Seed Savers meeting 1 December 2024

· by · in News. ·
Helichrysum Sp aka Straw Flowers.
Poppies ripening up for a huge crop of poppy seed.
Basella Alba var Rubra with red stems germinating in the sun and heat.
Tomatoes being grown in a small polytunnel with netting to avoid external pollination so that the varieties stay true to type. They are self pollinating this way but produce a little less when not open pollinated.
Large Silver Beet flowering stems produce huge numbers of wind pollinated seed.
The best strawberries unfortunately are always the ones on the ground in the pathways…
Aulacophora hilaris aka The Banded Pumpkin beetle
Conium maculatum aka Poison Hemlock
Amish Red Deer Tongue leaf Lettuce seed is ready to to be harvested.

This 1 December meeting will be one of our usual meetings talking about the current seasonal planting and harvesting, and swapping seeds/seedlings/cuttings between members. This is the last meeting of the 2024 year – and the next one will be mid summer on the 16 February 2025. This growing season so far has been very warm and sunny in the Blue Mountains region and ideal for growing all sorts of plants successfully. It’s a great summer to drag all those seeds out of storage and get them germinating for a ‘bumper crop’ of seeds for the future. Even now in late November we have had enough warmth and sunlight to dry out seeds successfully of the first crops that often aren’t usually ready till January. We can see here healthy ripe seeds from a very old variety of Amish Red Deer Tongue leaf Lettuce. You want to wait till at least half your lettuce flower spike has fluffed out to show it’s got fully developed seeds. The Strawberries are ripening furiously – and as usual the best ones are growing on the pathways where you walk. The winter beets are all now fully grown to a towering size with wind pollination and should be ready to harvest for a huge seed crop in a few weeks (if the parrots don’t get them first). Due to the wonderful season it’s worth trying those more ‘touchy’ or ‘edgy’ sub tropical vegetable plants like the vine Basella alba. However along with the ‘good growth’ comes problems with insects and wind blown seed ‘weeds’ like Conium maculatum aka Poison Hemlock which is a pretty challenging and nasty plant to deal with – try and avoid contact without gloves and face protection and never line trim or slash these plants as the air fills with noxious vaporised plant dust. Likewise it’s a good idea to be vigilant with the insects as they can devastate a crop in no time. Here we see Aulacophora hilaris aka The Banded Pumpkin beetle that is an Australian local with a huge appetite and desire for solanum and curcubits like cucumbers and squash. Just something to think about as you wander in awe through your vigorous, productive and exciting summer garden.

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 1 December 2024 from 10 am till Midday

Help celebrate the Blue Mountains SPRING!

This meeting will be one of our usual meetings taking about the current seasonal planting and harvesting and swapping/packing seeds and swapping seedlings and cuttings between members.

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