The Garden of Woz...

[Whwoz]

Sari,. A couple of things that may interest and perhaps assist you in growing that Mulla Mulla,. Seed germination is usually poor, so sow plenty. It comes from inland Qld, NT, NSW and SA, so probably in areas where 250 mm rain a year would be a wet year , sandy soil, so mix needs to be free draining. Have not read full description from site yet, need to get where I can translate it easier than on my phone, but colour may be yellowish green rather than pink photos show. Plants get to 80 cm high.

I Googled that Mulla Mulla and I found that a seed vendor in Sweden is selling seeds for Ptilotus Nobilis.
https://www.impecta.se/froer/ettariga-b ... arant-joey

In Swedish the name is kattamarant (cat amaranth) and in Finnish silkkitassu (silk paw). I read that the flowers last for 8 weeks. I am now obsessed and have to order the seeds to grow those beauties next summer.

Sari

[Whwoz]

@svalli done a bit more digging around on the web for my own interest. Ptilotus nobilus has been reduced to a synonym of Ptilotus exaltatus, the same as in the photos. A couple of links for cultural info and a link to the best native seed site in Oz, unfortunately with only 13 spp listed out of 100+ spp in the genus. Much more widespread than I initially thought also. Heat required for germination, even here.

http://anpsa.org.au/APOL10/jun98-14.html
https://www.australianseed.com/shop/ite ... us-nobilis
https://www.nindethana.net.au/Product-D ... spx?p=1916

[Whwoz]

Oca.

Not sure if many over there have grown this South American tuber. I was able to get three lots of small tubers this season for a first attempt at growing it. Not being sure how they would go, what they would look like and indeed if they would come up at all I potted them up into 30 liter tubs. This also had the advantage of my not weeding them out thinking they were a type of Oxalis . I cannot recall all variety names, one I think is Bunyip, but they are looking good.

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[Seven Bends]

A quick Google didn't turn up anything about Bunyip tubers, but I did find this song:

[Whwoz]

@Seven Bends, the place I got them from is "The Garden Larder" a small one person vegie breeding operation near Bendigo in central Vic. She was reliant on leased land and has lost access to that property, not sure if she will list them again. Currently not on her website.

The Bunyip referred to in that video is part of our aborigional folklore, generally supposed to reside in deepwater pools along the Murray River. These would have snags in them and no doubt trapped kids swimming at times, drowing them. The bunyip would have been created to try to stop kids swimming in those waterholes.

[Whwoz]

Baby Corn

I have started harvesting the cobs off the popcorn that I have in for baby corn. The first true ear was picked with husks abut 300 mm/ 1 foot long and silks about 50 mm/2 inches long. This produced a cob of around 100mm/4 inches in length, probably perfect size for our usage.

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The next pick of 6 ears ranged in lenght from 200mm/8 inches to 300mm/1 foot except for the tip of a confused confused tiller which did not know if it was to be a cob or tassel. Cobs are shown in same order husked as unhusked in photos below. Boards are 100 mm/4 inches wide

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[Whwoz]

Candy Cane F2 pepper

Some of you may remember a thread on TV discussing the possibility of gluing flowers closed for self pollination and seed purity by McSee whom is not on here. I received some seed and a plant from McSee grown out from that flower which would put it at F2 if our understanding is correct. McSee himself has grown two plants, one of which is showing some variegation on the fruit the other is all green. Mine has only a couple of small fruit less than an inch long on it at this stage but it is showing a high degree of variegation on the fruit, the variegated part being yellow instead of green. Some parts of the plant also show variegation quite strongly.

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[Whwoz]

A few tomato plant pictures for those starting to feel the onset of snow.

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I find Barry's Crazy Cherry to be a very vigorous grower, so have separated the plant onto 4 stakes to keep it a bit open in the middle. Should really have gone on the end of a row, not in the middle like it is.

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A non-project dwarf breed by Tom Wagner, first time growing it so looking forward to see how it goes.

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An early Dwarf project GWR plant. First time growing it also.

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A personal selection from Orange Grosse Lisse, a hybrid breed and sold within the nursery trade down here. when I first grew OGL, the early leaves were more rugose than regular, so I kept seed from it. Have grown it out several times now, with all 5 of this years plants coming out of a 190 gram/ 6.8 oz, smooth round fruit typical of what we see in supermarkets. Colour is similar to Sweet Ozark Orange for those who know SOO.

Plants are going great guns, a bit smaller than what I would normally have this time of year, but they were in pots for six weeks longer than they should have been due to the weather.

[Whwoz]

Baby Corn: the popcorn that was planted for baby corn is producing well, though most plants are limited to two cobs each, with the odd plant going to produce 3 and a few smaller plants only one. So far have put over a kilo into the freezer ready to use. Have also decided to pick what cobs form on the sweet corn that was in pots for too long as baby corn as sweet corn is easier and cheaper to buy here. The value of the Kilo and a bit of baby corn picked so far would be around $50AU at local rates, so definitely repeating next year. Might even have time for a second crop this year as I now have some cleared ground. Need to get hold of a proper baby corn variety, pity Chires is not available here.

[GoDawgs]

Sweet Potatoes:

With the Beauregard plants kicking on and only being able to get 3 of them this year, I thought I would have a shot at producing my own from cuttings. So out with the glass to give it a go...

Then the night before last when grabbing a sweet out of the draw for dinner, I noticed it was starting to shoot, so out with another glass, some toothpicks and off with its head...First time trying this, noticed last night that the long shoot had straightened up and was starting to open leaves

After using a glass to root cuttings I tried starting them by burying horizontally in a window box a few small sweets left from the previous harvest.



They came up really well! When it's time to plant, just pull the shoots out of the potatoes and plant. They should have a few small roots on them so make sure to put the shoots in a glass of water so they don't dry out and plant the day you pull them. I'm still working on the ideal time to start them so that the shoots don't get too long before planting time. But ones that are too long can be pulled out and tossed and the potato will make more.

[Whwoz]

Sweet Potatoes:

With the Beauregard plants kicking on and only being able to get 3 of them this year, I thought I would have a shot at producing my own from cuttings. So out with the glass to give it a go...

Then the night before last when grabbing a sweet out of the draw for dinner, I noticed it was starting to shoot, so out with another glass, some toothpicks and off with its head...First time trying this, noticed last night that the long shoot had straightened up and was starting to open leaves

After using a glass to root cuttings I tried starting them by burying horizontally in a window box a few small sweets left from the previous harvest.



They came up really well! When it's time to plant, just pull the shoots out of the potatoes and plant. They should have a few small roots on them so make sure to put the shoots in a glass of water so they don't dry out and plant the day you pull them. I'm still working on the ideal time to start them so that the shoots don't get too long before planting time. But ones that are too long can be pulled out and tossed and the potato will make more.

Thanks for the tip GoDawgs, much appreciated.

[GoDawgs]

This is the You Tube episode I used to learn about growing sweet potato slips.



Then instead of planting them out like Danny did, I put a few horizontally in a window box of soil so that there was about 2" of soil covering them. That's the only difference. It's worked really well for me.

Danny is definitely one of thos eSouthern back country good old boys.

[Seven Bends]

I loved his forked-stick method of planting the slips! I'm not sure that would work in my heavy clay soil, but it was amazing to watch.

[Whwoz]

Just a couple of photos of the tomato plants, showing how I just use a single stake to support them. This is OK in our typically low summer humidity but I would not want to try it in areas of high humidity.

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A small piece of the orange hayband I last used to tie them up with is just visible in this photo

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[Whwoz]

Quick pick today, in between nightshifts, a few snow peas from Joni's taxi (yellow) and Shiraz (purple), a Japanese Climbing Cucumber (not sure of variety name, nursery industry down here loves coming up with new useless names rather than keeping true varietal names) and some tomatoes

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[Whwoz]

Candy Cane Pepper

The same plant mentioned above, showing the variegated foliage and fruit

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And Marconi Rosso, recovering nicely from the downpour last Friday

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[Whwoz]

Lastly a few bells that I picked in the afternoon, not a lot of pollination occurring in some of the fruit. These are from overwintered plants and are the second pick in the last week or so. The Candy Cane above is the most advanced of this years plants, the best of which are bigger than last seasons plants and still have plenty of growing time left

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[Whwoz]

Thanks for that now that I have had time to watch it through a couple of times, plus a few of his other videos. The only question I have is do I need to wait for the tubers to show signs of growth or if I put them in a container without showing shooting eyes will they still do ok?

This is the You Tube episode I used to learn about growing sweet potato slips.



Then instead of planting them out like Danny did, I put a few horizontally in a window box of soil so that there was about 2" of soil covering them. That's the only difference. It's worked really well for me.

Danny is definitely one of thos eSouthern back country good old boys.

[GoDawgs]

Just stick them in the soil with or without signs of sprouts showing. They'll do their thing regardless.

[Whwoz]

Picked a few tomatoes yesterday, starting to get enough to see to our daily needs, late season here so hopefully it will go on for a while.

In the dish, the largest one is Jupp, a first timer. in the center is Pervaya Lyubov I believe, above them are some (not?) Amish paste, with some Kumatos and a few assorted others that I cannot remember names to.

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