Snake Bean Troubles
After discussing gardening with an old bloke at work a few months back, he gave me a small jar with some bean seeds in it and told me that they would be the best beans that I would ever eat. The original parent seeds were reported to have come from Italy about 10 years ago, seed has been saved and kept in the family for that time. I feel that I am very lucky to have been allowed to grow these special beans.
I felt a bit like Jack from Jack and the Bean stalk, except I didn’t have to sell my cow or upset my mother. I came home and planted them out and watched them grow.
I’m not sure if they’re called snake beans because the beans look like snakes or the plants grow up the support I gave them like snakes… I think it may be both.
Now they’re about two meters in height (6ft 8in) and are beginning to flower, except the nice healthy leaves have turned a yellow colour in the past few days.
Can anyone help?
There are some great Snake Beans being grown over at Balcony Greens
Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed
First Passionfruit Flowers
After much tender loving care my passionfruit has grown from a small 3 inch pot sized stick back in February to a fairly large flowering vine by July is a fair effort. I was expecting a 12 month waiting period for the first fruit, bu t a couple of days ago I found the first flower buds.
With a little help I pollinated the first flower to ensure that I get at least one fruit, not that I don’t trust the bees around here, its just that there is a whole mango tree full of flowers to compete with. 
There’s a baby passionfruit in there…
Un-opened flower bud.
From this to this in 5 months…
Tags: garden, passionfruit, flowers
My New Camera…
Today I lashed out and purchased a new camera!
It’s a nice Canon EOS 400D Digital SLR Twin lens kit with Image Stabilising.
Tomorrow I’ll get out into the garden and take some photos for you all!
Creative uses for old wood
I just visited The Home Garden blog and found this great post about recycling old pieces of trees.
They have created some very simple but attractive designs using nothing more than a tree branch and a chainsaw.
Check it out at The Home Garden
I would love to create some items like this in my garden, but fear that the wood would attract a termites nest, bringing them closer to my home. I guess I’ll have to move further south where they are not as much of an issue.
Tags: garden, wood, recycle, furniture
DIY Inverted Planter
Remember Mr Squiggle? “Upside down Miss Jane…”
If you’re not from Australia then maybe not.
Anyway, I saw a link the other day to an upside down tomato planting system. Being a commercial version it cost around $27 to get one delivered.
I thought that it was a great idea, but it looked like it would only last one season of growing due to it’s flimsy plastic design, I quickly forgot about the planter.
Yesterday I was browsing through Instructables.com and found there was a post on how to build your own Inverted Planter for next to no cost.
The idea of an inverted planter is that there is no need to tie your tomato plants to a trellis, as gravity holds them hanging down freely.
The following is taken from the commercial version’s website:
Use your Topsy Turvy™ to grow deliciously ripe tomatoes for homemade sauces, sandwiches, salads and more without harmful pesticides or backbreaking work.
Tags: gardening
Growing Passionfruit Followup
After having 13 comments, many of them questions, on the post How To Grow Passionfruit, I thought I would follow up with some answers.
When is the passionfruit ready for
picking? Do I wait until it turns from green to purple and wrinkled, or
do I pick it green? thank you
The
fruit will quickly turn from green to deep purple (or yellow) when ripe
and then fall to the ground within a few days. They can either be
picked when they change color or gathered from the ground each day. To
store passion fruit, wash and dry them gently and place them in bags.
They should last 2 to 3 weeks. The fruit is sweetest when slightly
shriveled. Both the fruit and the juice freeze well
Can I grow a Yellow Passion fruit from the fruit seeds that I will bring
from Peru? and I wonder if the rainy weather of Washington State would
help or not?
I wouldn’t be bringing in seeds from another country as they could contain
deseases that could cause the local passionfruit vines to die.
Growing Passionfruit from seed can be done. but is not the best way
to go. If you have a hybrid variety it will not grow the hybird variety
from the seed, also if you do not live in a true tropical area your
root stock will not be resistant to Fusarium wilt. Grafted plants
generaly will not get Fusarium wilt.
I might give this a try this year. I’ve been going big on growing my own
food for about a year now and this year am also adding blackcurrents
and mushrooms to the produce I already grow at home. I figure that my
garden is closer than the supermarket so I’m saving time as well as
money and getting better food.
I am living in South Africa in the Northern Cape (Kalahari) which is semi
arid. We have very hot summers and cold winters with frost. Will they
grow in our region and how can I protect them in winter?
How often must they be watered in summer and during winter?
Passionfruit love hot summers as long as they have plenty of water, but they do not like frosty conditions. Maybe you could create a protective cover for you vine over the winter months
Passionfruit love lots of water in both summer and winter, and since they are such gross feeders they love lots of nutrients as well.
Hi I have grown a magnificent 6 m trellissed granadilla.It bares large
flowers and then drops the flowers one by one never reaching the fruit
stage. The plant is now 6 years old and to date has never given a
single fruit.
Is there a solution to this problem or is this just a rogue plant that looks fabulous.
Kevin
Kevin, I think that it may be a potassium deficiency. Purchase a packet of Sulphate of Potash and mix it up at double the rate on the packet. Pour it allover the root zone and water in well. Then mix up a half strength batch and pout it on the leaves with a watering can. Potassium is the nutrient that encourages strong flowering and fruiting, while nitrogen is used to produce lots of leaves. You can use Potash on any of your plants to improve the growth of their flowers.
I heard it is possible to grow passion fruit in Chicago–is that strictly
inside or….Also loved the “banana” passionfruit I ate in New Zealand as
a child-any news on obtaining those plants?
Hi, I’m not from America so I am not very familiar with the climate. In short passionfruit do not like frost or snow. So if it snows in Chicago then you may need to grow your vine indoors if there is plenty of light provided.
i have a case of passion woodiness how is it controlled
- magnesium deficiency
- nitrogen deficiency on sandy soils
- ‘winter yellows’. This is brought on by cold weather, windy conditions, low humidity or a combination of these.
I have had a passionfruit vine growing over my clothes hoist in the
backyard for many years, it is an unusual passionfruit that was given
to me, on the top of the passionfruit there is a stub that is attached
to the passionfruit and it has quite a soft outer casing.
It could be either the Alata or a Granadilla I am not too sure but the
problem is that it does not get any passionfruits on it, it gets the
flowers and then they drop off without going to fruit.
Do you know what can be wrong with the passionfruit vine.
The passionfruit is even more than the Panama Passionfruts
Regards
Sandy
Sandy, Maybe you have a boron and Potassium deficiency. Add some Sulphate of Potash to your plant as well as some Borax. Be careful with the borax, one teaspoon in 10 litres of water is plenty for a start. You can add two good sized handfuls of Sulphate of Potash to the soil around your vine and water in well.
hi, i live in fresno, california is it possible to grow passion fruit as
its very hot and very cold climate. also, does anyone know where i can
buy a passion fruit tree? thanks much
Tags: passionfruit, fruit, gardening
Little seeds = lots of water, Big seeds = a little water
While I was planting some pumpkins and peas in the garden yesterday I could hear the voice of my grandmother ringing in my ears…
She always used to tell me that when you are watering in seeds that you should think about their size. Large seeds absorb a large amount of water (enough to get them to germination) in the first 24 hours. Watering too much more will increase the chance of seed rot.
Small seeds require lots of water prior to germination as they cannot absorb as much as they need, and they are planted closer to the surface than larger seeds which can lead to them drying out quicker.
A tip I found on the Tiny Farm Blog - using burlap to protect the seedlings.
Tags: Gardening
How to use Soil Wetting Agents & Gels
The soil 
in my yard is sandy… In the area’s that I’ve put some effort into there is plenty of organic matter and the plants are doing well, yet the lawn area and the older garden beds there is one big issue, hydrophobic soil. Hydrophobic soil almost repels water that is put onto it, and it can take a fair bit of effort to take care of.
One method is to use Soil Wetting Agents, basicly they are a combination of different detergents which break the surface tension and disolve the waxy coating that the soil particles develop over long periods of dry weather.
Pot plants also need soil wetting agents to ensure that the water you are applying to them is working effectively. When soil inside a pot becomes dry and is then watered, the water finds the path of least resistance and flows right through to the bottom. this barely wets the soil and the plant does not access the water.
I watched Gardening Australia the other night and saw this great video on Soil Wetters and water saving crystals.
You should check it out and tell your friends.
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/video/video_index_2008_May2008.htm
Tags: soilwetter, gardening
Bio Pots
While shopping at Kmart (Australian for Walmart) I found these great new pots made from bamboo stems, rice husks and straw. 
They come in a range of great colours and are 100% biodegradable. For a 100mm pot they only cost $3 each. Quite stylish for growing herbs in.
While they are slightly more expensive than PVC pots of similar sizes I think that having a pot that is going to return to the earth rather than sit around for the next hundred years when it gets broken is a great way to go.
From their website I have found the following:
Lifespan outdoors with a plant - 1 year
Indoor with a plant - 3 years
Indoor without plant - 10 years
Benefits
- Solid, lightweight and waterproof
- Allows plant roots to breathe
- Great in greenhouse conditions
You can find more information at their website http://www.biopots.com
Who do I read?
At the moment I subscribe to around 15 RSS Feeds from other blogs.
Reading these blogs gives me ideas for my own garden, as well as providing me with some ideas to post about.
Here they are in no particular order…
I highly recommend that you should subscribe to any or all of these blogs!
You can also subscribe to my blog HERE.
