In Melbourne, Australia, it flowers for about 5-6 weeks but now looks like pic above, what am I doing wrong? Auto watering twice a week, half sun through a pergola.

Got some Coulter's Matilija Poppy seeds a while back from a native seed supplier and I know they are difficult to germinate, so have been looking at various guides. Saw many references to exposing them to smoke from pine needles/etc. Finally came across one that recommended liquid smoke as an alternative (as long as it is just water and "smoke").

Anybody have experience using liquid smoke for helping seeds germinate? (or real smoke)

When I received this plant I was hoping it would be Amorphophallus konjac but it now looks like it isn't as the flower occurs at the same time as the leaf whereas konjac doesn't. The flower is also longer and has more of a drape to it.

EDIT: Identified as Dracunculus vulgaris, thanks so much everyone.

Got near a hundred mini watermelon this year, the very late ones were no good but for a couple months they were glorious. Mini love variety, it was a brutally hot summer and they flourished, I let them take over the whole garden.

Two plants survived being overrun by watermelon, the asparagus and the hong tsoi. I'm sort of resting it until "spring" which is planted around Feb here.

After first having problems with voles in my vegetable garden this year and now that a mole seems to have moved in (yes, I can tell the difference... frustratingly, that’s more or less the only result search engines turn up for my initial question), I’ve been wondering whether voles and moles tolerate each other, or whether the mole’s presence prevents the voles from attacking my vegetables again? I couldn’t find an answer right away, what do you think?

Plants that look like they're trolling, where you see a picture for the first time and think "Nah, that's bad AI, there's no way that actually grows like that", but then it turns out it does actually grow like that.

Inspired by my goofy looking okra

Stand in awe of the full harvest from our persimmon tree!

This is the first year it’s produced so we are very excited. I know what you’re thinking. We harvested too soon. But my wife actually likes them still crunchy and we have to harvest before the deer get to them…

We got our first cold warning yesterday! It's not supposed to be that bad, but might as well start getting things ready for winter anyway. We have a few different plants we bring inside or put in the greenhouse, among those is lemongrass!

So, these guys. I cut these yesterday afternoon. They were flat! Already the stalks shot up a couple millimeters! Wow!

Now, because lemongrass is a tropical, they don't do so well in the cold wet weather. It's mild enough here that they can often survive, but why take chances? So, to prep lemongrass for winter, you give it a haircut, trim the roots, and plop those bad buds into a jar of water. Change the water every couple weeks and trim off any excessive new growth. Then, in spring, you have a bunch of lemongrass stalks ready to go in the ground again! We also have a bunch of lemongrass plants still menacing the garden from last years go-around, so I'll get to see firsthand how they do in the winter.

Also, another fun part is you get a giant bushel of lemongrass leaves at the end. Far more than you use for cooking, my wife likes to bundle them up into a dried herb broom that just smells amazing.

• Planted in pots and raised beds at September 30th.
• Garlic Germidour. Apparently according to gardening websites sowing season is around October so no problems there.
• Weather is still a bit sunny during the day averaging about 20+°c and cold during the night around 10-15°c'ish. It is currently October 1st, 23:43pm as of writing and posting and it is currently at 13°C if anyone wants to be specific.
• Live in UK, hardiness zone is 8b (if you want to be specific).

Did I plant too early and should've waited until mid October at least or am I okay? It's literally my first time planting these and hoping for the best lol.

Lastly, would I need to invest in a poly tunnel and or covers for my garlic plants during the cold weather or are they (Garlic) hardy crops?

Thanks in advance!

I have been planting and harvesting sun root for a few years but I've never been able to harvest the actual seeds of the plants, regardless of having the flowers atracting insects.

Has anyone been able to harvest the seeds? If so, how and when? My intention is to try to grow from seed and see if some variation occurs.

My sun roots develop the usual yellow brownish tubers but occasionally I find some which are reddish or even deep purple; the pulp remains white or lightly yellow but the flavour profile changes drastically, with the purple ones having a very pronounced hazel nut hint.

Hi everyone,

I've had this finger lime tree for a number of years now, and I have never noticed this sort of growth (?) or bug (?) or (??) before.

It doesn't look normal for sure. Tried to scratch it off with a branch, but it wouldn't come off. I'm sure if I scraped it, it would.

I'm leaning towards scraping it off. Is this an indication of worse things to come? I've no idea what this is.

I live in Melbourne, Australia.

Thank you! 😫

Edit: To clarify, it is the red thing with the white dots around it.

About a half year or so ago I got Sarracenia flava from a garden center and planted it in a mix of soil from the pot it came in (which was a lot of sphagnum moss I think) and around that the loamy sand from my own property for bulk in a self-watering container. Back then it was just three flowers (you can see the dried remnants of those in the very top left; they flower at a different time than they feed to not waste their efforts by making pollen to spread out and then eating the critter they put it on) and since then obviously it has grown a prodigious number of traps and also some non-trap phyllodia leaves.

Is anyone familiar with Sarracenia enough to know why so many traps and phyllodia seem crooked or wrinkly? Most Sarracenia flava that I see out and about or planted by other people seem more straight and “opened up” internally. It doesn’t seem to be harming the plant to a great extent as far as I can tell because it has still grown tremendously, but it is kind of weird. Example below of a more normal looking version I saw in cultivation at the Stanley Rehder carnivorous plant garden in NC, as you can see they are basically straight tall and full rather than having the kind of deformed look that mine do:

Also this is how they look in actual nature from pictures in the FloraQuest app by the Flora of the Southeastern United States (FSUS) people:

Just asking concerning the crooked/wrinkliness. I am not concerned about the brown parts on mine. When traps fill up with insects (and almost all of mine’s traps are like chimneys stacked high of fly corpses inside) the excess nitrogen from them has potential to scald the trap locally and if that scalding forms a full ring then the trap above that ring dies. Also the lids have a tendency to get a bit scorched by strong sun at times. But traps are disposable so no big deal as long as the roots aren’t scalded (and I’ve made sure to never fertilize the plant and used the low nutrient loamy sand from my backyard to keep the initial nutrients low). For some other info I always keep it moist if the rain is not enough (you can see some of the moisture loving native Diodia virginiana sprung up in the bottom) and it gets strong afternoon sun. I live in about the center of its native range although the conditions are too dry to grow it properly at my site in particular hence the container to retain water.

Is there anything uglier than a well cut lawn... 😒 @allotments @gardening@fedigroups.social @gardening@lemmy.world #FuckLawns#GrowYourOwn #FreeFood #Free #Food #Seed #Seeds #Seedlings #Precultivation #SelfSufficient #Urban #Garden #Gardening #Bokashi #Compost

Partner and I have had a blast with our first garden. It's been a tough year with a very serious drought in our area for much of the summer, but our squash have not minded at all and have thrived! We've harvested over 50 lbs of assorted squash from 8 plants! The acorn squash got ravaged by vine borers, so those got harvest very early and are just for decoration haha.

I just saw this other post, https://lemmy.world/post/50970674, about cutting the flowers off of a basil plant. I noticed that mine was growing fairly quickly, until the flowers showed up, and now the leaves have stopped getting bigger.

If the plant has already developed flowers, do I still cut them off?

It’s hard to see in the picture but this partridge pea has multiple branches constituting probably half or more of the plant overall that partly snapped and fell with only like a third of the contact remaining but the branches are very much green and even still flowering and fruiting despite that situation a week and a half later amidst the summer heat. (It broke in a storm after adding weight by vigorously re-flowering to be almost all yellow after the cloudless sulphur caterpillars ate up all the older blooms… not as many flowers anywhere on it now that the caterpillars came back in force though). Meanwhile my wife’s potted Mimosa pudica died after a single day of not adding water when we noticed some parts of had fungal growth and tried to cut back on moisture…

Which of the plants you enjoy are clinging vigorously to life? Or, which ones not so much.

Pictures below:

Despite the insects and challenges along its branch, this jackfruit refused to give up steadily growing into something strong and full of promise. Just like our young farmers, growth isn't always easy. But with patience and care, even the toughest conditions can't stop something great from forming.Every challenge faced is a step toward a stronger harvest. #growyourown #wefeedyou @gardening #solarpunk #solarpunksunday #nature #biodiversity #environment #food #today #SilentSunday#FotoVorschlag