How I grow maidenhair ferns

Back in early 2016 I got a little fern to keep in my office.  Maidenhair ferns don't cope with direct sunlight, they don't love extremes of temperature, and they appear to dislike change, so they are really well suited to office life.  

Over the past 5 or 6 years my little maidenhair fern has grown rather large.  To give you an idea of size of my maidenhair fern, the pot is about 20cm across.  There is a bit of variation but most of the fronds measure about 50cm long.

Maidenhair fern

One year later, same fern, lush growth

My little fern grew well.  I used to bring it home over Christmas as there was no one around to water it.  Other than that it was always in the office.  People often used to comment at how much they liked my office fern.

I had to bring my maidenhair fern home a while ago because I have not been in the office very much.  It wasn't really happy where I had it at home, it was a little too dark and I didn't rotate the pot so it only grew on one side.  I eventually worked out the problems.

Now I rotate the pot each week and my fern is picking up again and starting to fill out on all sides like it once did.  Hopefully it doesn't take too long to long good again.

Office fern front of pot

Office fern back of pot

Office fern side of pot

The same fern a year later - growing strong

Maidenhair ferns have a reputation for being finicky and difficult to grow, but they look so nice that I think the effort needed to grow them is worth while.  

By far the easiest way to grow them is to accidentally stumble on their preferred growing conditions.  Failing that I have noticed a few of their needs and listed them below.

Maidenhair ferns need constant moisture, but really don't like to sit in water.  I grow this one in a self watering pot and always keep water in the reservoir.  Other than the few times when I tipped out the water to take the fern home or take it back to the office the reservoir has never been empty, not even for a little while.  They don't like sitting in water as it will rot, so a self watering pot is perfect.  I have others growing in regular pots that I feel like I am watering all the time, but it is less work having them in self watering pots.  

Maidenhair ferns need bright indirect light.  From what I have seen, direct sunlight burns them and kills them pretty quick.  While I never let direct sun hit mine, if it is too dark he plant suffers and slowly declines.  Office lighting was good for this as it had many hours of low level light every single day.  At home I have it on a book shelf not too far from a glass door, it is a little dark for it there but not too bad.

Maidenhair ferns don't like being touched by people.  I am told the acid on your hands burns their fronds.  If you have to touch them please wash your hands first.  Kids shooting nerf darts or throwing paper planes also seem to do some damage to their fronds (don't ask how I know).  I don't have cats but assume that a cat rubbing against them is not great either.  If you can put them somewhere that they are not being touched they will reward you with nicer looking growth.

Maiden hair ferns don't love draughts or being blasted with an air conditioner.  That being said I have seen them in some extremely windy positions in nature and have a few growing outside under cover where they get lots of wind.  Perhaps they can survive strong wind if they have some sort of protection, being in a pot on your shelf they have no protection so it is best to protect them from wind if you can.

Ferns don't love regular fertiliser, it is usually too strong for them and burns their new growth.  I was told many years ago to tear open used tea bags and sprinkle the leaves on their soil to fertilise ferns.  I can't remember the last time I did that with my fern, but it always grew well afterwards.  It also seemed to encourage some kind of fungus, so I haven't done that in a while.  I am also told that banana peels are good for ferns.  Spreading banana peel on the soil causes insects to be an issue.  Cutting up the banana peels and drying them before mixing in the top of the soil seems to prevent insects from being a problem.

Maidenhair ferns don't love change.  When you bring your fern home, or repot them into a larger pot, or move them from one shelf to another some of the new growth will likely burn off and you should expect them to look bad for a little while.  I am not sure what the deal is with this, maybe it is because I have touched their fronds with my hands or maybe it is some other reason.  It isn't too big an issue as they seem to recover pretty fast.  Do rotate the pot each week to ensure they grow evenly on all sides, other than that try not to change too much too often.

I do sell maidenhair ferns, as well as a few other plants, through my for sale blog page.  If you are interested you should have a look.  From time to time I may have variegated ferns for sale.  

Venus flytrap leaf pulling

Venus Flytraps are reportedly very simple to propagate using leaf pullings.  A leaf pulling is similar to a cutting, but a small part of the rhizome must be attached to the leaf in order for it to be successful.  

I gently pull a leaf downwards which removes part of the white rhizome, and I plant it in sphagnum peat moss mixed with sand.   I treat this leaf pulling the same as an adult plant and often just plant it in the same pot as the plant that I took the cutting from.  

Once the plantlets have grown I divide them into their own pot.  I don’t use rooting hormones or grow lights or heat mats or anything special.

VFT leaf pulling sprouting many baby plants, each bump makes one new plant

 

I find leaf pullings to be a bit hit and miss, incorrect temperature or sunlight seem to be the difference between 100% success and complete failure.  I also find that some cultivars grow well from leaf pulling while I have difficulty getting others to take from a leaf pulling no matter what I do.  Genetics has a part to play here.

Whenever I repot or divide my plants I sometimes take a leaf pulling and sometimes I will pull off a damaged leaf and try to use that.  For me, the leaf pullings that are successful usually provide me with one new plant. Sometimes I get two or three new plants from one leaf pulling.  I normally get a few plants from each flower stalk cutting.  

This past spring I divided some of my plants and took a few leaf pullings.  I was planning on selling the plants, and because I didn't have many spare pots I left the leaf pullings in the pots with them until the divided plants were large enough for sale.  The day before the plant sale I removed any surviving leaf pullings to put in another pot and was surprised at what I saw.

Most of the venus fly trap leaf pullings had either died off or produced a single plant, some had two new plants.  These new plants mostly arose from the rhizome or very low on the leaf near the rhizome. 

Leaf pulling was growing in this pot with a larger plant

One Venus Flytrap variety produced numerous new plants, they were produced most of the way along the stem of the leaf and not just from the rhizome.  One leaf started to produce well over a dozen new plants.  These are the first leaf pullings I have successfully taken from this variety, so I am not sure if this excessive production of plants per leaf pulling is common in this variety or if I just got lucky.  This is a particularly vigorous clone, so it may be possible that they commonly throw this many plants per leaf pulling.

I have never seen so many new plants arise from one venus flytrap leaf pulling.  These were the first two leaf pullings I have taken from this variety, so perhaps it is common to this clone.  I guess next Spring when I take more leaf pullings I will find out.

As I dug up these leaf pullings and moved them before they were established I half expected to either die or for only a few of the plantlets to continue developing.   Often cuttings and the like do not take kindly to being disturbed until they are more established.  So far this does not seem to be the case, and both of these successful leaf pullings appear to have survived and the plantlets are continuing to develop.

The other leaf pulling came from this pot

Two leaf pullings replanted in this pot

I sometimes get a pot of tiny plants that I can care for while they are growing larger.  Keeping tiny plants in one pot makes it simple to care for them.  I put the successful leaf pullings in one of these pots.  You can see in the picture above that it already had some tiny plants as well as a flower stalk cutting.

The picture below shows that both of those leaf pullings survived and are producing many new baby venus fly trap plants.  You can also see the flower stalk cutting (bottom right) successfully made new plants.

This pot has tiny plants growing out from various cuttings and things

From here I will leave them to grow over the warmer months.  I will probably let them go dormant over winter, and I will try to divide anything that is relatively large in spring.  Even though my venus flytraps are growing in very low nutrient media, I find that dividing them seems to help them grow faster.  

I regularly have venus flytraps for sale and other carnivorous plants for sale, if you are interested I list them here.

Cambridge Rival strawberries Australia

For over a dozen years I have been trying to find somewhere to by a "Cambridge Rival" strawberry plant.  I have heard so much about them.  Cambridge Rival are meant to be the best tasting strawberries in Australia.

Diggers used to have them, but I have had such bad experiences with Diggers on many many occasions, plus their prices are unreasonable for low quality plants, and postage price is incredibly high, that I really didn't want to buy anything from them if I could help it.  I looked around, and asked around, but had no success. 

As it has been so many years of searching and I have had no success I decided to bite the bullet, spend a fortune to buy a plant from Diggers, and hope they did not send me the wrong plant that had been mis-labelled, or a dead plant, or a plant covered in mildew, or any of the other nonsense that they have repeatedly done in the past when I have bought from them.  Strangely enough, I looked one day and they had them listed but the following day when I was planning to complete my order they had been removed from their list.  I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I kept looking, and asking around, and eventually found a home gardener who grew Cambridge Rival strawberries and sent me some plants.

Cambridge Rival strawberry

 

Cambridge Rival strawberries have white flowers and can either self pollinate or be pollinated by another variety.  Cross pollination does not change the taste.  They are said to throw a lot of runners but my plants have not done much of that yet.  They are only meant to crop once or twice per year in my climate, which is a down side of this variety. 

My plants survived winter and flowered in spring.  The first berries ripened early December.  A second flush of fruit ripened in February.  The berries were mid-sized, and red.  The colour of these was nice, even the inside of the berries was rather red.  The berries themselves were nice and soft, making them unsuitable for commercial harvest but perfect for the home grower.  They smelled rather nice for a garden strawberry, which was novel.

The taste of Cambridge Rival strawberries was incredible and unrivaled by anything else I grow.  They were intensely sweet, and pretty sour, at the same time.  They had a depth of flavour that I really enjoy.  The texture of these was very soft.  It sounds cliched but they did sort of melt in my mouth.  I have only eaten them perfectly ripe, I have no idea what they taste like a day or two before being ripe.

The richness of flavour, combined with the nice strawberry smell and the texture makes Cambridge Rival my favourite strawberries.

I have saved some of their seeds and should plant them at some stage.  Seeds that were self-pollinated will not produce Cambridge Rival strawberries.  These are octoploid and largely heterozygous, meaning every seedling will be genetically unique.  While most seeds will not be as good as the parent, some may be much the same, and there is a chance that some may be even better.

At some stage I need to track down a good day-length neutral strawberry and cross it with Cambridge Rival in the hopes of producing a day-length neutral strawberry that is of similar quality to these.

Cambridge Rival strawberries with insect damage

As you can see from the berries in the background of the above picture, other things also like to eat these strawberries.  I grow everything organically, so the earwigs and slaters tend to get into my strawberries.  This frustrates me greatly.  There isn't much I can do unless I spray, and I am not keen on spraying, so I have to put up with it.

Given how difficult Cambridge Rival strawberries were to track down, and how great they taste, I plan to let my plants throw as many runners as they want.  If I ever have a few spare plants I will offer them through my for sale page.  I can't imagine I will ever have too many extras of these though as I really want to grow a lot more of them myself!

Tiger fern

I recently got a lovely variegated tiger fern.  Tiger fern is a variegated variety of the Boston fern.  There aren't a huge number of different types of variegated ferns, which is too bad because I think that variegated ferns usually look really nice.

For some reason that I am unable to find out, I am told that Nephrolepis exaltata and all of its varieties does not form viable spores and can only be reproduced asexually.  I would love to know more about why this is the case, but I have been unable to find out anything.

Something I find remarkable is even though this species does not produce viable spores there are dozens of cultivars of it.  It seems to throw natural mutations from time to time, and many new varieties have formed naturally and spontaneously.

Tiger fern have variegated fronds

I find the history of the tiger fern to be interesting.  As they can not be sexually reproduced they were developed by a long drawn out domino effect of naturally occurring mutations that just happened to be noticed by someone with enough wherewithal to keep them alive, propagate them, and spread them around.

Brief history of the tiger fern:

The wild type 'Sword fern' (Nephrolepis exaltata) has upright fronds and looks like the type of fern you would find in a woodland.  The wild type existed for millennia, it was noticed by collectors and has been propagated and grown by gardeners across the world.

The 'Boston fern' (Nephrolepis exaltata ‘Bostoniensis’) came about as a natural mutation that occurred in sword ferns.  Sword ferns have upright fronds, while the Boston fern has gracefully arching fronds.  The arching fronds mutation was noticed in one plant among an importation of about 200 sword ferns by a florist near Boston in 1895.  This mutant plant was grown and cared for as it was a beautiful oddity.  Since then the Boston fern has been propagated asexually and spread across the world by gardeners and collectors.

‘Tiger Fern' is a natural mutation of the Boston fern.  The Tiger fern came about as a natural mutation that occurred in Bogor, Indonesia, in the spring of the year 2000.  Since then Tiger ferns have been propagated asexually and spread across the world by gardeners and collectors.

To be clear, the tiger fern is not the only mutation to have occurred in Boston ferns, nor was it the first mutation to have be found in Boston ferns.  There are literally dozens of varieties of Boston fern, all have arisen spontaneously and have been noticed by someone who grew them and spread them around to other interested people.  

Tiger fern

The tiger fern is noticeably different from its Boston fern parent.  The following description of a tiger fern has been copied from google patents:

The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of ‘Tiger Fern’. These characteristics in combination distinguish ‘Tiger Fern’ as a new and distinct cultivar of Nephrolepis Fern:

 

1. Upright and outwardly arching plant habit.

2. Vigorous growth habit.

3. Durable rachis; plants resist breakage during shipping.

4. Green and yellow green variegated pinnae.

5. Closely-spaced pinnae; densely foliated.

 

Tiger fern stolons

 

As mentioned, Tiger ferns reputedly do not produce viable spores.  I am not sure if they are completely infertile, or is a small percentage of spores can be viable under the correct conditions.  This means that tiger ferns can only be reproduced using asexual methods.

One method of propagating these is through the use of stolons.  Stolons, or runners, function the same way as strawberry runners.  The plant sends out long thin stolons that can produce a baby plant where they touch the soil, and stolons may even produce baby plants while they are hanging in the air.  I have heard of people removing the stolons and using the them like cuttings, while most people leave them attached to the plant and allow them to do their thing.

My little tiger fern came with a few stolons.  Some were damaged and won't produce plants, whereas others look healthy and may produce new plants in time.  As the plant grows I am sure it will throw more stolons when the time is right.  

After only growing this tiger fern for two months it produced three baby ferns.  Meaning this fern should be quite productive and quickly fill out it's pot.

Tiger fern runners

Another way to propagate tiger ferns is to split a larger plant into several small plants.  My plant is still pretty small, so this is not yet an option.  I have little doubt that my variegated tiger fern will be large enough to split in spring.

From what I have seen, splitting a larger tiger fern into several plants is pretty simple.  Most people just remove the fern from the pot, then use a knife and hack the thing into a bunch of pieces.  I am told that Spring is the best time for this as the plant is actively growing and the plants each have a full growing season to establish before winter comes.

Variegated tiger fern frond

Tiger ferns, like many ferns, do not love frost and do not love too much direct sunlight.  They do best in bright indirect light.  They like water but not being waterlogged, and they seem to do better with drier soil than many ferns.

I have a few places to grow them that may suit these ferns.  I have the greenhouse that I feel may be too bright, I have a place on the deck that only receives an hour or so of morning sun that I think may be ideal, and I have limited spaces inside the house which I think may be too dark.  I regret not getting two tiger ferns, that way I could have grown them under different conditions and hopefully found the best way to grow them.

Lucky Iron Fish

I always seem to have low iron, I'm not sure why but every blood test says that I am low in iron.  I eat well but think I have a higher need for iron than most people.  My wife always had low iron, and my youngest son had low iron.

I can tell when I am low in iron.  I feel off.  I know the feeling well but can't describe it.  When I am low I tend to eventually buy iron supplements.  I have to take them every day.  After a few weeks my iron levels increase and I feel ok.  When the supplements run out I don't buy any more and it normally takes a while for my iron to run low again.  Supplements aren't cheap, so I tend to buy them infrequently.

My son was so low in iron that his gums were very pale when they should be darker pink.  Pale gums are a sign of low iron levels.  Being a young child he needs enough iron to grow and develop properly.  Iron supplements are expensive, they take a few weeks to work, and are very difficult to get a young child to take regularly enough for long enough to make a difference.

For some time I have considered buying a Lucky Iron Fish.  They are a little fish shaped piece of iron.  You boil it in water, or cook with it, and it releases iron into to water/food.  When you drink that water, or eat that food, it increases your iron intake.  Sounds pretty cool.  Getting a child to drink water is easier than getting them to take supplements.

I did some research (not blogs like this, medical papers from peer reviewed journals) and read a lot about the Lucky Iron Fish before committing to trying one.  It seems like it is safe, and that using it increases blood iron levels in people whose iron levels were low due to inadequate iron in their food.  This is much like taking iron supplements, but it doesn't hurt your stomach and works out a lot cheaper in the long run.

Lucky Iron Fish - I have been using it every night for about five months

The Lucky Iron Fish was first developed to combat anemia in Cambodia, which is a huge issue over there.  To me this sounded odd because much of the food eaten by poor people in Cambodia is actually rich in iron.  Strangely enough most of the studies showed that the Lucky Iron Fish worked well in many countries, but had limited impact in Cambodia.  I found this intriguing.

After a lot more reading I discovered that most of Cambodia's anemia problem has nothing to do with low iron intake, and is mostly due to some genetic disorders that are common over there.  Research demonstrates that increasing the amount of iron in food has no effect on non iron-deficiency anemia that is prevalent in Cambodia.  This explains why the Lucky Iron Fish is of limited value in Cambodia but appears to successfully decrease anemia in other countries.  Similar to any supplement, it only helps if you are not eating enough of that nutrient.  I don't consume enough iron, which means that the Lucky Iron Fish should work for me.

Last year, after much research, I bought a Lucky Iron Fish.  

Each night as I wash the dishes I boil 2 liters of water with a few drops of lemon juice and the Lucky Iron Fish.  After 20 minutes (which is about the time it takes me to wash up the dishes) I take the pan off the stove and leave it to cool, I dry the fish and put it on the shelf.  Before going to bed I pour the cooled water in bottles.  The next day we drink that water.  You could use it for cooking, but we drink enough water that we easily go through that each day.

The photo above is of my Lucky Iron Fish.  I have been using it every night for about five months now.  I just dry it with a dish cloth when I have used it.  I didn't buy the protective oil or anything like that.  After five months of daily use it seems to be holding up pretty well.  I am told that after using it every day like this that after five years its smile will wear off, and that is when it is time to get another one.

The amount of iron that the Lucky Iron Fish releases is pretty impressive.  When combined with a varied diet it easily makes up for any shortfall in iron.

The water tastes like water.  I couldn't taste or smell anything.  If you put in too much lemon I guess it would taste lemony?  The instructions that come with the Lucky Iron Fish are really simple to understand and follow.

I felt low in iron when I started to drink the fish water.  At the start I could not drink enough of the water, I felt like I needed to drink it.  It was really weird, but makes sense that my body was low in iron and wanted more of it.  It took a few weeks, but after a while I didn't feel low in iron.  At that stage I no longer wanted to drink iron water, the craving to drink it had faded.  I now drink the Lucky Iron Fish water a few times per week (but I still make it every night for my wife and son) and feel like my iron level is always up.

I have been checking my son's gums ever few days over the past few years.  After using the Lucky Iron Fish water for a few weeks his gums went from almost white to a very healthy looking dark pink, indicating that his iron levels were much higher.  The difference is rather remarkable.  His behaviour changed over this time, but he is getting older so it may have nothing to do with the iron fish.  He is a growing boy, so I keep giving him the iron water.  The water is providing about half the iron he needs each day, he would be getting the rest from his food.

The below is a comparison table from the Lucky Iron Fish website. 

Iron from using a Lucky Iron Fish

If you are low in iron I completely recommend trying a Lucky Iron Fish.  For me it worked really well.  Other people may or may not have similar results.  One thing to remember is it isn't a magic bullet, you need to drink it every day (or every few days) for a few weeks before you will notice any difference.

The Lucky Iron Fish company used to donate money from each purchase to aid work in Cambodia.  I think they still do this, but it may change over time.  

The metal used to make Lucky Iron Fish is safe.  It has been tested by many labs over time and they all say that it is safe.  There are a few other companies who make iron fish, I could not find any research on them so was not certain that the metal used was safe.  I would hate for low levels of lead or cadmium or even if it was radioactive or something like that to be leaching into my drinking water!  There have been several instances that I am aware of where China sold scrap metal from deactivated nuclear reactors that is highly radioactive to an unsuspecting market, I would hate to buy a cheaper iron fish and have it made from that iron.

You can buy a Lucky Iron Fish from their website, I used to have a link to get people a discount, but they no longer do that as I am in Australia.

Living-Mudflower Original Vegetables - vegetable breeding

I used to look at online plant shops at all the plants they had that were claimed to be 'exclusives'.  That used to impress me.  Then one of these places bought plants from me and started selling them as exclusives.  One of these places talks about saving heirloom vegetables, yet often renames things and then claims that they are exclusive to them.  I am no longer impressed in the slightest when I see claims of plants or seeds as being exclusive. 

Very few online plant shops carry things that they have developed themselves.  I am far more impressed by this as breeding a new variety takes years of dedication. 

I breed new vegetable varieties, and improved herb varieties, and berry varieties, and fruit varieties etc myself.  Some are listed below while others are not yet stable enough to list here.  Some are named, while others still need to be named.  Maybe I should have a competition of some sort one day to name some of my new things.

Some of them are for sale through my for sale page, while others are not for sale yet.  Everything I grow is organic, I don't even use the poisons that are certified to be used in organic farms.

Original Vegetables developed by Living-Mudflower

Igloo tomato

'Igloo' tomatoes were the first tomatoes I ever bred.  I had limited access to germplasm, at the time I was young with only a rudimentary understanding of genetics and no one to guide me, yet I was still able to get a great end result.  

Igloo tomatoes are short stout little plants somewhere between one and two feet tall, small red round tomatoes that are very uniform in size and colour.  They normally taste ok but it tastes far superior if left to fully ripen.  Large seeds make seed saving simple.  Great for small spaces or short seasons as it is one of the first to ripen and produces over a long period, and they are incredibly high yielding usually producing 10kg to 12kg of tomatoes per plant in my garden. That is a tremendous amount of tomatoes for such a small plant.

Igloo tomato

 

Nanuq tomato

'Nanuq' was another of the first tomatoes I bred back when I was very young.  Small wimpy looking but surprisingly strong plants, small red round tomatoes produced on plants that are about a foot tall.  These have wispy carrot like foliage that were bred for taste and early ripening.  Nanuq tomatoes are one of the first tomatoes to ripen and only takes up a little space.  I’m not blown away by the size of the crop but it makes up for that with the taste. 

Nanuq tomato

 

Immali corn

'Immali' corn is a pink/purple and white sweet corn.  I believe this is the first purple sweet corn to have been developed in Australia.  This purple sweet corn is healthier than yellow corn as it is high in antioxidants, and better tasting than any store bought corn.  Reasonably short plants around 5 feet tall, most tiller to some extent, they produces numerous cobs per plant but is highly dependent on spacing and soil fertility.  Sweet corn with su se+ genes means it is best suited for backyards rather than market gardens as cobs don’t store anywhere near as long as the Sh2 varieties, but they have a superior taste.

Immali corn - purple sweet corn

Immali corn - dry seeds for saving

Amiah potato (pronounced 'uh-my-uh')

In my opinion 'Amiah' potatoes are the best of the best of diploid potatoes.  They have the great taste of a diploid potato without having the low yields that are common among diploids.  The size of potatoes is small but reasonable, they don’t need peeling, and each plant produces crops that are good but not as large as many tetraploid varieties.  Amiah potatoes are healthier to eat and better looking than white potatoes due to its rich yellow flesh and interesting skin colour.  

Amiah potatoes have a great taste, easily produce two crops per year here, are quite stubborn/aggressive in its spreading, and always survives over winter in the soil with no care from me.  As well as all this they produce huge numbers of beautiful purple flowers on long stalks held high above the foliage.

Amiah potato and white tetraploid potato for comparison

Amiah potato and white tetraploid

 

Oaken (dwarf multiflora) tomatoes 

These produce dwarf plants with regular leaf.  Flowers are produced in clusters of about 150, but not all of the fruit sets in my garden and many of the flowers fall off.  The fruit is small, mostly round, and light orange often with some green stripes.  It has a sweet taste and is surprisingly late to ripen for such a small fruited tomato, but once it does ripen it crops until killed by the frosts as it is an indeterminate dwarf tomato.

The colour is off in this photo, they are darker orange than this

One truss of dwarf multiflora tomato flowers - good luck trying to count them all

Tracey tomato (black yellow/green)

Tracey tomatoes are the result of a more recent breeding effort, where I had greater understanding of genetics, more access to germplasm, but far less time to put into the endeavor than many of my earlier breeding attempts.  The plants produce tasty little tomatoes that are intensely black where sun hits the fruit, yellow/green under the black.  Tracey tomato produces the darkest true black tomatoes that I have ever seen.  The black is from the high levels of antioxidants, which make this a very healthy tomato to eat.  They have green flesh when ripe, and taste incredible.  Unripe tomatoes are beautifully purple, similar to an eggplant.  

Tracey tomatoes are very productive, producing mostly round ping pong sized fruit, but are not completely uniform and never will be.  This variety has produced well for me in hot dry summers, in mild wet summers, in dust storms, through drought, as well as during lovely mild years.  Ornamental, highly productive, with great taste makes these a great variety to grow.

Ripe Black Yellow/Green tomatoes

Unripe Tracey tomato

Unnamed things

Thornless Primocane Raspberry 

This is a dual cropping, thornless, red raspberry.  This variety is sweeter than many red raspberries and is always completely thornless.  The berries don't crumble, and ripe berries are easily and cleanly removed from the plant.  Each plant is very productive, they can produce several dozen flowers per cluster.  Not all berries ripen at once, some berries are ready while some flowers in the same cluster are yet to open, meaning that harvest is over an extended period.  It produces two or more crops per year and being a thornless primocane variety means pruning is simple.  All of these traits make it an excellent variety to grow in back yards.

Thornless primocane raspberry - highly productive

 

Giant edible dandelion

I can’t remember why I started to breed dandelions, it was a lot more work than it ought to be, and the end result is rather impressive.  They are much like normal dandelions you find in your lawn, but bigger in every way.  Every part is edible and useful, only bigger and better.  

Giant edible dandelions produce longer and wider leaves, larger yellow flowers on longer fatter stalks, it also has deeper fatter roots.  These won't escape into your lawn as they are so large that they need extra water, they are also strangely susceptible to disease and pests.

Giant dandelion - 30cm ruler and leaves of regular plant for scale

Massive parsley

The leaves are absolutely massive and have the strong taste that is common among flat leaf parsleys.  The leaf stalks (petioles) are so huge that they can be used in the place of celery.  The roots do fork a bit, and sometimes have a woody core, but are large and taste incredible roasted (as most parsley roots do).  

This is not yet a stable variety as it still produces a range of plants from large to massive.  Some plants produce large round leaves, but this trait is uncommon (even when self-pollinated) and may disappear from this variety.  I have mostly stopped growing this because it got too large.  It is too bad, I really enjoyed the look of absurdly large parsley plants.

Massive parsley leaf - 30cm ruler and leaf of regular plant

Improved coriander

I love coriander.  Far too often coriander is bred only using selection, and very rarely through crossing different varieties.  This is not a stable variety, and I am doing my best to ensure that it never will be.  I deliberately mass crossed a dozen or so varieties of coriander, some that were bred for leaf production, others for seed production, others were said to be slow bolting.  I keep introducing parent varieties, earlier generations, and other improved varieties.  The result is a highly genetically diverse population of mostly large leaf, large seed, and slow bolting coriander.  Most have the usual white coriander flowers, but some have pink/red stems and flowers.  When you grow this you cull anything that flowers early and you quickly establish a variety that is slow bolting in your garden. 

Coriander leaf

I can't get enough coriander

I really should add to this list in the future.  I have a lot of breeding lines, some are almost stable while others are still segregating.  

I also have a few lines of spring bulbs and other ornamental plants that I have bred, perhaps I should add them in here too.  Or maybe they deserve their own blog post? 

Rejuvenating an old bird nest fern

Back in the year 2001 I went rock climbing with a friend.  Up high on the cliff was a tiny bird nest fern that was about an inch tall.  

I scraped that little fern off the rock face, I shouldn't have, but I did.  

I have had this fern for over twenty years now.

My 20 year old bird nest fern looking tired

I put the tiny fern in my pocket and finished the day of rock climbing nonsense.  When I got home the fern was bruised and crushed, but still alive so I filled a small pot with soil and planted it.

I was always told that old tea leaves are good for ferns.  So I used to rip open used tea bags (and sometimes also new tea bags) and sprinkled the tea leaves around the pot.

The little fern grew very fast.  To this day I have no idea if the tea leaves helped or not, all I know is that thing got big quick.

As the fern was growing against a rock face it only had fronds on one side.  It took some time and lots of rotating the pot each week before it filled out on all sides, but we got there.

The fern grew large, and sometimes produces spores on the back of some fronds.  I figured this was a sign that I was looking after it well.

Bird nest fern spores

I repotted it a few times as it grew, and moved house with it many times.  I can't give this fern a larger pot as I really struggle to lift the one it is in now.

At my last house the fronds reached about six feet in length.  It was really impressive.

Since then this bird nest fern has declined. The largest fronds are now only around a metre long, and it looks generally pretty shabby as you can see from the photos above.

The other week we had a lot of rain, so I moved my fern out to get some rain.  Rain is good because it washes dust off the fronds and flushes away salt build up in the soil.  Normally I struggle to life the pot, but this time it weighed next to nothing.  It's been in that pot for around a decade, I haven't really been caring for it very well, and there was very little soil left.  Perhaps that's why it looks so tired!

I have since got some soil and leaf litter and filled up the empty space in the pot as best I can.  I also sprinkled some used tea leaves over the new soil.  Hopefully I didn't let this go on for too long and new soil this fixes everything.

Bird nest fern, new fronds

With the combination of warmer weather of spring, new soil/leaf litter, and having the rain flush out any built up salts, this fern should be ready to do some growing again. 

It already has some fronds starting to develop.  I wonder if the new fronds will be larger, or if it will take some time for it to produce long fronds again.

Hopefully it doesn't take too long for the bird nest fern to regain its former glory and look healthy and lush again.

Goldfish eggs

In March 2021 I bought ten small shubunkin goldfish.  

The fish arrived in the post, and were lovely small colourful fish.  I put them in a barrel that I had filled with rain water, added a floating pot of herbs, some duckweed and azolla, and put in a small submersible solar pond pump that pumps the water through a milk bottle filled with gravel that acts as a filter.

Floating pot of herbs in goldfish barrelponics

The fish ate all the duckweed pretty fast, and mostly leave the azolla alone.  I assume this is because the duckweed is small enough to fit in their mouths and the azolla is a bit larger.  

I try to add more duckweed every few days so they always have some food available and don't have to wait hungrily until I feed them.  Having a little azolla floating around isn't a bad thing so I sometimes scoop a little azolla out but always ensure that I leave some behind.

Water is pumped through here as a biological filter

My plants grew incredibly well over winter, but as the weather warmed they ran into some issues.  One of the issues is that the milk bottle full of gravel was knocked off and all the plants were destroyed by a possum or something.  As you can see above, I have started seeds again.

The water has started to turn very green.  I have planted more plants/seeds, but it will take time before they are large enough to clear the water again.  I do some partial water changes, but there are ten fish in the barrel so the water is always reasonably green.

Presumably this is not too big an issue and my fish are healthy as they are spawning!

Look very close and you may see a goldfish egg

The goldfish appeared a bit randy as the spring weather warmed.  Goldfish are known for eating all of their eggs, so I added a spawning mop to the barrel.  The fish have laid some eggs on the spawning mop.

I was busy that day, and in the afternoon there appeared only to be a small number of eggs left.  Presumably the other eggs were all eaten.  I moved this spawning mop with the few remaining eggs into a flexi-tub of water that is in my greenhouse.  The picture above is two days after the spawning mop was moved, the remaining eggs all appeared clear, which is a great sign that they are fertile and developing.

I also made another spawning mop with far more strands and added that to the barrel.  Perhaps the larger number of strands will protect more eggs, and provide a greater chance of some hatching and surviving.  I have checked it once and it has a small number of eggs, I plan to leave it a few more days and hopefully it will collect far more eggs.

Flexitub of water and spawning mop of eggs

The flexitub had been sitting in the greenhouse for many weeks filled with water as I was hoping to get a water lily but haven't yet found one for sale anywhere.  This tub now has some algae and tiny critters living in the water.  I figured this was a good place to move the fish eggs.

I also have a container of water which has a few small pots of sphagnum moss, this water is teeming with tiny life.  I also tipped that water into the flexitub to increase the amount of tiny things swimming around in there.  

If any of my fish hatch they should have plenty of tiny swimming things that are hopefully the correct size for them to eat.

I will add the second spawning mop to the flexi-tub at some stage, than I have to wait to see if any baby fish survive.  They will be tiny and relatively inactive after they hatch, so it will take a few weeks of growth before I will be able to see any baby fish that are in there.  Fingers crossed I get a decent number of baby fish from this hatch.

Hacor Coriander, Hot & Spicy Coriander

I love coriander (Coriandrum sativum), it is a great edible herb.

People either love coriander or they hate coriander, there does not appear to be much middle ground.  Some people have a broken gene which makes this smell and taste dreadful to them, but for the rest of us coriander leaf is excellent.

I have been growing coriander and deliberately crossing as many varieties as I can for a while.  The resultant seeds are genetically very diverse, and allow to quickly select for plants that perform well in different climates. 

Last year I got some seeds of 'Hacor coriander'.  Hacor coriander is also called 'slow bolting' and 'hot and spicy Coriander'.  Hacor coriander is said to have a stronger taste than regular coriander.  Like all coriander, this plant is grown for its edible leaves (which confusingly Americans call 'cilantro') and seeds/fruits (which Americans call 'coriander').

I liked the sound of hot and spicy coriander, so I grew some of this Hacor coriander to test it out.  I grew it partly to see what it was like, and partly to include in my mass crossed superior coriander.  I grew some that I bagged the flowers and saved seeds to keep them pure.

Coriander leaves

I thought hacor coriander was good, but nothing terribly special.  I didn't find it to have a stronger taste than my superior coriander, and I would not have thought to call i hot and spicy coriander. 

I might grow hacor coriander again, but I probably won't.  It was good, and productive, but nothing special.  I have crossed it with my superior coriander to keep the genetics diverse, so will likely grow that instead of hacor.

I sell seeds of Hacor coriander from bagged plants, as well as mixed seeds from my superior coriander through my for sale page.

Potato seedlings from true potato seed Australia

I was transplanting my seed grown potatoes the other day.  I have a few different breeding lines, some diploid, some tetraploid, some wild ancestors of modern potatoes, all grown from true potato seed.  

Growing from true botanical potato seed yields interesting results, and allows me to breed and create new varieties.  As the parent stock is usually quite heterozygous, each seedling is genetically unique.

Most of my potato seedlings looked much the same, some had a few stolons, others did not.  At this tiny size neither is unexpected.  One of my seedlings is producing tiny little tubers.

I can hardly wait to see what these turn into.

Potato seedling with tiny tubers

I didn't break this off, there is soil covering the stolon

This little seedling really wants to live!  It had 3 tiny little tubers (not all of them are in my photos) and a few other stolons.  It has since been planted in its own pot so I can evaluate it at the end of the season.

I mostly try to grow diploid potatoes as I find they taste better.  Unfortunately they tend to yield lower than tetraploids.  

These seedlings are from tetraploid potatoes, their parentage is far superior to anything you can get from the shops so I decided to try a few seedlings and see what I could produce.  It is far too early to tell, but hopefully something great comes out of this line.

I sell a small number of seed potatoes each year through my for sale page.  These are from lines that I have developed myself and grown from true potato seeds.  I can only do this in their correct season, some lines harvest several times per year, other lines only harvest once per year.  If you are interested keep an eye on my for sale page.