Fruit – Gallifrey Forest Farm

Citrus Variety Planning

2022/11/28 Danielle 0

Disappointingly, it turns out that I cannot in fact get access to the new red-fleshed Mandared mandarin cultivar being managed by ANFIC. Early discussions indicated that they would send me budwood for an evaluation planting, but.. well, the person who said that no longer works for them, and apparently failed to mention that (a) there are fruit royalties on the variety as well as tree royalties (it’s a PBR variety), and (b) it’s being managed through a massive marketing group for nationwide sales and export, and (c) therefore they’re really not interested in smaller plantings. Like I said: disappointing. It […]

Pedro Ximénez Grapevines 2022-09-30

2022/10/10 Danielle 0

[2022-08-27] Today I learned how to callus grapevine cuttings, from a very helpful and friendly gentleman at Harris Organic Wines in the Swan Valley. The same helpful and friendly gentleman who very kindly gave me some cuttings from his Pedro Ximenez vines, and talked to me about his vinyard and wine-making process (including, for example, that they make their own organic brandy there, to use in the fortified wines they produce). Previously, I’ve simply dipped the end of a grapevine cutting into rooting hormone powder and stuck it in a pot, and I’ve had about an 80% strike rate doing […]

Belatedly

2022/05/19 Danielle 0

Well, it’s been a ..I want to say year, but in fact closer to four years since I updated this. In the meantime, we actually moved out and into town for 2 years because roadworks on the main road up here were making our commute to our on-premises, in-town day jobs miserable. Then there was Covid-19, and a few changes of job situation, and the roadworks finished (finally!), so we moved back in. The farm is still going, in spite of 2 years of not living on the property, and slowly, slowly, our plans are coming together. Not helped by […]

Fruit Trees from Seed

2018/04/16 Danielle 0

The received wisdom of gardeners and horticulturalists everywhere (I’m generalising, go with it for now) is that it’s pointless to grow fruit trees from seed because they don’t come true to type. (True to type means that the fruit of the daughter plant will be the same, or very nearly the same, as the fruit of the mother plant.) There are exceptions – mangos and mot citrus produce what are called polyembryonic seeds, which means that there are multiple embryos in each seed, and only one is the result of sexual recombination – the others are asexually produced, and will […]

mozzarella, asparagus, and pomegranates

2016/11/06 Danielle 0

It’s been a busy couple’ve weeks. Summer is here with a vengeance; we had our first 37 degree (Celcius) day yesterday, although it’s back to a more pleasant temperature today. I have my first sunburn of the summer, because I’m a very silly cat and failed to put sunscreen on before heading out to the Asparagus Masterclass at Edgecombe Bros in the Swan Valley on Friday. Brilliant class, in spite of the sunburn. We started with a brief history of the winery and the local area, and some morning tea. Then all 16 of us tromped over to one […]