut pod is the fruit of the peanut plant, that has been buried by the plant itself. 

Home grown peanut

The kids and I pulled up the plants after the frosts killed them.  hey hadn't died down completely, but we have had a lot of rain and I was worried that they may rot if I left them in the soil for too long.

The kids and I ate some of the peanuts.  They tasted great.  They tasted like peanut but almost creamy.

I was a bit disappointed by the small size of the crop, but they didn't have a great season and the plants were largely shaded.  I think in a normal summer each plant would have produced more peanuts.

One peanut plant with its peanuts

I would like to grow peanuts again, so have saved some seeds from this lot.  I would love to grow other varieties if possible, so will keep an eye out at health food stores to see if they ever offer raw peanuts for sale.

Comparison Pot Widths and Volumes

I have been trying to work out how much soil a plant pot holds.  This post is to help me remember without writing on a scrap of paper and then losing it.  

I sell seeds and bare rooted plants, and have started to sell some plants in pots at garage sales and things like that.  This increases the costs to me as I have to buy pots as well as soil.  For this reason I need to know how much the pot costs as well as how much the soil costs that they hold, so I can know if this is financially viable.  

While there are shorter pots or taller pots of the same diameter that will change the volume, I have found the following to give me a ballpark idea of how much soil each pot holds:

Plugs (5cmx5cmx5cm) - 0.125L

50mm pot - 0.15L

70mm tall pot - 0.3L

75mm pot - 0.35L

100mm pot - 0.5L (0.46L-0.55L)

140mm pot - 1.55L

150mm pot - 1.7L

200mm pot - 4.3L

 

Aquaponics jar - no tech

We have all seen pictures of plants growing in water beads.  They look great.  We had some water beads that I was going to throw out, so decided to use them for something.

The kids caught some gambusia fish in a local river.  Gambusia are a pest here and cannot legally be returned to the river, so we fed most to the chickens and used a couple in an aquaponics jar experiment with water beads.  I also have some variegated spider plants, they are hardy, survive pretty much anything, and I am sure I have seen them in tiny aquaponics so they should be well suited to this task.

We cut the top off a plastic bottle, and punched a hole in the lid for water exchange.  Filled this with water beads, popped in a spider plant, and expected it to work.  

It looked great at the start.

waterbeads jar aquaponics attempt

It didn't work.  

There was not enough gas exchange with the water and the fish suffered.  I felt really bad for them.  We then put something between the bottle and the jar to leave a little gap for gas exchange.  This was better for a little while, but the fish died several weeks later.  

I still feel really bad about this.  Conditions were not good for the fish, and I think the water beads may have played a part in their death.  The beads themselves are meant to be inert and non-toxic, but maybe the colour used in them is dangerous?

Notice the water beads are all plump and completely fill the container

Everything looked great at the start

I still thought this idea had merit, so we kept it going without any fish.  I figured we could learn from this and it doesn't need fish for proof of concept.  I certainly didn't want any more fish to go through anything like this.

We did learn a lot, it failed again.

The plant flopped over.  It was not properly supported by the beads.  All those amazing pictures you see of plants growing in beautiful water beads probably haven't been growing in it for very long. 

The beads at the top started to lose water and dehydrate.  I am not sure how this is possible, but it is.  Look at the pictures, all the beads at the top are now tiny and dry!  The beads were right up to the top of the container at the start of this, now the level has dropped a lot.

Somehow the plant seems to be shriveling up, maybe due to lack of water.  I'm not sure how this can be possible as the beads in the lower section are below the water level and are constantly submerged in water.  These spider plants are pretty tough, so I expected them to easily thrive in this.

I have tried pouring water over the top of the beads to re-hydrate them...but that only seems to slow the problem rather than fix it.  The top water beads keep drying and shrinking.

Look how much lower the water beads are now, they are drying

Some beads under water, the lid is perforated to let in water, yet the top beads are still drying

The plant is not supported by beads, and is shriveling, as are the water beads

After a while the water beads started to grow algae.  The beads at the top are drying even though the beads lower down are under the water.  The lid of the bottle has holes punched in it to allow the water in.  The plants are certainly not thriving, they flop over as they are not supported by the beads, and they appear to be somewhat stressed by lack of water.  I planted some other spider plants in a small pot of soil, the soil grown plants are probably three times larger.

I'm going to let this run to the bitter end.  There are no fish in there suffering, so there is no real reason to stop.  At this stage is is pretty clear that water beads are no good for growing plants, and water beads should not be used in tiny jar aquaponics.

The beads on top are still shrinking while the ones lower down are submerged

The water beads are starting to get algae growing on them

The water beads are still shrinking, this was full of plump beads at the start

I'm sure I have heard of jar aquaponics working, and I am sure I have heard it working without a pump or any other technology.  After seeing this I don't believe jar aquaponics can work with water beads, but it may work with gravel.  

Overall this experiment has failed.  No part of it has gone well.  While I feel bad for the fish, I have learned from it.  Once this fails completely I should try again using gravel instead of water beads (but no fish).