Guinea pigs communication

Guinea pigs are an amazing little animal.  We have had them on and off for many years.  Our first guinea pig died at about 8 years of age.  He used to belong to someone else but they couldn't look after him so we got him.  He was a great little pet and I was sad when he passed.

We currently have three large and fat females who used to be someone else pets but now live with us.  Hopefully they have long and happy lives with us.

Our guinea pigs are great at turning grass and weeds into rich fertiliser.  They are also fantastic at mowing grass in places that are difficult to get the mower or when I simply can't be bothered to mow.  They are also interesting to watch and nice to have around.

I move the guinea pig cage several times per day (morning and afternoon during the week, more often if I am home during the day and not too busy) and they eat out the lawn for me.  I also give them weeds that they like from the vegetable garden, and sometimes give them vegetable scraps and apple cores and things simply because they like to eat them. 

When the guinea pigs see me they oink loudly.  When guinea pigs want people to feed them they make this oinking noise (commonly referred to by cavy fanciers as 'wheeking').  Sometimes they have plenty of feed but they will see me and excitedly start to oink in the hope that I will give them something nicer to eat.  More often than not I do exactly what they want me to do.  It is hard to say no.

Two of our guinea pigs

Yesterday I learned something new about guinea pigs.  I love learning new things!  Yesterday someone told me that guinea pigs only use this oinking sound to communicate with people.  Apparently guinea pigs didn't used to make this sound until they were domesticated.  They said that no other animal have a specific sound purely to communicate with people like this.

I had never thought of that before, but it is true.  Our guinea pigs only make this oinking noise to call to people that they know who are likely to feed them something they like.  They don't ever make this noise to each other, they don't make this sound when they see my kids, they never make this sound when strangers such as the postman walk past them, or any other time when we are not in sight.  If they did I would hear them.

Sure your dog or cat may make a noise that is just for you, but all cats and dogs don't do it for their owners.  Guinea pigs are well known for all oinking for people anywhere in the world that they are kept.  This does not appear to be a learned behaviour, they all seem to do it.

It seems to be a behaviour that is written in their genes.  Considering that guinea pigs were domesticated about 7,000 years ago, and were raised exclusively in people's kitchens from that time until the 1500's, this makes sense.  When you consider that most of these animals would have been eaten and not lived very long that is a LOT of generations of guinea pigs that were raised in people's houses where people provided all of their food.  Having some way to tell people they want more food sounds like it would have been beneficial and would have been unknowingly selected for.

Guinea pigs are fascinating creatures, I love how they do things like this.  I wish I had more of them.

Does Azolla control mosquitoes?

Many people have told me that azolla can be used to control mosquito populations.  This is somewhat true, and has been proven experimentally to be possible under certain situations, but not for the reasons that people often claim.  Strangely enough, the way that azolla works is better than the way that people often say that it works.

Azolla starting to cover the water surface

Mosquito larvae live in water, but they must come to the surface to breathe air.   Most species of Australian mosquitoes have a specialised breathing snorkel or tube at their tail end, they spend much of the day at the surface with this breathing tube sticking out of the water.  Quite often people speak of azolla’s ability to control mosquitoes by it forming a dense mat which reduced the ability of the larvae to reach the surface to breathe, theoretically suffocating them.

I have read no evidence of azolla reducing the survival of immature mosquito larvae of any of the species of mosquitoes that are common in Australia. 

So how does azolla help to lower the numbers of mosquitoes? 

I have read a few experiments which have tested the suffocation theory using some of the species of mosquito that are common in Australia as well as one of the species of azolla that is common in Australia.  None of the studies I have read indicated that larvae respiration was hindered by azolla in any way.  All the studies I have read indicate that mosquito larvae either find a naturally occurring gap or simply push their breathing tube up between the azolla as if it wasn’t there.  Poking a snorkel up through azolla also protects them from being seen by predators!  Never listen to anyone who says that mosquitoes are suffocated by azolla, they have not done any research and are talking nonsense.

Having a few azolla plants floating here and there with mostly open water does nothing to control mosquitoes.

Now that the ways in which azolla does not control mosquitoes is out of the way let’s look at how azolla can and does help to control mosquito populations.

feeding duckweed and azolla to chickens

I have grown duckweed for many years.  Each time I move house I bring some with me.  I like the little plants floating happily on water.  I have heard how great it is as a poultry feed, but have never been able to get poultry to eat much of it.

I have tried floating duckweed on water in a container in their yard, they sometimes nibble a little but really don't eat much of it and not deliberately.  I have tried giving duck weed to them in a heap fresh, or dry, or fresh mixed with normal feed, or dry mixed with normal feed.  Usually they would peck around it and eat very little of it.

This was rather frustrating as everyone says how great duckweed is as a poultry feed.  Oh well, I keep growing it as I still like it.  Duckweed has other uses apart from poultry feed so this isn't a great loss.

This last summer I gave the chickens some azolla, and they ate it all quickly.  I gave it to them floating on water and they ate every last piece.  Every time I gave them more azolla they ate it all pretty fast.

Azolla in a container of water, it doubles each few days so I scoop it out to feed to chickens

Strawberries - Ever Bearing, Day Neutral, June Bearing

Strawberry plants are often described on the internet as ‘June bearing’, ‘everbearing’ or ‘day neutral’. Even though we usually don’t use these terms in Australia we are starting to see them more often and people sometimes ask me about them so I thought I would write a post explaining the differences.

Before I start, try to keep in mind that this distinction is not absolute, not all varieties fit neatly into any one category, some varieties switch categories depending on the growing conditions, many can send up an occasional flower throughout the growing season, also being in Australia means that internet descriptions such as ‘June bearing’ may be confusing as they will more likely crop in December.

Strawberries will not flower or fruit if the temperature is too high or too low. If your climate is too hot or dry or cold you may not actually be able to tell the difference between any of these three as the possible fruiting window may be small. If you live up in the tropics or down south will also change fruiting time drastically.

Now that is out of the way, let me explain the differences between June bearing, everbearing, and day neutral strawberries.

Various Strawberries

Four leaf clover, so much good luck

We have a lot of clover in our lawn from time to time.  I encourage it to grow in the lawn.  Clover sequesters nitrogen from the atmosphere and makes it available to other plants.  It increases the fertility of the soil plus when I mow them and compost them they increase the nitrogen level in the compost.  Clover is high in protein and my guinea pigs and chickens like to eat it (plus I could eat it if I wanted to).  Bees and other pollinators appreciate the flowers.  When it gets too dry it dies off, but it self seeds and readily pops up when the rains return.  I don't see anything that is not to like about clover.

The other day I saw a 'four leaf' clover.  These are pretty common, far more common than most people realise.  I quickly had a look around and picked fifteen 'four leaf' clovers and eight 'five leaf' clovers, the kids convinced me to take a photo of them.  There were plenty more in the patch, but I didn't bother to pick them.  We don't do anything with them so picking seems like a waste of time.

In the past I once got the kids to help and we picked 48 'four leaf' clovers before I mowed the lawn.  There were probably plenty more around, but we got a little bored of looking for and finding so many of them.

'Four leaf' clover

Four leaf clover

Growing chilli the in Canberra region

I am constantly amazed at how little knowledge people have about growing food.  Ironically foodies appear to have the least knowledge about where food comes from.  I am writing this post to help clear up some of the most common misconceptions that I hear about chillies and capsicums. 

Let me explain how growing chillies in a cool climate such as Canberra is relatively simple. I grow everything organically and make compost to feed the soil.

Big and mild chilli - easy to grow

Fruit and Berry harvest times in Australia

I wrote a guide detailing the vegetable days to harvest from planting a seed.  It has many different vegetables, as well as strawberries and a few other edible things.  That guide has been very useful for me to plan when to plant seeds, to know how long it takes after flowering until a tomato is ripe, and other things like that.  Each year harvest time does vary a little depending on the weather that year.

That guide is very useful for vegetables, so I made a quick chart of the harvest dates for various fruits and berries in my garden over the past few years.  I have all the dates in a spreadsheet, but that gets a little difficult to find, so I thought a quick chart may be more useful to help me plan garden things.

This chart is only representative of fruiting times in my current garden in cool temperate Australia over the past two years.  It is not guaranteed to be representative of other gardens, or other climates, or other varieties of the same fruit tree.

As some plants get larger and more established the harvest will likely increase.  Igloo's seed grown apricot tree for example will likely have a longer harvest as it grows larger and bears more fruit. Some years the harvest will be larger or smaller than others.

Keeping all of the above in mind, this chart should help me to plan harvests, help me decide on new varieties of berry to grow to increase berry season, and things like that.

Fruit and Berry harvest guide

Fruit and Berry Harvest Guide

I also have a bunch of fruit trees and berries that I didn't record, I plan to update them at some stage in the future.

Nashi pear 'Nijisseiki' - it has provided huge crops over what felt like a very long season
Dwarf pomegranate - used to fruit but it hasn't flowered the past few years for some reason
Feijoa - currently too small to flower
Huonville crab apple
Pink lady apple
'White fruited' mulberry
Thornless Gooseberry 'Captivator'
Jostaberry

Plus there are probably a few other things that I have forgotten about.

I will possibly sell some of these berries and trees through my for sale page when I have built up numbers of them.

Mulberry tree from cuttings the easy way

White Mulberries (Morus alba) are one of the easiest fruiting trees to grow from cuttings.  Anyone can do it and nothing is needed other than access to a white mulberry branch and some water.

White mulberries are incredibly useful plants: they are simple to grow and high yielding, the fruit is delicious easy to pick and often very abundant, they provide great shade, they grow very fast, the leaves are edible, leaves also make a nice 'tea', they can be used as high protein fodder for livestock and silkworms, all things considered they are an amazing tree.

I have grown mulberries from cuttings a few times now, I photographed my latest effort to show how simple it was.

Mulberry tree that I grew from the cutting below

Purple sweet corn seeds in Australia

I bred Immali corn a few years ago in Central West NSW.  It is a coloured sweet corn.  As you can see from the pictures it is purple/pink and white sweet corn.  If mostly dark seeds are planted the cobs are rather dark.  If a mix of white and dark seeds are planted the cobs will be lighter in colour.

Immali corn was bred to be high in anthocyanin (the same cancer fighting antioxidant that is found in blueberries), antioxidant rich, high yielding, sweet corn that is far more nutritious than yellow sweet corn.

Immali corn is a relatively short plant which tillers and is suitable for backyard gardeners and people who like to produce their own food.  I have only grown it organically since I started to breed it and never had pest issues.  This means it is well suited to organic gardeners and permaculture gardens.  It is a stable variety, once you have seeds you can save seed each year and plant it again, meaning that you never have to buy corn seed again.

Immali corn is a stable variety and I sell seeds through my for sale page.  As Immali corn is stable you can save the seeds and grow this year after year.  I sell seeds that are a mix of purple and white sweet corn, most people plant all of them and get some amazing looking cobs.

Immali corn - the first purple sweetcorn bred in Australia

Immali corn, when picked early and 50/50 white/purple seeds are planted it look s like this

Days to maturity yin yang bean

I grew some Yin Yang beans this year, they are a dried bean that is one of the most beautiful beans ever. 

Days to maturity Yin Yang Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)
Seeds planted       27/10/2017       Day 0
Germinated           05/11/2017       Day 9
Flowered              13/12/2017       Day 47
Harvest start         03/02/2018       Day 99 - this is for dry beans, green beans would have been significantly earlier

Yin Yang beans days to maturity

Strawberry Raspberry hybrids

Have you ever heard of a plant that is the hybrid of a strawberry and a raspberry?  Have you ever seen one?  Have you made that cross yourself?  I have.

I am not talking about a strassberry, which is just a variety of strawberry, I am not talking about a GMO or something produced through somatic protoplast fusion, I am not talking about Rubus illecebrosus (which is not a hybrid at all), I am not talking about a grafted plant.  I am talking about cross pollinating strawberry and raspberry, and growing out the hybrid seeds.  These are true intergeneric hybrids that I am referring to.

A few years ago I read a post on a blog called 'The Biologist is in' about some plant breeding work done by the late Luther Burbank.  I found this blog post to be inspiring, so I went on and read more about Luther Burbank and his strawberry raspberry hybrids in other places.

Luther Burbank was a remarkable plant breeder, he crossed a raspberry with a strawberry about one hundred years ago.  He didn't use crazy chemicals or GM technology, he also didn't know a lot about genetics.  At the time this kind of hybrid was thought to be impossible and many people mocked him.  We know a lot more about genetics because Luther kept doing things that were considered impossible.  I can't find any reference to anyone actually attempting to cross strawberry and raspberry since then.

Luther Burbank's raspberry strawberry hybrid. 
Picture from http://bulbnrose.x10.mx/Heredity/Burbank/Burbank_raspXstraw.html

This got me thinking: if a man one hundred years ago with very little understanding of genetics could cross strawberries and raspberries then there is no reason that I can't do it today.  So I tried to cross strawberries and raspberries, and I succeeded.

Vegetable Petition - please read by 19 April

The following was written by Anne Gibson, The Micro Gardener – https://themicrogardener.com  it is on my blog with permission.

_________________________________________________________________________________

The safety of our organic seed is at risk and we need YOUR help. We deserve the right to eat, grow and buy safe seeds, but our government is planning on mandatory chemical treatment of many organic varieties of imported seeds. Incredibly, 98% of Australia’s vegetable seed is from overseas and the variety of vegetable seed cultivars we have access to now, is at risk of significantly reducing.

First it was organic rockmelon seeds and now Brassica seeds are at risk. Soon, other plant families are to follow.

Please read and sign this petition. Every voice makes a difference. If you're not already, please start saving your seeds. Thanks for your help. Let's get the word out. We only have until 19 April. 

Alpine Strawberries in Australia

I have been getting a few questions over alpine strawberries so thought I would write a short blog post to clear up some things.  Alpine strawberries are different from garden strawberries in a number of ways, if you intend to grow them you should probably be aware of these differences.  I grow them, and I think they are great, but I also know what to expect from them. 

Various alpine strawberries, small and delicious

Alpine strawberries are a wild type of strawberry that grows across Europe.  They tend to be smaller plants that garden strawberries, and the ones I have grown seem to be hardier and more resistant to pretty much everything than I would have expected from such dainty little plants.  

Orphan bees

We had a bee swarm visit us!

On Saturday 3 March a friendly swarm of honey bees decided to visit.  They flew in and created an impressive and frantic swarm, then they settled on one of our fruit trees.  At first there were plenty of bees flying here and there and getting caught in spider webs and things.  After a little while they calmed down and politely waited while the scout bees were looking for a more permanent home.

Being Autumn I was a little surprised to see them.  As you can see, they settled into a friendly little clump.  Over the next few hours I grew fond of them and decided to quickly pull together a hive in which to keep them, and planned on building something better later.

Unfortunately the swarm had other ideas, and they left.

I miss my little bee swarm.

White fruited mulberries

Mulberries are delicious, they are one of the greatest tasting and easiest to grow temperate fruit trees.  The mulberry trees are fast growing, high yielding, and reasonably hardy.  As well as being great to eat, they are very simple to grow and the tree is nice enough to look at and is great for shade.

Mulberry trees have a few problems though, the fruit does not transport or store well, the fruit also will not ripen once picked, for these reasons you never see them for sale in the shops.  Unfortunately for some reason you also don't see things like mulberry pies in shops.

Another problem is the mess and stains from the fruit.  White mulberry (Morus alba) often have dark fruit that stain everything.  You get stains from dropped fruit and on fingers while eating them, smushing unripe fruit takes away the stain from fingers.  More annoyingly birds eat the mulberry fruit and deposit stains on washing etc.  Luckily there are a few strains of white mulberries that are white fruited which do not stain.

A few years ago I bought a mulberry tree from Rodney's nursery in Pialligo.  It was a white mulberry (Morus alba) and I paid extra for a white fruited one.  It had a tag that was the same as the pictures below (which are not my pictures, they were found on gumtree).

White fruited white mulberry - picture from gumtree