KitschWitch's Edible Backyard

Joined: 13/08/10 Updated: 02/01/14 Frost:
Location: Rivett

About My Edible Backyard

Why KitschWitch Love's Edible Plants

I love everything about growing edible plants--their beauty, watching them grow and the gift of their overwhelmingly delicious fruits. It helps me to feel more connected to the Earth and the cycle of life to grow at least of my own food. I think it's very important for chidren to have that experieince too--to take responsilbilty for growing food, to know they can, to reap the tremendous satisfaction of being able to graze on the tastiest, most nutiritious food in their own garden.

Comments

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Fruit Tree Forum Contributions

KitschWitch Forum Contributions
Fruitnuts for canberra - @sssforu I moved to the Bega Valley a couple of years ago, so I'm not sure how it's doing. When I left it was still growing well but no sign of fruit. A banana passionfruit nearby took off and thrived. Lots of flowers and fruit (which tasted better..2885 days 8hrs
Pruning tamarillos - Hi JanP. Is your tamarillo in a frosty spot? I'm in Canberra, and have had different experience each year with my tamarillo--planted next to a north facing wall and under an eave for protection. For the first year, it frosted off severely, started ..3993 days 18hrs
Where to buy rooibos seeds or plants - Aspalathus linearis Herbalistics have seed listed but have been out of stock for a long time and no idea when they'll have them again. Any other ideas? Or does anyone have some they could sell me?..3993 days 18hrs
Fruit fly control - CeraTrap? I just bought one from Green Harvest. Can't yet tell you if it works. http://greenharvest.com.au/PestControlOrganic/FruitFlyControlProducts.html..4131 days 21hrs
Passionfruit27 - Good drainage will keep the vines growing well--a raised bed or mound. They are heavy feeders (manure, dynamic lifter etc are good) and organic matter e.g. compost. Not sure how this variety goes with viruses? Some varieties only survive for a few year..4131 days 21hrs

Fruit Tree Forum Likes

KitschWitch has LIKED the following:
Fruitnuts for canberra - Hi folx - I haven't seen this thread before so I read through it all. Has anyone (or does everyone) planted kiwifruit. I have seen some really productive vines in the suburbs. Heaps of fruit. My place near Canberra is too dry and windy. I can'..Liked Answer 2884 days 9hrs
Growing kiwi from seed - I currently have some kiwi seedlings that I grew from seed and as they don't grow true to type, I was wondering if anybody knew the possible varieties they could grow into. Or if they might just be non fruit bearing ? Thank..Liked Question 4118 days 3hrs
Fruitnuts for canberra - I am thinking on sapote jujube and cherimoya. We have a sheltered spot under a willow tree, but there is as well a gum tree nearby. Everything citrus I planted survived so far, but they need water manure and a bit of Epsom salt. Jackie French lists a lot ..Liked Answer 4142 days 19hrs
Did organza bags work for you - The bags won't stand up to animals or birds; only ff and even then if they were tight around the fruit they may still be stung. That's what I read from other members' post on the subject. As to Blingin; I won't buy from them again as their answer ..Liked Answer 4142 days 19hrs
Did organza bags work for you - Going to post my handy dandy vestpocket guide to making bags which exclude flies possums and bats, using household crap Next week with pics and instructions. Have a good mango picking design too...Liked Answer 4142 days 19hrs
Fruitnuts for canberra - Kitsch, strawberry guava is one of the less nice eating guavas, but is a highly attractive ornamental tree. I suggest china pear over strawberry as the fruit is high quality and it is also a very attractive tree which is easy to keep small. I rate it o..Liked Answer 4147 days 20hrs

Tamarillo - Red ^8/10

KitschWitch's Edible Fruits
Update: 4103 days 1hrs

Comments: -

I grew tamarillo previously on Mid Nth Coast NSW, and wanted to see if it would grow in Canberra. It has taken a few years, but now we have success! It's planted in front of a north facing brick wall.

The winter frosts knock it back each year. First year frosted all leaves off and the trunk began to rot. Cut it back and it resprouted and grew very fast. No fruit. Next winter it was taller, frosted again, but didn't lose so much trunk. We had flowers and some fruit, but there wasn't  enough time from flowering to fruit before winter set in, for them to get big and sweet.

This winter was a bit milder, and the plant is now up to the eaves. A few leaves were lost nut very few, and flowers developed during winter and hung on. The photo is from August showing the condition after frosts. Now (November) its covered in big, new leaves again, thousands of flowers survived through winter, and I'm expecting a bumper crop next autumn.

My advice to others in frosty areas:

1/ definitely choose a protected spot, preferably with a solid wall facing north, and eaves are an added benefit.

2/ either be patient for fruit until your plant gets tall, or be very vigilent with covering on frosty nights.

Needs quite a lot of water in summer--you can tell because the leaves wilt.

It always gets aphis but I haven't bothered to do anything about it. The plant survives and the bugs bring lovely birds to feed on them. This winter, two superb fairy wrens spent a lot of time on the tamarillo eating aphis and entertaining us outside the kitchen wihndow.

Fruiting Months May and June

Planted: 2010

Height 3 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Fruit Harvest: 1 kilograms per Year

First Fruited: 2 Years from purchase in pot

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pollination: No

Fertiliser or Organics Used: chicken manure, compost, warm castings

When I Fertilise: Spring

Pest Control:

None so far. If aphis become a problem, I'll band the trunk to keep ants from farming them. So far the birds do the work.

Organic Status:Organic

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15 of 17 people found this review useful

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Passionfruit - Sweet Granadilla (Seedling) ^9/10

KitschWitch's Edible Fruits
Update: 4145 days 10hrs

Comments: -

Passionfruit is my family's favourite and when I read that this was the best tasting pf, I had to give it a try. I thought it might be a long shot given the Canberra frosts, but planted it on a north facing wall.

So far so good. It has survived frosts quite well so far. I sometimes remembered to cover it this winter. When I didn't some of the leaves would get brown marks, but not actually die. It's more frost tolerant than the tamarillo on the same wall. And this spring it has taken off.

The photo was taken in August, so you can see there's not much frost damage.

Not hint of flowers/fruit yet, but I'm willing to wait.

I let the hose drip on it for an hour every now and then through the warmer months. I've lost black pasionfruit in the same spot in previous years and htink it might have been from lack of water.

Planted: 2011

Height 1.5 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pollination: No

Fertiliser or Organics Used: chicken manure, worm castings

Pest Control:

No pests yet.

Organic Status:Organic

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21 of 21 people found this review useful

Comments

Diabo says... [1688 days 11hrs ago]

Thanks for your post, Is there any chance that i can buy some cuttings from you to grow them, as i couldnt grow from seeds. didnt work at all Thanks, Aws

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Raspberry - Heritage (Seedling) ^10/10

KitschWitch's Edible Fruits
Update: 4822 days 10hrs

Comments: -

These are one of the best fruits we grow--very tasty, easy to grow and quite a long fruiting season. They taste so much better fresh than frozen, canned or supermarket bought.

We have quite a few varieties of raspberry. They all taste good, but  the Heritage ones have a long fruiting season through autumn (even up to June), but just a few fruits at a time. It's worth growing quite a few Heritage plants. Just buy one to start with though, because they spread like crazy from the roots so by the next spring year you will have 10 plants or so. They can be pruned out if needed and replanted elsewhere and will also grow easily from stem cuttings.

The Heritage variety fruit in their first season (from a spring planting), on the new growth. After fruiting it's best to prune them right back to ground level since those stems won't fruit again. This is easier than pruning summer-fruiting raspberries which fruit on the seond year's growth (so you have to leave the new shoots and cut back only the ones that fruited).

The stems grow fairly tall (2m) and tend to flop over if left. Ours are loosely supported by a nearby mesh fence. you can also tie nearby stems to a tall stake. This works really well and is flexible.

I estimate .5kg of fruit per plant per year--one plant = one stem. Our huge patch arose from one original plant though!

Fruiting Months March, April, May

Planted: 2008

Height 2 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Fruit Harvest: 0.5 kilograms per Year

First Fruited: 0.5 Years from purchase in pot

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Spring

Pollination: No

Pest Control:

None needed. The birds don't seem to get them. Children are the main risk :)

Organic Status:Organic

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Lemon - Meyer (Grafted) ^9/10

KitschWitch's Edible Fruits
Update: 5341 days 10hrs

Comments: -

This tree is about two years old now and has been fruiting for the past 2 months--around 50 fruit altogether. During the first year I removed all of the flowers so the tree would put its energy into growth. There have already been more flowers so we should have another flush of fruit in a few months.

The fruit are large, not as bitter as traditional lemons but great for most purposes. My children like to suck on them (but then they also suck on trad. lemons).

The tree is very healthy, no discoloured leaves. We feed it with compost and it also gets a good share of urine during the warmer months! I might have put some trace element mix on it at some stage and would do so again.

it is growing in front of a cream-painted north facing wall, which suits it well. I will try a traditional lemon soon to see if that also goes well in the frosty Canberra climate.

Fruiting Months June, July, August

Planted: 2008

Height 1.2 metres

Growing: In the Ground

Qty: 1

Fruit Harvest: 50 Fruit Per Year

First Fruited: 2 Years from purchase in pot

Sun/Shade: Full Sun

Water Given in: Spring

Pollination: Self Pollination

Fertiliser or Organics Used: compost, urine

When I Fertilise: When Fruiting, Yearly, Winter, Spring

Pest Control:

None needed so far.

Organic Status:Partially Organic

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26 of 28 people found this review useful

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