Mother Nature Got This One Wrong

In humans we call it Siamese Twins, but in horticulture this genetic disorder is a form of fasciation where two like cells merge or join as one.

Note that there are two separate flowers to show the two joined fruits.

Waiting Game

Withing a couple of minutes, this Murnong seed head started to open while I was watching it, so now in the wind I've had to put a bag on it so the seeds don't blow away.

This seed head was probably the biggest so far to even look like opening, so now we wait.

Tomato Plants - Pruned and Bagged

 Today, most of the tomato plants were pruned, then they received their second blossom bags, as part of my yearly routine. Fitting bags to the blossoms on the tomato plants is something a very rare few actually do, but I've been caught before growing plants that ended up being the wrong or crossed seed and wasting 6 months doing so.

Striking Tomato Cuttings In Water

It's been a bit slow due to the low light days but we are getting roots showing on our tomato cuttings, started 22-25th October..

Our First Collected Murnong Seed

Three seed heads collected, except for a few the wind blew away, so we'll see what we can collect over the coming weeks. Today it was blowing a gale, so I used an organza bag to cover the seed head with to allow some drying of the seed before we harvested it.

Here's some photos of today.

 

Our First Microseris Walteri Seeds

 Not getting too excited here, but our first Murnong (Microseris walteri) seed head has opened, so apart from looking like expectant parents, we're excited to see this, the first one to open.

The only concern I have is that although it is close to our apple tree, I only saw a couple of bees go near them, while the apple tree was loaded in flowers at the same time.

Anyway, we just need to see what we need to do now, before the wind blows them away. 

Seed Saving - Tomato Seeds

 Not quite how I do it, but close enough.

More Zucchini Plants

 We have some new Zucchini seedlings growing, not that we need them, but in order for us to continue growing more filial generations of our Zucchini cross, we need more yellow fruited plants. So far we were expecting four yellow plants and two green plants, but because the zucchinis are so unstable we ended up with four green and two yellow, which won't give us enough variability with just two yellow plants.

Time will tell now as we wait and see what these new ones give us, so fingers crossed.

Infested Pepper Plant

 I went for a walk after a break in the rain showers and came across one of my Madaya Pepper plants covered in some awful looking slime that resembled some sort of insect eggs. After taking some photos, I sent them to my friend Duncan to see if he could recognise them. 

Little did I realise he had posted them online and got a response and a name for this problem. An unidentified Slime Mould, a form of Myxomycetes, so I found it wasn't harmful to the plant, which was good. Thank you Duncan.

Jan later wiped it from the plant with her rubber glove and deposited in in the bin.

 

The Old Ozgrow Header

 This is the old header from my Ozgrow Garden Forum started October 2008.

Another Post from the old Ozgrow Forum

 Here's a post from the old Ozgrow days where I posted about making the change in name on my Village Red tomato, which I still grow here now.

Greek Witness Post on Ozgrow

 A blast from the past finding this old post on Ozgrow, 11 years after posting it.

June 28, 2011, 04:21:30 PM »

About 4 or 5 years ago my neighbour gave me some tomato seeds of a huge red tomato that he had given to him by a "befriended" Jehovah Witness, who's wife is of Greek nationality. She had bought these seeds here from Greece some time ago and has saved the seed each year by letting a tomato rot and dry. Now these seeds never did look very fertile going on the colour they turned out after soaking and drying, but they surprised me and did grow. I sold the seedlings I grew at my plant sale and never grew one here, and I have no idea what they look like, fruit wise. For a working name, Raymondo suggested I call them Greek Witness, which I did, hence the name.

I think I will try again and grow one in the garden this season.

 

Maybe a Variegated Tomato Variety

 Checking the new tomato plants in the garden, I noticed some variegated leaves on a plant, which looked interesting and got my attention. Knowing I was growing a second plant of the same variety furter down the garden bed, I looked at it and it too had some variegated leaves.

Probably very unusual for this variety, so I sent my friend a link to a post I made on Tomatoville. I'll have to wait until I see what he says about them.

***Addendum

Today (Thu) I took two laterals from these plants and the variegation are showing in the laterals, as seen below.

Recovering After Winter

Here are three of the five pots (10") of my Hibiscus Insularis, or the common name of Phillip Island Hibiscus, from the Phillip Island in the Norfolk Island Group. This species is listed as Critically Endangered under Australian Federal Environment Legislation, with just a few small groups of plants still remaining on the island. These plants grow to about 2.5m in captivity and as they grow, the small leaves get bigger and more leathery. I've protected them from the frosts, but they tend to lose leaves due to the cold Winters, but recover when the warmer Spring weather arrives.

These five plant have been recently potted up so I'm hoping they put on some new growth in the next month. I do have a plant in the ground in the end of a raised garden bed and it is slowly growing, which is good for here in Maffra.

Below are a couple of photos of the potted plants and a flower from the Internet. 

Hibiscus info here

My connection with these plants occurred many years ago when I owned my Ozgrow Garden Forum and was contacted by an elderly man from Mornington on the Mornington Peninsula, who wanted to make sure I got cuttings from this plant he had growing in his backyard. I had a couple of tries at taking cuttings, but never managed to get any to strike. I did however manage to get a seed to germinate and get a seedling. One day I got a phone call from his son to say he had passed and had collected some seeds for me to collect . I found the easiest way to grow these was from cuttings of the young immature seedlings and I have grown several in this time.

Hardenbergia is Poddding

These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago and shows our local form of Hardenbergia in pod after it's recent flowering. There are 100's of pods on this plant, so maybe some may germinate in the garden bed.

Also showing is the plant when in flower and a single flower.

A Look Around The Garden This Morning

 We've had some rain, not much when you compare it to other places in Australia, ut it's enough to keep the garden going strong. We ended up with a mix of colours we weren't expecting from the zucchini's, getting green fruited plants from last years yellow seed and forced Jan to resow in another bed so we can cull if we get more green, as we're hoping to carry the yellow fruit through to the next stage (F4).

Anyway, all seems good with everything today.

1. Sweet Corn & Candy Cane Capsicums

2. Zucchini Bed

3. Totem Tomatoes

4. Murnong Bed

5. Early Strawberries

6. Tomato Bed

7. Tomato Bed

8. Village red Tomato

 9. Tow Macalister (Front)

10. Macalister Pink

11 - 14. Our Zucchini's

Starting A Tomato Cutting

 Decided to take a cutting from one of my plants to have as a spare, this is just how I trimmed the cutting before placing in a glass of water.