How to graft tomato to a potato

Question:  What do you call a plant that is a tomato and a potato grafted together?  A tomtato?  A potmato?
Answer:  I don't know and I don't care.


Grafting Tomato scion to Potato rootstock

Potatoes and tomatoes are both closely related, they can be grafted to each other easily enough.  With a little effort a chilli, tomatillo, potato, tomato, ground cherry, eggplant and a few other things including some agricultural weeds can graft onto one another as they are all closely related.  If you could be bothered they could all be grafted onto a strong rootstock and a multi-grafted vegetable garden shrub could be created.

Many varieties of each of these plants are perennial, so in theory if a hardy perennial root stock was chosen a grafted perennial vegetable plot in one plant could be the result.  Yields would be low for each plant and care would need to be taken to ensure one graft did not take over the others, but it would be easy enough to create.  Perhaps I should make one next year just to prove how simple it is.

About 20 years ago I grafted the top of a tomato plant to the bottom of a potato plant.  I did not have grafting tape or grafting clips but I did misappropriate some plumbing tape from school and used that.  I had never grafted anything, I had never seen anyone graft, I had no one to answer questions or guide me, I had no books to read (and as far as I knew the internet did not exist) but I had heard about grafting so decided to give it a go.  How hard could it be?

I had hopes of getting two crops for the same amount of space and water.  It kind of worked, I guess.  I certainly got a crop of tomatoes, but the non grafted one in the next row cropped better.  At the end of the season I certainly got a crop of potatoes, but the non grafted potatoes returned a far larger crop.  Both crops tasted just as they should and looked normal.  The grafted plant used quite a lot more water than I would have expected, much more than the tomato plants or the potato plants in the other rows.  I considered it to be a failure due to the extra work resulting in lower crops an higher water for the same amount of space, in hind sight it was probably a success as the plant lived and cropped and I learned from the experience.

Recently I have seen these grafted tomato/potato plants being sold.  One very arrogant man claims that he is a genius who invented this process about 5 years ago.  Too late, I did it 20 years ago when I was a teenager and I seriously doubt that I was the first to try this successfully.

A few people claim that this method of grafting increases yields from both plants, unfortunately from my experience I do not believe them.  You will get both crops, but the crops are both smaller.  Larger crops from a grafted plant such as this is illogical.  If you do not have much space and can only grow one plant then this trade off may be well worth it.  I don't see the need to make erroneous claims, people will still buy the plants if you tell them the truth.  I sell a lot of interesting vegetables, there is no need to exaggerate as people who want them will buy them.

It would be interesting to see just how poorly these grafted potato tomato plants crop.  I should run some field trials to see if growing potato and tomato in the same pot will yield differently to a grafted tomato potato.  I wish I did not have to go to work so I had more time to do interesting experiments like this.

I also have read about someone from a large plant/seed/gardening company who claims to have been the first to have ever thought of the idea 15 years ago (but never actually tried it until more recently), again I not only thought of this but successfully tried it earlier than that!  If a teenager with no experience, no resources, no education or mentor can do this it can't be that difficult and I wish people would stop trying to big note themselves with such simple things.  I honestly believe that people have been trying this and succeeding for a few hundred years but it has not gone anywhere as the yields are too low to bother.  This type of grafting is simple, it is unproductive which makes it uncommon, being uncommon means that people have not seen it before and are often taken in by these lies.  Perhaps next Spring I should run some grafting courses and teach people how to create these grafted plants at home.

Tomato flowers

Reisetomate tomato flowers

Grafting Potato scion onto Tomato rootstock

Enough of my rant (for now), I don't want to talk about grafting the top of a tomato the the bottom of a potato.  I want to talk about the opposite.

This year I grafted the top of a potato plant (called the scion) to the roots of a tomato (called the rootstock).  You may ask why the devil would anyone do that, the resultant grafted plant would produce neither tomatoes or potatoes so would be a waste of time and space.  Well it is simple, I wanted potato seed.

Modern potatoes are grown from existing potatoes, they are genetic clones of their parent, it is essentially the same plant.  Seed potatoes are just small potatoes, a stem fragment from the parent.

I wanted to grow potatoes from seeds, true seeds, each and every one of them would be unique.  Some would be dreadful, some mediocre and perhaps some would be great.  I wanted to see if I could create a new variety that is better suited to my needs and will grow better in my climate.  To do that the potato plant needs to flower, then it needs to grow fertile seeds, often a potato left to itself refuses to flower.  Grafting onto a tomato will help to make this happen.

When I was a child we had an unknown variety of potato that would set seed each year.  I used to grow these seeds and nothing great ever came from them.  Each seed grown plant was different, they grew differently, some had slightly different colours, but the parent stock was dodgy and did not have the genetic potential to grow anything truly great.  I used to think it was my fault that nothing exceptional came out of that and felt like a failure, now that I am better educated I know that I actually achieved a lot back then.

I have a variety of potato that never flowers in my climate.  I don't know if it flowers anywhere.  Many modern potatoes no longer flower.  It is a great variety, it is easy enough to buy, but it struggles to crop well in this climate.  When I have grown this variety in other climates and without exaggeration it has cropped about 20 times higher than it crops here (I weigh things and keep pointlessly accurate records).  Planting certified virus free seed potato into new soil does not help, this variety struggles in my climate as it is not really suited to growing here.  But it tastes so good which makes me want to grow it.

If I could get some seed from this potato there is a chance I could grow a similar tasting potato that crops well here.  To do that I need it to flower and set viable seed.  This is a decent parent plant and has the genes to produce some exceptional new varieties of potato, but in the 7 or so years I have grown it I have never seen any flowers.

This year I grafted that potato scion onto tomato rootstock to induce flowering and hopefully convince it to grow fruit and set viable seeds.  As the potato will not be putting any energy into tuber formation it will be more likely to flower and more likely to have the energy to set viable seed.  I chose the most vigorous tomato I have and grafted them using 'tongue approach grafting' or 'inarching' as it is the simplest and most fool proof way to graft.  This is how grafting happens most often in nature, it is simple, fast to do and once done it is very low maintenance.  I could have chosen other forms of grafting but why make things harder than they have to be.

Picture thanks to http://extension.umass.edu/floriculture/fact-sheets/grafting-techniques-greenhouse-tomatoes

I grew a tomato seedling in a pot and the potato plant in the soil.  When the plants were both the right size (ie it had nothing to do with size, it was when I could find the time) I put a small cut into each stem part way through.  I then joined the two together and bound them with plumbers tape.  I still do not have grafting clips or grafting tape, but the plumbing tape works well enough for me, this time I bought the tape instead of helping myself to it.  Then I left the plants with two tops and two sets of roots so that the graft union could heal.  Perhaps my description is not that useful, the picture above shows roughly how I did it, but my plants were larger and much older than in the picture.

After the graft had taken (ie several weeks later when I found time) I cut off the top of the tomato and the bottom of the potato and was left with a grafted plant with tomato roots and potato leaves.  The potato plant went on to continue growing and eventually produced a crop (which is why it was in the soil to begin with) and the top of the tomato was used as a cutting so nothing was wasted.  I had a grafted plant in a pot which I planted into the vegetable garden.

I then had a plant with the roots of a tomato and the top of a potato.  I left the grafting tape on for another week or two then unwrapped it, the union was strong enough by this time and the tape was getting too tight.  The tape could possibly be removed earlier but this works for me so I have not experimented with other methods.

We are hoping to sell our house so I only grafted the one plant.  I did not want to put in a lot of time to graft a lot of plants only to sell and move leaving behind treasures like this that would not be appreciated.  Unfortunately we still are yet to find the right buyer, had I known this I would have planted a lot differently this year, hind sight is great.

This grafted plant flowered well, extremely well.  Considering that I have grown this potato variety for so many years and never seen a flower I think it is safe to conclude that grafting the top of a potato to the roots of a tomato actually does help the plant to flower.

There are a lot of different pollinators around my garden, I never saw them on the potato flowers but they may have been there when I was not looking.  I tried to pollinate the flowers in the same way that one pollinates tomato flowers, I think it worked.

Potato Flowers - the grafting worked

The plant started to produce fruit.  This is exactly what I had hoped would happen.  Then the ducks got in to the vegetable garden, they stomped around the garden a bit, broke a lot of plants, ate some leaves off things, messed around stealing vegetables and ate some fruit off the trees.

The grafted potato/tomato plant was still alive but all the fruit was missing, I don't know if the ducks ate the fruit or if they rolled away somewhere.  If they rolled away there is a chance they may grow next year but I doubt I will find them or even know that they are not just the normal potatoes.  The grafted plant continued flowering for a while but those flowers all aborted and did not produce any fruit, probably due to the heat.

If I try this again the next time I will try to graft a few more plants to help provide a little insurance against this kind of thing.  Nothing much can be done now apart from wait.

Since writing this post I have wondered if I should dig up the grafted plant and try to overwinter it.  I know the tomato rootstock can survive if I protect it from frost but I am not sure about the potato part.  I wondered if it was worth my time even trying, perhaps it would flower and set seed better, perhaps it would simply die, I don't know anyone who has tried to keep a plant like this alive for several years.  Come to think of it, I don't know anyone who has created a grafted plant like this one.

Once again the ducks got into the vegetable garden, they kind of made up my mind for me.  The top of the plant is now dead/missing, the roots are possibly still alive, if they sprout leaves I will let the frost kill it when it is time.  This type of grafting is worth another try if I have any land next year as it seemed to help the potato to flower, once I get this potato variety to produce viable seed then the fun part begins.  Perhaps I should get a different type of potato that flowers and fruits readily and cross them.  For now I am happy that grafting helps flowering and fruit set.

Tomatoes: Potato Leaf vs Regular Leaf

People often talk about regular leaf tomatoes or potato leaf tomatoes, I get a few questions about this so I figured I would write a post explaining what is meant by these terms.  I have also seen one place sell a variety of tomato that they call "potato leaf tomato" and I find this confusing as there are many varieties of potato leaf tomatoes, I am growing 4 of them this year myself.

Have a look at these two leaves, they are both leaves from tomato plants.  Please ignore the yellowing, that has nothing to do with leaf type, that leaf is a bit older.

Potato Leaf compared with Regular Leaf

It is not too difficult to tell them apart, the leaf on the left looks like the leaf on a potato plant, the leaf on the right looks like the leaf on most varieties of tomato.

Regular Leaf (RL) tomato

Regular Leaf (often abbreviated RL)

This is the typical leaf type that most people are familiar with, most varieties of tomato are 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.  There are a few other variations such as angora, variegated etc but they are not easy to come across in Australia so I wont talk about them.  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 from a distance even by my 5 year old as the leaves of a tomato plant.  All of this is referred to as Regular Leaf (RL).

Potato Leaf (PL) tomato

Potato Leaf (often abbreviated PL)

These leaves usually have very few interruptions of the leaf edge.  They are fat and large leaves. 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).  Some claim that makes them more tolerant of foliage diseases but I have seen no proof of this.   Leaf shape can be different on a single plant with some showing more or less smooth edges, all of this is normal for PL.  Scientists have divided the PL leaf forms into various different classes but few of them are available in Australia and it makes no real difference so I wont write anything about them.

What is the deal with growing Potato Leaf tomatoes?

Some people claim that potato leaf tomatoes taste better, unfortunately that is a half truth.  Almost all Potato Leaf tomatoes are heirlooms and generally heirloom tomatoes taste great.  Some tomato varieties have a Potato Leaf version as well as a Regular Leaf version, I can not taste any difference.

People often claim that Regular Leaf tomatoes do not cross pollinate while Potato Leaf tomatoes will cross readily.  Unfortunately this is not at all true.  Most modern bred varieties of tomato will not cross pollinate easily (literatures states around 5% crossing without intervention when being grown side by side), almost all heirloom tomatoes do cross pollinate, some far more than others.  As most Potato Leaf tomatoes are heirlooms people have got themselves confused here.  The tomato I grow that crosses most readily is Reisetomate, it is a regular leaf plant.  It cross pollinates so much that I even grow it in a separate garden to all my other tomatoes.  Try not to be fooled, Potato Leaf does not necessarily mean heirloom, just as heirloom does not necessarily mean Potato Leaf.

Potato Leaf is considered to be a recessive trait.  When breeding new varieties if Potato Leaf is crossed with Regular Leaf then all the seedlings will be Regular Leaf.  This makes it useful to see early on  if the cross has worked or if the flower self pollinated and the plant is worth growing on or not.  If growing different varieties of tomato then Potato Leaf can also indicate early on if that particular seed has remained pure.  If a potato leaf variety grows regular leaf the chances are high that it has crossed.  Some potato leaf varieties do occasionally throw a regular leaf plant even when they have not crossed, so things do get a little confusing here as there is a little more to it than a simple dominant/recessive trait.

"Julia Child" a great potato Leaf tomato variety

I have heard theories about potato leaf being more resistant to insects and regular leaf being more resistant to insects and visa versa, but I have found nothing conclusive that back up this.  Potato leaf would possibly restrict airflow more than regular leaf, so it is possible that potato leaf would face more mold problems in damp environments but again I have no proof that confirms or denies this.  I live in an area of low humidity, so it doesn't matter to me in the slightest.

I have also heard anecdotal evidence that potato leaf varieties are more 'hungry' than regular leaf as they require more resources in order to build more leaf, again I am yet to find any research that either backs or refutes this claim.  It kind of makes sense to me, but some of the largest tomato plants I have ever seen have been regular leaf, I assume they used a lot of resources to grow that large.  I have one regular leaf tomato that grows a large shrub to about 8 feet in every direction, it is surely using a lot of resources to build all of that stem.

Some people think the Potato Leaf plants look nicer, I certainly think they look more ornamental and would not look out of place in a flower garden.  To be honest, I wish that I had more potato leaf tomato varieties as I simply like the look of them.

At the end of the day though the leaf shape makes no real difference to me and I doubt it makes any real difference to taste, growth rates or anything other than aesthetics, so I base my planting decisions on the taste of the fruit and performance of the plant.

I do sell seeds of some heirloom tomatoes as well as perennial vegetables on my for sale page, you should have a look if you are interested.

Perennial Tomatoes

Everyone loves tomatoes, they are often grown as annuals and may people complain that they wish there were perennial tomatoes.  Well, there are perennial tomatoes.  I have seen seeds of perennial tomatoes for sale on ebay fetching serious money and I ask myself why.  Perhaps it is because people do not know about how to grow perennial tomatoes.  They are far more common than you think.

Indeterminate tomatoes can be grown as perennial tomatoes

Different types of tomato

There are many thousand different types of tomato, I am not exaggerating here, probably over twenty thousand recognised varieties world wide with a lot more being developed (by home growers such as myself as well as Government breeding programs) each year and a lot becoming extinct each year.  In the supermarkets we probably have access to half a dozen or so, by growing heirlooms we have easy access to several hundred varieties of all kinds of shapes/sizes/colours.  By growing heirlooms it is simple to save seed of the best varieties each year.  Of the many varieties of tomato that we have the easiest access to they can be roughly divided into two groups: determinate and indeterminate.

Roprecco Paste, a good determinate variety

Determinate tomatoes fruit pretty much all at once, then they tend to die, they are most easily grown as annuals.  They produce flowers at their terminal bud, after they flower that branch can not produce more leaves and stems.  These are great if you want all of your crop to harvest once, they are great for large scale farmers who only want to harvest once, as well as people who are into home preserving.  If you are planning on making paste or sauce then you probably want a determinate variety, there are several incredibly old and delicious heirloom varieties that are determinate.  I don't grow many of these, but I do grow a few, they serve their purpose well.  Some places claim determinate tomatoes are short and do not require staking, this is not always the case, please ignore anyone who makes such claims and stop buying seeds from them.

Speckled Roman, a good indeterminate variety

Indeterminate tomatoes can fruit over a long period, they keep growing as long as you protect the plant, they can be grown as perennial tomatoes if grown without frost.  They grow flowers from a side bud, not the terminal bud.  These are great if you want a few tomatoes each day or every few days, for many weeks/months on end.  Most varieties of tomato grown at home tend to be indeterminate, most heirlooms tend to be indeterminate (but there are some determinate ones too).  Some of these plants can grow massive while others can be rather compact.  Even though indeterminate tomatoes are perennial tomatoes they still tend to be grown as annuals.  Almost all indeterminate tomatoes are perennial tomatoes, no need to spend ridiculous amounts of money on "perennial tomato" seeds now.  Some places claim that indeterminate tomatoes are tall and require staking, this is not always the case, please ignore anyone who makes such claims and stop buying seeds from them.

Perennial Tomatoes

Many varieties of indeterminate tomato are a short lived perennial if grown in a warm climate, which is great if you happen to live in a warm climate.  Sometimes they can survive for several years but the productivity often drops off after the first year or two. 

I live in a frosty climate and have often wanted to grow the same tomato year after year, not just save seed, but keep the same plant going.  Even if you live in a frosty climate it is possible to over winter plants.  They probably won't produce a lot of fruit over winter (unless they are parthenocarpic), they will continue to flower but often the nights are too cool for fruit set, as soon as the weather is warm enough they will be ready and will ripen some early fruit for you.  This is a great way to get your plants to set fruit a few weeks to a few months earlier than from seed.

Overwintered Reisetomate set fruit 2 months earlier than the seed grown Reisetomate

Each year I overwinter some tomato plants.  Sometimes I do it because I am running low on seed, sometimes I do it because the plant was amazing and I want another season out of it, sometimes I do it because I am developing a new variety and would like to back cross its progeny with it to lock in a certain desirable trait.  Plants that are overwintered tend to crop a lot earlier and be more resilient than seedlings of the same variety.  Sometimes I overwinter a plant to help get an early crop and beat the extreme weather that we often get.

Yellow Pear tomatoes are simple to grow as perennials

How to overwinter an indeterminate tomato

This is one of those things that depends on a lot of different factors, mostly it depends on what you want to do and in which climate you are growing tomatoes.  You may wish to put up a shade cloth structure or something to protect a plant growing in the soil.  You may grow a plant in a pot that can be moved to somewhere safe.  You may live somewhere that the plants can be left as they are or just mulched carefully.  I take cuttings and overwinter these.

I take a cutting late in the season from the plant that I want to overwinter.  I use indeterminate varieties, while it is possible to use a determinate variety it is far more difficult as timing has to be just right and sometimes cuttings have to be taken throughout winter to prevent flowering.  Remember, if a determinate tomato flowers it will not grow any more or be able to produce new leaves or new sets of flowers.

The cutting will be genetically identical to the original plant, it is essentially the same plant.  I remove any flowers, remove the lower leaf or few leaves as they do not cope under water, then put the cutting into a glass of water.  The part I cut needs to be under water, the leaves need to be above the water, very simple.  You could plant the cutting directly into soil at this point instead of using water but I like to see the roots first so I use a glass of water.

Tomato cutting, ready to plant into soil

Normally in 3 days small roots appear, it may take a lot longer in cooler weather, it may be as fast as 8 hours in the right conditions.  The roots grow fast once they have started so I try to plant it into a pot of soil quickly.  Water roots are different from soil roots, so it is best to plant it after the roots are only short rather than wait a few extra days until they are long (like the picture below).  I then put this potted cutting somewhere safe over winter.

During this time it will grow and it should flower, mostly the flowers abort as the night temperatures are too low.  I grow them outside under the verandah against the mud brick where they get sun and warmth but no frost, if you live somewhere colder you could grow them inside near a window for light.  They need sunlight or they will become sick and attacked by insects.

This is the same cutting on the left, the second cutting was put in the water when the first picture was taken

After the frost has passed I often have a strong 3 foot tall flowering tomato plant ready to be planted out in the garden (or left in the pot and moved into the sun).  Quite often seed grown plants will only be 10cm tall at this time so the overwintered plant gets a significant head start.

This process of taking cuttings to overwinter can be continued indefinitely, each time you take a cutting you are restarting the clock and the plant will not die of old age.  If you have found a good F1 hybrid that you like and can not save seed from you do not need to buy new plants each year as you can simply take a cutting and overwinter the same plant.  You no longer need to waste money on 'perennial tomato' seeds, just look for a good indeterminate variety as they are perennial.

Far too easy, you now have perennial tomato plants even if you live in a frosty climate.  I sell some heirloom tomato seeds on my for sale page.  Many of these are indeterminate and can easily be over wintered, if you are interested please have a look.

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Edit to add:
I have grown tomatoes and overwintered them too many times to remember.  I am now wondering if in cold climates in small backyards if it is worth while growing them as perennials. 

Tomatoes grow so easily from seed and the space that they need over winter may be better used by something else that can not be grown from seed.  Overwintered tomatoes do fruit about 2 months earlier than seed grown, which is great, but space is so limiting now we live in town. 

I also have a few super early determinate varieties such as 'igloo' that will grow, fruit, and die before most other varieties start to ripen.  This means I can grow all from seed, have early tomatoes from 'igloo' and late tomatoes from other varieties and not have to protect anything over winter.

Immali Corn - Coloured Sweet Corn in Australia

I started messing around with corn breeding a few years ago. Corn genetics is messy, the more I learn the more I find that I don't know.  Genetics was so much easier when we knew nothing!

Many varieties of corn suffer from varying amounts of inbreeding depression, to save seed it is best to grow at least 200 plants and save seed from the best 50 to 100.  Some varieties of landrace corn have little to no inbreeding depression, but the down side is that they can be rather variable.  Using landraces as breeding stock means that genetic bottlenecks are not as tight and small populations can be slightly more forgiving.

Corn will happily cross pollinate with other types of corn that are within a few hundred metres up to a few kilometers of each other.  This makes saving corn seed difficult unless you live on acreage and have no one growing corn near you.

As I currently live on acreage and have no one growing corn close to me I save seed from a few different types of corn.  If I get the timing right, and am vigilant with selecting seed and rogueing out off types I could probably grow half a dozen types of corn each year without too much trouble.

I grow some interesting coloured corn, most of which is popcorn or dry corn as there are very few coloured sweet corn varieties available in Australia.  I once looked online at the amazing coloured sweet corn that is available overseas and asked myself: "self, why doesn't someone in Australia breed a decent coloured sweet corn?"  I looked around for someone who was developing a decent coloured sweetcorn in Australia, I could not find them.  I did find some people who are maintaining a few coloured sweet corns and a few who are developing the most wonderful yellow or white sweet corn, but none of this is what I was after.

So I decided to try to breed one myself.

Immali Corn 2015

I have some access to different coloured field corn and some different varieties of sweet corn that the average grower would not have seen.  I researched the varieties that I have access to in order to determine the best parental stock for my new variety of corn.  I got a landrace coloured sweetcorn, which tasted ok and has a lot of genetic variation.  This was one of the parents of Immali corn.  Every generation since then has been remarkably better tasting.

Some "Immali corn" seedlings

I planted some of the coloured seeds and saved quite a lot.  The results were good, but being so early it is clearly not stable and had a way to go.  A little back crossing would help to lock in the desired colours and also maintain a high level of genetic variation.

The early cobs lacked much colour, they tasted better than store bought corn but not as great as I had hoped.  Adding colour is not all that difficult, stabilising that colour is a bit more difficult, but I can do it.

Early Immali corn (ignore the yellow) - needs more colour

Tastes great, looks ok I guess, still a way to go

The later cobs look far better and taste far better too.  It is too bad I only get one crop of corn per year so progress is painfully slow.

Look how far it has come

Some fine looking "Immali corn" cobs

Still not there but look how far it had come

They still have a way to go, it is not yet stable and I do not want to distribute this seed until it is a bit more stable.  The colour will always vary a bit, but that is kind of the point.

The taste is a bit up and down right now, some cobs taste good while others taste simply amazing, all of them taste at least as good as store bought sweet corn.  This is mainly due to timing, if picked just right they blow me away, if picked too early or late they are not as good.  I would like to work out how to fix this, the genetics behind this are a bit beyond me at the moment as I do not have access to a good corn genetics book.  By only saving seed from the best tasting plants all of the Immali Corn should taste amazing by the time the colours are locked in properly.

I worked hard to get here, we ate this cob and the colours remained unchanged through cooking

Once the strain starts to look more consistently like the cob above and is a bit more stable I hope to distribute seeds.  It may never be truly stable, it may be best if it always stays a landrace variety at least to some extent.  I hope that some dedicated seed saver somewhere will see the merits of Immali Corn and continue to grow it after I am gone.  Perhaps I should tell you what i hope to achieve in this variety.

So if I can get more of the cobs to look like the one above, and get the taste to be a bit more consistantly amazing, what else have I tried to include in this variety?

I wanted a reasonably small plant that was productive.  I figure people have less land these days so need small plants that are highly productive.  While 12 foot tall monster plants such as the Giant Inca White corn is spectacular to look at, it is not practical for Suburban Joe to grow in the corner of his yard.  The Immali Corn only grows about 5 foot tall.  It is not a dwarf plant, but it is not a giant either, I think it is a nice manageable compact size.

Immali Corn, reasonably short plants

I also wanted to create a variety that would be productive.  No point having a variety of corn that only produces 1 or 2 cobs per plant.  So far the Immali corn has produced an average of 4 cobs per plant.  I always plant corn too close and the weather is not always kind to corn, given better conditions and more space I think it could average a few more per plant.  Each stem produces 2 good sized cobs on average (some only 1, others 4), but then this variety is very prone to tillering (growing several stems).  This is probably a bad thing if you plan to harvest using a combine, but it is a great thing for home gardeners who harvest by hand.  It essentially means you get several times the corn from the same amount of space.  I am deliberately selecting for plants that produce more tillering as it is this trait that has helped raise the average number of cobs per plant.

Sideways corn picture, note the 2 cobs forming up high and 1 more lower down

 As well as a great tasting corn that is productive and takes up little space, I wanted something that was good to look at.  The cobs needed good colour, which was the primary reason behind this project.  One of the bonuses to using a coloured landrace as one of the initial stock was that the tassels sometimes are purple, it makes the plant look a bit more ornamental.

Immali Corn tassels and cobs

Immali Corn silk

Some of the cobs also display coloured silk.  I do not know if I will be able to keep this trait in this variety, but I will if I can.  It is one of the least important things I would like in the variety, but it does add something special to it.


Where can you get Immali Corn seeds?

This variety is reasonably stable now.  The last two times I have grown it I have only seen one plant that was taller than normal and the cobs all look and taste the same.  Seeds are now available through my For Sale page.

I think that you should breed some type of vegetable that you like.  Perhaps don't start with corn unless you are already experienced in breeding and saving seeds, perhaps start with a tomato or some beans or something simpler like that.  You don't need any fancy equipment, I certainly don't use anything special.  You don't need formal training in Botany or Horticulture or Genetics like I have, but you can still produce something amazing that can be treasured and passed on to others.

Skirret - a forgotten perennial vegetable

I have never met a person who dislikes Skirret (Sium sisarum) and I don't expect this to change.  Very few people in Australia grow skirret or have even heard of this remarkable vegetable, but those that have tried it all seem to like it.

Skirret seedlings still with their juvenile leaves

What is skirret

Skirret is primarily an ancient root vegetable, but the leaves, stems and seeds are also edible and tasty enough in their own way.  This perennial root crop was grown and eaten across most of Europe for centuries prior to the Spanish conquest of South America.  After this time potatoes largely replaced skirret for a number of reasons.

Skirret is a perennial vegetable which, unlike many other perennial vegetables, also freely sets viable seed each year.  Most people who grow skirret reproduce it by breaking the plant into many smaller plants after harvest and replanting them.  Similar to yacon, the part you eat of skirret is different to the part you plant so you can increase the number of plants each year easily while still being able to enjoy the full harvest.

Seed grown skirret displays a lot of genetic diversity, I assume this is because no real breeding work has ever been done on it and it is mostly propagated by division rather than seeds.  Serious breeding of vegetables often results in highly inbred strains which contain all the desired traits but have little to no genetic diversity.  Sometimes this deliberate selection goes a little too far and the plants become highly susceptible to inbreeding depression (such as has happened to carrots and corn), other times it does not appear to bother the plants too much (such as tomatoes or beans).

The same skirret seedlings getting larger

What does skirret taste like

I am bad at trying to describe what things taste like and it has been a while since I last ate skirret but I will give it a go.  Raw skirret tastes kind of like carrot or parsnip or when cooked a little like sweet potato or potato, but skirret is sweeter than any of them.  That is probably not a great description as carrot and potato taste nothing alike.  Many people use skirret in the same dishes that potato, sweet potato, parsnip or carrot would be used.  Skirret is by far the most delicious roast vegetable I have ever eaten.

Skirret also used to be used for deserts and the like, but I am not exactly sure how/what they do with it in these meals.  As mentioned earlier, most of Europe grew and ate skirret until the potato came along so it has a long history behind it as a food plant.

Skirret contains reasonably high levels of sugars and tastes rather sweet.  When the Germans were searching for alternative plants to sugar cane they reported that skirret ranked below the white 'sugar beet' but above red beetroot.  Some of the common names for skirret translate into things like sweet root, water parsnip and sweet water root.  From these names you get the impression that skirret is sweet and likes to grow near water.

At this point I perhaps should have re-potted the plants separately

You can see the plant in the middle is already starting to divide

Problems with skirret and how to overcome them

Skirret can have thin roots, these can be a pain to prepare for a meal.  The roots are always long and there are always copious amounts of them, but if they are too fiddly to prepare no one will bother to grow or eat this remarkable plant.

Skirret can have woody cores to the roots.  Some people do not mind this, they cook the skirret and strip the roots with their teeth and discard the core.  I can't be bothered doing this and wont eat a vegetable which requires this kind of treatment.  First year plants grown from seed tend to have the woody core, as they age the core gets smaller or apparently even disappears in improved strains.  Lots of water seems to help prevent any woodyness at all.  Considering that this plant grows in marshes in the wild it makes sense that soil moisture would be beneficial.

Skirret loves cooler weather, I don't think it matters how cold it gets the skirret is never bothered.  It goes dormant over winter and is dug/harvested/divided during that time.  It does not love the heat.  As I currently live in an arid climate, lots of heat and very little water, growing skirret takes a bit of work.  Growing in part shade, or in a styrofoam box to help insulate the soil can help this plant to grow in less than ideal climates.  I have it growing in a pot which I can submerge in water on hot windy days.

Skirret is a plant that would benefit from some serious breeding work.  Pretty much every problem it has should be simple enough to overcome if someone puts the time and resources into breeding improved skirret varieties.  I honestly think if someone was serious about breeding skirret that it would only take 3 or 4 years to turn skirret from its current form into something truly remarkable.  If you ever do this breeding and grow improved varieties of skirret let me know as I would love to buy your plants or seeds.

Strong and healthy skirret

Everything looks good

Breeding potential of skirret

One of the great things about skirret is how happily it sets seed each year and it produces many seeds even if only one plant is growing.  Being in the Apiaceae family they produce copious amounts of seed if allowed, similar to a carrot, but in skirret the seed seems to display a lot of genetic diversity even if obtained from a single plant.

Most people who grow skirret do not grow from seed, instead they find a plant and do not let it flower so that all the energy is put into root development.  I think this is a mistake as it is not difficult to find a nice skirret plant, divide it and let one of the divisions go to seed so that you can continuously improve your stock.  Leaving a single plant in your patch to flower is not that great an imposition.  While letting several plants flower would be best, a single plant flowering and setting seed would still give a crop of diverse seedlings from which to cull and only keep the best ones.  The flowers attract a lot of beneficial insects so leaving a single plant in the back corner to flower is of benefit to the rest of your vegetables.

Skirret grows many edible roots which are nice and long, so there are no issues with root length or number, the problem comes from them being too thin and often having a woody core.  It should be possible to breed for superior varieties with fatter and less woody roots.  First year plants are more likely to have woody cores and plants that do not get enough moisture will also have a woody core so selecting for lack of fiber can be a bit tricky.  That being said, many people who have selected for improved plants overseas only do so for about 2 generations and then have plants that they are happy with.

I do wonder if skirret was grown using aquaponics or wicking bed if the woody core issue would be completely resolved due to constant access to water.  If this were to be the case then skirret breeding could focus on fatter roots, having one single focus should mean that improvements are made a lot faster as culling can be more harsh.

One of the issues we have in Australia is that so few people grow skirret that we probably have a bit of a genetic bottleneck.  Hopefully the natural genetic diversity on this plant will ensure that we can still select for improved varieties and make ground reasonably fast.  I would love someone to take on skirret and breed some improved varieties, if the woody core could be bred out of skirret there is no reason that people would not grow it in backyards or even for market gardens.  As mentioned earlier I have never heard of anyone who dislikes skirret, improved varieties could make this crop more common once again.  Skirret does not always cope with summer in my climate so does not always flower (or necessarily even survive) so I probably wont do a lot of serious breeding with it.  That being said each year my skirret does flower I will save and plant seed from the best plants and cull the weaker plants.

Skirret plants with adult leaves

Where to get skirret in Australia

People who know a lot about rare vegetables often tell me that skirret is not in Australia, and due to problems importing the seed that we will never be able to grow skirret.  I don't know how to respond to them as I have grown skirret before and I am also currently growing skirret.

Skirret plants in a small pot

I sell skirret plants over winter on my for sale page.  It is difficult to find skirret plants for sale in Austraia.  I also save seed from my best skirret plants each year to sell on my for sale page.  Each year my plants are getting better as I cull any under performers and only breed from the best.

At some stage I will include some growing notes on skirret.  If you have never tried skirret I think you should get some and grow it. 

How to grow Babington's Leek

Babington's Leeks (Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii) are amazing little plants, I wrote another post on them and thought I should describe how to grow them.  They are edible and perennial and a bit more interesting than a regular leek.  Unfortunately they are on the brink of extinction in Australia and many other parts of the world.  I am selling small bulbils of Babington's leeks in the hope that other people will grow and enjoy them and help them to become less rare.

Here are some notes on how to grow them, please note that I am no expert on Babington's leeks, if something I say does not work feel free to try something else.  If you find some other way to grow them that works better please let me know and I will gladly pass this information on to anyone who wishes to grow them.

This is only a brief description of how to grow Babington's leeks that has worked for me.  For information on how to grow any other perennial vegetables please go to my growing notes page.  To buy Babington's leeks or other perennial vegetables, herbs, heirloom vegetable seeds, water kefir grains or milk kefir grains etc please go to my for sale page.

Babington's Leek bulbs - should flower next year

Growing Babington's Leek from from Bulbs
At this stage I do not have enough plants to sell mature bulbs but figured I would mention it for when your plants are larger or if I ever have enough to sell them too.  This is simple, plant the bulb a few cm deep and give it 15cm to 20cm or so from its nearest neighbour.  Plant it about the depth of the bulb's width, if it is too shallow it will drag itself deeper with the use of contractile roots.  Give it plenty of water, sunlight and mulch.  You should be able to harvest the leek by cutting it near the soil and have it re-sprout, if you get the timing right and the bulb was large enough it should still send up a flower stalk.  Each year if all goes well the underground bulb should divide into 2 or 3 mature bulbs for you and they may grow a few other smaller bulbs too

Babington's Leek will die down to a bulb in summer, it may be possible to convince them to grow through but I have not tried that yet so can not comment.  If storing the bulbs be careful not to leave the bulbs out somewhere to dry out too much, also be careful not to leave them in soil that is too wet as they may rot.

Babington's Leek plant almost ready to flower

 

Growing Babington's Leek from Plants
If I have too many bulbils left over that sprout I plan to sell them as small plants.  Much like any other variety of leek, plant it reasonably deep to encourage a long white shank.  As above, plant 15cm to 20cm from its nearest neighbour, any closer than this will stunt the plant a little.  Plenty of sun, water and mulch will ensure the fastest growth rate.  During the first year they will be small and may not put on much growth above ground, this is normal.  They will mostly take 2 or 3 years until mature enough to flower.

Babington's leek bulbils - note the small size

Growing Babington's Leek from Bulbils
I mostly sell bulbils of the Babington's leek, these are tiny leek bulbs that have formed on top of the flower stalk.  For this reason I will go into a little more detail in this section.

Each bulbil will most likely be genetically identical to the parent (although slight mutations may occur from time to time).  The bulbils are tiny, probably around the size of a pea but sometimes even smaller.  Bulbils are produced in early Summer but will not grow or do anything until Autumn or Winter.  They are ready when they fall from the flower stalk, I sell them when they are ready and will store and grow anything that is not sold.  If you buy bulbils as soon as they are ready you have two options: you can plant straight away or you can store them for later.  Each method has its merits and dangers, I will try to do a little of each to work out what is best.

Babington's leek bulbils

Storing the bulbils gives you the peace of mind that they will not be eaten by anything or rot in the soil but runs the risk that they will dry out and die.  You also run the risk that they will not be in the soil when they are ready to grow or that they may not receive whatever signal they need in order to resume growth.  Some bulbils will look green, others will develop a brown outer skin.  I assume that the green ones will not cope with storage as well as the brown ones.  I also assume that the brown ones will be less likely to wake up when it is time to grow.

Planting the bulbils immediately runs the risk of rotting or being eaten by earwigs or whatever but also ensures that they will not dry too much and they are ready to grow when they need to grow.  I plant the bulbils a little under the soil surface or sometimes directly on top of the soil in the light.  I have heard that a grower overseas normally plants them 2 inches deep.  I urr on the side of caution, if they are not deep enough they will work it out or I could dig them and replant them when they are larger, if they are too deep they may not have enough energy to reach the sunlight.  It is best to plant them with the growing tip pointing up, quite often it is difficult to tell which way is up and in these instances it is best to plant them on their side.  Planted on their side they will work it out, planted upside down they may die.

No matter what you chose to do the bulbils will not do a great deal of anything until Autumn or even Winter/Spring.  Occasionally they may begin to grow in late Summer but only if the weather is cool.   Babington's leeks are often rather small looking plants in their first year and the next season are far larger.  The bulbils will often take 2 to 3 years to be mature enough to flower, that being said if they are very happy they can flower in their first year.

Babbington's leek, bulbils developing on the flower head

Growing Babington's leeks is simple
While it sounds like a lot of work it isn't, most people who grow Babington's leeks have a patch of them and pretty much ignore them other than to harvest them and to marvel at their amazing flower head.  Often overseas growers (I do not know any other Australian growers) tell me that Babington's leeks thrive on neglect.  I figured I would go into a bit of detail so that you have the best chances of harvesting leeks as soon as possible.  I also want to make sure that if someone buys Babington's leeks from me that they know what to expect and do not rip the plants out when they have not flowered in the first year from bulbils.  The pictures of the bulbils next to the measuring tape will help to ensure that if anyone buys bulbils from me that they know exactly what they are buying.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask, while I may not know the answer I will do my best to tell you what works and does not work for me.

Crimson Flowered Broad Beans

I wrote a post on Broad Beans (Vicia faba) last year.  This year I grew a different variety of broad bean which I have wanted to grow for some time.  At first things seemed promising, they grew well, produced heaps of flowers and started to form many pods.

Then the ducks flew over the fence and ate most of the pods, broke most of the plants, ate most of the leaves, trampled everything that their little ducky feet could trample and generally destroyed things.  I was not overly impressed but some of the damaged plants went on to produce a small number of pods and seeds.  I still ended up with a lot more seeds than I planted so I count that as a win.

Crimson flowered broadbean starting to flower

I grew this particular type because someone sent me some seeds of a broad bean called 'crimson flowered' broadbean.  I had wanted to grow this type of broadbean for a while and was trying to decide between growing it and another one so it worked out well.  They did not send many seeds and I was not sure if we would move before the seeds were ripe so I only planted three.  These three seeds germinated and the plants grew strong.


History of Crimson Flowered Broadbeans

Crimson flowered broad beans are a very old variety of broadbean.  They were widely grown in the 1700s (it is mentioned in books from 1778 but probably grown prior that that) then almost went extinct as some of the newer varieties with longer pods became available.  Apparently they were thought to be extinct until 1978 when a lady called Rhoda Cutbush donated three or four of her precious seeds to the Heritage Seed Library.

Apparently Rhoda's father had received the original heirloom seeds from a cottage garden in 1912.  Rhoda grew up growing and eating these broadbeans, probably not realising that she was one of the last people to grow them.  Then in 1978 a crop failure wiped out all of Rhoda's plants.  She could not find anywhere to get new seeds from so she searched through her shed until she found an old tin which contained 3 or 4 seeds (there are discrepancies over the number).  Instead of planting the seeds Rhoda realised how important they were and decided to donate them.

What an amazing story of survival!  From there this crimson flowered broad bean has been saved from extinction and has been sent to seed savers and breeders across the world.

Crimson Flowered Broad Beans

What are crimson flowered broad beans like

They are a short and compact plant which rarely reaches over a meter tall, as they age they send up multiple stalks all with many flowers.  They grow and look much like any other broad bead plant, until the flowers begin to open.  The flowers are what sets this variety apart from many others.  They range from deep red to red/purple and look great, but it is their scent that is amazing.  I don't know if their flowers have a stronger scent than regular broad beans or if it is because they grow so many flowers, but I could smell them from outside the vegetable garden.  Considering that I only had three plants that is pretty impressive.

The pods, of which I did not get many as the ducks sabotaged them, were slightly smaller than the Aquadulce ones we grow.  I assume had the plants been allowed to produce a crop unharmed would have produced many small pods.  The pods have less seeds in them than the Aquadulce variety, only about 3 seeds per pod.  The seeds are slightly smaller and more green than Aquadulce.

I am told that they taste better than regular broad beans but certainly didn't get a chance to try these, as I don't really eat broadbeans this is purely academic and I have to use other people's advice.  People who grow them as a food crop tell me that their taste and productivity more than makes up for the smaller size of the pods.

As a green manure all broad beans are great, these are no exception.  Even though they do not grow too large they do sequester nitrogen from the atmosphere and make it available in the soil.  As they get older they grow more stems and become bushier, this ads to their use as green manure, compost activator or mulch.

Due to the flowers on this plant they can fit into an ornamental garden rather well.  The flowers not only look great and smell amazing but they are flowering intensely at a time when little else is colourful in the garden.  The flowers attract bees and feed them when little else is flowering.  I consider broad beans to be a great all round permaculture crop because they have so many uses.  Even though we don't eat them I grow them for their other uses.

Young Broad Bean starting to flower

Saving Seeds

If you plan to grow this type of broadbean please keep in mind that broad beans readily cross pollinate with other varieties of broad bean.  Clearly they will not cross pollinate with any other variety of bean, pea or anything else.  If you plan to grow and preserve this variety care must be taken to prevent crossing as they can and will cross at a large distance.  If your neighbour or even someone in the next block grows broad beans then it may well cross pollinate your plants so bagging or caging plants is the only real way to keep seed pure.  You must save a few more more pods from this plant as they produce so few seeds, this is simple enough to do.  I plan to do a larger growout next year and only save seeds from the largest pods to try and select for more seeds per pod.

If you plan to create your own new variety of broadbean this plant carries a few genes which no other varieties carry.  If I liked broad beans more and had time/space I would cross them with a long pod broad bean  and/or a purple seeded type and create a longer podded red flowered purple seeded broadbean.

A few places in Australia sell crimson flowered broad bean seed.  When I have enough seeds they are offered on my for sale page with a few other heirloom vegetable seeds or perennial vegetables.