Seed Saving – How Long Can You Keep Seeds?

The practice of saving seeds is as old as agriculture itself, and dates back to over 10,000 years ago. Early human civilizations harvested seeds and selectively bred crop plants to create domesticated varieties which displayed specific desirable traits. Saving seeds has many benefits in the present day too, it’s a very cost effective way toContinue reading “Seed Saving – How Long Can You Keep Seeds?”

Layering Overgrown Tomato Plants

Indeterminate (vining) tomatoes are very vigorous growers, and if they’re neglected they can easily become overgrown, with multiple tangled branches sprawling across the ground. If this happens to your tomato plants, all is not lost. In fact, you can take advantage of the situation to make the plants even more productive, and tidy them upContinue reading “Layering Overgrown Tomato Plants”

How to Prune Vining Tomatoes for Small-Space Intensive Growing

Want to grow lots of tomatoes in limited spaces, even containers? Ever wondered how the commercial hydroponic growers pack in as many plants as possible in their growing areas? By understanding the way tomatoes grow, we can select the right plants and utilise their growth habit for maximum production in the smallest of spaces. DeterminateContinue reading “How to Prune Vining Tomatoes for Small-Space Intensive Growing”

Crop Rotation Systems for Annual Vegetables

The great thing about gardening with annual vegetables is that it’s very cheap to get started and the plants grow very quickly, so gardeners get to see (and taste) the results of their efforts in a very short time. Some gardeners get discouraged after a few years of successful vegie gardening when things start changing.Continue reading “Crop Rotation Systems for Annual Vegetables”

Starting Annual Vegetable Seedlings Indoors

In a cold climate, such as in Melbourne, Australia, the summer is never quite long enough to grow all your summer annuals vegetables, such as tomatoes, chillies, capsicums and so on. The best way to get a long productive season is to start the seedlings early indoors, so they can be planted out in theContinue reading “Starting Annual Vegetable Seedlings Indoors”

How to Graft Eggplant onto Devil Plant

A veriety of “Devil Plant” , giant devil fig Solanum chrysotrichum for grafting eggplant Would you like to grow an eggplant tree, yes you heard right, a tree, that can produce dozens of eggplants, and not die down in winter? Well, you can if you graft eggplants (or tomatoes) onto a perennial Devil Plant rootstock.Continue reading “How to Graft Eggplant onto Devil Plant”