Seed Savers meeting 15 September 2024

· by · in News. ·
OCA aka NZ Yam Oxalis tuberosum are starting to sprout now in September
OCA aka NZ Yam Oxalis tuberosum comes in many sizes, colours and patterns.
Youlk – Platysace deflexa and Wombat berry – Eustrephus latifolius vines growing in pots – both are perennials that have delicious small tubers.
Youlk – Platysace deflexa. An interesting West Australian perennial that produces multiple tubers.
Australian native Slender Mint – Mentha diemenica (first formally identified in Tasmania) with Warrigal Greens aka NZ spinach – Tetragonia tetragonioides
Hopniss aka the American Ground nut – Apios americana is a reliable perennial deciduous vine.
Crosnes aka Japanese Chirogi aka Chinese’s artichoke – Stachys affinis
Yacón – Smallanthus sonchifolius
Sunchoke – Helianthus tuberosus
Australian native Vanilla Lily with tubers – Arthropodium milleflorum
Murnong aka Yam Daisy – Microseris lanceolata
Skirret – Sium sisarum. the green tops are very tasty as a fresh green vegetable.
Skirret – Sium sisarum. Wonderful as a perennial tuber.
Garlics grown in pots work just fine as long as you use large pot and give them plenty of sun, water and food. This one is an asiatic group variety from Korea.
Garlics grown direct in the ground are very reliable in the Blue Mountains climate.
Some kales can get very big when in flower – this is Galega Lisa a large leaf variety from Portugal that can live for up to about 7 years.
Spring means your cabbages are likely going to flower after the cold winter. This is a savoy just starting.
While your in ground brassicas are flowering you should be getting the next crop ready. Here is some germinating white De Jesi Romanesco which is a variety of broccoli that has fractal spiral growths in its flower head.
Early purple sprouting Broccoli are usually some of the first brassicas to flower in the spring which means good eating while not much else is around.
Now is the time to get the cooler growing summer herbs germinating like Dill which needs moist soil and a cool environment to grow at its best before to gets shocked into flowering by the dry heat of summer.
Angelica archangelica and Angelica keiskei – Japanese ashitaba, literally “tomorrow’s leaf” are both cold growing plants that will grow right through a cool mountain winter providing tasty green leaf additions to soups and stews.
You can’t keep a good mint down. Here’s some White peppermint growing randomly about a metre from where a pot of it stood about 6 months ago. This is the one most commonly used peppermint for extraction of oils for deserts and lollies. It has a softer lass harsh ‘burn’ than the black stemmed peppermint.

This upcoming September meeting we are going to be talking about non seed methods of reproducing plants. Saving seeds is usually focussed on growing plants from ‘seed to seed’ through the entire cycle of life using flowers that produce seed for reproduction. However there are many reasons you would want to grow plants avoiding the seeds and relying on other methods. First there are many plants are just easier to grow from cuttings. Examples would be the mint family that use their extensive root systems to spread vigorously. Tubers, rhizomes, coms and bulbs are also very common in plants that want to and do survive in harsh conditions with extreme climates or in growth rich climates where competition requires fast responses to water, sun and available nutrients. When you grow a cutting or tuber you are essentially cloning a plant – but that means you get reliable results and stay ‘ true to type’ so that you know exactly how the plant is going to grow and produce food for you. As part of this discussion we will be looking at a few productive native Australian food plants. And we will also be briefly going over the typical spring time planting and seed harvesting activities such as managing the turnover of the brassica family plants – spring usually means both harvesting seed from winter and planting out the next batch of seedlings for summer growth.

It’s that time again!
This is just a quick reminder that the next scheduled meeting for the year 2024 of the Mid Blue Mountains SeedSavers is on at the Bullaburra Progress Hall this coming weekend.

Sunday 15 September 2024 from 10 am till Midday

Help celebrate the Blue Mountains SPRING!

This meeting will be all about alternative methods of reproducing plants not using seeds.

Come along and talk about growing things with like minded people.
Hope to see you there celebrating the current productive growing season!

The address for the Mid Blue Mountains Seedsavers website is:
https://midbluemountainsseedsavers.org/

We do now have a Facebook page as well:
https://www.facebook.com/Mid-Blue-Mountains-Seed-Savers-1629533990602860/

These regular notifications are sent out directly from the website if you subscribe to that email notification list.

Leave a comment