living mulch - do pumpkins shade the soil

Quite often I have read about the "three sisters" method of planting.  People state different reasons for each of the three plants being planted together.  More often that not people state that pumpkins are used as they shade the soil, and provide a living mulch.  But is this really the case?

First, let me say that the three sisters method works well when done properly.

If you grow field corn, dry beans, and pumpkins together they do crop well together.  The beans sequester atmospheric nitrogen that the corn appreciates, the corn provides a stalk for beans to grow up but more importantly the corn exude sugars into the soil for the pumpkins, the pumpkins are meant to shade the soil, but they don't.  Or at least they don't shade the soil when it is hot.

If you have ever stopped to look at pumpkin leaves on a cool day they are large and cast an impressive shadow.  If you look at them during any kind of heat you may notice that they go flacid to conserve water.  When they are flacid they do not cast much of a shadow and do little to cool the soil.

When we lived in Central West NSW we had about 9 weeks each year where the day time temperature exceeded 40 C.  It was incredibly hot and dry for a very long time.  Pumpkins were all but worthless for providing shade in that kind of heat.  The leaves would go flacid at about 7:30 each morning and stay that way until they were watered in the evening.  It kept them alive, I got a crop out of them, but didn't help the corn.

I know that people will argue with me on this, so I took some pictures to demonstrate my point.  I took these pictures last summer on a day that reached 30 C.  It was a still day with no wind.  If pumpkins don't cast shade on a day like that they are not going to do a great deal in any real heat or if it is windy.

Pumpkin leaves in any heat wilt badly, but do they still cast much shadow?

Pumpkins from this angle you can't tell if they shade the soil

Pumpkin leaves, look how little shadow they cast at 30 C

I have had people argue this point with me and say that in the three sisters method that there is plenty of shade on the soil.  This is partly true.  In the three sisters method there is often plenty of shade on the soil, but it is not due to the pumpkin leaves.  Look at the picture above, pumpkin leaves don't cast much shade at all when the days warm up.  They cast even less shade when it is hot.

I think the shade that may be due to the corn.  So I took some pictures of the soil under my corn plants.  It was the same day as I took the pumpkin pictures, it only reached 30 C and there was no wind.  On hotter days the shade under corn plants is much the same as their leaves curl but don't wither away like a pumpkin.

Corn plants (on the left) cast more share than pumpkins (ignore the potatoes on the right)

The three sisters method works well when done properly, but what about when you want to shade soil under other tall crops such as yacon?  If you want a plant to shade the soil what should you use?  As you can see in the pictures above pumpkins are not very good at shading the soil unless the day is cool and still.

In the past I have attempted to use things such as clover.  This is not great, it survives cool weather and appears to die in the heat.  No matter how much water I gave it the clover always died in Central West NSW over summer.  I need something that stands up to the heat of summer, grows densely to shade the soil, but does not get too tall.

I have successfully used purslane to shade the soil under corn and a few other crops.  This worked perfectly, it survived the heat, if watered it produced a thick deep mat, it did not appear to compete with the corn, it self seeded and dies at the end of summer.  It is edible by people as well as other animals.  Purslane apparently contains highest amounts of omega 3 fatty acid of any plant we know of and is very healthy for poultry.

Some people view purslane as a weed, and it self seeded so I more encouraged it rather than controlled where and when it would grow, so I looked for other options too.

I trialed strawberries as a ground cover to shade the soil.  I grew an alpine strawberry that produces a lot of runners.  This produced a thick ground cover that had the benefit of producing delicious edible strawberries.  The strawberries are a short plant, have a relatively shallow root system, and do not appear to compete very much with taller things.

Yacon with strawberry ground cover so dense the soil is completely shaded

Strawberries shade the soil even on hot days - note the strawberries ripening in the background

They also protect the roots from frosts a little

Growing strawberries as a ground cover worked well during the growing season.  Strawberries need a bit of water to survive, but so did the yacon so it wasn't a problem.

When it came time to dig the yacon it was less than ideal as I also had to dig the strawberries.  The strawberries are pretty hardy and survived being dug pretty well so it wasn't too much of an issue.

I do wonder if I could grow something like a creeping thyme as a ground cover.  I may try a few different things and see how they work.

Hybrid fruit: real and imaginary

There are some amazing hybrid fruits around, things such as plumcots (which are a cross of a plum and an apricot) or boysenberries (which are the cross of raspberry and blackberry) or jostaberry (which are a cross between a black current and a gooseberry) are rather well known.  Others are virtually unknown.

Most of the more well known hybrids are crosses of different species, others are crosses of different genus.

Sometimes people get confused by what does and does not cross, so sometimes there is confusion.  Other times people deliberately sell fake seeds and plants with made up histories.  I thought I would write a post showing some of the real hybrids as well as some fake hybrids.


Pear x Apple hybrids - Real hybrids and Imaginary hybrids

There seems to be a little confusion over intergeneric apple (Malus) x pear (Pyrus) hybrids.  There are a lot of common names that confuse people.  Apple x pear hybrids can and do exist, but they have not become marketable yet.  Perhaps one day they will.

Let me show you ome that are not hybrids and why they confuse people, then I will show the real apple x pear hybrids.

'Papple'
The Papple is a hybrid of an European pear Pyrus communis and an Asian pear Pyrus pyrifolia and was originally named “T109” by breeders.  It is a hybrid of two species of pear.  The papple is NOT a cross between a pear and an apple, it has no apple in its genetic makeup whatsoever.  The papple is a pear that has the vague appearance of an apple, so it was named 'papple'.

Papple is a cross between European pear and Asian pear, it is NOT a hybrid pear and apple

Seeds in seedless watermelon - how is this possible

Have you ever eaten a seedless watermelon and found 2 or 3 black viable looking seeds?  Have you ever wondered how this is possible?  I have.

I have a good understanding of how seedless watermelons are made.  Theoreticaly it is impossible for black viable seeds to form in a seedless watermelon, yet on occasion they do form and they are viable.  It irritated me not knowing how this is possible. 

I searched the internet to find out how it was possible for a seedless watermelon to produce black viable seeds.  Strangely enough I couldn't find any explanation.

I spoke to/emailed some plant nerds and a certain professor at a university who asked I didn't name him (and I won't - wink) and I now understand how seedless watermelons can produce black viable seeds.

If you would like to read a simplified version of how seedless watermelons can produce viable seeds then keep reading.

If you are a plant geneticist and would like to elaborate on any points that I have simplified too much, or anywhere that I have strayed a bit too far and confused things, then feel free to leave a comment!

Watermelon grown from a viable seed from a seedless watermelon

Guinea pigs to mow the lawn

I broke my spine a few years ago.  I can walk which is lovely and I appreciate the time I have had being able to walk.  I have known people to break their spine in a similar way to me and never walk again, so I count myself lucky.

My back is degrading, every day seems to be worse than the previous one.  Each time I mow the lawn I wonder how many more times I will be able to mow.  My kids are getting older and more capable, but none of them are able to safely use a lawn mower.  I am struggling to even use the ride on mower lately.  I got rid of some lawn and replaced it with vegetable beds, but I still have some lawn for the kids to play on.

This got me thinking, why mow the lawn at all?  Why not get something that eats grass to mow the lawn for me?

We are not on acreage any more so my options are limited.  Large livestock such as sheep or goats or cattle or alpacas are no good here as they would eat the fruit trees, they would eat the vegetables, and due to the size of my block eventually we would be left with nothing but dust and poo.

Sheep are great on acreage, not great for a backyard

Aji Amarillo

I like chillies.  I enjoy their capsaicin, but far more than that I love their taste.  There are literally thousands of different types of chillies and each of them tastes different.  Some are sweet, some bitter, some fruity, some citrusy, some savoury, some earthy, some dirty and I dislike them.

Unfortunately the markets only provide few varieties of chillies, so few that most of the foodies I know have no concept of the many thousands of varieties that are out there.  This means if I want to taste something remarkable I must grow it myself.

My vegetable garden is feeling small as there are so many amazing vegetables that I can't buy and have to grow myself.  I grow everything organically and I save seeds with my kids.

This year I grew very few chillies.  One that I grew this year was Aji Amarillo (Capsicum baccatum) which is a lovely chilli from Peru. 

Aji Amarillo e translates to "yellow chilli", aji means chilli, amarillo means yellow.  When dried it is known as Aji Mirasol (which I am told means "looking at the sun" but I don't really understand how).

Aji amarillo - many were longer than this

Raised Vegetable Beds

What is more useful, this odd shaped piece of grass on a gentle slope which fits a guinea pig house nicely and takes time to mow every now and again?  Or a jungle of many different organically grown fresh herbs and vegetables?

The odd shaped piece of lawn before was not very useful

Raised vegetable beds, they look great plus they produce organic food

Let's take a look from another angle.  Here is the odd shaped piece of lawn again.  It was wasted space that took time and effort to mow.  The lawn clippings were useful in the compost and the weeds that grew in there attract beneficial insects, but other than that it had little use.  I took a photo before vegetable beds, then I stood in much the same spot and took a photo after the raised vegetable beds were installed.

A piece of wasted land

That same small patch of land overflowing with fresh organic vegetables

Let's have one last look, I stood in much the same spot to take both pictures for comparison purposes.

Guinea pig house protecting vegetable seedlings from birds on the odd shaped plot of lawn

The same plot with lawn killed, guinea pig house moved, and raised vegetable beds installed

Don't make any mistake here, it took some work filling the beds with soil, planting seeds and seedlings, watering etc.  All of that work is more than worth it.  The raised vegetable beds became very productive very fast.  Being raised beds means I don't have to bend as much, which is easier on my back.

If you read my blog you will see that I grow many rare vegetables as well as dabble in vegetable breeding.  I can still do this because we converted a wasted lawn into a reasonable sized vegetable garden.  These raised vegetable beds are great, they mean far less bending, less digging, less weeds and less work.

Planting seeds and seedlings

Look how neat and tidy they all look

Even at this early stage they were productive

It didn't take long before that worthless piece of lawn became a jungle of delicious organic vegetables, amazing berries, fresh herbs, and a few pretty flowers for the kids.

Many people have never eaten fresh food.  Some foods are too soft to transport, so they are picked not yet ripe and can never taste their best.  The sugars in sweet corn convert to starch noticeably within 15 minutes of being picked.  If you want fresh food you must grow it yourself.  Food from the markets is not fresh and it will never be as good as food you can grow on an otherwise useless piece of lawn.

All of this fresh organic food had zero food miles, it was watered from the water tank which collected water from the roof, it was fertilised with compost made from lawn clippings and chicken manure from my property.  Does it get any better than this, yes it does!

To make things better my kids know where food comes from as they help me plant seeds and tend the vegetables, they help harvest and eat the food, and they help me save seeds (and dabble in a little plant breeding) each year.  Most adults I know have no idea how to save seeds. 

My kids have grown and eaten many fruit and vegetables that most people have never heard of.  They have eaten delicate and tender foods that could never survive transport.  All of this is possible because we destroyed our lawn and made it into something better.

Many vegetables are growing here

Raised vegetable beds - far more productive than lawn

String of pearls - real and fake

I love string of pearls plants (Senecio rowleyanus), I think they look amazing.  I grow a few and find them delightful.  There are a few different types.

Unfortunately, ebay thieves sell fake seeds of string of pearl plants that do not exist.  They sell thousands of dollars worth of fake seeds and keep getting away with it.

First, let me show you what types of string of pearls plants exist, then let me show you some of the fake seeds that thieves are selling through ebay.  Hopefully I can prevent at least one person from being stolen from.

All of the following pictures were found on actual online ads.  They are not my pictures. 


String of pearls plants that DO exist
Healthy string of pearls comes in green.  There is a variegated form (green and white), there is a giant form (also green), and that is all.  String of pearls ONLY come in green.

As string of pearls can be grown from seed, there are likely some forms that are slightly more pointy, and others that are slightly more round, but they are all green (or green and white).

If string of pearls is about to die or has some nutrient deficiency it may turn black, not a glossy nice black, more of a sickly about to die kind of black.  Mine get a slight purple tinge over winter when struggling through the cold, but they still look decidedly green.

 String of pearls giant form next to normal one - not my photo

How to prune raspberries

In order to correctly prune raspberries or blackberries or any of their many hybrids it is important to understand their basic growth habit as well as what you want to get from them. 

If you don’t understand their growth you will never get the full potential from them.  If you don’t know what you want from them you are wasting your time in pruning them at all.

Floricane blackberry will not fruit well if pruned like this

Established brambleberries grow from a crown, each year they put up new growth, this new growth is referred to as a primocane.  The primo part of this word means 'first' as they are first year growth.

After the growing season is over the primocane will sit over winter and not do a great deal that you can see, the following season this older growth is referred to as a floricane.  Floricanes were originally the only canes that flowered, but we have since bred some varieties that can flower on their primocanes.   Knowing about floricane and primocane is important so you can prune them properly.

Raspberries

Primocane vs Floricane
All brambleberries can be roughly divided into two artificially imposed and sometimes slightly overlapping groups.  One group can only flower and fruit on old growth, we call them floricane (or summer fruiting)  The other group can flower and fruit on new growth, we call them primocane (or autumn fruiting or everbearing).  It is important to which about them as the way each group can be pruned can be slightly different.

All brambleberries have the ability to flower and fruit on a floricane, or second year growth.   This is how most of the wild brambleberries work.  Most varieties of cultivated brambleberries will only ever flower and fruit on floricanes.  This means if you prune your plant to the ground each winter, or if animals get in and damage the canes, the plants will be nice and healthy but you will never get any fruit.

My golden raspberries are floricane flowering

Pruning Floricane Raspberries
Most people prune floricane varieties by leaving new growth and cutting out canes that have fruited the previous year. They also cut out the tip growth to encourage branching which means they produce more flowers.  It can be difficult to know which canes are which and there is extra time and care required to prune them.   Some people put tape or something around a cane that has fruited to show that it should be pruned out in winter, this takes time and effort.

Some canes die after fruiting, others will fruit again the following year.  Some people only prune in spring when the plants are breaking dormancy by removing any dead canes.  Again, it takes a little time and effort to achieve this.

One benefit of floricane varieties is that there are a lot of varieties to choose from, some do better in different climates and some fruit earlier or later than others.  Don’t ever buy an un-named variety, accept them if they are free, but don’t buy them.

Some brambleberries fruit on floricanes as mentioned above, but they also flower and fruit on first year growth, these varieties are referred to as primocane.  There are several ways to prune primocane varieties, there are benefits to each way.

Dormant raspberries, these are thornless primocane

How to prune Primocane raspberries to get one crop per year
The way that most people are encouraged to prune primocane varieties is each winter to cut it to the ground, this can be done quickly and easily if you run over the plant with the lawnmower.   The results are that the plant will throw up new growth in spring and fruit late summer/early autumn.

Many commercial producers prune in this way, it is fast, it is simple, and it is cost effective.  Different varieties fruit earlier or later so you can extend your harvest by planting a few named varieties.   Instead of the lawnmower you could carefully cut out each cane and use it as a cutting to grow more plants.   You have options depending on how much time and effort you have to spend on them.


How to prune Primocane raspberries for two crops per year
Another way to prune primocane varieties is to treat them as if they were floricanes.  Each year don’t cut them to the ground, instead leave that growth to flower and fruit next year.   Only remove dead canes, and possibly remove the tips of the floricanes.  Removing the tips encourages the plant to branch, thus producing more flowers and more fruit.  The plant still puts up new growth in spring, it still flowers and fruits on this new growth in autumn, but it will also produce an earlier crop on each of the floricanes.

Pruning like this gives you a second crop, an early crop from the floricanes and a late crop from the primocanes.  I have heard gardeners say that removing the floricanes helps the plant produce a larger crop on the primocanes, this seems logical enough, unfortunately every study I have seen on this tends to indicate this is not the case.

Brambleberries store a lot of energy in the roots, getting two crops each year does not appear to decrease the primocane crop in any way.

Thornless raspberries

Can you get a second crop from a floricane variety
I mentioned earlier that there is some overlap between floricane varieties and primocane varieties, this is where things get interesting.  I currently grow a thornless raspberry that is referred to as a floricane variety.  It usually only produces one large crop in summer on old growth.  Sometimes it will produce also produce a small autumn crop on each of the primocanes.  This second crop is not guaranteed, and is usually based on the weather, but it is still a primocane crop from a floricane variety.

Just like above, I prune them as if they are floricane, otherwise there is a chance that I will not get any crop from them that year.

There are a lot more floricane varieties than primocane varieties, this is simply because they are more prevalent in the wild and it took us a while to find good primocane varieties and breed from them.  I grow both primocane and floricane raspberry varieties, but I prune them both as if they were floricane and sometimes get two crops from both. 
 

Raspberry plants for sale in Australia
I grow several different varieties, some are thornless, some are primocane flowering, I grow black raspberries, I am one of the few people in Australia who sell a yellow fruiting golden raspberry.  I sometimes sell raspberry canes on my for sale page over winter when they are dormant.

Edible mushrooms for beginners

People often tell me how they tried to grow edible mushrooms from a kit and either failed or the yield was disappointingly low.  Other people tell me that growing edible mushrooms is extremely difficult and you have to do their expensive courses to be able to even have a chance to succeed.  Depending on the type of mushroom, and your climate, growing edible mushrooms can be pretty simple.

Some types of edible mushrooms are simple to grow, others are complex.  If you are a beginner I suggest starting with one of the simpler types.

I grew some oyster mushrooms on newspaper logs and some others just on damp cardboard.  I recorded the days from inoculation to harvest here and here.  It was remarkably simple and turned waste into food.  It was actually heaps of fun.  One thing I have noticed is that many beginners don't understand the words that people use when talking about mushrooms, so any advice they read tends not to make much sense.

Oyster Mushroom

Fungi are not plants and they are not animals, treating them like either may result in failure.  I have read many places say that fungi are plants without chlorophyll, this is incorrect.  Fungi are more similar to animals than they are to plants, even when growing them I think they tend to react more like animals.

When trying to understand the terms people use when describing fungi it is sometimes useful to compare them to plants or animals.  This is simply for comparison.  Like any analogy you reach a point where the comparison doesn't quite work.

In order to successfully cultivate edible mushrooms there are a few simple things and a few terms you need to understand.  Here are some useful terms that will enable you to understand what people are trying to explain. 

How to cold stratify seeds

Seeds from different species have different requirements before they will germinate, some are simple, others are rather complex.  All seeds need moisture to germinate.  All seeds have a preferred temperature range within which they will germinate, for some this temperature range is rather narrow while for others this range is very wide.

Some seeds require cold stratification in order to germinate, some will even need to be cold stratified several times.  Some need the seed coat damaged in some way, in nature this is usually achieved when it passes through the digestive system of an animal.  Some seeds need light in order to germinate, others need dark, and most don’t really care.  Some seeds, particularly tiny seeds such as orchids, require complex mycorrhizal interactions in order to germinate.  Some plants, particularly parasitic plants, need various chemical stimuli in order to germinate.

I have heard people say how they incorrectly cold stratify seeds and then have dreadful results, so thought I would write a post on how I cold stratify seeds.  This may not be the best method, but it has worked for me and has returned excellent results and allowed me to grow some things from seed that otherwise I wouldn't be able.

Strawberry and raspberry seeds germinate better after cold stratification

Frost in the vegetable garden

We have had some heavy frosts this winter.  I keep meaning to sneak out and take pictures.  Unfortunately I only remembered to take pictures on mornings when it wasn't overly cold.  The frost is still very pretty though.

Frost on the remains of spent plants

How to prevent thornless berries reverting to thorny

Thornlessness in brambleberries appears to be influenced by at least three different factors.  Scientists and plant breeders have understood these factors reasonably well for quite some time.  Each of them has different advantages and disadvantages.   But how do you keep a thornless berry thornless, and how do you prevent a brambleberry from reverting to being thorny?

First, let me tell you about my experience growing a "thornless youngberry", then let me explain the three different ways that brambleberries can be thornless, then I will explain what you do about each of the three types.

Thornless youngberry starting to ripen

Kombucha Continuous Brew

We have been keeping various ancient cultures for years.  We started with milk kefir, then went on to things such as water kefir and sour dough.  Some cultures we have kept going for years, others we have lost, and others we decided to stop doing for now due to various reasons.  One of the cultures we have at the moment that I really enjoy is kombucha.

Unfortunately the origin of kombucha has been lost to history.  Several romantic theories have been made about the origins of kombucha, none appear to be based on anything other than dramatic story telling, and these stories eventually merged to the one that is often told today.  The truth is that we know roughly where kombucha originated, we know vaguely when it started to become popular, but it doesn’t make one ounce of difference.  The drink tastes good, it is simple to make, and it reportedly has several health benefits.  Who really cares when or how it was discovered.

I thought I would write a blog post to share the down sides of continuous brew kombucha, and test some of the health claims.  I think you may be surprised by the results.

Continuous brew kombucha

How to store water chestnuts over winter

Chinese water chestnuts (Eleocharis dulcis) are very simple to grow at home and are very productive.  For some reason people used to tell me how difficult they were to grow, but the hardest part was finding any for sale in Australia that were not in a can!

To grow water chestnuts you don’t need acreage, you don’t need a stream or a pond, and you certainly don’t need to live in the tropics.  Chinese water chestnuts can easily be grown in most of Australia if you have access to soil, water, and sunlight. I grow them and I sell them so you can also grow them.  I grow water chestnuts in a cheap bucket.

Organic home grown water chestnuts

Being perennial vegetables, you can plant once and harvest forever.   In order to do this you need to store some water chestnut corms over winter while they are not actively growing. Let me explain how I over winter water chestnut corms.

Growing potatoes from True Potato Seed

Usually in Australia potatoes are grown from clones.  Sometimes these are pieces of existing potatoes or small potatoes.  Confusingly people sell 'seed potatoes' which are just small potatoes that are used for planting.  Every plant that is grown from 'seed potatoes' are genetically identical clones.

True Potato Seed is different, they are actual botanical seeds.  These are made in the same way that any plant makes seeds.  Every plant that arises from true potato seed is genetically different.  If you plant a dozen true potato seeds you will get a dozen different varieties of potato.  If you find one you like you can grow them vegetatively from there.  This is how plant breeders have come up with the different varieties of potatoes you can buy.

This year I got some True Potato Seed and grew some potatoes from those true botanical seeds.  Each and every plant that grows from true potato seed is genetically unique.

This year the ones I grew were diploid potatoes, which are different from the usual tetraploid potatoes.  They are more of a wild variety of potato and have not had polyploidy induced in them.  They also had a huge amount of genetic diversity which I love.  The seed grown potato plants looked nice and on some plants the flowers were stunningly beautiful.

Yield from one true potato seed grown plant, not huge the first year