I ’ve been quite busy over the wintertime put to work on acquiring and propagate some cool new plant life for Florida Food Forests , along with increase my stock of standbys that prove popular in 2014 .
I ’d say the safe - sellers of last year were mulberry tree tree diagram ( I have some really nerveless change ) , pears , seniority spinach , peaches , Nipponese persimmon , Chinese water chestnuts , Celosia argentea , surinam purslane , cassava and olive .
Some of these take a foresightful metre to spread and were grueling for me to keep in stock . I in all probability could have put a circle more into people ’s hands if I ’d been able to get started originally , so this year I ’m working on it . Some things , like pawpaws , take a serious time investment funds . Two long time ago I planted around 50 seeds and buzz off about 6 to germinate … then waited calendar month until they were a respectable size … and then those sold out quickly once people realize I had them . Last autumn I generate about 200 seeds this yr from a just source and am hoping for a honest run of them this prison term .
The job with pawpaw : the seeds need to be kept in a damp mixture in the fridge for four months before they ’re sow … then it takes another few months for them to come up . I wo n’t be capable to plant the seeds I have until March , then it will plausibly be fall of this year before I have seedlings that are expectant enough to sell . 2016 should be better … this is a prospicient - haul thing .
Improved Eriobotrya japonica are another one that take clip . Since very few people grow them here , I have to grow my own seedling until they ’re big enough to graft ( this takes at least a year ) , then I ask to graft them with scions from improved potpourri , then wait for those grafts to ( hopefully ) take and grow … then I can trade them . I have a few improved tree diagram right now , but it will probably be summertime before there are ones I can sell .
Part of the challenge of being a nursery that deals in uncommon edibles is that I have to do a band of the work myself in germination , finding unknown vegetables and figuring out how to propagate them , and grafting yield tree with better types .
American persimmons are another tree I ’d bonk to carry draw of but they ’re much like pawpaws in the prison term they take to develop .
That said , this twelvemonth I ’m adding some cool new plants to the mix to see how they do .
Among other things , I ’ve nailed down the chase and I ’m aroused to see citizenry trying them here in North / Central Florida :
Chinese Chestnut treesTobacco ( oh yeah , I ’m totally growing it)Witch HazelMayapplesBlack WalnutsFlorida CranberryHazelnutsTennosui PearGiombo Persimmon
I ’m also working on get Japanese Raisin Tree , Sichuan Pepper ( wish me fate , Andi … it ’s a farseeing haul with turn these sister ) , Mysore Raspberries , Black Pepper , Kava Kava , Dragonfruit , 1000 Fingers Banana , Lion ’s Ear , Cattley Guavas , Yacon , Tea and some rarefied non - Carica figs .
It ought to be a very interesting twelvemonth . Some of the Raja Puri bananas I sold to folks last spring are already producing yield for them , so I ’m whole keeping that variety in stock .
Last yr I only had a handful of some rare plants . They would come with me to the Farmer ’s Market once in a while and get snatched up by works geek like myself as shortly as they were spotted . Solanum quitoense and Curcuma longa , coffee and eatable - leaf hibiscus ; they were somewhat much all gone by fall whereas one of my favorite plants – chaya – only seldom sell even though I think it ’s one of the dependable crop you could grow .
We ’ll reopen the cubicle at the 326 Market soon … I ’ll let you know when we ’re there . Thanks for the east - mails and the encouragement .
I am thrilled to see the great unwashed get their own food .
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