Backyard Farming Forum
Bringing food production home

I'm always on the trawl for stories, Chilli, so if you or anyone has a possible idea I'd be very grateful for the tip-off.

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Granny Smith

Stretchman:

Thanks for the details. It looks like a good story, but I'll have to run it past the publisher before it's a goer. I appreciate you getting back to me so quickly.

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Granny Smith

A bit of thread necromancy here, but I'm curious as to how these plants are going and what sort of yeilds you were getting from supermarket varieties :-)

I have managed this with chokos and the odd cherry tomato but I've never really thought to try anything else. I did save a bunch of pumpkin seeds last week, but right now I have nowhere to put something so sprawling. A shopping trip might be in order. I think the fancy grocery shop is the go.

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For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Nice revival Callatya! Shame you don't have room for the pumpkins as they are so easy to get going. Our pumps this year are from the seeds of last years which were grown from seeds from shop 'kins... hope that makes sense

I tried to get some purple sweet tatters to sprout little while back, but they just went mushy. Could this be due to the cold storage factor mentioned earlier in this thread?

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Gazza's IBC system

Gaz and Danae's Garden

Chokos took over my mulberry tree, and pear tree, and almost the avocado tree as well, they can be huge. They should grow above your chook height pretty quickly Duff

I'd like to plant an avocado tree does anyone have any info on them? How long would it take from seed to fruit? What would be the best way to star a seed?

If you want to use seeds from fruits or veggies from the supermarket do the seeds have to be dried out first? What would be a good way to do this? For example, how would I dry out cucumber or strawberry seeds and how long would I have to do that for.

Sorry for the late reply SO, I have heard mix reports on Avocados fruiting true to type but read enough reports of success to give it a go, I have grown four from seed,more than one variety I hope as they need cross pollination mine are 4 plus years old and so sign of fruit so they are quite slow growing, if I don't get anything in the next 10 years I will cut them down and try again with bought established trees.

If you have the space to waste I say give it a go.

As far as seed storage goes I scrape as much flesh off as possible and place the seeds on a paper towel which helps dry them out and the generally stick to the paper which can be planted with the seed and helps retain moisture while it sprouts.

Usually you can't plant a seed form an annual veg until a few months after you are picking the ripe fruit eg, harvest pumpkin in autumn and plant seed in late winter so this should be long enough to dry them out, just make sure they are full dry to the touch before you store them so they don't go mouldy.

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Why did the chicken cross the road? ... To have her motives questioned.

Chestnuts, avocado and tamarillos and mangos are all getting big and growing well but I have only had fruit form the Tamarillos so I know they will grow true to type.

I also have two pineapples growing form the tops and they are so easy to get going just lop the green top off and peel off the first few leaves to expose the small roots an plunk in the ground, also have a choko from a neighbor's vine sprouting and giving ginger a go too.

Choko

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Why did the chicken cross the road? ... To have her motives questioned.

I have several celery plants growing, we cut off the stalks and planted the base straight into the AP and off they went

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Gazza's IBC system

Gaz and Danae's Garden

I tried that twice and they started
but
Something round here loves celery they just disappeared.