Growing the seeds of stuff

October 31, 2011 at 11:53 am (Gardening - Basics, Featured plants, Pests and problems, Seed Saving, Fruit trees, Community gardening, Agriculture)
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So much of what is written about growing food is based on commercial information. The methods of broadscale monocultures are scaled down to home gardens, based on the experience and research of commercial food production. But this may not be the best way to go about growing things in a local home garden.

Fruit trees are a good example of what I mean. In commercial orchards, trees are grown and maintained in a very uniform way. The aim is to get a large quantity of uniform fruit for market, ripening at the same time on multiple trees in plantations of dozens or hundreds of trees. The spraying, pruning, picking and processing of the fruit is streamlined to reduce costs to the grower. The trees all grow genetically identical fruit on selected rootstocks to reduce pest and disease problems. Such problems are concentrated by growing only one kind of plant in such mass plantings as orchards.

These problems for the most part do not apply to home growers. Further, the predictability of known varieties, those which are sold in bulk by supermarkets and grocers, are of benefit to mass production, allowing growers to systematically produce crops at set times of year. The existence of such monocultures are the main cause of chemical pesticide use in agriculture and horticulture. Large scale operations require mechanised simple solutions for economic reasons.

A bit less than a week's worth of seeds from my house, that's dozens of plants, right there.

When European settlers first arrived in Australia, they were forced to select and breed new varieties of plants and animals for the new conditions here. The climate, seasons and soils were so alien to their experience that varieties from “home” were not as predictable or productive as they were used to. Now faced with changes to climate, including temperature and weather patterns, we must begin to select new varieties that can cope with altered conditions.

Luckily for us, nature has a means of doing so quite easily: seeds. Every seed contains a variation on the genetics of it’s parent plant. Sexual reproduction in plants allows them to adapt to new environments and survive, and there is no reason home gardeners can’t take advantage of that natural adaptability. But the only way to do that is by letting those seeds grow. Existing plants can’t adapt to changed conditions in the same way their offsrping may be able to.

Many fruits we eat contain seeds, and there is no reason a home gardener can’t plant those seeds and grow new varieties of fruit which are unknown in the world. The vegetatively reproduced commercial varieties are well known to us for reasons of consumer preference, but mostly for shelf life, transportability, and ease of production by large scale growers. The price of fruit at market is influenced by season, but also by costs to the producers. Home gardeners, by having only one or two of a particular kind of fruit tree can avoid the broad scale pest and disease problems of the commercial growers, and by growing seedlings, could find new varieties with resistance to pests, diseases, or changed climatic conditions, such as lower water availability or reduced chilling periods.

Planting the seeds of the apples we eat, for example, will produce seedling apple trees. If we plant those seedlings in the ground, we find which are best suited to our actual soils and other conditions. The ones that thrive are evidently more suited to our specific location. Leaving them to mature and produce fruit will give us further information about their suitability for particular areas and seasons, and good record keeping will allow us to share that information with others. Finally, when the fruit appears, and admittedly this may be five or more years after planting seeds, we can pick it, and taste it, and decide whether it is an improvement on what we get in the supermarket.

In the vast majority of cases, if the fruit is not to our taste, or without some particular use, it can often be grafted with something more to our liking. The chances of it being radically different from the fruit we first took seeds from is very small, because of the way fruit is grown. The plants that pollinated the apple we bought are virtually identical, so the gene pool is quite small. But other features, such as disease tolerance, could make it a superior plant, even if the taste is exactly the same. But there is a chance it could taste better, be sweeter, have bigger fruit, ripen earlier or later, or any number of slight variations which may be improvements on the original. And no matter what, you get to name the new variety whatever you wish, as every seedling is a new variety, no matter how similar to it’s parents.

WARNING: May contain cases of nuts: I bought these for $10 from the local market, that's almost two hundred potential nut trees from a 1KG bag. To be precise, it's 129 Almonds, 23 Brazil nuts, 25 Hazelnuts, 15 Macadamias and 7 Walnuts. No prize for guessing what's the cheapest nut per kilo.

In the case of nuts, one of the major concerns for growers is uniformity of size, and that is one of the main reasons they grow selected varieties, so they know their harvest will be uniform. This carries over to processors, who often have machinery for shelling specific sizes. If the nuts aren’t the right siz, they won’t buy them. Most of the nuts in their shells on the retail market are “non uniform” for this reason. But if you’re going to sit around at Christmas with a nutcracker opening them by hand, what difference does it make to you?

There are restrictions as far as what will grow where. But when growing seedlings for basically no outlay, you can try whatever you want. Avocadoes and Macadamias grow quite happily in Melbourne, for example, but as far as I know, Brazil Nuts do not. There is no reason not to plant a few and see what happens, though. Sure, the frost might get to them, but then again, you may grow the first frost tolerant Brazil nut in the world. If it can be done, it won’t happen by sticking with the known varieties, that’s for sure, it needs seed-generated biodiversity for changes to happen, and those changes might be needed quite soon.

I’ve mentioned before that some of the most popular varieties, for example Granny Smith Apples, began as chance seedlings. If everyone with a garden grew a few seedling fruit trees, imagine how much genetic diversity would be cultivated in a single suburb, not to mention how much food could be produced. Sure, the tree you grow may not be your favourite orange, or pear, the walnuts your tree produces may be smaller than those in the shops, the mandarins might be seedier than you’d prefer, but surely it’s better than no food at all? And if it costs nothing, there’s nothing to lose.

So, keep your seeds in a paper bag, maybe even in the fridge, then plant them out in spring. Except Avocadoes which can go in any time, really, though they may not grow until the weather is warm. Give it a go. Even if you don’t have space for a Walnut tree, you could always sneak it in to the nature strip somewhere.

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Green-age wasteland

May 19, 2011 at 11:09 am (Gardening - Basics, Featured plants, Seed Saving, Fruit trees, Container gardens)
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A lot of people probably don’t realise, or at least don’t stop to consider, that when they buy fresh fruit and vegetables, they are often buying the means to generate more fresh fruit and vegetables. Every time you spit out pips of any fruit you eat, you are probably throwing away the means to grow whatever fruit is your fancy. Of course, most commercial fruit comes from carefully selected varieties, nursery propagated by grafting a well known variety on to disease resistant rootstock to grow in a large plantation which will produce uniform fruit of consistent quality under well known conditions at a predictable time of year. Any seed grown from such fruit will not be exactly the same, due to the wonders of sexual reproduction, and resulting natural genetic recombination. But then, why does that matter?

If you want a well known variety of fruit, and you can grow it in your garden, chances are it will be cheapest in the shops when your tree is laden with fruit. That’s how the market works. But if you have a tree in your garden that has different fruit to any other tree in the world, which is quite conceivable, then nobody else will have it for sale. Sure, it won’t be much different; after all, if you save a seed from an orchard grown fruit which was surrounded by genetically identical trees when it flowered, the gene pool is  small to begin with. But every now and then, random recombination combined with natural variation means something new and unusual will spring forth. It may have a different flavour, or colour, or more disease resistance, or better nutritional content, or prettier flowers, or larger fruit, or any other possible variation. The world renowned Granny Smith apple, for example, came from a seedling out of a compost heap in country New South Wales. And if you do get something worth spreading around, you obviously have the right to immortalise yourself, though I don’t think Maria Anne Smith referred to herself as “Granny”.

Some sorely neglected Citrus seedlings. You know how mechanics' cars are always falling apart?

Some fruit produce seeds that are poly-embryonic, meaning they are capable of growing more than one plant from each seed. In the case of Citrus species, one of the embryos is asexual, meaning it’s a clone of the parent plant, along with one or two “normal” embryos. I used to peel the seed coat off citrus pips and stick them in my mum’s indoor plants. They usually grew, but I never took it further than germinating them as a kid. There’s no way of knowing which of the seedlings is the clone, obviously, until they fruit, or you have a genetics lab handy. And seedling trees take longer to fruit than grafted, nursery propagated fruit trees, possibly up to seven years, as compared to two or three. But seedlings are free, and if after a few years waiting the fruit turns out to be not to your liking, you can always graft on something you do like. Even commercial trees have this done as consumer tastes change.

Sprouting Garlic cloves, ready for planting (pic courtesy of shonky photo, inc.)

Okay, so fruits are all good, but what about vegetables? In some cases, they are fruit anyway. Tomato, Pumpkin, Melon, Capsicum and Chilli seeds are easy to identify for example, and Eggplant too, though the seeds are a little harder to extract. But often we actually buy whole or almost whole plants. The onion family is the best example of this. Onion and garlic bulbs are basically dormant plants. Each individual clove of garlic is capable of producing a whole bulb of garlic if you stick it back in the ground. Just look for clove that are already starting to push out a leaf, and bury them pointy end up, just below the soil surface. Onions will regrow if planted, though not as deeply, and they usually just flower, which gives you a seed supply at least. Onions that have divided into separate bulbs may be able to become multiplier onions, this is where Shallots originally came from.

Look ma! Growing Garlic!

Leeks are also a whole plant, though they are usually trimmed of excess leaves and roots before they arrive at the market. But you can use the leek as normal in the kitchen, and then replant just the base, which will re-grow. Again, you may only end up with a flowering stalk, but they do look attractive, like pink pom-poms, and again, you will be able to collect plenty of seeds. Pretty much anything that comes with a root attached, for example bunched herbs, can be replanted and grown again, though the shock of harvest and transport may mean they simply flower quickly and produce seeds. But you may get some foliage, which is what you want from herbs, and at the very least you will get seeds.

Three leeks and a celery. Not pictured: Ted Danson

Whole bunches of celery can also be a source of planting material. I usually pull off the large outside stalks of celery until the pale, tiny leave in the centre are all that’s left attached to the base of the plant. That base can be planted either in the garden or in a pot, and will grow new leaves and roots, which may either be harvested, or left to produce seed for next year.

The pale, sickly looking celery heart. This was indeed a dark day for flash-free photography. Happily, the celery made a miraculous recovery (see above)

These are just a few examples of how your grocery basket can be a way of filling up your food garden as well as your fridge. If something looks like it will grow, give it a try, you never know your luck. I am currently eyeing a pineapple top in my compost bin. I will get back to you…

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Grow more pot(s)

November 19, 2010 at 12:24 pm (Container gardens, Fruit trees, Garden construction, Gardening - Basics)
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Back in the 1990s, I heard a spoken word piece by Jello Biafra, formerly of the musical combo “Dead Kennedies”. His speech was heartfelt, and pointed out the political agenda behind the legal status of Cannabis sativa in the United States and most of the Western World, especially trading partners of the US. Much of this appears to be influenced by large chemical companies, patented processes, and nepotism. Once the most commonly grown fibre crop in the world, used in making everything from ship sails (“canvas” derives from the plant’s botanical name), and the best rope money could buy, to Levi’s jeans, and high quality paper; it is now barely cultivated (legally) at all. He at no point suggests that smoking copious bowls of the stuff will in any way improve anyone’s life, or help them achieve their goals. I tend to agree, unless those goals are knowing, by title, every episode of M*A*S*H. Or being able to accurately guess the prices on Antiques Roadshow before they come up on the screen.

A container "garden". There are at least a dozen useful and edible plants in here, I can see them from my kitchen window.

But that, my green-thumbed friends, is not what this post is actually about. It was a cunning ruse to attract your attention, and now I can talk about the real topic: Growing plants in containers. I live in the inner city of Melbourne, and at some point, the block of land on which my house is situated had a Mediterranean Makeover. In other words, every bit of bare soil, with only two exceptions, is covered in concrete. This left me with a few options:

a. Move house

b. Get over it

c. Hire a jackhammer

d. Grow things anyway

For numerous reasons, the first option was not viable. I like where I live in general, and I won’t bore you with talk of “the market” at the moment. The second option I tried. I put in an inflatable pool instead. It didn’t satisfy my urge to grow things, as all it grew were millions of mosquito larvae. Sorry neighbours. The third option sounds a lot like really hard manual labour, to which I am certifiably allergic, not to mention being in breach of my lease.

So, I just grow things anyway. A garden in any urban setting is a relatively thin layer of soil that’s conditioned to grow selected plants. In many cases, it’s already a kind of container anyway, bordered by lawn, concrete or fencelines anyway, and with a bottom created by the harder, less fertilised, less aerated soil below. So growing things in a pot, or any other container, is not really all that different to growing in the ground, with a few notable exceptions. One thing it’s really good for is growing root crops, especially those where the top dies back at harvest, like garlic, for example. Just tip out the pot and sift through to find the goodies.

Carrots and Parnsips grown in pots? Sure, why not? I did.

You can use anything as a container for growing plants, if it can hold “soil” (more accurately known as potting media), it can be used as a container to grow plants. Here’s where I start to qualify things. The best kind of containers are deep, with solid sides, and drainage at the bottom. The deeper the pot is, the more water it can hold, and the less often you will need to water it. By solid sides, I mean non-porous. Untreated terracotta pots are porous, which means they absorb water from the inside of the pot, and it evaporates off the outside surface, this means the pots can dry out more quickly. And drainage at the bottom allows for excess water to run off, because most plants don’t like waterlogged roots, and gravity generally makes water move in a downward direction. I do put saucers of some description under all my pots, though, as it helps indicate when they have been watered enough, and helps stop wasting any excess, as it will get drawn back up as plants use the water in the potting medium.

So, what is potting medium? It is any substance used to grow plants in containers that basically does what the soil does. It gives a physical framework for roots to grow in, it holds nutrients, it holds water, and it has large spaces in it for air to move through. Surprisingly enough, plant roots require air just as the shoots do, without it, they die, which can kill the whole plant, quite quickly in some cases. There is a balance between all these properties that form the ideal root environment for most plants, and a number of experiments that need to be carried out in order to assess various potting media. Luckily for non-boffins, there is an Australian Standard for potting mix. Actually there are two. Regular and Premium standard mixes are basically the same, the Premium containing a certain level of slow release fertiliser, while the Regular does not, though in both cases extra ingredients, such as “water saving” materials may be included. Look for the Standards Australia ticks on the bags, any other writing means very little, and price means even less!

So, what can you grow in containers? Anything. I have successfully grown Asparagus, Beans, Carrots, Dill, Eggplant, Fennel, Gherkins, Horseradish, Indian Bean Tree, Jicama, Kale, Lettuce, Marrow, Nasturtium, Onions, Parsnips, Queensland Blue Pumpkin (phew), Radishes, Sunflowers, Tomatoes, Um… Violets, Waxberry, X-tra hot chillies, Yam Daisies and Zebra Beans. Almost A-Z, and all edible. Some things, like the larger pumpkins, might struggle in really hot weather, but there’s no reason not to give it a go. Just find the biggest pot you can and start from there. Most of my pots have been discarded by others and I picked them up for nothing, even the big 50+ litre ones. You could also use other things, I have seen many an old bathtub or laundry trough recalled into active duty as a planter. Even old toilet pedestals  get a run, sometimes. And the old black recycling tubs that councils used to give out were excellent. But I am not encouraging anyone to steal them.

These two potted Citrus I have had for years, the Aloe vera, not as long, but this is the extent of my actual "garden" behind them. Other fruit trees can go in pots, too

Watering is a big issue. The bigger the pots, the less you will have to water, but the more you can grow in them, too. If you have lots of pots, it might be better to install a watering system, so you can water them all evenly with a turn of the tap, rather than carting a watering can back and forth, or using the hose (with trigger nozzle) to water them individually for as long as your patience lasts. Drip watering heads can be used, though they may create channeling in the pot, where water forms a course and runs straight through and out the bottom. This can happen anyway, especially if the pot dries out and the potting mix shrinks away from the side of the container. The best thing in that situation is to soak the whole pot in a bucket of water for a few hours, then water as normal the next day. There are also special downward spraying heads especially designed for containers, and these are best to use with a watering system, as they spread the application of water, and reduce the risk of channeling.

If you are really keen, and don’t mind clearing it up when you leave, you can even build garden beds on top of the concrete. Any kind of solid box shape will do, as long as it can handle the weather, and keeps your “soil” in place, it will do the job, a depth of half a metre of space for roots to grow should produce results. You can often spy old terracotta pipes turned on their end being enjoyed as sort of bottomless pots in landscapes all over the place. The thing is, don’t be discouraged by your concrete wasteland. There are ways to make it work for you. And the best part of container growing? You get to take it all when you leave. All the work you put in at one location, can still bring in returns if you move.  So, come on renters, go for a walk, find some pots, and get growing.

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Sooooooooo Feral. You don’t give anything, just to pick from him

June 16, 2010 at 12:35 pm (Community gardening, Edible weeds, Fruit trees)
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On the topic of fruit trees, just a short note about the Feral Fruit Trees blog. Basically, it’s a map, (centred over Brunswick for reasons obvious to anyone who lives there), where anyone can indicate the location of wild fruit trees, or trees overhanging public land. This is so other urban types can find them and pick a few to supplement their long distance food supply, and maybe even reduce their “food miles”. There are rules, though I suppose they are more like guidelines than rules; like don’t pick stuff that’s inside a private boundary, and don’t pick anything where people might get upset about it, and only take a bit at a time, so everyone can share.

But it’s a great use of  open access technology (it’s basically a Google Map) to enhance community. Zooming out their map, I found there were trees marked in Ballarat, and even Tasmania. No reason it couldn’t be expanded Australia wide, really, possibly with direct links to different cities on the same map. I love the idea, and I hope some folks get some use out of it, and contribute to it. I will go for a walk around the block later with a pad and paper and note the locations of the lemons and figs I already know are near me and stick them on later. Happy harvesting!

A screenshot of the map from Feral Fruit Trees

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Get your fix: Bare root (look like sticks)

June 15, 2010 at 12:44 pm (Fruit trees, Gardening - Basics)
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“What the hell, Garden Doctor! I’m not going out in the garden now, it’s bloody freezing!” I hear you shout. But I have to say, this is one of the best times of year to get out in the garden and observe, analyse, plan and re-organise. Also, on a technical note, despite how cold your fingers are, six degrees is not technically freezing. Though people hate when you say things like that, and quite happily lock you in the yard for it.

While all the leaves have dropped, and growth has slowed to a snail’s pace (meaning the slimy blighters can eat your plants as fast as they grow) it is the best time to see how your plans have come to fruition, or failed dismally. It is also the time to figure out ways to improve your chances for next season, which will be here before you know it. In less than a week, the days will start to get longer, and signs of spring will appear in the next month, like cherry blossoms and flowering bulbs.

But for now, think about moving things around, the shock of transplanting is greatly reduced on perennials at this time of year, as their metabolism is so slow. Things may seem dead, but they are still ticking over, just incredibly slowly. One of the most obvious dormancy mechanisms is the loss of leaves. Deciduous trees, those that only grow leaves in the warmer months, are currently dormant, and look like bare sticks. This is when they are best moved and planted, and nurseries at the moment are full of bare rooted stock, including the majority of fruit trees. Apples, Cherries, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Apricots, Quinces as well as Almonds, Hazelnuts, Walnuts, Pecans are all cheaply available right now, and ready to be planted. You will also find things like bramble berries (Raspberries, Blackberries, Loganberries etc), Currants (Red & Black), Gooseberries and Grapes.

Bare rooted bramble berries being stored in sawdust ready for sale, bare rooted fruit trees are visible behind them, already bagged in sawdust and green plastic

Bare rooted plants are sold without a pot, they are just dug up and “heeled in”, usually under sawdust to stop the roots drying out, which is a danger even in this dormant state. It means plants are available much more cheaply, as they can be bundled together and transported much less labour and lower cost than potted plants. I picked up three fruit trees over the weekend for $25, which is less than the price of a single containerised tree. When considering what to plant, it is worth considering what you like. There’s no point growing what you don’t eat, and it may be worth considering that commercial varieties, like Jonathan Apples, may be cheaper to buy, and it could be worth looking for something a bit more unusual. Pollination also needs to be considered, as some fruit trees require more than one variety in close proximity to get a good crop of fruit, though there are self pollinating varieties of almost everything – just check the label.

It’s best when buying bare rooted plants to have the ground prepared for planting straight away, or alternatively, you can heel them in to keep their roots moist in sawdust or potting mix, or in a quickly dug hole straight in the soil. A planting hole should be as deep as the roots of the tree to be planted, though digging a little deeper and covering the bottom of the hole with compost or composted manure, and a handful of blood & bone will give the plant a real boost when it shoots away in spring. You should be able to see the level of the soil from when the tree was dug up, it will be a darker mark toward the base of the trunk. But really, as long as the graft union is above the soil, the tree will do okay. Most fruit trees are bud-grafted with named varieties to ensure they produce the kind of fruit we want to grow, as seedling fruit is pretty variable.

Comparison of Apricot (left) and Apple. The graft union on the apple is almost invisible, though the rootstock and scion are slightly different colours. Note that on the Apple, roots indicate the soil level, while the colour of the trunk is the indicator on the Apricot

Another important thing is to prune the branches either before or immediately after planting. This is because the roots have been usually quite severely pruned in digging up the tree and for transport, and too large a canopy will cause stress if there are not sufficient roots to support it. Check the roots for any large broken roots and prune them using secateurs, as a smaller, smooth cut reduces the risk of infection by bacteria or fungi compared to an uneven, broken wound. Most fruit trees are pruned to an open vase shape to allow light to get into the middle of the tree and make picking and spraying easier. Choose four or five good sturdy branches growing out from the main trunk and cut them back about a third, to an outward facing bud, so they don’t grow in to the middle of the tree. Remove all the other smaller branches, and remove any central branch, or branches growing toward the middle.

From left: Storey Apricot; Cox Orange Pippin Apple; Million Dollar Peach. In the upper image there are too many branches left to be supported by the greatly reduced root system. The lower image show the same trees after pruning. These trees are pruned flat to train against a fence. More usually, they would be pruned to a vase shape

As far as pruning goes, that should be enough for now, as different trees require slightly different approaches to pruning, depending on what kind of wood they will fruit on. You can also try espalier, which involves training a plant to grow along a fence or other support. This is a bit more complex, and probably requires another post entirely, though it is a great option for small spaces. I am planting my trees in containers, as I want to espalier them along a fence, and I have not much in the way of soil. There are dwarf fruit trees, including Peaches, Nectarines, and Apples, which are perfect for containers, and will happily remain in them for their entire lifetime.

Filling in the hole, if you have sandy soil, leave a slight depression around the base of the tree. On heavier clay soils, the tree should be planted slightly higher than surrounding soil, and slightly mounded to aid drainage. Newly planted trees are best not staked, as this tends to weaken trunks, and roots. If support is needed, it’s best to lay stakes across the ground above the roots and peg them down, or if staking is absolutely unavoidable, stake trees on at least two sides, and only loosely tie the tree so it doesn’t fall over. As soon as root growth starts up, it should be removed.

Water them in, and cross your fingers, you should be rewarded in spring with a burst of flowers or leaves, depending what you’ve planted, and maybe even a couple of fruit later on, if you’re lucky!

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