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).

Black raspberry from seed - first winter

North American black raspberries (Rubus occidentalis) are virtually unheard of in Australia.  So rare that most gardeners in this country are unaware that such a thing even exists.

I have grown a few black raspberry plants from seeds.  Rubus are considered difficult to grow from seed, but I seem to do ok with them.  Being winter means my black raspberry plants are all dormant and I can have a decent look at them.

The difference between each of the seed grown plants in incredible.

Some seedlings are very vigorous, while other seedlings lack vigour.  Some grew to about an inch tall in the season, while others reached about 3 feet tall.  Some grew a single cane, while others grew multiple canes.  

These don't fruit in their first year, so I am yet to taste the fruit from them, it will be interesting to see if any produce more fruit than other plants or better tasting fruit.  

One thing I find fascinating is the thorns (prickles) on my black raspberry seedlings.  One plant has thick curved thorns that grab at my clothes and tear at my skin.  Another has many many prickles that are straighter and thinner and resembles the wild roses that grow as weeds around here.

Black raspberry cane

Black raspberry cane

I have no idea if my black raspberry is monoecious or dioecious, so have to wait until they flower to find out.  I don't have many plants so at this stage cannot trade them as I would hate to end up with only male plants and not be able to taste the fruit!

Unlike red raspberries (Rubus idaeus), the black raspberries root at the tip of a cane if it comes into contact with soil.  This growth habit is similar to blackberries so will need some thought into controlling them and growing them in a productive way.  Apparently hybrids between red raspberry and black raspberry (which tend to produce purple berries) also tend to root at the tip.

So far only one of my plants grew long enough to tip root.  I cut this off and it seems to have a strong root system.  This was by far my most vigorous plant, so even though the rooted tip is tiny I have no question that it will grow into a monster over summer if treated well.  I plan to dig up this little plant and send it to Shane to see how he goes growing them.

Black Raspberries - young canes covered in whitish bloom

These black raspberries are all very thorny, and from my understanding will be floricane (meaning they will only flower on last year's growth).  I dislike thorns on plants, and I much prefer primocane (meaning they can flower on new growth), so if all goes well and they thrive here I may need to do some breeding with these in the future.

One day I would love to try and cross them with my thornless primocane red raspberry, and see if I can produce a thornless purple raspberry, or a primocane purple raspberry.  Or cross them with my yellow fruited raspberry and see what the fruit from that cross is like.  These things take time, and many different things could happen to prevent this from working, so at best that is a few years away.

If I ever have some black raspberry plants to spare I will try to list them on my for sale page.  Best case scenario that will be winter next year, but really depends on a lot of different factors so may be later than that or if they don't grow well here it may be never.

Black cockatoos (Zanda funerea)

This was the sight outside my bedroom window the other day.  

Black Cockatoos outside my bedroom window

There were about twenty black cockatoos at the start, but some flew away before I even thought to take a photo, and others are off the screen.  

Black cockatoos really are lovely birds.

Variegated 'snow queen' pothos

I like pothos (Epipremnum aureum), it is an ornamental climbing plant that survives through a lot of hostile conditions.  They are ornamental but they don't produce showy flowers, and they are not edible.  I used to have one growing  near me in office work back before they got rid of all the plants.  I really miss having office plants. 

I have read on monster fish keeping forums how some people use pothos to lower nitrates in fish tanks.  Their results are nothing short of remarkable.  I have also read a NASA experiment (and things written by people who greatly misunderstand that experiment and have misinterpreted its results) about pothos and purifying the air. 

I have seen snow queen pothos for sale online and really can't justify the money to buy one.  A while ago I found a small variegated pothos plant for sale in a shop that really isn't known for selling live plants.  It was a fraction of the prices I have seen online and I think it is 'snow queen' pothos.  It was a little banged up, but I figured it would come good in time.

Pothos plant not long after I got it

Over the next few months my plant declined badly.  It died back, leaves rotted, and died back some more.  

Eventually my little pothos plant was nothing but one sick looking leaf and a nub of a plant that was starting to turn to mush.  

I was worried that I would lose this one and repotted the plant.  It was originally potted in what looked like cocopeat.  I even went so far as to wash what was left of the roots before planting in soil.

Presumably my pothos did not like cocopeat because after repotting into soil it picked up, survived, and has grown slowly since then.  

My plant is healthy and strong now.

Pothos plant - looks fake but is real

I like the variegation in this plant, I particularly like how white the white is and how it has different shades of green.  The white is very white, which I quite like.  Some leaves can be almost entirely white while others can be mostly green.

Snow Queen pothos looks great, but for me is a relatively slow grower.  While it looks amazing I won't be able to use it in aquaponics as I don't think it will grow fast enough to make any difference to the water quality.

I grow this pothos in the bathroom, it gets indirect light

I recently got a cutting from an all green variety of pothos, it has larger leaves and a lot more area to photosynthesize so should be much faster growing.  

It hasn't started growing roots yet, but it should grow them in time.  All green plants tend to be a lot faster growing than variegated plants, so the all green pothos should be better to use in the filter of fish tanks to lower nitrates.  

Green pothos cutting

I hope my pothos cutting goes well, I only have the one so all my eggs are in one basket.  I am keeping it in water for now, once the little root shows any sign of growth I plan to plant this in a pot of soil.  Or maybe I will plant it in a pot of soil next weekend.

One day I would like to also get marble queen pothos, I think they look amazing.  I really can't justify the price of buying one as they are surprisingly expensive here, so will have to keep an eye out and see if anyone is willing to trade a cutting, or maybe I will be lucky enough to find a plant somewhere and be able to take a cutting for free.

Dwarf Snake Bean

I have grown snake beans (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis) in the past, green and red, but never a dwarf snake bean.  I had considered growing a dwarf variety, but had not bought any seeds.  It is difficult to justify the cost when I didn't need them.  Then someone kindly gave me some seeds of a dwarf snake bean.

These dwarf snake beans produced compact plants up to around a foot tall, each growing numerous long red bean pods.  I didn't get around to taking any photos until the pods were a little old.  

The pods didn't get quite as long as the snake beans I used to grow, but smaller plants were easier to fit into tight spaces, were a lot simpler to manage, and produced a really large crop.

I think the colour of the pods is pretty impressive, the yield was great, the flowers were pretty, and the plants did not take up much space.  

I saved plenty of seed and plan to grow these again.

I like the looks of these

Dwarf snake beans

Dwarf snake beans

Young snake beans are dark purple

Snake bean flowers

Breeding Better Tomatoes

I have been breeding tomatoes for a number of years, far more than I care to admit.  

I have a bunch of different breeding lines, each with a different end goal in mind, as well as a bunch of stable varieties that I have developed.  Some are named, some are not, some are better than others.  

If you read this blog you probably do a little backyard vegetable breeding, so you know what it is like.

Black on yellow skin, green flesh

I have been working with one line of tomatoes for a number of years now, and I think it is pretty close to a perfect salad tomato.  

It has all the traits I was after with these, and after the number of years I have been working on them I think they are stable enough for me to name them.  

These are probably the darkest true black tomatoes that you will ever see

They are a high anthocyanin line, meaning they are high in the same powerful antioxidant as blueberries and turn black where the sun hits them.  They carry more of this antioxidant than most other black tomatoes as they are intensely black.

The unripe fruit are purple like an eggplant, while the ripe fruit is incredibly black, which makes this variety ornamental as well as being productive and delicious. 

They are yellow underneath the black so you can easily tell when they are ripe without having to squeeze them.  They have green flesh, with an incredible taste.  They taste great raw in salads or on a sandwich, and are good cooked and in sauces.  

The fruit are round and smallish, but not too small to be useful on a sandwich.  They are very productive, and so far (heat, drought, smoke, and a mild wet summer) have not failed to crop well for me.

They are indeterminate and produce large crops from early in the season until killed by frosts.  They have regular leaf and in my garden do not appear overly bothered by any pest or disease.  The seeds are large enough that they have good germination, meaning seed saving is simple.

Black and yellow skin, green delicious flesh when ripe

I had a few lines and I was unsure which to continue with.  One tasted by far the best, but had green skin under the black so was difficult to see when it was ripe.  Another didn't taste quite as good, but had yellow skin under the black so was easier to see when it was ripe.  

Antioxidant rich and bursting with flavour

This variety has the best of both worlds.  It has the incredible taste that appears to be linked with green flesh, and has the yellow skin making it easier to see when it is ripe.  Where the sun hits the fruit it is darker black than any black tomato I have ever seen.

The richness of the black colour is incredible, only a few years ago this colour was unthinkable and all 'black' tomatoes were a muddy brown.  

Being so dark indicates incredibly concentrated anthocyanins.  Any part that is not hit by sunlight means you can tattoo them using stickers, much like what I did to my apples in the photo below.

Words and pictures can be stenciled onto apples using sunlight

these tomatoes are an incredible colour

Simple to tell when fruit is ripe

I have given these to a few people for a taste test, along with tomatoes from a dozen or so other varieties.  So far this has consistently been the favourite tasting larger fruiting tomato.  

I say they are consistently the favourite 'larger fruiting' tomato because so far everyone says that Verde Claro is their overall favourite tasting tomato.  Verde claro is a green when ripe cherry tomato, and has different uses to a slicing tomato, so you are not really comparing the same thing. 

Unripe tomatoes are purple like an eggplant

More unripe fruit

Tomato only turns black where hit by the sun

I am not good at naming things, but once they are named I will probably list seeds on my for sale page.  

While I am not certified organic (and have no interest in paying for certification) I have grown them organically since I started to breed them, and have selected for all the qualities that make them suited to backyard growing and delicious taste.

Rice Paddy Herb - Rau Om

I heard about rice paddy herb, aka Rau Om, years ago, and have wanted to try it ever since.  Rice Paddy Herb (Limnophila aromatica) is a perennial edible plant that is said to taste/smell like citrus and cumin.  Other places say it is similar to coriander seed.  Other places describe it as being  spicy, lively and reminiscent of citrus or curry.  Sounds intriguing.

Everyone says the best way to grow it is to get a bunch of rice paddy herb from the grocers and grow a cutting from there, unfortunately I have never seen rice paddy herb anywhere.  Very few online places sell live plants, and when you factor in postage, unless you also get other plants from there, it puts the price out of reach.  So it has taken me a few years to actually get one.

I recently got some rice paddy herb (and some other nice edible plants) from Midsummer Herbs, and was very impressed.  Firstly, there were several plants in my package, all were healthy and strong, and they were packaged well for postage.  

Secondly, and far more importantly, was the smell and taste of this plant.  Rice paddy herb really does smell spicy and lively like citrus and cumin, but far better.  This plant has already exceeded my expectations.  It smells incredible.

Rice paddy herb is commonly grown in Vietnam and other wet tropical places, it loves water and can be found in rice paddies or roadside ditches with water.  Some people grow this submerged in an aquarium as an ornamental plant.  For some inexplicable reason it is not commonly grown in Australia.  

Rice paddy herb loves water, humidity, and heat.  Apparently it can be difficult to grow in temperate areas.  Which makes me wonder why I got this plant going into winter instead of waiting until spring...hmmm...

Most references to over wintering this plant speak of wrapping the plant, pot and all, in a plastic bag.  This is meant to increase humidity and help reduce the severity of temperature swings. 

As Christina from Midsummer Herbs gave me several plants I am able to try growing it in a few different ways and hopefully at least one makes it through winter.

I have a cutting sitting in some water on the window sill.  I should probably take that to work and keep it on my desk as it is usually pretty warm in the office and it can get cold in my house over night.

Rice Paddy Herb

I have some rice paddy herb planted in pots, under the shelter of the north facing verandah, next to a brick wall.  They won't get any frost there, hopefully the brick wall helps keep them a little warmer.  They will get some direct sunlight first thing in the morning, as well as bright indirect sunlight during the day.  

I covered one in a plastic bottle with the bottom cut off, and the other with a plastic bag.  I plan to keep an eye on them and move them if they appear to be declining too badly.

Rice paddy herb with plastic bag covering it

Rice Paddy Herb with a plastic bottle for protection

I have grown some tropical plants over winter and had great success as long as there is no frost or ice on them.  I have tried to grow other species and they died quickly as soon as the temperature got too low even without frost or ice.  

I have no idea how rice paddy herb will cope over winter, so I am also growing a plant in a small pot on the kitchen window sill where it will be  a bit warmer over winter.  I have grown micro tomatoes there over winter, so there is a chance my rice paddy herb should be ok.  This pot is also sitting in water, and has a plastic bag over it to increase humidity.  I do fear that being close to the window may be too cold at night, or it may experience temperature swings that are too large for it to cope with.

Rice Paddy Herb on kitchen window sill

As well as these I also put two very small plants in a floating pot of herbs in my goldfish aquaponics barrel.  I have lower hopes of this surviving as it will likely get too cold out there, but it may be ok.  You need to look closely, one can be seen in the bottom left of the picture below.

Rice Paddy Herb in aquaponics - you need to look closely to see it

There is a chance that my rice paddy herb will survive in the aquaponics because the other plants may provide a microclimate to shelter them from the cold, the large volume of water should retain some heat, and the barrel is under the eves of the house next to a brick wall, so the whole thing may be able to retain enough heat for it to survive.  We have already had a couple of nights where the temperature has dropped below -6C and so far everything looks ok, but we will see what happens once this happens regularly over winter.

I think over summer when the weather is warm that growing rice paddy herb in aquaponics may be the way to go in my climate as it gets hot and dry here.  In aquaponics rice paddy herb would have unlimited water, constant humidity, and access to a stream of nutrients from the fish waste.  

If things go too poorly for all my plants I have a heat mat in the garage that I use to germinate seeds, I could move one or two plants onto this heat mat and put it under lights.  Hopefully I notice in time and am able to save this little plant.  I haven't started them on the heat mat because they may do just fine where I have them.

Hopefully at least one of my plants survives and I can give this a go over summer.  If not, given how much I like the smell and taste of this herb, I think I will have to try and buy another one.

________________________________________________________________________________

Update after one month:

Almost the opposite of what I had expected.  

The aquaponics one lost a few leaves from frost, but generally looks good.  It may still die once we get a lot more frosts, or it may power through.  I really think that once the weather warms aquaponics will be a good place to grow rice paddy herb.

The two growing outside near the brick wall both got a little cold damage, but also look like they should survive.

The one in a pot on the kitchen window sill is doing very poorly.  It has suffered a lot and has died back somewhat.  I moved it to another room as I thought being near a window the temperature swings may be too much, but it kept going down hill.  I have just moved it into the garage on a heat mat and will see how that goes.  Hopefully some bottom heat should help it pick up and get through the colder months.

The cutting I took and put in a glass of water is doing poorly.  I moved it to the heat mat too.  Hopefully a little heat should help it grow some roots.

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Update after two and a half months

The aquaponics rice paddy herb had some damage from frosts, but is still alive.  If it survives until spring I have a feeling it will do well in my little barrel.

The two outside near the brick wall are alive.  They both were damaged from cold.  Hopefully they survive.

The one that was in a pot on the kitchen window sill, then put on a heat mat, has died.  The cutting in water that I put on a hear mat also died.  This surprised me, I expected these to be the last ones alive if all else failed.

If all goes poorly I will have to buy another plant when the weather is warm because I really love rice paddy herb.  I think getting plants before winter was my downfall, and if I had established plants leading into winter that they may have fared a lot better.

African Violet

For years I have wanted an African Violet.  For some reason or another I have never bought one.  

Nowhere around here seems to sell them.  I thought about buying leaf cuttings, but only one place seems to sell them and they have minimum purchase numbers.  Also, I don't know how well I would go at growing them from a leaf cutting.

My daughter saw African violets on the internet and really wanted one.  Her birthday was coming up, so I looked on gumtree and found someone selling African violets locally.  

I went over to buy one and none of them were in bloom, most were very small plants.  I think this person had bought leaf cuttings and grew them out for sale.  

I still got one, but my daughter doesn't want a plant, she wants flowers.  I doubt this thing will be ready to flower for a long time, so rather than give it to my daughter ended up keeping it myself.  My daughter's birthday has been and gone, and the plant has not really grown, so I made the right choice not to give this to her.

Hopefully I can keep this African violet alive, and hopefully it flowers for me when it is large enough.  If it flowers maybe I can give it to my daughter then.

African violet in self watering pot

African Violet - too small to flower yet

I got this plant in May, as of January 6 it started flowering.  Which means it would not have made a good birthday present for a little girl, and I am glad I grew it out rather than giving it to my daughter.  

I'm not sure if I would call this 'light blue' but I still like it.

African Violet in bloom