Mulberry tree fruiting in Autumn

I grew a white mulberry from a tiny cutting a while ago.  It has grown into a lovely little tree that I am rather fond of.

Most mulberries in Australia are white mulberries (Morus alba), and the vast majority of these are NOT white fruited.  They produce delicious fruit that is dark and stains everything.  While many people claim to grow black mulberries, I am yet to see or hear of a black mulberry (Morus nigra) anywhere in Australia.

I like mulberries in general and I rather like this tree.  I live in town so can only grow a mulberry if it is not going to stain things.  This winter when my tree was dormant I planted it outside my fence.  This is risky as we don't mow there so it could get slashed by council, or people could steal it.  But it is a great spot for a mulberry tree so I am risking it and hoping for the best.

This past summer we had weeks of intense thick smoke, and heat, and it was incredibly dry, but my water tank was low so I had very little water to spare for my mulberry tree.  I felt bad that my tree was outside the fence in the blasting sun with no water to get established, but it is a survivor and kept growing.  The mulberry tree produced a huge amount of fruit, but it all aborted as it was too dry this year. 

Normally mulberries ripen in December and early January here.  Once the smoke cleared it was still very dry, when the rains eventually came my little tree put on a lot of growth.  Then it started to produce fruit, in April! 

My mulberries are ripening in April

I have never seen a mulberry fruit this late in Autumn, the frosts could be here any day.  But this tree was determined to produce a crop this year no matter how difficult the situation.

Most of the fruit was stolen by birds and other animals.  Then a few started to ripen.  They weren't exactly white, but they were sweet and delicious and non-staining.

I kind of forgot to take pictures of the mulberries until we had eaten most of them.  Some were more white than this, others were slightly more of an even lavender colour.  None of them were dark.

Most got more lavender coloured than this when fully ripe

White mulberries are a great tree: they are low maintenance, they are very hardy, they are productive, the leaves can be used as silkworm food or high protein stock feed, the leaves can be used as a vegetable or a herbal tea.  Mulberries like this one that won't stain the footpath, or the washing, or the kid's faces, are excellent.

If my little tree makes it through winter without being run over by a slasher or stolen or something horrible like that I should try to take a few cuttings in spring.  I will eventually try to offer some for sale through my for sale page over winter when they are dormant.

Japanese Black Trifele Tomato Australia

I have a few dozen varieties of tomatoes (as well as some I am breeding) that I grow and save seed from. I don’t have enough space/water/time to grow all of them every year, so each year I grow some tomato varieties to eat and save seed and the following year I grow different varieties.

It is a bit of a rotation, everything gets grown every few years so I can save fresh seed and not lose that variety. I never buy tomato seedlings as it is difficult to find decent varieties, and I certainly wouldn’t waste my time growing bland varieties such as 'Roma' or 'Black Russian' when there are so many better varieties that I could grow instead.

Currently, out of the dozens of varieties I have, there are only three tomato varieties that I grow every year. "Japanese Black Trifele", "Verde Claro", and "Micro Tom". I grow the first two as they taste utterly amazing but very different from one another, and I grow micro tom because it is tiny and fun and I am always trying to increase its seeds.

All the other tomato varieties I grow are great, I don’t save their seed if they are not impressive, but none of the others are good enough to secure a space in my garden every year.

Japanese Black Trifele tomatoes are not uniform in size or shape

Japanese Black Trifele (spelled a few different ways), known in Russian as Yaponskiy Trufel Chernyyi Японский трюфель is probably my all-time favourite tasting tomato. Despite its name this variety is an Old Russian heirloom variety. I am told that in Russia it is still grown by many home gardeners as well as being grown commercially where it is often canned.

I am also told that ‘Japanese’ was most likely added to its name to make it sound more exotic and exclusive. This is an old heirloom Russian variety, and like many of the older Russian tomato varieties this is easy to grow and has a rich tomato taste.

Japanese black trifele has potato leaf foliage, meaning that the leaves are less serrated and look similar to leaves of a potato plant. There is a lot of debate about if this is a good or a bad trait, I personally don’t think it makes much difference in my climate other than looking nice. It may be an issue in humid climates where increasing ventilation is critical.

Potato leaf is a recessive trait so can be useful in breeding or seed saving by knowing early if seedlings have crossed.

Japanese Black Trifele has potato leaf foliage

The fruit are not uniform in size or shape, they vary a bit even on the same truss. They are mostly pear shaped with some that are rounder than others. This variety is a great producer for me. While I have never weighed all the fruit produced from one plant it is a reliable producer for me even in bad years. Quite often they are one of the first to ripen in my garden, and they keep producing more delicious tomatoes for me until the frosts come.

Japanese black trifele is an indeterminate variety that ripens early in the season for me and continues producing fruit until killed by frosts. Like any other indeterminate tomato variety you can over winter them if protected from frosts and grow them as a perennial. I usually grow them from seed each year rather than overwintering even though they produce fruit around two months earlier when overwintered.

While Japanese Black Trifele is called a 'black' tomato, it is an old variety and not one of the newer high anthocyanin varieties, so it is never truly black. The fruit would probably better be described as mahogany brown rather than black. The fruit is a nice rich brown inside and out, and they often have green shoulders.

"OSU Blue" tomato really is black, unlike Japanese Black Trifele which is brown

You may wonder why people care if tomatoes have green shoulders, it is all to do with taste!

Green shoulders in a tomato means that it is lacking the uniform ripening gene mutation (u). This gene mutation is carried by practically all supermarket tomatoes, and it is associated with bland taste. The presence of this mutation is one of the reasons why many modern tomatoes look nice but are so bland. There are not many good tomatoes that carry this u mutation.

The uniform ripening gene is great for harvesting at the breaker stage, cold storage, long distance transport, ethylene ripening, resulting in pretty looking fruits that you would never guess had been harvested several months ago. The uniform ripening gene is not desirable for home growers who want better tasting tomatoes that they can pick when perfectly ripe and eat when fresh. Tomatoes that lack the uniform ripening mutation, such as most heirloom tomatoes including Japanese Black Trifele, quite often taste much nicer.

As well as tasting amazing fresh in salads or on sandwiches, Japanese black trifele is suitable for cooking or drying. We tend to eat them raw, but have frozen some to use in cooking where they performed well. They are really quite versatile, but tomato season only comes around once a year so I enjoy them fresh when they are a seasonal delicacy.

Japanese Black Trifele in the middle, Woolly Kate on the right, Mint Julep above, unnamed on the left

Japanese black trifele tomatoes are not perfect and they do have some issues. The plants can grow reasonably large, in the modern world of patio gardens and postage stamp sized backyards they would probably be better if they were a dwarf plant. The plant grows large and the fruit is too small for my liking, I would prefer the fruit to be a bit larger. This isn’t much of an issue, it just means I might use 2 or 3 for my tomato sandwiches instead of just 1. The rich and complex tomato taste of Japanese Black Trifele more than makes up for these shortcomings.

Japanese black trifele tomatoes have interesting looking potato leaf foliage, I think the mahogany coloured pear shaped fruit looks good, they have large and reliable yields spread over a long season, and most importantly they have a rich tomato taste. You can see why it is one of the few varieties that I grow every year rather than on rotation with all the other varieties I like to grow.

It used to be impossible to find Japanese Black Trifele tomato seeds for sale in Australia, I am happy to say that is no longer the case! Several places now sell seed which is a great thing. I sometimes sell seed from organically grown Japanese black trifele tomatoes or seed of some of the other heirloom tomatoes I grow through my for sale page.

What Does Parsley Root Taste Like

A while ago I was removing some self-seeded parsley from my vegetable garden to make space to plant other things, and I noticed how long parsley's root is. This is large enough that it could be eaten as a root vegetable.

They varied considerably, the largest were about a foot long, and 2 or so inches wide, smaller ones were pencil thin and not very long. Most plants had a single tap root like a white skinny carrot, while a few plants had roots that were a little forked.

To be clear, I am not talking about the plant bred for root production known as ‘Hamburg parsley’, or ‘Dutch parsley’, or ‘turnip-rooted parsley’. I am talking about the roots of regular parsley whose leaves I use as a herb (I know in some countries it is acceptable to say “an herb” but I just can’t bring myself to do that as it sounds so absurd unless you mispronounce the word herb. I have also been told that it is correct to use the term “a herb” here in Australia).

Parsley roots

I tried to grow Hamburg root parsley once in the past, but the seeds I bought were too old to germinate by the time they arrived in the mail. I complained to Diggers that when they posted them to me the seeds were already a year past their expiry date. I was initially given excuses, when I pushed my point they begrudgingly sent replacement seeds.

These replacement seeds that Diggers sent me only had 1 month until the expiry date that was printed on the packet. Needless to say none of those seeds germinated either, and my distrust of Diggers club and their dodgy shameful practices started to grow...

Parsley leaf

Another parsley leaf - my plants grow large

As I had some parsley plants that I had already dug up I decided to eat their roots, but I wanted to know what they tasted like. I looked on the internet to know what to expect the parsley root to taste like.

I read that the odour is warm-woody, spicy, somewhat sweet herbaceous. Or they taste sweet, earthy and herbaceous. I have also seen it described as a taste between celery and carrots with a little parsley leaf and turnip. I found mention that parsley root has a more delicate, sweeter and more herbal taste than a parsnip. Confusingly I have read that “parsnip is sweet; parsley root is not”.

None of these descriptions were overly useful, some were contradictory, so I decided to taste some parsley root raw as well as roasted.

Parsley leaves: flat parsley at the top, my improved parsley underneath

I am really bad at describing taste. To me the raw parsley root was herbaceous, earthy, and spicy. It was kind of carroty, certainly not without its charm but not the greatest. I don’t think I would be able to eat very much raw before it would overpower me. That being said, once I ate some I wanted more not long afterwards. Just thinking about the taste of raw parsley root makes me want to eat more right now, which is odd because it wasn't all that remarkable when raw.

While raw parsley root tasted ok, roasted it was a completely different story!

I don’t really enjoy raw carrot, but I love roasted carrot. I kind of like raw skirret, but I adore roast skirret. In the same light, raw parsley root was ok, roasted parsley root was far superior.

Roasted parsley root tasted similar to roast carrot, or roast parsnip, but better, and herby. Parsley root kind of tasted similar to skirret, but not quite as good. If you have ever eaten skirret you will understand that this is extremely high praise!

The parsley roots I ate were all rather long, and fat enough, but they all had an inedible woody core that was even difficult to cut with a knife. I used my teeth to scrape off the soft flesh and I discarded the core. The roots I ate were all from volunteer plants that had self-seeded, so they had been through times of no water and other times where I harvested their leaves. Some were flowering while others were one year old plants. Most had a lot of competition and were crowded by nearby plants.

I don’t know if the woody core was caused by neglect or if they always have the woody core. I also don’t know how they compare to the varieties bred for root production such as Hamburg rooted parsley as I have never eaten one.

Parsley plants with long tap root

Earlier I grew a remarkable plant that may have been a parsley x skirret hybrid, or it may have been a massive leaf parsley. I don’t actually know yet but I suspect it is just a really impressive parsley. If it was just a massive leaf parsley, then its seedlings should also grow tremendously long and fat roots. I am growing out some of its seedlings, and I have let seed fall for its seedlings to volunteer, so we will see what happens.

So there you have it, to me raw parsley root tastes ok, and roasted parsley root tastes great.  I have been sent some seeds of a variety of root parsley, I plan to grow them out and see what they are like.  If all goes well I will have another great tasting vegetable that I can't buy at the markets, and self seeds readily in my garden.

Woolly leaf black tomatoes in Australia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Woolly Kate - you can see where this one was shaded

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

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

Woolly tomato leaves look incredible

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

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

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

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

The stems and leaves are quite fuzzy

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

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

The fruit is black or blue where the sun hits them

Woolly Kate unripe fruits getting dark in the sun

The leaves are very fluffy

They turn black where sunlight hits them

Unripe fruit

The leaves are very fluffy

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

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

The fruit is covered in soft peach like fuzz

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

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

Mongolian Blue Chives - Allium nutans

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

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

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

Mongolian Blue Chives

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

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

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

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

Blue chives

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

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

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

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

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

Growing asparagus from seed - days to maturity

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

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

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

Asparagus seedling germinating

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wally Venus flytrap growth rate over a year

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

To me Wally sounds like the perfect Venus flytrap!

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

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

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

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

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

Wally Venus Flytrap - the day I planted them

11/02/2020 ten days after being planted

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

Wally Venus Flytraps - two weeks of growth

22/02/2020 three weeks

Wally Venus Flytraps - three weeks after planting

29/02/2020 four weeks

Wally Venus Flytraps - four weeks after planting

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

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

28/03/2020 two months

Wally venus flytrap - more colourful and slightly larger

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

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

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

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

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

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

02/05/2020 - getting ready for dormancy

01/06/2020 - Wally venus flytrap going dormant

 

Wally venus flytrap going dormant

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

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

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

Breaking dormancy

Wally vft clumping

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

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

The small plant removed from the pot above

Wally Venus Flytrap Clumping - I may divide them soon

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

Wally out of dormancy and growing strong

Wally vft growing well and colouring up nicely

Wally VFT divided and clumping

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

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

Large colourful traps, vigorous growth, Wally vft looking good

Wally VFT grow pretty fast

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

31/01/2021 one year of growth!

Venus Flytrap Wally

 

All divisions are growing, none had died