Woolly leaf black tomatoes in Australia

This summer I grew a woolly leaf tomato called 'Woolly Kate'.  It is unlike anything else I have grown.

Woolly Kate tomato is not an F1 hybrid, it is not GM, it is a stable variety that was conventionally bred, open pollinated, and is simple to save seed from each year to be able to grow it again in the future.

Woolly Kate carries the woolly allele that causes the leaves, stems, and fruits to be covered in fuzz.  It also has black/blue fruit wherever the sun hits it and is yellow underneath and yellow anywhere the sun does not hit.

This is an indeterminate tomato plant, and it appears to be dwarf.  I like dwarf indeterminate tomatoes.  They have all the benefits of indeterminate tomatoes while staying relatively small.

All in all Woolly Kate tomato has a lot of interesting genes!

Woolly Kate tomato - black where the sun hits the fruit and yellow underneath

Woolly Kate tomato - look how black they get in full sun

Some of the tomatoes, like the one above are almost all black because they received a lot of sunlight.  Some, like the one below had more shade and are mostly yellow with only a little black.

Most of the high anthocyanin tomatoes are red underneath, meaning that they look incredible when not ripe but as they ripen the red starts to show through and they don't look as amazing.  Woolly Kate is yellow instead of red, meaning that when it is ripe it still looks pretty amazing ad the colours are intense.

Anthocyanin is a dark antioxidant, it is the same one that is found in blueberries.  As Woolly Kate is high in anthocyanin it is very healthy for you.

Woolly Kate - you can see where this one was shaded

I think that the most interesting trait of Woolly Kate is its woolly foliage.  The leaves and stems are covered in fine white hairs.

In the right light the plant shimmers and shines.  The leaves look amazing, and they feel incredibly soft.  When walking past I can't help but to touch these soft leaves.  My kids also can't help but to touch the soft leaves.

Woolly tomato leaves look incredible

The hairs can be rather dense, sometimes they look like they are covered in thick frost, other times they look like they are covered in soft down.

I am not sure if this fuzzy foliage would cause increased issues with tiny insects or if it would deter them, I don't really have problems with mites here so can't really comment either way.

I am told that the hairs reflect the heat and help this plant to be more water wise and to cope better in extreme heat.  To be completely honest I am not sure if this is true or not.  What I do know is that this summer when many of my plants failed in the heat/dry/smoke Woolly Kate powered through and fruited well.

I am also told that the hairs can help protect against mild frosts.  I highly doubt this claim but we will see what happens as winter approaches.

The stems and leaves are quite fuzzy

Another interesting feature of Woolly Kate tomatoes is the colour of the fruit.  They start out green, then they turn dark blue black where ever the sun hits them.  Eventually you have a shimmering white plant with black orbs hanging from it, which looks incredible.

Eventually the green parts of the fruit ripen and turn yellow.  I have never seen anything like it.  This tomato has been a real conversation starter with everyone who has seen it in my garden.

The fruit is black or blue where the sun hits them

Woolly Kate unripe fruits getting dark in the sun

The leaves are very fluffy

They turn black where sunlight hits them

Unripe fruit

The leaves are very fluffy

The fruit of Woolly Kate tastes good.  They are nicely sweet and sour, and when eaten raw I think they are improved by a little salt.  The fruit are small, but not too small to cut of and use on sandwiches.  I have not tried to cook with them or sundry them so don't know how they perform.

At first I was not sure if fuzzy tomatoes would be nice to eat raw.  Even though the fruits of Woolly Kate are fuzzy it isn't bad.  It is a soft fuzz, similar to a peach, and doesn't feel bad in your mouth. 

The fruit is covered in soft peach like fuzz

The down side to woolly kate is that the fruits haven't produced many seeds for me.  I am not sure if this is characteristic of this variety, or if the extreme conditions this year caused low seed set.

I hope to have some extra seed and be able to offer it for sale.  When this happens they will be listed on my for sale page.  Like all of my tomatoes and other vegetables, I grow them completely organically.

Mongolian Blue Chives - Allium nutans

Recently I obtained a tiny plant of Allium nutans. These plants have several common names including "blue chives", "Siberian chives", "Mongolian blue chives", etc.

Apparently these perennial onions grow wild in Siberia, Mongolia, parts of China, and several surrounding places where they are collected and used as food. They are said to be extremely hardy and easy to grow. For some reason Mongolian blue chives are rare in Australia and very few people have even heard of them. 

Blue chives are an edible plant that have flat leaves which look similar to garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) except blue chives are more of a blue green. This perennial onion tastes much like regular onion chives (Allium schoenoprasum) and can be used as a substitute for onion chives. The flowers are meant to be edible but I haven’t tried them so can’t comment.

Mongolian Blue Chives

Various different forms of blue chives exist, some are meant to be better than others, the one I have is an unnamed variety that seems pretty good so far. I don't think any of the named forms are grown in Australia, finding this species at all was very difficult as it is so rarely grown here.

Several interspecific hybrids with Allium nutans also exist, some have large flat leaves and others having interesting flowers, I am not sure if any hybrids are in Australia at the moment. 

Blue chives divide into several plants throughout their growing season, these can be separated and planted out or allowed to naturalise and form a clump. Mine sare yet to flower, the flowers I have seen on the internet are very pretty and are said to attract insect pollinators.

Apparently blue chives set viable seed easily and I am told they are simple to grow from seed. Nowhere seems to sell seed but I am not sure of the reason behind this. Once my plants flower I plan to grow out as many seeds as it produces so I can build up its numbers.

Blue chives

While several interspecific hybrids currently exist, I have no idea how difficult blue chives would be to cross with other allium species. I would love to try hybridising this in the future, but may never get around to it for a number of reasons. 

Much like all my perennial onions, I grow blue chives organically and don’t have any issues with pests or diseases. I imagine there are probably a few things that could kill them but I am lucky enough that they are not in my garden. 

Like most other vegetables I grow them in full sun, and I water them often if I can.  I ran out of water over summer and didn't water them very much.  So far they have coped really well with frosts as well as summer heat.

If you want to grow a unique perennial vegetable that looks like garlic chives, tastes like onion chives, and no one else is growing, then blue chives are for you.

Mine have divided a little since the above pictures, but I still don't have very many of them.  When I have built up their numbers and have a few plants to spare, or if my plants produce seed and I have some extra, I will list them on my for sale page.

Growing asparagus from seed - days to maturity

I planted asparagus seeds on a heat pad under lights, I did not soak the seed prior to planting.  I planted three varieties, Precoce d'Argenteuil, Connovers Colossal, and Mary Washington.  Oddly enough they all germinated on the same day.  I also planted a Purple Passion asparagus on a different day.

Days to maturity asparagus (Asparagus officinalis)
Seeds planted       10/08/2019       Day 0
Germinated           29/08/2019      Day 19
Flowered               22/02/2020      Just over six months
Harvest start          xx/xx/20xx      Day- I plan to update this later

Edit to add: There is a bit of genetic diversity among seed grown plants.  I probably could have harvested the larger ones in their first year of growth but decided it better to wait.  A small harvest was possible after 12 months for the largest Precoce d'Argenteuil plants, the smaller plants were ready a year later.  The other varieties were ready for harvest in their second or third years.  

Asparagus seedling germinating

Many people say it is difficult to grow asparagus from seed.  I have grown asparagus from seed several times and while asparagus isn't the easiest vegetable to grow from seed, it is far from the hardest.  Seedlings are easily lost to slugs or snails, and it does take a considerable amount of time from planting the seed until harvesting asparagus.  Buying year old crowns gets you past the danger of losing them to snails, plus it gets you 12 months closer to harvest.  

Two things seem to make growing asparagus from seed difficult, firstly getting seed from a decent variety.  Don't waste your time on F2 UC157 as it is poor quality and produces 1/3 the crop of the commercially grown F1 UC157.  Many sellers on ebay have fake seeds, they will send you seeds that are not the variety you paid for, or sometimes seeds that are not even asparagus and by the time you realise something is wrong it is too late to do anything about it.  Please don't buy asparagus seeds from ebay.

Secondly the large amount of time involved when growing asparagus from seed means there is a lot of opportunity for things to go wrong.  Most people buy asparagus crowns to dramatically increase their chance of getting a healthy asparagus plant.

It is said that it takes three years until you get a harvest, this is sometimes true and sometimes not.  It depends on the variety, the gender of the plant (they come in male or female), and how well you look after them.

Six month old asparagus seedlings, some are about one meter tall

Seed grown asparagus should not be harvested in its first year unless it is a particularly large and impressive plant.  Some plants can be lightly harvested in their second year if they are large enough.  The third year they produce a crop which seems to increase each year for quite a few years.  Some plants may not be large enough for a small harvest until their fourth year.  Some varieties, such as Precoce d'Argenteuil, are larger and move vigorous than many other varieties.  It is usually possible to harvest this one year before other varieties.

If you buy asparagus crowns in Australia they are often one year old, this will bring you a year closer to harvest than seed grown.  Asparagus seedlings are often decimated by snails and slugs, year old crowns still need to be protected but will often survive a snail attack.  For these reasons, it is best for most home gardeners to buy crowns rather than start seeds.  Notice that I said 'most' and not 'all', if you want to grow asparagus from seed go ahead.

Unfortunately it is very difficult to find asparagus crowns of many varieties in Australia.  A few places sell Mary Washington, one sells the dreadful F2 UC157 (which they have renamed to make them sound nicer), and occasionally some sell crowns of unnamed purple varieties.

I am currently growing a few named asparagus varieties.  In winter if I have any extra crowns I will hopefully be able to list several named varieties of asparagus through my for sale page.

Wally Venus flytrap growth rate over a year

Venus flytrap 'Wally' is meant to be low growing, with very large traps, vigorous growth, good colouration, and is meant to produce ample natural divisions over the growing period.

To me Wally sounds like the perfect Venus flytrap!

A very generous friend sent me two bare rooted divisions of Wally Venus flytraps.  I planted both in the same pot.  In hind sight I should have planted them in two different pots instead of the same one. 

These plants spent a bit of time in the post, then sat in my letter box all afternoon on one of the hottest days ever recorded in this region before I got home, and they still looked ok. 

Venus flytraps tend to handle postage surprisingly well.  Notice how good they looked when I planted them!

I figured I should photograph them every now and again to document their growth. 

01/02/2020 Minutes after being planted, I should have zoomed in more as the picture probably makes them look smaller than they really were.

Wally Venus Flytrap - the day I planted them

11/02/2020 ten days after being planted

14/02/2020 two weeks after planting, they grow fast

Wally Venus Flytraps - two weeks of growth

22/02/2020 three weeks

Wally Venus Flytraps - three weeks after planting

29/02/2020 four weeks

Wally Venus Flytraps - four weeks after planting

I am transitioning my Wally Venus flytraps outside where they get more sun and will be able to go dormant when winter arrives.  The traps have coloured up remarkably fast from a little more sunlight.

While they haven't grown massively since the last picture they have gained a lot of colour.  I should take another photo soon to show their colour and how much larger they have grown.

28/03/2020 two months

Wally venus flytrap - more colourful and slightly larger

The pictures don't do it justice - the colours are more vibrant in real life

Wally sure is a lovely Venus flytrap.  It hasn't produced any divisions for me yet, but it is strong and healthy so I am very happy with it!

One morning we went out and when we returned home all of the traps were mysteriously closed.  I am not sure if kids came and played with it, but it seems to have recovered well.

04/04/2020  just over 2 months.  Today I divided them.  One stayed in the original pot, the other is now in a different pot the same size.  Wally venus flytraps are just lovely.

Winter isn't too far away and these will go dormant for a while.  I can hardly wait to see how large these plants grow next summer.  If all goes well I should be able to divide them into more plants in spring.

11/04/2020 - not much growth in a week but look at the colours!!!

02/05/2020 - getting ready for dormancy

01/06/2020 - Wally venus flytrap going dormant

 

Wally venus flytrap going dormant

01/07/2020 - I wish I took photos in July while they were dormant but I didn't.  They look dreadful while dormant, which is normal and actually very healthy for venus flytraps.

01/08/2020 - the same plants starting to come out of dormancy. They are small but look strong.  As soon as the weather is right I think they will explode with new growth.

29/08/2020 - late winter after surviving frosts, hail, snow, ice, and odd heat

Breaking dormancy

Wally vft clumping

30/09/2020 - after growing them for 8 months they are breaking dormancy, clumping, sending up flower stalks, and ready to divide

Sending up a flower stalk.  I removed a small division and should divide again

The small plant removed from the pot above

Wally Venus Flytrap Clumping - I may divide them soon

01/11/2020 - it is easy to tell which one has been growing inside the house, and which ones have been outside. 

Wally out of dormancy and growing strong

Wally vft growing well and colouring up nicely

Wally VFT divided and clumping

01/12/2020 - seems as though I didn't take pictures in December.

02/01/2021 - they are all outside full time in full sun

Large colourful traps, vigorous growth, Wally vft looking good

Wally VFT grow pretty fast

One of the divisions seems to have died off, others are looking good

31/01/2021 one year of growth!

Venus Flytrap Wally

 

All divisions are growing, none had died

Tomato leaf comparisons

I wrote an earlier post comparing regular leaf tomatoes with potato leaf tomatoes.  This summer I also grew some woolly leaf tomatoes, so thought I would show some comparisons of these three tomato leaf types.

Regular leaf tomatoes are good, and there are heaps of types.  I like the look of potato leaf tomatoes.  The one below has relatively small leaves, I grow a few types with leaves that are far larger.  I imagine they would have issues growing in wet climates as they would have less air flow, but I live in dry climates so this is just an educated guess.

I love woolly leaf tomatoes, they look and feel amazing.  My kids can hardly keep their hands off the leaves.  Woolly leaf tomatoes would be well suited to a sensory garden!  They seem to cope better with heat, and they seem to do ok with less water than other varieties, but to be honest I don't know if they actually cope better or if I am just imagining it. 

Regular tomato leaf and woolly tomato leaf

Regular Leaf (often abbreviated RL)

This is the typical leaf type that most people are familiar with, most varieties of tomato have regular leaf.  The leaf edges are serrated quite a bit.  There are a lot of variations on this basic theme in terms of the width/length of leaf depending on the specific variety, climate and growing methods.  Some leaves are very narrow and are sometimes called 'dissected', others are wispy or droopy or look like the foliage of a carrot.  These are easily recognised as regular leaf tomatoes.  They carry at lest one dominant allele C.

Left to right: Regular leaf, woolly leaf, potato leaf

Potato Leaf (often abbreviated PL)

These leaves usually have very few interruptions of the leaf edge.  They are fat and large leaves, some varieties have huge leaves while others are far smaller.  Newly germinated seedlings sometimes don't show their PL nature until they are a few inches tall, others show it as soon as they grow their true leaves.  PL leaves often have a thicker cuticle than RL leaves or a higher density of trichomes (which are tiny little hairs on the leaf).  Leaf shape can be different on a single plant with some showing more or less smooth edges, all of this is normal for PL. Potato leaf is recessive, so any potato leaf tomatoes must carry two copes of the c allele.

Underside of leaves: Regular leaf, woolly leaf, potato leaf

Woolly Leaf tomato, sometimes called Angora Leaf
These are pretty easy to recognise as the leaves, stems, and fruits are fuzzy.  There are several different alleles that can cause the woolly trait, most of which are dominant and most are homozygous lethal.  This meant they would only carry one copy of the dominant allele (if they carry two they do not survive).  Another rarer form of this allele is dominant but it is homozygous viable and heterozygous intermediate, meaning they can carry one copy and be a little fluffy or two copies and be extra fluffy.

I really love woolly leaf tomatoes.  The variety I grow appears to carry the dominant yet homozygous viable allele for woolly foliage/stems/fruit.  A cross between regular leaf and woolly leaf produces a leaf that is only a little more woolly than normal.  It is difficult to tell that the cross carries the woolly allele at all.

Regular leaf top left, woolly leaf top right, cross of the two under/between them

Woolly leaf tomatoes tend to have fuzzy fruit

Woolly leaf allele is on a different locus to potato leaf, so it is possible to have regular leaf woolly plants, and potato leaf woolly plants.  It is also possible to have any of these all in green or any of them can be variegated.

I think I am going to have to do some breeding with micro dwarfs with the aim of a woolly micro dwarf tomato.  Time will tell what the future brings, but at this stage it looks promising.