We planted some 'Chioggia' beetroot seeds, the
following were the days to maturity for these beetroot. Being in
Australia, all dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.
Seed Planted 16/10/2016 Day 0
Seed germinated 24/10/2016 Day 8
First harvest 02/01/2017 Day 78
These dates are when we harvested the roots, I normally would have started harvesting the leaves long before this but didn't record these dates this year.
I could have harvested smaller beets earlier, or larger beets later, and these dates could change significantly if grown under different conditions. They were
simply what happened in my garden this year. It gives a
reasonable baseline for comparison against other plants grown in my
garden this year.
For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.
Tuesday 17 January 2017
Sunday 15 January 2017
Parthenocarpic zucchini days to maturity
I am growing an heirloom Nordic variety of zucchini (Cucurbita pepo) which I know very little about. Unfortunately the information I was given was written in Swedish or something and I was unable to translate it, based on its binomial name I guessed it was a zucchini, I knew its name, but that was about all. Considering that spaghetti squash is also C pepo, as are several patty pan squash, and several other types of squash, I was far from certain that it was even a type of zucchini. It made it kind of fun to grow, not really knowing what to expect.
Zucchini: Gron Busk 'Veribo'
I am growing this heirloom Nordic zucchini. I assume that "Gron Busk" means zucchini or summer squash or something along those lines and the variety name is "Veribo", but I really don't know.
It grows pretty fast, much like any other heirloom zucchini. It grows green fruit which look similar to many other common varieties of zucchini. It lacks any real taste and cooks well, much like any other zucchini. It is highly productive (being an heirloom probably yields slightly less than most hybrid varieties but one plant still yields plenty of fruit over the season), which is much like any heirloom zucchini. So far in my garden it is yet to experience any disease or pest other than Rutherglen bugs (Nysius vinitor), so I am not sure if it is resistant to anything.
One thing I love about this variety is that it produced female flowers first. All of my Gron Busk 'Veribo' plants produced female flowers first this year. This is very rare, normally zucchini produce male flowers for a while, and then eventually get around to producing female flowers, which means that it often takes longer to produce a crop.
Producing female flowers where there are no male flowers often means that the fruit will not grow and the flower will simply abort. Yes, you can the eat zucchini flowers, but I don't want to, I want larger fruit.
Parthenocarpic zucchini
This variety appears to have another trait which I love, it is parthenocarpic! That means it will flower and if the female flower is not pollinated it does not abort and drop. Instead it will naturally grow into a seedless fruit. This increases the yield and makes the first crop much faster. It also means that if you only grow one plant and it happens not to have male and female flowers at the same time then you will still get a crop. This is very handy for home growers with limited space, this trait should not be as rare as it is. Someone should breed this trait into more varieties of squash.
I am not completely certain that this variety is entirely parthenocarpic, or if it only displays this under certain conditions. Some plants are only parthenocarpic under certain conditions, I grow some tomatoes that are only parthenocarpic when stressed, and if not stressed still require pollination to form fruit. I have bagged a few female zucchini flowers before they opened, and each of them grew into a large zucchini, so I am assuming that it is pretty happy to grow parthenocarpic fruit.
Being an heirloom Nordic variety means it has likely been grown by families under harsh conditions and short seasons for generations. Perhaps it copes with the cold better, perhaps it crops faster, I don't know, but I have recorded my results below.
Zucchini (Cucurbita pepo) Gron Busk 'Veribo' Days to Maturity
Planted 16/10/2016 day 0
Germinated 25/10/2016 day 9
Flowering 29/11/2016 day 43
First small fruit 03/12/2016 day 47
Large fruit ready 07/12/2016 day 51
What do Days to Maturity mean
Quite often I see seeds sold with 'days to maturity' or something similar on the packet. Unfortunately that means absolutely nothing. Depending on the company it may mean how many days from transplant until the first flower opens (male or female). Others use days from transplant until the first flower bud is seen on the plant several weeks prior to it opening. Others use days from transplant until the first harvest. Others use days from transplant until the fruit is mature (we eat immature fruit from zucchini). As you can see, days to maturity is poorly defined and rarely are you told what definition they are using, so it is meaningless. Cucurbits tend to perform better if not transplanted, so days to maturity which is based on transplant date is all the more meaningless for home growers.
I planted the seeds directly in the garden and counted from there with the planting day being day zero. In different climates or under different growing conditions this will vary, but it is the results of several plants in my garden this year. Even so, 51 days from planting the seed until eating a large zucchini is pretty good.
For a full list of vegetable days to harvest please click here.
Where to buy parthenocarpic zucchini seeds in Australia
I have bagged a few zucchini flowers and hand pollinated to obtain pure seed of this variety. If I have enough I plan to sell them through my for sale page. Any number of things could go wrong before the seeds are ready, including the flower not being pollinating so the fruit is seedless, so I can not take orders before the seed is ready, but I should have them for sale sooner or later.
 |
| Gron Busk 'Veribo' |
I am growing this heirloom Nordic zucchini. I assume that "Gron Busk" means zucchini or summer squash or something along those lines and the variety name is "Veribo", but I really don't know.
It grows pretty fast, much like any other heirloom zucchini. It grows green fruit which look similar to many other common varieties of zucchini. It lacks any real taste and cooks well, much like any other zucchini. It is highly productive (being an heirloom probably yields slightly less than most hybrid varieties but one plant still yields plenty of fruit over the season), which is much like any heirloom zucchini. So far in my garden it is yet to experience any disease or pest other than Rutherglen bugs (Nysius vinitor), so I am not sure if it is resistant to anything.
One thing I love about this variety is that it produced female flowers first. All of my Gron Busk 'Veribo' plants produced female flowers first this year. This is very rare, normally zucchini produce male flowers for a while, and then eventually get around to producing female flowers, which means that it often takes longer to produce a crop.
Producing female flowers where there are no male flowers often means that the fruit will not grow and the flower will simply abort. Yes, you can the eat zucchini flowers, but I don't want to, I want larger fruit.
 |
| Zucchini days to maturity |
This variety appears to have another trait which I love, it is parthenocarpic! That means it will flower and if the female flower is not pollinated it does not abort and drop. Instead it will naturally grow into a seedless fruit. This increases the yield and makes the first crop much faster. It also means that if you only grow one plant and it happens not to have male and female flowers at the same time then you will still get a crop. This is very handy for home growers with limited space, this trait should not be as rare as it is. Someone should breed this trait into more varieties of squash.
I am not completely certain that this variety is entirely parthenocarpic, or if it only displays this under certain conditions. Some plants are only parthenocarpic under certain conditions, I grow some tomatoes that are only parthenocarpic when stressed, and if not stressed still require pollination to form fruit. I have bagged a few female zucchini flowers before they opened, and each of them grew into a large zucchini, so I am assuming that it is pretty happy to grow parthenocarpic fruit.
Being an heirloom Nordic variety means it has likely been grown by families under harsh conditions and short seasons for generations. Perhaps it copes with the cold better, perhaps it crops faster, I don't know, but I have recorded my results below.
Zucchini (Cucurbita pepo) Gron Busk 'Veribo' Days to Maturity
Planted 16/10/2016 day 0
Germinated 25/10/2016 day 9
Flowering 29/11/2016 day 43
First small fruit 03/12/2016 day 47
Large fruit ready 07/12/2016 day 51
What do Days to Maturity mean
Quite often I see seeds sold with 'days to maturity' or something similar on the packet. Unfortunately that means absolutely nothing. Depending on the company it may mean how many days from transplant until the first flower opens (male or female). Others use days from transplant until the first flower bud is seen on the plant several weeks prior to it opening. Others use days from transplant until the first harvest. Others use days from transplant until the fruit is mature (we eat immature fruit from zucchini). As you can see, days to maturity is poorly defined and rarely are you told what definition they are using, so it is meaningless. Cucurbits tend to perform better if not transplanted, so days to maturity which is based on transplant date is all the more meaningless for home growers.
I planted the seeds directly in the garden and counted from there with the planting day being day zero. In different climates or under different growing conditions this will vary, but it is the results of several plants in my garden this year. Even so, 51 days from planting the seed until eating a large zucchini is pretty good.
For a full list of vegetable days to harvest please click here.
Where to buy parthenocarpic zucchini seeds in Australia
I have bagged a few zucchini flowers and hand pollinated to obtain pure seed of this variety. If I have enough I plan to sell them through my for sale page. Any number of things could go wrong before the seeds are ready, including the flower not being pollinating so the fruit is seedless, so I can not take orders before the seed is ready, but I should have them for sale sooner or later.
Saturday 14 January 2017
Snow Pea Days to maturity
My kids planted some "Oregon Dwarf" green podded snow peas this year. The packet claimed that they would be ready to harvest in 14 weeks, my experience was not even close to this time frame.
Each of my children has their own little vegetable garden in which they can plant anything they want within reason. They each chose a few vegetables to plant and were also allowed to grow a few flowers if they wished. We grow everything from seeds, I don't see the point of buying seedlings.
My kids all love snow peas, so this year I bought a packet of 'Oregon dwarf' snow peas and my kids planted some each. Normally we would have planted seeds that I have saved but this year after moving the seeds were still packed in a box somewhere so we bought some seeds.
These snow peas were green podded, white flowered, and reasonably productive over a short period. They possibly could have been more productive over a longer period but were probably planted a bit late, but we could not plant them any earlier due to the kid's gardens not being ready to plant prior to this date.
The following were the days to maturity for snow peas my children planted in 2016. Being in Australia all of the dates are written as Day/Month/Year
Oregon Dwarf Snow Pea Days to Maturity
Planted 25/10/2016 Day 0
Germinated Day ?
Flowering Day ?
Harvest began 06/12/2016 Day 42
As these were in the children's vegetable gardens I did not keep as many stats as I normally would. The date planted may have possibly been the date germinated, I am not entirely certain. Regardless, this is pretty fast, this is actually a lot faster than I would have expected. It was only 6 weeks as opposed to the 14 weeks as claimed on the packet. Perhaps the days to harvest were less as I planted them in warmer weather than normal.
For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.
Each of my children has their own little vegetable garden in which they can plant anything they want within reason. They each chose a few vegetables to plant and were also allowed to grow a few flowers if they wished. We grow everything from seeds, I don't see the point of buying seedlings.
My kids all love snow peas, so this year I bought a packet of 'Oregon dwarf' snow peas and my kids planted some each. Normally we would have planted seeds that I have saved but this year after moving the seeds were still packed in a box somewhere so we bought some seeds.
These snow peas were green podded, white flowered, and reasonably productive over a short period. They possibly could have been more productive over a longer period but were probably planted a bit late, but we could not plant them any earlier due to the kid's gardens not being ready to plant prior to this date.
The following were the days to maturity for snow peas my children planted in 2016. Being in Australia all of the dates are written as Day/Month/Year
Oregon Dwarf Snow Pea Days to Maturity
Planted 25/10/2016 Day 0
Germinated Day ?
Flowering Day ?
Harvest began 06/12/2016 Day 42
As these were in the children's vegetable gardens I did not keep as many stats as I normally would. The date planted may have possibly been the date germinated, I am not entirely certain. Regardless, this is pretty fast, this is actually a lot faster than I would have expected. It was only 6 weeks as opposed to the 14 weeks as claimed on the packet. Perhaps the days to harvest were less as I planted them in warmer weather than normal.
For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.
Wednesday 11 January 2017
QLD arrowroot plants
Achira
(Canna edulis) is also called 'Edible Canna' and is sometimes referred to as 'Queensland arrowroot' here in Australia. Achira is
an undemanding, versatile, easy to grow, high yielding perennial
vegetable. Like so
many of the vegetables that we enjoy in Australia, achira originally
comes from South America and was widely grown by the Incas. It is sometimes referred to as one of the lost crops of the Incas.
It is a great looking plant that adds tropical looking, almost banana plant like leaves to the landscape. It survives and produces well in cold areas with a short growing season, arid areas (if it is watered frequently or given shade), and I am told that it absolutely thrives in the tropics.
Achira
is a variety of canna, and is very much related to the ornamental
flowers that are in people’s gardens and planted in roundabouts all over
the nation. Being
commonly planted in roundabouts means that they are very low
maintenance plants.
Many of the ornamental varieties are interspecific hybrids between various canna species, achira is likely also an interspecific hybrid but it has been given a binomial name to indicate that it is now considered to be a stable ‘species’ in itself. All of the ornamental cannas are edible, but as they have been bred for showy flowers or pretty foliage they may not grow as fast or as large or taste as good as the so called ‘edible canna’.
Achira was once grown commercially grown as a source of starch. It boasts the largest starch grains of any plant, so large that they can be seen without the use of microscopes.
I have had my plant for several years and grown it in two very different climates and it has never even attempted to flower for me. I am not sure if it no longer has the ability to flower or if this is a day length sensitivity issue or if some other factor is at play here. To propagate achira I wait until it has two growing points, then use a spade to chop the plant, separate them, and plant them somewhere.
To be honest I have never treated this plant very well. It has always been planted in marginal land or crammed into a small pot of soil, and never watered frequently. This year is the first time I have planted achira into the vegetable garden bed. Despite my mistreatment achira has always grown and reproduced rather well for me, it has produced large rhizomes and depending on the conditions it can grow rather tall with amazing looking leaves. In years that had a lot of rain, or if I water it, it reproduces very fast. One small plant tends to turn into a dozen large plants in a year, if it is in better soil and looked after this number can be a lot higher, if it is in poor dry soil it may only produce 3 or 4.
Both the smaller rhizomes and the young leaves can be eaten, the older leaves and rhizomes are still edible but they tend to be a bit too fibrous to be enjoyable. People use the leaves to wrap food they are cooking, similar to how people in the tropics use banana leaf to wrap food. The leaves are high protein, reasonably palatable, and can be used as animal fodder. My sheep, cattle, alpacas and guinea pig all ate achira leaves at times. I am told that pigs love achira and while I have no experience with this myself it does look like the kind of thing that a pig would like to eat. I have been told that the leaves can be dried and woven or used for other craft things, but have never actually seen anyone do this.
Some
places sell achira plants to be grown as poultry food, but my chickens,
ducks and guinea fowl were never fond of it and would only eat it as a
last resort.
If your poultry is not free ranged and have absolutely no access to
grass then achira is probably a great option to feed them, other than
that I wouldn’t be surprised if they never actually touched it. This is
rather unfortunate as from all accounts achira
would be very nutritious for them.
Achira is often grown in orchards to be cut as a mulch. It produces large amounts of leaves so I found it to be good for this purpose. It is simple to cut and having no irritating hairs or thorns it is simple to carry arm loads of achira around the property to use as mulch or feed to stock. Being so large and growing so fast means that it can be used to trap nutrients on a slope. Given achira’s spreading nature it could potentially be used to stabilise eroding soil. It grows happily in boggy soil and can even be grown in submerged soil as long as the leaves are not under water. When grown like this it can be used to clean water and settle out solids. Achira can be grown as a screen or a wind break, but this only works over warmer months as it tends to die down over winter. I used to grow achira along the fence of the vegetable gardens to provide some late afternoon shade and slight wind protection.
Achira seems to be reasonably flexible regarding how and where it grows, it is pretty determined to survive yet does not pose a weed threat. When I grew achira in a cold temperate location it grew about 2 meters tall pretty fast and produced about a dozen large edible rhizomes. When grown in full sun in extreme arid heat I struggled to get plants to grow over 2 feet tall and the leaves frequently got burned off by the heat. These tiny plants still produced a decent size and number of rhizomes for me to eat though. When I grew achira in the same garden but under dense shade of trees the plants reached about 3 meters tall and produced copious rhizomes. I have also grown achira in a pot while I moved house several times in one year. This plant shared the pot with Jerusalem artichoke, which is a very aggressive grower and supposedly rather allelopathic. The pot was not watered anywhere near often enough, and was in shade sometimes and other times full sun on concrete, yet it survived and still divided into half a dozen plants which I have since divided and planted out.
Achira
does not really like frost, each year when winter comes along the
leaves will be burned down. You can dig up a part and store it in soil
in a garage or something,
or you can leave it in the soil as they normally survive hard frosts.
Sometimes a growing point is killed by frost, but as long as the plant
has another growing point then it should spring back to life when the
time is right. I normally leave the dead leaves
on to protect the plant and wait until spring before doing anything.
When the weather warms the plant starts to grow and that is when I
either cut off the old leaves and divide the plant or leave them as they
are and don’t worry about them.
As much as it will survive in soil that is relatively dry, achira performs much better with reasonable soil moisture. In much the same way it produces a decent crop in marginal land that has low fertility, but it performs far better in fertile soil. I have always thought that high amounts of nitrogen would help achira grow very large very fast but have never had the chance to test this theory.
As well as being edible and useful for various things, achira also looks rather ornamental and most people in Australia would not even know it is edible. It could quite happily be grown in an ornamental garden bed or even in the front yard with little chance of people either stealing or vandalising it as they tend to do with food plants. Being ornamental and not commonly associated as a food plant means it would not attract attention of council if they have any ridiculous rules about not growing food plants in certain places.
Where to buy achira in Australia
There are a few places that sell QLD arrowroot plants online, I sell it on my for sale page which can be found using the search button on the top right hand side of this page. Everything I grow is completely organic, I don't even use any of the organic poisons. I sell a section of rhizome with at least one growing point. If the plants are not dormant the leaves must be removed prior to postage. As they are a very hardy plant they cope well with postage and tend to regrow quickly and easily
It is a great looking plant that adds tropical looking, almost banana plant like leaves to the landscape. It survives and produces well in cold areas with a short growing season, arid areas (if it is watered frequently or given shade), and I am told that it absolutely thrives in the tropics.
 |
| Achira plants growing under the shade of a tree |
Many of the ornamental varieties are interspecific hybrids between various canna species, achira is likely also an interspecific hybrid but it has been given a binomial name to indicate that it is now considered to be a stable ‘species’ in itself. All of the ornamental cannas are edible, but as they have been bred for showy flowers or pretty foliage they may not grow as fast or as large or taste as good as the so called ‘edible canna’.
Achira was once grown commercially grown as a source of starch. It boasts the largest starch grains of any plant, so large that they can be seen without the use of microscopes.
I have had my plant for several years and grown it in two very different climates and it has never even attempted to flower for me. I am not sure if it no longer has the ability to flower or if this is a day length sensitivity issue or if some other factor is at play here. To propagate achira I wait until it has two growing points, then use a spade to chop the plant, separate them, and plant them somewhere.
To be honest I have never treated this plant very well. It has always been planted in marginal land or crammed into a small pot of soil, and never watered frequently. This year is the first time I have planted achira into the vegetable garden bed. Despite my mistreatment achira has always grown and reproduced rather well for me, it has produced large rhizomes and depending on the conditions it can grow rather tall with amazing looking leaves. In years that had a lot of rain, or if I water it, it reproduces very fast. One small plant tends to turn into a dozen large plants in a year, if it is in better soil and looked after this number can be a lot higher, if it is in poor dry soil it may only produce 3 or 4.
Both the smaller rhizomes and the young leaves can be eaten, the older leaves and rhizomes are still edible but they tend to be a bit too fibrous to be enjoyable. People use the leaves to wrap food they are cooking, similar to how people in the tropics use banana leaf to wrap food. The leaves are high protein, reasonably palatable, and can be used as animal fodder. My sheep, cattle, alpacas and guinea pig all ate achira leaves at times. I am told that pigs love achira and while I have no experience with this myself it does look like the kind of thing that a pig would like to eat. I have been told that the leaves can be dried and woven or used for other craft things, but have never actually seen anyone do this.
 |
| Young QLD arrowroot plants in full sun |
Achira is often grown in orchards to be cut as a mulch. It produces large amounts of leaves so I found it to be good for this purpose. It is simple to cut and having no irritating hairs or thorns it is simple to carry arm loads of achira around the property to use as mulch or feed to stock. Being so large and growing so fast means that it can be used to trap nutrients on a slope. Given achira’s spreading nature it could potentially be used to stabilise eroding soil. It grows happily in boggy soil and can even be grown in submerged soil as long as the leaves are not under water. When grown like this it can be used to clean water and settle out solids. Achira can be grown as a screen or a wind break, but this only works over warmer months as it tends to die down over winter. I used to grow achira along the fence of the vegetable gardens to provide some late afternoon shade and slight wind protection.
Achira seems to be reasonably flexible regarding how and where it grows, it is pretty determined to survive yet does not pose a weed threat. When I grew achira in a cold temperate location it grew about 2 meters tall pretty fast and produced about a dozen large edible rhizomes. When grown in full sun in extreme arid heat I struggled to get plants to grow over 2 feet tall and the leaves frequently got burned off by the heat. These tiny plants still produced a decent size and number of rhizomes for me to eat though. When I grew achira in the same garden but under dense shade of trees the plants reached about 3 meters tall and produced copious rhizomes. I have also grown achira in a pot while I moved house several times in one year. This plant shared the pot with Jerusalem artichoke, which is a very aggressive grower and supposedly rather allelopathic. The pot was not watered anywhere near often enough, and was in shade sometimes and other times full sun on concrete, yet it survived and still divided into half a dozen plants which I have since divided and planted out.
 |
| young Achira growing along a fence near asparagus |
As much as it will survive in soil that is relatively dry, achira performs much better with reasonable soil moisture. In much the same way it produces a decent crop in marginal land that has low fertility, but it performs far better in fertile soil. I have always thought that high amounts of nitrogen would help achira grow very large very fast but have never had the chance to test this theory.
As well as being edible and useful for various things, achira also looks rather ornamental and most people in Australia would not even know it is edible. It could quite happily be grown in an ornamental garden bed or even in the front yard with little chance of people either stealing or vandalising it as they tend to do with food plants. Being ornamental and not commonly associated as a food plant means it would not attract attention of council if they have any ridiculous rules about not growing food plants in certain places.
Where to buy achira in Australia
There are a few places that sell QLD arrowroot plants online, I sell it on my for sale page which can be found using the search button on the top right hand side of this page. Everything I grow is completely organic, I don't even use any of the organic poisons. I sell a section of rhizome with at least one growing point. If the plants are not dormant the leaves must be removed prior to postage. As they are a very hardy plant they cope well with postage and tend to regrow quickly and easily
 |
| It is too hot and dry for grass to grow, but achira is ok |
Thursday 5 January 2017
Lacy Lady Pea Days to Maturity
Lacy Lady pea (Pisum sativum) - semi leafless pea.
I wrote a blog post about this semi leafless pea in October 2013. The following are the days to maturity that I got from Lacy Lady peas in my garden this year. Being in Australia the dates are written Day/Month/Year.
Seeds Planted 29/10/2016 Day 0
Germinated 03/11/2016 Day 5
Flowered 12/12/2016 Day 44
Start Harvest 28/12/2016 Day 60
Clearly the days to maturity could be changed by warmer or colder weather, better or worse soil, more or less sunlight or a bunch of other factors. These were simply the days to maturity in my garden this year.
For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.
I wrote a blog post about this semi leafless pea in October 2013. The following are the days to maturity that I got from Lacy Lady peas in my garden this year. Being in Australia the dates are written Day/Month/Year.
Seeds Planted 29/10/2016 Day 0
Germinated 03/11/2016 Day 5
Flowered 12/12/2016 Day 44
Start Harvest 28/12/2016 Day 60
 |
| Lacy Lady Pea leaf |
For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.
Sunday 1 January 2017
Freckles lettuce days to maturity
The "days to maturity" which is often quoted on packets of seed is usually little more than an arbitrary number. I have seen Freckles lettuce listed anywhere from 50 to 90 days, which is rather unhelpful. I used to find it very difficult to plan when to plant things, so I keep records myself.
Below are the dates of when I planted seed of freckles lettuce this year, when the seed germinated, and when we began harvest. If I keep any of these plants to go to seed I may try to remember to include date of flowering and when the seed is ripe, but who knows what the future brings.
Being in Australia the dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.
Freckles Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)
Planted 23/10/2016 day 0
Germinated 28/10/2016 day 5
Started harvesting 03/12/2016 day 41
Seeds ready 17/02/2017
I probably could have started harvesting smaller leaves a few weeks earlier or larger leaves a few weeks later if I wanted. Had I planted the lettuce seeds in different weather, or in different soil, or with more or less sunlight, or closer to nodulating legumes, or a bunch of other things, these days to maturity would be slightly different, but this is an indication of how Freckles lettuce actually performed for me this year.
For some reason all of the lettuce in my garden went bitter pretty quickly this year. I am growing 4 different varieties this year, all of which were planted on the same day, and none of them performed very well. I think it may be due to heat or abrupt change in weather. I planted them later than I would have liked. Freckles is the only one which is not currently flowering, some individual plants are not bitter but most are.
For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.
Below are the dates of when I planted seed of freckles lettuce this year, when the seed germinated, and when we began harvest. If I keep any of these plants to go to seed I may try to remember to include date of flowering and when the seed is ripe, but who knows what the future brings.
Being in Australia the dates are written in the format of Day/Month/Year.
Freckles Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)
Planted 23/10/2016 day 0
Germinated 28/10/2016 day 5
Started harvesting 03/12/2016 day 41
Seeds ready 17/02/2017
I probably could have started harvesting smaller leaves a few weeks earlier or larger leaves a few weeks later if I wanted. Had I planted the lettuce seeds in different weather, or in different soil, or with more or less sunlight, or closer to nodulating legumes, or a bunch of other things, these days to maturity would be slightly different, but this is an indication of how Freckles lettuce actually performed for me this year.
For some reason all of the lettuce in my garden went bitter pretty quickly this year. I am growing 4 different varieties this year, all of which were planted on the same day, and none of them performed very well. I think it may be due to heat or abrupt change in weather. I planted them later than I would have liked. Freckles is the only one which is not currently flowering, some individual plants are not bitter but most are.
For a full list of vegetable days to maturity please click here.
 |
| Freckles Lettuce |
Thursday 29 December 2016
Can Dill and Fennel Cross Pollinate? No.
Dill (Anethum graveolens) and Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) are often quoted as cross pollinating easily if planted close. Many reputable gardening books and publications as well as seasoned home gardeners also claim that dill and fennel will hybridise and produce "less than desirable" offspring. Do dill and fennel really cross pollinate with one another? The answer may surprise you.
At first glance dill and fennel appear to be similar in appearance, so one may assume that they could cross.
There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that they do cross with each other. Many reputable gardening books, online publications, as well as seed saver groups and organic gardening societies who claim that they cross easily. Unfortunately they never show any pictures of these mysterious and supposedly common intergeneric hybrids. I dislike gardening books as they are mostly written by people with little to no knowledge of gardening, as such they are often filled with inaccuracies.
Many home gardeners claim that dill and fennel cross easily. The amount of nonsense ideas that are perpetuated by home gardeners who should know better is rather large and worrying. Home gardeners also spout a lot of weird superstitions and counter-intuitive cultural taboos so it is not difficult to ignore their claims when they do not provide any proof. I am yet to hear of any home gardener who saved seed from dill and had anything odd grow out of it, let alone anyone who has even attempted to grow it out for a few generations and try to stabilise it and create something great. I have seen a few photos of fennel that has crossed with weedy feral fennel, and have the gardener claim that it is a cross with dill, but unfortunately it is not.
Dill and fennel are both members of Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) family, but they are not closely related. They are from different genus and species. Carrots, parsnip, coriander, skirret etc are all part of that family, all of them are from different genus, yet none of these will hybridise to produce intergeneric hybrids.
Sometimes different species do not cross, such as many Cucurbita species, sometimes different species cross easily, such Capsicum species, sometimes they can cross but not very easily and only with a great deal of intervention. Intergeneric hybrids are reasonably uncommon, so one may assume that they would not cross, but some intergeneric hybrids in orchids or cacti are simple enough to achieve, so things get murky here.
There is no evidence in any peer reviewed journal, or anything written by any plant breeder anywhere in the world (that I can find) which claims that dill and fennel can cross. There have been some attempts by universities to cross them using embryo rescue techniques etc to incorporate some of fennel's disease resistance into dill, but I am unable to find results of these attempts without paying for subscriptions to things I don't want to pay for. Clearly they were not terribly successful as it is not possible to buy seeds of these plants.
If it were possible to cross dill and fennel people would do it. Fennel is a true survivor (as can be seen on many roadsides across Australia), dill tastes great but is a bit weaker, a cross between them would be lovely. The F1 plants would likely be dreadful, which is to be expected, after this they would begin to segregate into lines that are increasingly stable. After careful selection, and perhaps a little back crossing to lock in desirable traits, it would not be long before these hybrids would be better than either original plants. As no one appears to be doing this it is safe to assume that they do not cross as easily as all of those gardening books and seed saver groups and gardening societies say they will.
Both dill and fennel, like many herbs, change how they smell when they flower. Often home gardeners confuse this for their plant somehow hybridising with something else. Some herbs, such as coriander look different when they flower and many home gardeners will swear that it somehow crossed with dill, again this is not the case.
Wild, feral, weedy fennel is a rather common roadside weed in Australia and many other parts of the world. It WILL cross with fennel from a great distance and the resultant plants are often of poor quality. They do not look or smell overly like fennel and differ from the parent considerably. The F1 fennel bulbs are greatly reduced and the smell is often odd and unpleasant. None of this has anything to do with dill or any other plant, it is simply fennel crossing with fennel.
I have tried to track down seeds of these supposed dill/fennel hybrids, but no one has them. I have also tried to cross dill and fennel myself many times, but have had no success, ever. I have had success creating wide crosses with other plants in the past yet am unable to achieve this supposedly simple cross, so I am doubting that dill could hybridise with fennel. Personally, I don't see how they could cross. It is a rather wide cross to begin with, there would be many benefits from creating such a cross and breeding resistance and vigour into dill, yet no one (neither home breeders nor commercial plant breeders) seems to be attempting it successfully.
When seed saving, Dill can and will easily cross pollinate with other varieties of dill. Fennel can and will easily cross pollinate with other varieties of fennel. They will not cross with one another.
As far as I can tell dill can not cross pollinate with fennel as I have seen absolutely no proof, but I am happy to be wrong about this! If you believe that you have successfully (and/or accidentally) crossed dill and fennel, and you are absolutely certain that you saved seeds from dill, please send them to me and I will grow them out for a few years to try and put some of the hardiness of fennel into something that tastes like dill.
I am only interested if dill was the female parent, if you collected seed from fennel I am not interested at all. What you will most likely have is not just fennel, which I don't particularly like, but fennel that has crossed with poor quality weedy fennel, which I like even less.
Alternatively is you happen to know of some scientific peer reviewed paper (not just the web page of some seed saver group or a gardening book written by someone with no experience) that claims dill and fennel do cross easily I would love to read it.
At first glance dill and fennel appear to be similar in appearance, so one may assume that they could cross.
There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that they do cross with each other. Many reputable gardening books, online publications, as well as seed saver groups and organic gardening societies who claim that they cross easily. Unfortunately they never show any pictures of these mysterious and supposedly common intergeneric hybrids. I dislike gardening books as they are mostly written by people with little to no knowledge of gardening, as such they are often filled with inaccuracies.
Many home gardeners claim that dill and fennel cross easily. The amount of nonsense ideas that are perpetuated by home gardeners who should know better is rather large and worrying. Home gardeners also spout a lot of weird superstitions and counter-intuitive cultural taboos so it is not difficult to ignore their claims when they do not provide any proof. I am yet to hear of any home gardener who saved seed from dill and had anything odd grow out of it, let alone anyone who has even attempted to grow it out for a few generations and try to stabilise it and create something great. I have seen a few photos of fennel that has crossed with weedy feral fennel, and have the gardener claim that it is a cross with dill, but unfortunately it is not.
Dill and fennel are both members of Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) family, but they are not closely related. They are from different genus and species. Carrots, parsnip, coriander, skirret etc are all part of that family, all of them are from different genus, yet none of these will hybridise to produce intergeneric hybrids.
Sometimes different species do not cross, such as many Cucurbita species, sometimes different species cross easily, such Capsicum species, sometimes they can cross but not very easily and only with a great deal of intervention. Intergeneric hybrids are reasonably uncommon, so one may assume that they would not cross, but some intergeneric hybrids in orchids or cacti are simple enough to achieve, so things get murky here.
There is no evidence in any peer reviewed journal, or anything written by any plant breeder anywhere in the world (that I can find) which claims that dill and fennel can cross. There have been some attempts by universities to cross them using embryo rescue techniques etc to incorporate some of fennel's disease resistance into dill, but I am unable to find results of these attempts without paying for subscriptions to things I don't want to pay for. Clearly they were not terribly successful as it is not possible to buy seeds of these plants.
If it were possible to cross dill and fennel people would do it. Fennel is a true survivor (as can be seen on many roadsides across Australia), dill tastes great but is a bit weaker, a cross between them would be lovely. The F1 plants would likely be dreadful, which is to be expected, after this they would begin to segregate into lines that are increasingly stable. After careful selection, and perhaps a little back crossing to lock in desirable traits, it would not be long before these hybrids would be better than either original plants. As no one appears to be doing this it is safe to assume that they do not cross as easily as all of those gardening books and seed saver groups and gardening societies say they will.
Both dill and fennel, like many herbs, change how they smell when they flower. Often home gardeners confuse this for their plant somehow hybridising with something else. Some herbs, such as coriander look different when they flower and many home gardeners will swear that it somehow crossed with dill, again this is not the case.
Wild, feral, weedy fennel is a rather common roadside weed in Australia and many other parts of the world. It WILL cross with fennel from a great distance and the resultant plants are often of poor quality. They do not look or smell overly like fennel and differ from the parent considerably. The F1 fennel bulbs are greatly reduced and the smell is often odd and unpleasant. None of this has anything to do with dill or any other plant, it is simply fennel crossing with fennel.
I have tried to track down seeds of these supposed dill/fennel hybrids, but no one has them. I have also tried to cross dill and fennel myself many times, but have had no success, ever. I have had success creating wide crosses with other plants in the past yet am unable to achieve this supposedly simple cross, so I am doubting that dill could hybridise with fennel. Personally, I don't see how they could cross. It is a rather wide cross to begin with, there would be many benefits from creating such a cross and breeding resistance and vigour into dill, yet no one (neither home breeders nor commercial plant breeders) seems to be attempting it successfully.
When seed saving, Dill can and will easily cross pollinate with other varieties of dill. Fennel can and will easily cross pollinate with other varieties of fennel. They will not cross with one another.
As far as I can tell dill can not cross pollinate with fennel as I have seen absolutely no proof, but I am happy to be wrong about this! If you believe that you have successfully (and/or accidentally) crossed dill and fennel, and you are absolutely certain that you saved seeds from dill, please send them to me and I will grow them out for a few years to try and put some of the hardiness of fennel into something that tastes like dill.
I am only interested if dill was the female parent, if you collected seed from fennel I am not interested at all. What you will most likely have is not just fennel, which I don't particularly like, but fennel that has crossed with poor quality weedy fennel, which I like even less.
Alternatively is you happen to know of some scientific peer reviewed paper (not just the web page of some seed saver group or a gardening book written by someone with no experience) that claims dill and fennel do cross easily I would love to read it.
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