October 30th, 2022
THE GOOD EARTH
How to Grow and Use Yacon: Peruvian Ground Apple
Scientific Name: Smallanthus sonchifolius
Common Name: Yacon, Peruvian ground apple
Family: Asteraceae-same as daisies and sunflowers.
Plant Height & Width: 1.5m x 0.5m
If you look at the flowers they are like much smaller versions of sunflowers.
Here’s a tuber that tastes similar to a nashi pear, looks something like sweet potato on the outside, and the sugars from it aren’t absorbed by the body.
Not only that, the tubers contain a lot of juice, and the sugars that make it sweet is not absorbed by the body so you can't put on the kilos! How good is that?
Then there’s the fact that it’s easy to grow, and has small flowers that resemble sunflowers and you just can’t buy it from the supermarket or fruit and veg store.
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| Yacon plant growing in Margaret's garden |
How to Grow Yacon from Tubers?
Yacon has two types of tubers unlike ginger or turmeric.
- The tubers that you plant are attached to the main stem and are much smaller and pinkish in colour. I planted mine in early September and October was the time that it sprouted in my Sydney garden.
- If you were to receive some brown tubers that look like a brown sweet potato, that's what you eat and not what you plant.
- The edible tubers spread from the clump sideways meaning you need at least 1/2 metre of space to produce sizeable clumps.
- Can be planted in any district as they can withstand frost.
When to Harvest?
Yacon is a herbaceous perennial meaning it has a dormant period that starts when the leaves die down in late autumn.
This is the time when the tubers are ready to harvest. Simply fork up the entire crop, and harvest the large brown tubers to eat fresh, and use the small reddish rhizomes at the top to replant for next year’s crop.
What Can You Do With Yacon?
Eat it of course but how, is the thing so here are some of Margaret's tips.
- Yacon is sweet and crunchy and is great eaten fresh.
- Ever heard of Yacon chips? That's right you can make chips out of this tubber.
- Just cut up into chip sizes and drizzle some oil over the top and bake in the oven.
- Try using it in salads like Waldorf salad and wherever you would use fresh pears.
- Use it in stir fries.
- You can also juice it or cook down the juice to make syrup and use it as a sweetener.
Fun Tip from Margaret
- Running short of toilet paper, try large soft fluffy leaves like those of the Yacon plant.
But there's more uses, have a listen to the podcast.
I'm talking with Margaret Mossakowska of www.mosshouse.com.au
If you have any feedback email realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675
September 21st, 2022
KITCHEN GARDEN
Leaf Celery
Scientific Name:Apium graveolens var. secalinum
Plant family: Apiaceae
Common Name: Parcel
A relatively uncommon or even unkown herb or vegetable. Parcel stems from the idea that it looks like parsley but tastes like celery.
- Leaf celery is a biennial plant growing to 60cm in height.
Biennial simply means that leaf celery grows vegetatively during the first year and fruits (seeds) and dies at the end of the second year.
Leaf celery could be classified as a herb because the leaves are used just as much as the stalks in cooking.
Personally I wouldn't be without my leaf celery because it's a great substitute for the harder to grow culinary celery.
I use it for making sugo, the tradition Italian tomato base for a lot of traditional dishes such as lasagne and bolognese.
Sugo For Sure-How to Make it
Sugo is made by first finely chopping onion, celery and carrot that frying for a few minutes until softer.
Then adding the garlic and tomatoes to make a tomato base for any Italian dish.
However, if you like munching on celery stalks, or using them in Waldorf salads, it's not a substitute in that instance.
The stalks of leaf celery are much thinner and hollow and have a more pungent taste ( to my liking) that normal culinary celery.
This winter I have practically depleted my supply of leaf celery because of the number of soups, and slow co
oked meals I have been preparing. It’s just a great flavouring herb.
Leaf celery stalks in my garden (pictured right)
Easy Peasy Celery Salt
Celery salt can also be made from the seeds. Simply let one plant go to flower and set seed. Then once dried in situ, collect the seeds and crush them.
- Corinne suggests dehydrating the leaves to make celery leaf salt.
Chop the stems and leaves and make a compound celery butter.
We both recommend growing leaf celery as a cut and come again herb or vegetable and an alternative to the larger stalked celery.
Much easier to grow too.
So let’s find out more by listening to the podcast.
If you have any feedback email realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675
September 4th, 2022
SPICE IT UP
Know Your Cardamoms.
There are many budding chefs and cooks that use heaps of spices in their recipes going by the success of cooking shows on television.
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| Green and brown cardamom pods |
Indian, Asian and Mexican cooking particularly calls for a wide selection of these different spices.
Some spices though come in a variety of grades, colours and uses making it possible for the unsuspecting cook to make a blunder.
This may not necessarily result in a vast difference in the final flavour, but it can make your creation not as 'flavoursome' as it should be.
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| Brown Chinese Cardamom |
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| Brown (black) Indian cardamom (right) |
Would you say you ever used cardamom pods or cardamom?
Did you know that there are different coloured cardamoms?
Cardamom pods are one such spice that comes a variety of colours and suit different cuisines.
So if you think there’s just the one, you may have been doing your recipes and cooking a disservice.
- So which one should you use?
Ian Hemphill says the default cardamom is the green cardamom pod. Inside are little black to brown seeds which is the important part of the pod.
There are a couple of other cardamoms.
Brown cardamom-Indian and Chinese
- The brown Indian cardamom is a much larger pod than the green cardamom by 4-5 times the size. This cardamom has a smoky aroma and is especially used in tandoori dishes.
- Chinese cardamom is usually used whole.
White Cardamom-be careful that you are actually get the real deal white cardamom and not bleached old cardamoms.
Thai cardamom is the genuine white cardamom.
White cardamom is hard to source.
If you are cooking Thai dishes that call for this cardamom you may substitute green cardamom but half the quantity.
NOTE: Cardamom is also used in sweet dishes such as this cardamom scented rice pudding (pictured), cardamom cake and cardamom biscuits. Definitely use the sweet or green cardamom and not the brown cardamom!
* Ian’s big tip is never grind the pods and seeds together.*
Let’s find out more by listening to the podcast.
Hopefully that’s set you on the right path to using the correct coloured cardamoms in your cooking.
June 20th, 2022
PLANT DOCTOR
Germinating Native Seed
Australian plants have evolved over thousands of years to respond to a variety of climatic extremes, from fires, to droughts to floods as well as being grazed by native animals.
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| Wattle seeds need boiling water treatment |
Such a long, long time for plants to evolve as well as being isolated from the rest of the world has meant that a high diversity of flora abounds, so that it would be unusual to think that everything grows the same way.
Australian plants have developed various adaptations so that the seeds of which can grow in the most suitable environment for that species of plant to survive.
A suitable environment often means seeds don't germinate until a bushfire removes competing plants giving the seeds more access to sunlight and nutrients.
Then they only have a short window to germinate.
The hard seed coat is therefore a protective layer that allows the seed to stay dormant for great lengths of time, even years before germination.
So how do plants keep germinating and what tricks have native seeds to keep them alive until conditions are right?
There are specific requirements for some seeds and in fact a wide range of native seeds require you, the gardener to break their dormancy before they germinate. Some are more difficult than others.
So what are some of the treatments to break native seed dormancy?
Boiling water or hot water treatment is recommended for hard-coated seeds such as Acacia (wattle)and Hardenbergia species .
This involves boiling some water and waiting for a minute so it's just off the boil, then soaking the seeds for a few to eight hours. The time varies depending on the seed.
Smoke chemical treatment or smoke treatment to break the dormancy of native seeds.
Wildflower seed starter granules or similar, are vermiculite or another bio material that contains the smoke chemicals from the burning of bush materials.
The way you use it is to sprinkle some on top of the potting mix after sowing the seeds, and on the first watering, the smoke chemicals are released over the seeds.
You can also put some of these seed starter granules in the soaking water of the seeds in the hot water treatment method.
- Not all seeds need smoke chemical treatment, but there's a few that benefit from using it, in fact are difficult to germinate without it.
- Sturt Desert peas comes to mind, also Dianella, Philotheca, Xanthorrhoea, Actinotus, Callistemon and Banksia.
As a general rule, sowing and smoking should be done when you would expect the seeds to germinate in nature.
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| Flannel flowers |
Both these methods basically speeds up what often takes months or even years in nature to get seeds to germinate.
TIP: Be aware of the germination temperature that seeds need to germinate.
But what other tricks are there?
Steve talks about germinating Davidson plum seeds using the hot water treatment in the podcast.
So let’s find out more.
I'm talking with Steve McGrane, horticulturist and agriculturist.
I hope that’s given you some idea about perhaps why some of the native seeds are more difficult to germinate than regular seeds.
In fact not everything germinates the same way, and here lies the problem.
That’s why a bit of research into the seed type you’re trying to germinate goes a long way.
If you have any questions you can email us Realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2rrr, PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.
March 20th, 2022
Plant Nutrition Deficiencies:Phosporus and Potassium
We have talked bout the role nitrogen played in played health and what to look for if a plant was deficient in one of the major nutrients, being Nitrogen.
- In fact there are three major nutrients which are classified as NPK ratio on the back of all fertilisers. So in this part of the blog, we carry on with the two other major or macro nutrients.
Let's look at phosphorus deficiency
Phosphorus is responsible for the development of flowers and fruits and roots.
- Phosporus is known as a mobile nutrient which can move around the plant to where it's needed.
- Phosphorus deficiency happens more often in cold weather or gardens receive high rainfall, or a combination of both.
- Often affects heavily fruiting plants such as citrus.
- N..B. native plants are highly sensitive to phosphorus, so avoid spreading phosphate fertilisers near these plants.
First Symptoms: Older leaves become quite a dark green then develop a purplish tinge.
Tips will then dry off. Not to be confused with lack of watering especially in pot plants where leaves can also develop dry tips.
Overall growth is affected in the long term resulting in smaller leaves and stunted growth.
Quick Fix: Fertiliser high in phosphate either solid or liquid.
Long term fix: Blood n' Bone and/or controlled release fertilisers.
Let's look at potassium deficiency
Potassium is responsible for thickening of cell walls, and also responsible for plant growth. Potassium deficiency are more evident in flowering or ornamental plants. Potassium deficiency often is a pH issue in the soil.
First Symptoms: Older leaves become brown and dry on the upper surface, with leaf edges puckering slightly.
As the deficiency progresses, the leaves darken in colour between the veins.
Flower stalks become thin and spindly and may be quite short.
Fruits may fail to develop full colour and flavour.
Quick Fix: Fertiliser high in potassium either solid or liquid, such as sulphate of potash.
Long term fix: Blood n' Bone and/or controlled release fertilisers.
Listen to the podcast: I'm talking with Kylie Last horticulturist and tafe teacher.
I would recommend becoming familiar with the NPK ration on fertilisers, whether organic or not to see if you’re applying the right sort for your plants.
For example, fertilisers that promote flowering and fruiting have higher ratios of potassium than those that are just for general purpose fertilising.
If you have any questions you can email us Realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2rrr, PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.
March 19th, 2022
PLANT HEALTH
Plant Nutrition Deficiencies: Macro Nutrient Nitrogen
The 'Plant health' segment was created for my radio show "Real World Gardener,' as a division of the 'Plant doctor' segment, because I felt that it’s important to focus on what can go wrong with plants that isn’t a pest or a disease.
In the following audio podcasts, you will hear about what to look for in plants that have deficiencies of one of the macro nutrients: Nitrogen:Phosphorus:Potassium; in other words NPK or the macro nutrients.
Gardeners can often see problems appearing first in the colour of the leaves, but this can also be followed closely by lack of vigour, stunted growth and general unthriftiness of the plant.
The key to diagnosing problems, however isn't just looking at the colour of the leaves but it's knowing your soil type and soil pH.
Yes, I know, we do go on about soil pH but that often underlies the reason behind your plants' problems.
The other underlying problem may be insufficient drainage which causes waterlogging of the soil.
That said, we will assume that you soil pH is around 6.5 - 7 but your still seeing issues that are showing up in the leaves. So what next?
Macro Nutrient Nitrogen
Nitrogen is one of the three big nutrients or macro nutrients that plants need.
Nitrogen is responsible for leaf growth and blossom formation.
First Symptoms: Oldest leaves start to appear pale first, yellowing at the leaf tips then eventually the whole leaf will turn yellow.
Quick Fix: Soluble fertiliser high in nitrogen.
Results should appear in a few days.
Long term fix: Blood n' Bone and/or controlled release fertilisers.
Nitrogen on it’s own can be useful for quick greening of lawns and leafy plants like ferns in pots when the potting mix is depleted of any nutrients.
Listen to the podcast: I'm talking with Kylie Last horticulturist and tafe teacher.
If you have any questions you can email us Realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2rrr, PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675.
February 25th, 2022
PLANT DOCTOR
Brown Rot of Stone fruit
There’s plenty of cultivars of stone fruit trees that can fit into any size garden.
Trixie and Pixie dwarf nectarine and peach trees have been around for years.
“There’s even a nectarine tree classed as Super Dwarf called ‘ Peach Sunset” that is grafted onto super dwarfing rootstock to produce a more compact tree growing to around 1.5 m tall.
This Nectarine is self fertile so only one tree is needed.
- But before we get too carried away, what are the cons for growing stone fruit?
- Is deciduous a con? Possibly, because stone fruit tree are deciduous so if you don't like the bare look in winter, stone fruit trees are not for you.
- Do you need two trees for fruit set? Not always so do your homework.
- Preventative spraying for peach leaf curl and brown root of stone fruit may be needed.
Perhaps I'm preaching to the converted and you already grow stone fruit.
Also perhaps, like me, you've never had a delectable harvest stolen from under your nose due to a fungal disease.
Imagine this, ripe luscious fruit that you pick and place in your fruit bowl. A day later, the same fruit has inexplicably in part turned a mushy brown, soon to be consumed completely by the fungus.
Or you have bunches of fruit on your tree and some of the start dropping off or look like in the image, with a brown sunken fungal growth.
- The bad news is, it's too late to do something about it now.
If you don’t want a repeat of those nasty surprise in your stone fruit, you have to be pro-active with preventative spraying in winter when the tree is leafless and dormant.
Spraying with sulphur at that time is a good go to all round spray.
You may even have to open the centre of established trees a bit more than usual to increase air flow.
Still, the fruit I ate off my trees this year were super delicious and well worth growing your own stone fruit trees.
For more tips listen to the podcast.
December 18th, 2021
PLANT DOCTOR
Slime Mould: What Is It?
Part 1
What do the words slime mould conjure up in your imagination?
Is it that black stuff growing in the grout and on the tiles in your bathroom?
Or is it that green stuff on your paths on the south side of the house?
You may be surprised to find that it’s neither one of those so where is it lurking?
There are a lot of other moulds that live in the garden some of which are very useful.
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| Wolf Milk Slime mould |
Slime moulds are in the kingdom:Protista.
Did you know that slime moulds have a life cycle, and when you are able to observe them, is only part of their lifecycle?
They're usually brightly coloured -reds, vivid greens, yellow and purple.
They can grow on grass, logs and pretty much anywhere where the environment is conducive.
Slime moulds are not very well known in Australia, but Tasmania has around 100 species of slime moulds one of which is called 'dog vomit.'
Slime moulds are highly useful in that they break down materials, 80% of which is made available to plants.
Let’s find out more by listening to the podcast.
I'm talking with Steve McGrane, horticulturist and agriculturist.
If you have any questions about slime mould or some feedback why not email us realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR PO Box 644
November 25th, 2021
GRAFTING TECHNIQUES Part 2
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| Approach grafting is an alternative method for citrus. |
In part 1 of grafting techniques Margaret Mossakowska and I talked about how growing from a tree such as an orange or lemon from seed isn’t all that successful unless you graft it onto hardy rootstock.
In this segment, we refresh some of those points and take you onto more grafting techniques.
There are many types of grafting that are available to be used, some more complex or more exacting than others.
My Take On Grafting
Cleft grafting I find is quite straight forward and easy to get right.
I've tried grafting Camellia reticulata scions onto Camellia sasanqua rootstock with a 100% success rate. Camellia reticulata has huge flowers, a feature I wanted growing in my garden.
Camellia 'Red Crystal' is a cross between C.reticulata ‘Crimson Robe’ and C. japonica ‘Wildfire,’ however, both are slow growing. and don't grow so fast in temperate Sydney.
I find this is a faster alternative, plus Camellia sasanquas are very hardy and less prone to root rot.
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| Camellia 'Red Crystal' |
- Grafting citrus is essential in Australia because the table citrus that we love to eat are not native to Australia, and so are prone to many diseases.
The grafted union in most cases needs to be above the ground. There is one exception and that is with lilacs(Syringia vulgaris.). Lilacs tend to sucker if grown on their own rootstock so they are grafted onto privet rootstocks.
Things to Watch Out For.
Once you've successfully grafted your desired planted, whether it's a citrus or camellia or some other favourite, there's still room for failure.
- At first the graft union may seem all fine and dandy, but if you see shoots from below the graft union, you may have a problem Houston.
- Shoots from below the graft union could signal failure of the graft and the rootstock is trying to take over.
- Keep on rubbing off these shoots and hopefully it's only a minor abberration.
- If this persists, you may find the top part or scion is slowly dying, so time to start all over.
Let’s find out more by listening to the podcast. I'm talking with Margaret Mossakowska of
www.mosshouse.com.auIf you’ve never tried grafting, make sure you get the right tools before you start.You’ll also need the correct root stock.If you have any feedback email realworldgardener@gmail.com or write in to 2RRR PO Box 644 Gladesville NSW 1675
November 25th, 2021
THE GOOD EARTH
Grafting Techniques part 1 & 2
If you’ve ever grown a tree from it’s seed, such as an orange lemon or avocado, you probably were disappointed by the result.
I daresay, that firstly, it took a long time for it to fruit, and when it did, it was nothing like the fruit that the seed came from.
After all apart from the novelty factor of being able to grow a tree from a tiny seed, the time involved isn't really worth the effort. So what to do instead?
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| Lemon tree |
- Switch to grafting methods.
Grafting is a method that would vastly improve the result all round but the word itself sounds terrifying if not complicated!
There is after all the possibility that you'll end up slicing of the tip of your finger with the super sharp budding knife, or at the very least drawn blood from the deep wound that resulted from a slip of the wrist.
I confess to having done that.
Practice makes perfect and I would recommend wearing gloves before attempting to do any type of grafting.
So What is Grafting?
Grafting is a swag of techniques that involves having a root stock that is happily growing in the ground or in a pot, whose upper part you will cut off completely.
Next, you attach a scion, a piece of plant whose features you really like, such as fruit size and flavour.
- The scion has to be a particular size and be related botanically speaking to the rootstock. That means you can't graft an apple onto citrus rootstock, because apples are in the family 'rosaceae' and citrus are in the plant family 'rutaceae.'
There are of course plenty of other reasons why you want to try your hand at grafting.
Some of these are to improve disease resistance such as for roses or fruit trees or dwarfing.
Dwarf trees are the result of grafting a scion from a tree of full size fruit onto dwarfing root stock.
- Margaret describes cleft grafting where the scion's base is cut as a 'V' and inserted into the same length slit into the rootstock. The cambium (green wood) of each must be aligned.
TIP:If you’ve never tried grafting, make sure you get the right tools before you start.
You’ll also need the correct root stock.
Let’s find out more by listening to the podcast. I'm talking with Margaret Mossakowska of www.mosshouse.com.au
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