Solar🌄GardenJan 18

RE: https://zirk.us/@urbanmicrofarmer/115907956204594221

‘Blackberry’ deep #violet #potatoes #anthocyanins

I love violet cauli, cabbage and carrots, so this would appeal to me BUT for one critical issue...

I'm hypersensitive to #solanine, so I have to watch out for any signs of green in potatoes, which is a give-away. The dark colour would mask this, at least until sliced open.

I was growing most of my pots under a single layer of black woven mulch fabric, which on hard new ground encouraged about half the tubers to grow right underneath it on the surface BUT is not light-tight enough to stop them greening. I will try with at least 2 layers of fabric next time. A lot of the fabric now has #wildfire small cinder-spot-perforations. Otherwise the fabric I have is VERY fire resistant, and merely shrivels even if severely wild-fire impacted.

Long-life, not single-use #plastic, and so labour-saving I will use this though I do try to avoid new short-life throwaway stuff.

@maru
@urbanmicrofarmer

I'd grow them in a raised bed with sieved soil if I did, so finding them wouldn't be a problem.

#growYourOwn #gardening

Show threadSolar🌄GardenJan 18, 2025

@teadrinker couple of other factors to consider in what to grow - may come back and edit more in! -

If you still do your shopping by steam-battle-tank, that is to say, a "heavy" vehicle, roots, squashes and other bulky and dense but cheap veg can be more of a storage issue than a transport one. But if you've gone over to #micromobilty, eg. an #eBike or #cargoBike, #growYourOwn starts to look more attractive. I avoided growing potatoes till I got lobbied into it, but now - as an added bonus - I find flavour and digestibility* so much better I'm not looking back. Especially as they almost grow and to some extent store themselves if you have the space / climate / soil.

Tree fruit, apart from the land use issue, is the years of lead time till decent crops. I'm on my knees by dozens of figs / citrus / nut etc propagations I've made, encouraging them to scale-up production |;-/. There's shading and other issues on the land here that make tree crops ideal - deep roots and reaching out of the shade. Otherwise, I'd happily hand some spots back to the bracken.

*left in well drained soil / stored in complete DARK, so low irritant #solanine compared to shop potatoes often left exposed

#GrowYourOwn

Log 🪵Jun 13, 2024
@Irisfreundin @djrobotham This. Solanums--tomato, potato, and eggplant/aubergine--all have #solanine as a natural pesticide in their green parts, and at lower concentrations even in the edible parts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanine
Solanine - Wikipedia

Show threadMrinappropriateApr 10, 2024
@The_Whore_of_Blahbylon So true #Solanine
Van NieuwenhovenFeb 18, 2023
#Solanine en ook veel #landbouwgif (noemen ze #gewasbeschermingsmiddelen) in #aardappelen wordt tijdens koken voor een groot deel in water opgelost. Kook daarom altijd in ruim water en gooi het kookvocht altijd weg.
KooKJun 28, 2019

sur mon balcon les #pucerons aiment bcp la #morelle.
Mais comme le purin de tomates est #insecticide, je pensais que la #solanine était un poison pour les pucerons.
quelqu'un a un pointeur pour démêler ça ?

-> et les pucerons meurent de chaud, en masse !