Spring Is Here

Spring has arrived in all her glory with a multitude of signs, from the light showers to the abundance of eggs  to the bulging bellies and udders of the animals.  The pullets have graduated to hen status, we have been finding little nests here and there.  The latest nest was filled with bright blue eggs from the flighty americauna who refuses to stay with the flock.  

Gingers udder has been forming.  When she runs up and down the hill her udder sways back and forth.  















We have been avidly reading Calving the Cow and Care of the Calf, by Eddie Straiton, which has been said to be the best book on the subject with hundreds of color photos. 
Preparing for a calf in early May has got us scurrying to gather and build last minute necessities.  

There has also been some exciting activity in the apiary.  We have split one of our Warre hives to create an artificial swarm with the hopes that the hive will hatch a new queen.   In anticipation of the Intro to Natural Beekeeping class coming up this weekend we have also built an observation hive.  The lull of winter is certainly over, there is lots going on and so much to do.  Here we go....Happy Spring everyone!

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Christmas mugs for science dudes

Christmas is coming really fast!!! For the TV people Christmas left (end of September early October) wherever Christmas comes from, under an enormous cacophonous violence perpetrated by the classic Top 50 songs of Christmas. Blame George Michaels Wham and Mariah Carey. 

If you are either overwhelmed by the million options youve been presented too or have no idea what to offer your professor, colleague or friend... here are some ideas I "mugged" from the web (click on the image for a bigger picture).

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Shes turning 1

My sweet beautiful little baby girl is about to turn. It has been an amazing year with her. She has grown up so fast. She is cheeky, oh so cheeky. She is clever, and gentle and beautiful in every way. She still loves her mummy cuddles and her mummy milk. We snuggle all day and all night. I am so blessed to have her.

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The best pancakes ever

I made the best pancakes ever, seriously far out. Do not cook these if you do not want to eat them all.

I will do my best to share the recipe but I am a bit of this bit of that abracadabra I have food sort of cook.

So here is is:

• handful or so of almonds
• shake of the bag of chia seeds

mill in your thermomix speed 9 till it sounds milled (seriously who counts) or buy them premilled and at this point make some grinding whizzing sounds yourself.

• 1 banana
• 4 eggs

Mush it all together on speed 4 or mix as fast as your little arm will go.

•  roughly 1 cup of self raising flour or whatever flour takes your fancy that day
• 1 cup of milk (ooh looky arent I fancy measuring)
• a good pour of honey from the jar

Mush it all together again with your choice of musher.

Cook, eat, drool, lick the bowl clean even the batter of this stuff is good.

Enjoy my fellow bloggers

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Russian Crocodile the zombie drug that eats junkies

I have been postponing this article for a long time because I couldnt find enough information on this serious topic. It appears that there is a flesh-eating drug, becoming ever so "famous" in Russia, named Krokodil (Crocodile). But what is in fact Krokodil, its components, its origin, side-effects, short/long term effects. This post is the informational fix youve been longing for. And now that I noticed the drug has entered the United States it is time to blow the alarm. Be ready because this is no fun at all, this is serious stuff as you will be able to judge right after I go through the answers for most of the questions we have on the matter. I hope that after these you can be aware that this new mixture can really "zombify" the bodies of people close to you.

What is Krokodil?

Krokodil is an opioid derivative of codeine named Krokodil in the streets, but its real name for pharmacists would be Desomorphine, plus a lot of other noxious ingredients mixed by street dealers. Among these hazardous compounds one can find gasoline, paint thinner, hydrochloric acid, iodine, red phosphorous [1, 2]. Let me very briefly explain a few concepts to you: opioids are medications that relieve pain and codeine is a medicine used to treat mild to moderate pain. This drug can be produced just like illicit metamphetamine is "cooked". The name Krokodil clearly derives from the green, dark, dead and moribund aspect the flesh gains as if one was turning into a crocodile (see image).

Where did it come from?
Apparently, it was first formulated in 1932 as a derivative of morphine; it is patented in Switzerland under the brand name Permonid [3]. Permonid is known to be 8 to 10 times stronger than morphine, and because people are always looking for incredibly stupid ways of destroying their lives, it became a recreational drug for hardcore junkies. Later in 2002 this drug jumped frontiers and "landed" in cold rural Russia, turning into a customary drug due to the easiness of manufacturing protocols [1]. It was actually an Afghan fungal crop disease that reduced opium production by 48%, back in 2010, that made people move from heroin to injectable over-the-counter codeine (easily found in compositions for common colds and cough) [2].

What are the effects of using Krokodil?
It has sedative and analgesic effects, but let me tell you of the most visible and shocking ones. The compounds within cause blood poisoning and the acids cause vessels to burst, and then corrosion of the tissues occurs all the way to the bone. Open ulcers, infections, gangrene, limb amputations. Liver and kidney damage. The typical rotting gums and tooth loss [2]. Etc Etc Etc to the classical HIV.

Is Krokodil addictive?
Tremendously! Especially considering that it costs a third of the common street heroin. There are now over a million people in Russia ghastly dying on Krokodil, but it has also been reported in other places like Germany, Georgia, Ukraine, Norway and Kazakhstan [2].

How do I know my friend is on Krokodil?
Oh youll know, and that will not be Shawn of the Dead fun.

[1] Why are millions addcited to a drug that eats  the flesh of their bones?, Forbes, [http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2013/12/10/why-are-millions-addicted-to-a-drug-that-eats-the-flesh-off-their-bones/], last visited on the 5th of December, 2015; last update on the 12th of October, 2013.

2] Krokodil (Desomorphine), [http://www.drugs.com/illicit/krokodil.html], last visited on the 5th of December 2015, last updated on the 21st of October, 2014.

[3] Permonid - PubChem, [http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/5362456#section=Top, last visited on the 5th of December 2015, last update unknown.

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Back with a bag of goodies for my audience

Im back to work my friends, but let me tell you, Ohhh what an amazing time I had in Portugal. Let me briefly flash it back to revive all those sunny melting days I had over my skin. It started with two weeks in Monte Gordo where I introduced my 7 months old to his first experience with beaches and salty water; with quick visits to Vila Real de Santo Antonio and Castro Marim. An interlude to know our respectful neighbours of Isla Antilla and Ayamonte. And finished with a pinch of Santarem, the capital of goth art in Portugal. I tasted Portuguese delicacies that would made monks go horny... You dont believe me? Try them yourself and let me know of the incredible addictive side-effects! Check the links for mouth-watering images of Portuguese Doughnuts (Bolas de Berlim), Portuguese Custard Tart (Pastel de Nata), Farturas - ohhhh my gooood I love them so much.

It was a lovely replenishing time that allowed me to see family and friends, enjoy the Portuguese atmosphere and learn from others. Had great conversations about a bunch of subjects I want to bring to the blog starting next week. Stuff like MyFitnessPal, aquaponics; Science4YouToys - a Portuguese company doing great with their science workshops/toys for kids, the financial progress of the pharmaceutical market in Europe and a lot of other interesting stuff.

I read some books and even managed to bring a crazy one along. Parental Advisory, this book has nothing to do with science and a lot to do with crazy dudes from the country where the World Cup is taking place. The book Im talking about is "PornoPopeia" and if you want to rest your neuronal synapses for a bit and have a great contagious laugh, be my guest.

But dont worry, Ill keep in touch in the coming weeks, as soon as Im done with my 3rd year PhD Presentation/Symposium, and well learn together about so many interesting things. Haaaaaaa, I cant wait, I love this blog.

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Saving Micro Tom from extinction

Micro Tom is a miniature dwarf variety of determinate tomato plant, it is the smallest recognised variety of tomato plant in the world.  

Micro Tom does not grow the smallest tomatoes, that record goes to some larger tomato plants, Micro Tom grows the smallest tomato plant.  From everything I have read it grows a reasonable number of good sized cherry tomatoes on a tiny plant that grows to 6 inches tall at most.  Many growers claim that Micro Tom never exceeds 2 inches (about 5cm) tall for them.

Micro Tom tomato starting to flower

Such a tiny plant sounds great to use for childrens gardens, or being grown by balcony farmers as well as people who would like to grow some produce on the kitchen window.  Many elderly people who can no longer garden would still be able to tend to micro tomatoes in a window box or similar.  Being so small means that Micro Tom can be grown in a cup of soil on a window and still produce an edible harvest, people who are renting tiny apartments will still be able to grow these beauties.  Even though one will never feed their entire family from micro tomatoes, I think they are still extremely useful.

Having such a unique set of genes also lends itself well to breeding small varieties of tomato or even using as a dwarfing rootstock on which to graft larger varieties.  The days of having a lot of space to allow plants to sprawl are over unfortunately, we need to breed great tasting smaller vegetable plants or graft onto dwarfing rootstock.  Many of the better tasting dwarf tomatoes still reach 4 to 5 feet tall and are simply too large for balconies.  This is where Micro Tom and other micro tomatoes will become increasingly important.

A few years ago, probably about 10 years, tomato seeds stopped being legal to import into Australia due to quarantine restrictions.  This means that whatever varieties we have now (or anything we can breed from them) are the only varieties that we will ever have.  This also means that people may have some old packets of tomato seed in their cupboards that they imported years ago which may be the only seeds of that particular variety in Australia.  It is important that these varieties are not allowed to go extinct in Australia because if they do we will lose them and their unique genes forever.

Micro Tom seedling

I searched for Micro Tom seeds or plants in Australia.  Overseas many seed sellers carry them but nowhere in Australia had them.  I spoke to some seed savers and they had never heard of them.  I started to think perhaps Micro Tom was not here.  After some of the conversations I had with experienced seed savers it started to seem likely that no micro tomatoes were in Australia.

Eventually I found a very generous grower who said he grew them about 10 years ago and could send me the old seeds, but he could not guarantee they would grow.  He used to sell tomato seedlings at markets and would give away Micro Tom plants to kids whose parents bought plants from him.  What a great idea!  They were so small that they can produce fruit even if grown in a plastic cup of soil with drainage holes.  That very generous person actually sent me the entire remains of the seed packet that he had imported years earlier, we can work out how long he has owned the seeds but have no way of knowing how old they were before the seed company sold them to him.

The old Micro Tom seed packet only had about 9 seeds, given the age of the seeds and probable low (or no) germination rates this means I had to make every seed count.  Being so old I did not want to wait another 9 months until Spring while the seeds age even further to sow them in fear that they would then be too old to germinate.  Being the end of Summer it was not the right time to plant tomatoes so I did not want to waste my only chance by sowing them then and having the plant flower when it is too cold to set fruit.

Having such a low number of seeds meant I had to make a difficult decision.  I wanted to ensure my best chances of growing these and bringing them back from the brink of extinction in Australia, so I decided to plant 3 of these precious seeds straight away on January 31 and hope to get them to produce fruit in time, save the rest of the seeds to plant the following Spring and hope they are not too old to grow.  That seems like the most likely way I can have a positive outcome from this endeavor.

I read about growing old seeds and did a few things to help them, out of the 3 old seeds planted 1 germinated about a week later.  I gave them plenty of time (several months) but the other 2 seeds never germinated, but that one seed germinating so fast gives me hope that I may be able to get some of the others to grow in Spring. 

Micro Tom ready for transplant

This one tiny seedling did not grow very fast, but it looked healthy.  I grow everything organically here, but due to the tight time constraints here I decided to buy a small container of fertiliser and have used it on this one plant.  When the seedling got a little larger I planted it into a pot so that I could move it and protect it as best I could.  Then we had some cool nights down to about 2 degrees and I feared an early frost.  Early frost will not kill the plant as it would be under shelter over night, but it may stop flowers from forming fruit and if it does not produce viable seed then there is trouble.

I have read that Micro Tom takes around 50 days to maturity.  Unfortunately this means nothing to me.  The stated days to maturity for tomatoes are generally days from a 30cm tall plant being transplanted until maturity.  Micro Tom never reaches 30cm tall, I transplanted mine at around 1cm or 2cm tall.  An overseas breeder tells me that Micro Tom takes around 120 days to picking the first fruit from planting the seed.  This means if all goes well the first fruit would be ripe around the end of May.  Given the cooler nights and lowering day time temperatures this may be pushed back further.

Micro Tom 3cm tall and starting to flower

I had started to move Micro Tom into the sun during the day and put it under the verandah next to the warmer mud brick for protection at night.  As the days were cooling I think the plant will grow slower, so I left it in sunlight during the day and moved it into the laundry at night.

The laundry is slightly warmer than the verandah and it has access to electricity.  I have a grow light hooked up and this shines on the Micro Tom plant over night which hopefully will help it grow a little faster as it will be getting more light each day.  People often complain about cheap grow lights not having the right spectrum light, but as it is still getting some natural sunlight most days and the grow light were merely supplemental light this should not be too much of an issue.  The grow light emits some heat as well as light, so the plant and its roots should stay slightly warmer over night.

Micro Tom, such a tiny plant with such massive potential

This tiny Micro Tom plant started to flower at around 2cm to 3cm tall, assuming that any of the flowers work and set fruit I plan to save every seed that this plant produces so that I can do a larger grow out in Spring and get enough seed to distribute.  In Spring I also plan on sowing the remaining few seeds in the old packet, hopefully I end up with a decent number of plants and a good number of fresh seeds.

I doubt Micro Tom will grow a great deal taller than this

I dont grow novelty vegetables or ornamental plants very much, I usually prefer productive edible plants.  Some of my favourite plants (such as perennial leeks or yacon) provide massive yields of food throughout the year.  Somehow Micro Tom has captured my heart, I find it to be a delightful little plant and hope that I can bring it back to popularity in Australia.  I grew the plant in the photos using a 7cm pot of soil.

 I also have great breeding plans (once I have saved enough seed that I am not worried about losing this variety) of using it to create new varieties of micro tomatoes that are higher yielding as well as perhaps creating some different coloured micro tomatoes or some with higher sugar contents etc.

I have plans of incorporating the multiflora gene into any new variety of micro tomato, that way balcony farmers should be able to grow exponentially more tomatoes from the same tiny space.  I have a good tasting dwarf multiflora tomato that I want to use as the other parent in this cross.  Incorporating the multiflora gene into micro tomatoes, in my mind, will be the ultimate goal for every micro tomato breeding venture as it will maximise the use of limited space ensuring the largest possible crop from each plant.

I would be keen in the future to breed some parthenocarpic micro tomatoes which will set fruit in cold weather even if the flowers are not pollinated.  I would love to use Micro Tom as a rootstock for a large fruiting tomato such as Giant Siberian Pink and see if I can grow a very small plant with huge tomatoes. Only time will tell if I get around to these projects though.

Micro Tom, getting slightly larger and flowering well

There are many useful possibilities that simply would never happen if we have no micro tomato breeding stock in Australia.  If you have any old packets of vegetable seeds that you have not seen around in a few years please grow them and save seeds as you may be the last in our country to have them.  If this is not possible then please consider donating them to someone else who will grow them and save their seeds.  We dont want to lose too many more vegetable varieties in Australia!

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My Mini Aquaponics Set

Hai everyone, since my bigger aquaponics set left behind in Sabah. Therefore I made a new one here in Johor. This is just experimental indoor set. Because of large space is not available, I just make a mini set. I have gone through a lot of trouble in finding the material needed, and finally, this is the result.

Overall view

Grow bed

Fish tank/ container

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DIY Cider Press

Summer is almost over and the rain of Gravensteins has come to an end.  The shelves are stocked with quarts of apple sauce for winter. This year we really wanted to try our hand at pressing some of the remaining fruit into sweet cidery goodness.  So the crafty men of the house came up with this cider press which I think is quite impressive.  

Some scrap wood, bolts, screws, a car jack, a bar for the crank, a spare five gallon bucket, and an old cookie sheet make up the materials for the press.  The apples need to be crushed before they get pressed, we used a mallet covered with a plastic bag.  The process works best if the bucket is full of crushed apples when you start.

A heavy block of wood and a tree round cut and put through the planer to make them smooth are the main pressing agents.  

The crank forces the blocks of wood to tighten down around the crushed apples which pushes the cider through the drilled holes in the bucket.  

For the first few gallons of cider we just poured the juice off of the cookie sheet into jars but have now found a round stainless steel plate with a lip into which we will drill a hole so the juice can run down into a jar below the press.  The bucket worked surprisingly well and there was very little pulp in the juice.  

We have been enjoying this last bit of summer sweetness every morning in our smoothies and in the evening warmed with spices.  It doesnt seem like we will have much for the freezer the way the kids have been guzzling it down.  The taste of fresh pressed cider is one of the seasonal experiences a happy childhood is made of.   

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Dynamic Accumulators

Comfrey leaves

As we continue to work on improving our soil, we are learning about plants that gather micro and macro nutrients and minerals through their root systems and store them in their leaves.  These plants are called dynamic accumulators and can be used in the garden for many purposes.  They can be used to detoxify the soil and for gathering specific nutrients and minerals, bringing them up from deep in the ground through their extensive root systems.  We can use them as fertilizer for other plants that may be lacking those particular nutrients by cutting down the nutrient rich leaves and spreading them as a mulch or adding them to the compost pile.  Many of us are familiar with nitrogen dynamic accumulators such as clover which can fix nitrogen in the soil, restoring soil fertility.  

By planting certain dynamic accumulators that bring up calcium from the soil in a bed with plants that need extra calcium, you can create a symbiotic relationship allowing plants to flourish in a sustainable way.  Growing dynamic accumulators throughout your garden is a great way to fix deficiency in your soil as well as add diversity through their multi-functional qualities.

Comfrey, stinging nettles, yarrow, chicory  alfalfa, and dandelion are all dynamic accumulators, as well as, medicinal plants that we can use in our kitchen pharmacy.  We are interested in dynamic accumulators and their capacities for healing, not only the human body but also the earth in which they grow.  As we become aware of the powers these plants have to restore the soil and how to use them as compost teas, mulches, cover crops, and companion plants, the possibilities seem endless.  

Here is a list of some dynamic accumulators and the specific nutrients they supply:
1. Sugar Maple, Acer saccaraum K, Ca
2. Maples, Acer spp. K
3. Yarrow, Achillea millefolium K, P, Cu
4. Chives, Allium schoenoprasum K, P, Ca
5. Black Birch, Betula lenta K, P, Ca
6. Birches, Betula spp. P
7. Shagbark Hickry, Carya ovate K, P, Ca
8. Hickory, Pecans, Carya spp. K, Ca
9. German Chammomile, Chamaemelum nobile K, P, Ca
10. Chicory, Cichorium intybus K Ca
11. Flowering Dogwood, Cornus florida K, P, Ca
12. Horsetails, Equisetum spp. Ca, Co, Fe, Mg
13. Beeches, Fagus spp. K
14. European Beech, Fagus sylvatica K Ca
15. Strawberry, Fragria spp. Fe
16. Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens Mg
17. Licorices, Glycyrrhiza spp. P, N
18. Black Walnut, Juglans nigra K, P, Ca
19. Walnuts, Juglans spp. K, P
20. Lupines, Lupinus spp. P, N
21. Apples, Malus spp. K
22. Alfalfa, Medicago sativa Fe, N
23. Lemon Balm, Melissa officinalis P
24. Peppermint, Mentha piperita K, Mg
25. Watercress, Nasturtium officinale K, P, Ca, S, Fe, Mg, Na
26. Silverweed, Potentilla arserina K, Ca, Cu
27. White Oak, Quercus alba, P
28. Black Locust, Robinia pseudoacacia, K, Ca, N
29. Sorrels, Docks, Rumex spp. K, P, Ca, Fe, Na
30. Salad Burnet, Sanguisorba minor Fe
31. Savory, Satureja spp. P
32. Chickweed, Stellaria media K, P
33. Comfreys, Symphytum spp. K, P, Ca, Cu, Fe
34. Dandilion, Taraxacum officinale K, P, Ca, Cu, Fe
35. Basswood, Tilia Americana P, Ca, Mg
36. Linden (Lime in the UK), Tilia spp. P, Ca
37. Clovers, Trifloium spp. P, N
38. Stinging Nettle, Urtica dioica, K, Ca, S, Fe, Na
39. Vetches, Vicia spp. K, P, N
40. Violets, Viola spp. P

Abbreviation Key
Ca = Calcium
Co = Cobalt
Cu = Copper
Fe = Iron
K = Potassium
Mg = Magnesium
N = Nitrogen (Nitrogen fixers)
Na = Sodium
P = Phosphorus
S = Sulfur

*list from Temperate climate permaculture

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Great science news from a recent past Part II

The first post of this series was published yesterday. If you feel youve missed on great science revelations that took place in 2014, by all means, go back and check! Today I continue posting some interesting news from pundits everywhere. Caffeine, workforce frustration and salt-propelled vehicles are the articles needing your uttermost attention.

Can we overdose on caffeine? The caffeineinformer posted on the myths and true facts that involve caffeine. Facts like the half-life of caffeine being of 4 to 6 hours or people nowadays starting to show signs of caffeine intoxication. Facts like caffeine withdrawal listed by physicians as a mental disorder.  Solutions? Rutacleanse (Rutaecarpine) to detoxify the body of caffeine, or just reading this interesting article.

Workforce demotivation is a reality - we all know it but it appears that in this time and age everyone is too busy to think plain things. Solutions mostly lie on plain Occams razor attitude, but we think our brains are for complicating rather than simplifying. This incredible article by Dina Gerdeman says it all; an article I found in Harvard Business Schools website and that should be printed and sent to all HR departments in the civilised world. It is so incredibly good I cannot resume it in just a sentence; but I must say that it actually reveals something I have always been against all my life - individual rewards in a company. YES, they lead to a drop in motivation and productivity. I am a navy seal in terms of corporative thinking, we rise together, we sink together. No man should be left behind but worked with.

Saltwater-powered car approved by EU - I actually offered my nephew a toy car of the sort (see image in the bottom). It comes in a million pieces and I think that frustrated him and his father (who is not that science-driven). But to know that the real one (see image on top) is a low-cost, environmentally-friendly car that creates no emissions and might be available in the future... thats great news. Experts say it will cost around a million quid, though :S

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Breeding New Micro Tomatoes

A while ago a very generous person gave me some seeds from a miniature dwarf variety of tomato called Micro Tom.  I am very fond of this variety and am slowly building up numbers of seeds and distributing them to other growers.  This variety carries several miniaturising genes which mean that it only grows a tiny plant less than 10cm tall, this tiny plant can produce a small number of cherry tomatoes.  These cherry tomatoes taste ok and I believe the plants are meant to carry some genes for resistance of various diseases.

Breeding vegetables is enjoyable, but too often progress is slow due to only being able to grow one generation per year.  Creating a new variety of tomato often takes 5 to 10 years or more!  Breeding micro tomatoes can be a lot faster.

In any breeding endeavor the lack of space is always an issue.  After selling the property I no longer have the luxury of space which makes the problem worse.  This has started me thinking a lot more seriously about breeding a few new types of micro tomato by using Micro Tom or another micro tomato as one of the parents.  While I am trying to build up numbers of Micro Tom seeds and distribute them I am also using a small number in breeding projects.

Micro Tom tomato

Micro Tom Tomatoes are good, but they could be better
Micro tomatoes have very short life cycles so several generations can be grown per year.  They are often used in studies as a model organism due to their short life cycle.  From planting the seed to harvesting the fruit and planting that seed takes a little over 3 months.  I can potentially grow 3 to 4 generations a year, this means creating a new variety can take as little as 2 years (but probably a bit more than that).

Micro tomatoes take up a small fraction of the space of a regular tomato which allows for more plants to be grown in a small space.  Growing more plants means faster progress.  Space is always limiting when breeding new vegetables, even if I had acres of greenhouse space I could always use more to create more varieties a lot faster.

People overseas are breeding many new types of micro tomatoes, unfortunately we have no access to them in Australia as importing tomato seed legally is expensive and difficult.  To that end, if we are to have better micro tomatoes then someone in Australia will need to breed them.

Micro Tomatoes

Someone should breed better micro tomatoes
Micro tom, while cute as a button, is not the tastiest tomato in the world.  It is not bad, but it is not great either.  Someone should breed a tastier micro tomato in Australia.

Micro tom, while reasonably productive, could be a lot more productive.  Even though it takes up such little space it would be nice if it were more productive.  Even though it grows and crops well in a small cup of soil I still think the more productive the better.  Someone should breed more productive micro tomatoes in Australia.

Micro Tom grows cute red round tomatoes.  While this is lovely it would be nice to have more variety, apparently there is a small range of various colours and shapes of micro tomato fruit overseas.  Someone should breed several shapes/colours of micro tomatoes in Australia.

Micro Tom can and will grow at any time of year if protected from frost and many people overseas grow them indoors over winter.  Unfortunately if the temperature is too low it can not pollinate properly and can not produce fruit.  While this is only an issue in a small number of places that get cold enough for this to happen it is still an issue.  Someone in Australia should breed micro tomatoes that are more productive in colder temperatures.

One truss with lots of flowers, this would be a good cross for Micro Tom

Some micro tomato breeding ideas
Here are some of my micro tomato breeding ideas.  I have started some of these projects and am several generations through them with plans of releasing some of them soon, others I do not even have the other parent to make the first cross.

Different shaped micro tomato, everyone seems to love roma shaped tomatoes for some reason, so I have started to make a micro roma tomato.  It looks good and tasted great, it is not as productive as it should be but that can be fixed.  When it is more stable and perhaps a bit more productive I may try to sell the seeds through my for sale page.

Micro Roma tomato - the best tasting micro tomato so far

Multiflora tomatoes produce hundreds of flowers per truss, it would be great to have a multiflora micro tomato.  This will increase the productivity vastly making micro tomatoes more than an edible novelty and convince more people to grow them.  This is proving more difficult as the low percentage of leaf area of the micro tomatoes makes creating a tasty multiflora micro tomato a bit of a challenge.  I dont just want a productive micro tomato, I want it to taste good too.  It will happen, it will just take a little longer.

Finding the balance between lots of fruit and tiny plant, this micro tomato is under 9cm tall

Different coloured micro tomatoes are fun and pretty.  While getting the colours in is easy, getting a better tasting coloured micro tomato is the tricky part.  There is little point having an amazing looking micro tomato that does not taste great.  Green when ripe tomatoes tend to taste the best but people tend to shy away from them so I may concentrate on other colours to begin with.  Yellow, tangerine or stripey are always favourites, black (muddy brown) and high anthoycyanin lines are also options.  I dare say I will produce a few different things over the next few years.

Having tomatoes in the midst of winter is great.  Cold weather can prevent pollination in tomatoes.  I would love to one day grow a parthenocarpic micro tomato that can set fruit in cooler weather if protected from frost.  The genes here are a little tricky to work with and I dont have any parthenocarpic tomato varieties to use as parent stock so I have not yet started this project.

Breeding tastier micro tomatoes is interesting as growing conditions play a part in taste.  Different people have different ideas of good tasting tomatoes.  Taste is always going to be one of the traits I want in micro tomatoes.

Breeding new micro tomatoes would be simple and fast if we had access to many types of micro tomatoes with a wide array of genes, but in Australia we dont have access to many at all.  Things go a lot faster if the other parent is a dwarf tomato, but there are so few dwarf tomatoes in Australia that sometimes a regular tomato has to be used.  Luckily it is pretty obvious early on as to which seedlings are micro tomatoes and which are not so culls can be made while the plants are tiny seedlings.


Where to get micro tomatoes
When I have stabilised a few good lines I plan to name them and sell their seeds.  I will most likely list them on my for sale page when they are ready.  This probably wont be for a while yet as I do not have a garden or yard at the moment so progress is slow as everything is growing in pots and most of my seeds are stored away for the moment.

Micro Tomato Seedlings and regular tomato seedlings, it is simple enough to tell which are which

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The winter prune

Over winter we had around 200 fruit trees to try and prune. Needless to say we FAILED. We had 2 weeks over the winter school holidays to try and get it done. And it rained the first week. But we did succeed in getting the apples and pears completed. It was by far a huge learning curve. Neither of us have pruned fruit trees before so we were out there with the book trying to check we were cutting the right bits off.

After about 5 trees we just started hacking randomly. It was going to be far too much work being so precise. the picture above is just one row of our espaliered apples. Below is the end result of our work. I did most of this with Immali wrapped to me all snuggled and warm and sleeping. I so wish I had a photo pruning with her but I dont.

we left the other half till Spring holidays. But again it rained and we could not find the motivation to get it done.

Next year we need a new plan and a system to get the whole orchard pruned ready for fruiting.

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Bamboo Alternative Source of Livestock Feed

For about a year now we have been getting nice big bundles of bamboo trimmings from a friend who grows lots of this wonderful plant in his permaculture garden.  He frequently harvests the poles for building, cutting off the leafy bits and baling them up for us to feed to our livestock.  Bamboo is after all a grass, which is quite high in protein, up to four times as high as other fodder grasses.  The species we have been using are mainly clumping timber (Bambusa oldhamii) and golden bamboo (Phyllostachys aurea).  In Asia, farmers have been feeding their livestock bamboo for hundreds of years.  For us, this is a free and nutritious supplement for our animals.  As the price of alfalfa (and feed in general) is steadily rising, feeding bamboo is one more way we can cut our feed costs.  We have planted several types of clumping bamboo in the hopes that we can produce a small quantity on our own property.  As our knowledge of permaculture design grows we are also planning on planting part of our hillside with quantities of forage trees.  The ultimate goal is to grow as much feed as we can on our small holding. 

The real question about the bamboo is...do they like it.  YES!  The goats and cow strip the poles clean, leaving us with thin branches to use in the garden as stakes or in our hugelkultur mounds. We have even used the leftover branches for mulch. 

Bamboo is versatile with many uses and quite easy to grow.  Just be sure you research how to grow it (or better yet, contain it) before you begin!

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Around the Farm

Busy and whimsical, these not-so wintry days have been full of projects as usual.  Saving seeds from the autumn harvest, shelling limas and screening quinoa.  Spreading mulch before the rains come.  Like most gardeners and farmers, we are planning out what crops to grow, where to plant what.  Thinking about how to refine things to be more efficient while applying knowledge from lessons learned last growing season. 

The bunnies are at the cutest stage with their round bellies and naughty curiosity.  We have been finding them irresistible.  I often discover our boys walking around with their favorite bunny in a sleeve or riding on a shoulder. 

This black one is named Cashew.  They crack me up with their expressions.  ?

Not to mention the attempts to escape.  ?

Seed flats are all planted with kale, spinach, lettuce, chard, collards, peas, beets, turnips, and onions.  Sprouting quietly in the greenhouse. 

The favas are up and maturing.  We still need to plant many more, as well as some other cover crops, crimson clover and purple vetch.

Working on a larger chicken coop made from salvaged pallets.  Its still in the beginning stages but coming along nicely.  We will insulate with straw after the walls and roof are finished. 

More sheet mulched beds were made in the backyard.  The heirloom collards are growing nicely considering they are in part shade. 

We are continuing the swale onto the western part of our property.  This time last year the grass was up to our thighs.  As you can see, since we have had no rain there is no grass.  The hillside is so dry we are extending the swale to replenish the soil. 

Our grey water flows down a hose into the swale and absorbs deep into the hillside. 

Compost piles are being built in different locations around the farm for easy access to materials while gardening.  This hot pile was compiled in layers from the soiled bedding in the goat stalls, grass clippings and other green waste, aged horse manure, and some animal material in the middle (feathers, bones, etc.), then watered and turned every few days. 

There are many chores that need to be done before the rain arrives as we eagerly await planting time. 

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