Unusual fruit and veg

[Ken L]

An interesting observation:

I have a bunch of stuff growing in pots with a compost/sand mixture and with the warm weather, I decided to grow some Thai Basil seeds in two pots with no mulch on them. The plants from seeds in the ericaceous compost containing the blueberries are three or four times bigger than the plants grown in a standard compost that is six inches from it.

It could be some other factor but at the moment, it's looking a lot like Thai Basil likes low PH.

[Ken L]

More interesting developments.

Of the five pawpaw seeds that I ordered on e-bay, two have now surfaced.

I knew they would be very late (July is apparently normal) but they are the weirdest tree sprouts I've ever seen.

They come up about 5cm as a thin white spear and just sit there for a week or so looking like a strange fungus before developing two tiny green leaves at the tip.

I know at least one seed had failed because somehow it got to the surface (presumably a mouse) but there is a possibility that I could get another sprout in the next few days.

 

Oh and a second sowing of Thai basil into ericaceous compost has now caught up with the first sowing into standard compost that was planted three weeks earlier - I'm eating the first sowing that went into acidic soil.

[Ken L]

The to pawpaws have now lost their leaves and gone to bed for the winter and I've another batch of seeds in the fridge stratifying in case anything should happen to them.

 

I'm now on the lookout for a Mulberry tree so that I can take a few cheeky cuttings in the summer but I've ordered some seeds as a backup.

 

Turns out that my Vraga Quince tree isn't a quince at all but I am the owner of a medlar tree with a single lonely fruit on it.

I may look into getting a proper quince at some point though.

 

Unfortunately, I planted my persimmon tree into the ground in a fairly inaccessible spot and lost it due to drought over the summer. My father's tree is doing well though so I might have a bash at growing some from seed and possibly grafting the named variety onto one or two of them.

 

My Loquat is doing well in ground and I'm expecting it to take off next year.

 

Plums didn't do great this year. I have a large purple plum and a smaller cooking plum that produced masses of fruit but I had big problems with maggots (we have lots of wild plums locally) so I think I'll have to spray in future. The smaller plum also isn't that great so I may well hack it down and use it as a rootstock in the spring if I can find some interesting scion wood - I fancy trying the American Santa Rosa variety if e-bay is willing.

 

Finally, I'm currently growing some Poncirus Trifoliata (hardy orange) from seed. They're not really edible but they are an interesting architectural plant, brilliant for security and I may have a play at grafting some Kumquats or Satsuma's to experiment with - these should cope with our temperatures but like peaches, don't like our wet winters.

[chesters1]

Your house must be like frikin kew gardens !

Got a mulberry at er the mulberry pub by the station ,strangely the pub used to be called the blue boy ,must have died?

[Ken L]

Colloidal silver should be used with caution.

[chesters1]

Colloidal silver should be used with caution.

Especially by werewolves

[corydoras]

The to pawpaws have now lost their leaves and gone to bed for the winter and I've another batch of seeds in the fridge stratifying in case anything should happen to them.

 

I'm now on the lookout for a Mulberry tree so that I can take a few cheeky cuttings in the summer but I've ordered some seeds as a backup.

 

Turns out that my Vraga Quince tree isn't a quince at all but I am the owner of a medlar tree with a single lonely fruit on it.

I may look into getting a proper quince at some point though.

 

Unfortunately, I planted my persimmon tree into the ground in a fairly inaccessible spot and lost it due to drought over the summer. My father's tree is doing well though so I might have a bash at growing some from seed and possibly grafting the named variety onto one or two of them.

 

My Loquat is doing well in ground and I'm expecting it to take off next year.

 

Plums didn't do great this year. I have a large purple plum and a smaller cooking plum that produced masses of fruit but I had big problems with maggots (we have lots of wild plums locally) so I think I'll have to spray in future. The smaller plum also isn't that great so I may well hack it down and use it as a rootstock in the spring if I can find some interesting scion wood - I fancy trying the American Santa Rosa variety if e-bay is willing.

 

Finally, I'm currently growing some Poncirus Trifoliata (hardy orange) from seed. They're not really edible but they are an interesting architectural plant, brilliant for security and I may have a play at grafting some Kumquats or Satsuma's to experiment with - these should cope with our temperatures but like peaches, don't like our wet winters.

I'd get that seen to.

[Ken L]

How are your maggots?

[chesters1]

Heres one for you Ken ,spotted the plants in the summer and they looked very much like upright cucumber plants ,all leaves gone in frost but covered in these spiky fruits.

They open by splitting at the tip and curling back the seeds are just like peppercorns

Tried plant id on google but nothing

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Edited November 4, 2018 by chesters1

[chesters1]

I was going to use flikr to upload the picture but strangely it goes to yahoo then bt to log in and sits spinning when i do!

Hopefully in dropbox you only see the photo i did it once and saw everything ! Which is a bit annoying so when you see it i will delete the link ,if ofcourse i can find a way of editing my post! So dont quote it lol

This is the plant in the summer

[

Edited November 4, 2018 by chesters1