Category: permaculture

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Wild taro in Westport

Today I happened to be driving in Westport, and I noticed out of the corner of my eye, a taro plant growing on the edges of some native bush. I stopped the car, and had a closer look. Sure enough, this is definitely edible taro (Colocasia esculenta).

Wild taro in Westport

This is the first time I’ve ever seen a wild taro plant on the West Coast, excluding the many black taro (Colocasia fontanesii) and the many many Alocasia brisbanensis. It’s clear from the size and condition of the corms, as well as the companion weeds nearby, that this taro patch was just ‘garden waste’ illegally dumped into the bushes.

Taro is not very common even in garden plantings on the West Coast (unlike Auckland for example). Perhaps I’ve only seen a few taro patches in all of Westport (again excluding black taro), and one patch near Fox River. I will check on the one patch I can remember in Westport to see if it’s empty, as that would likely solve the mystery of where these plants came from.

I uprooted some plants, as they looked potentially different from the taro varieties I am currently growing (although the differences in appearance may be explainable by just growing conditions). Westport does have a deep sea port as well, so there is a tiny chance for novel plants to have entered the town from far away places via sea as well.

Closeups of the wild taro found in Westport

I have become more risk averse to just introducing taro plants into my taro collection, as I suspect I brought back a minor pest from some wild Maori GP taro I collected when I visited Northland. So I decided to try a technique I learned online from Hawaiian kalo growers, which was that they wash the huli (stem cuttings with piece of corm, used for vegetatively propagating after harvest) in the sea. It may help, it may not. At least it was an excuse to head to the beach.

Washing taro in the waves

And lastly, I found yet another wild black taro patch in a swampy piece of paddock while exploring later in the day. It looks quite beautiful with the Canna lillies in the centre.

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Shipova in New Zealand

We are excited to announce that a shipova has been located in New Zealand, and will soon re-enter cultivation.

Shipova (x Pyraria irregularis, formerly x Sorbopyrus irregularis) is an incredibly unusual, intergeneric hybrid plant. It arises from a cross between a European pear (Pyrus communis) mother and a whitebeam (Aria edulis, formerly Sorbus aria) father. It is a triploid, with two chromosomes from pear and one from whitebeam.

The fruit are the size of a small pear, developing an attractive red blush on the side facing the sun. The fruit texture is creamy and a bit gritty. The taste has a rich bouquet of new flavours inherited from the whitebeam side of the family, the ripe fruit tasting very sweet with tropical fruit notes (variously described as mango, pineapple or guava). As the fruit ages, the flavours intensify and a strong marzipan (!) comes to the fore.

Full details are here: https://agroforestry.co.nz/shipova/

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Local Nitrogen Cycle article published and updates

I’ve just published the new article on the Local Nitrogen Cycle related to forest gardening. It’s taken me quite a while to get it right, because there is a lot of complicated information to boil down into something simple enough while still being accurate and up to date. The interactive nitrogen cycle graphic took some time, as did the simulator. I think it’s one of the better introductions out there on the nitrogen cycle for forest gardeners – others tend to overemphasize certain irrelevent details (e.g. lightning sourced nitrogen), and exclude pertinent details (denitrification, whether you sell/give away food from your forest garden or poop into the sewer system).

Other than that, we’ve been growing seeds and working on some longer term breeding projects. It looks like we’ve had excellent germination of sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa) and so either next year or perhaps towards the middle of Summer – we’ll be able to put some up for sale. Avocados have germinated well, but we’re still working on grafting them.

The forest garden has not seen too much planting yet, still a lot of preparation to do regarding soil building and erosion work. We’re trialling some nitrogen fixers to see what will do best here – so far the Turkish alders have shot away quickest. We’ve also started a banana trial and will have some Misi Luki banana pups available for sale locally.

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Recent updates and 3rd nitrogen fixing article

Wow. A lot has happened since the last update. We moved permanently to New Zealand in November 2019, and spent approximately 2 months visiting as many gardens, Tree Cropper events and member’s homes as possible, and learning what is growing in Auckland and Waikato. Then we moved to Charleston in late January, and began work on our forest garden. The first [and so far only] tree was planted – an Araucaria bidwillii.

I’ve finally finished the 3rd article in the modern nitrogen fixing series, which is about poplars and willows. I’m excited to share this information out there. There’s also a special mention of the disease fighting properties of willow mulch – something we’ve not even touched the tip of yet. There are many reasons to grow willows and poplars.

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Two first articles of modern nitrogen cycling series are up

The first two articles in the modern nitrogen cycling series are up.

First we talk about pines:
https://agroforestry.co.nz/nitrogen-fixation-in-pinus/

The second deals with nitrogen fixation in sugarcane:
https://agroforestry.co.nz/nitrogen-fixation-in-saccharum/

Both of these plants are occasionally used in forest gardening / permaculture / agroforestry situations, but it’s relatively unknown (outside of the fields of forest ecology and horticulture, respectively) that they both can fix significant amounts of nitrogen. The picture of nitrogen cycling has changed a lot in recent decades, and over the coming weeks I will be trying to adapt this knowledge for a forest gardener audience so that we can be more effective in our work. As a result, I won’t make sweeping generalizations until the bigger picture has emerged – but for now, know that nitrogen fixing in nature is a lot more common than previously believed and the next few articles will hopefully make that amply clear.

-Jon Colyer

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