Edible perennials?

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bamboothew
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by bamboothew »

benboo wrote:I have two broccoli-like perennials that should flower next year. Crambe maritima and Bunias orientalis. Im curious to see how they taste....
Thanks, benboo, I will check out some info on those as well.
God Bless,

Matthew

===============================

Genesis 2:8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.
bamboothew
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by bamboothew »

stevelau1911 wrote:I only harvested a few this year, and they seem to max out at around 3/4 inch in diameter, and less than a foot long for their first year, but even on their first year, many air tubers were produced and I ended up planting every single one of them along the fences. I left most of them to keep growing because they take a few years to get to a good harvesting size.
benboo wrote:Have your dioscorea batatas produced many air tubers yet? I have heard they are good for eating as their own crop.
That is a very interesting plant, I read that the tubers can get to about a metre long. Probably a bit too starchy for my dietary guidelines but the vine looks really neat and supposedly pretty aggressive, exactly my kind of plant :)
God Bless,

Matthew

===============================

Genesis 2:8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.
benboo
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by benboo »

I have been really interested in growing perennial vegetables for a while, and on Christmas I am planning to get Perennial Vegetables: From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, A Gardener's Guide to Over 100 Delicious and Easy to Grow Edibles by Eric Toensmier. It seems like a good book.
Alan_L
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by Alan_L »

Benboo: it definitely looks interesting -- thanks for mentioning it!

I'm going to check it out of the library first to see if it meets my expectations. I do that with every gardening book I'm thinking about buying.
bamboothew
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by bamboothew »

benboo wrote:I have been really interested in growing perennial vegetables for a while, and on Christmas I am planning to get Perennial Vegetables: From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, A Gardener's Guide to Over 100 Delicious and Easy to Grow Edibles by Eric Toensmier. It seems like a good book.
Yes indeed, that does sound interesting, thanks benboo!
God Bless,

Matthew

===============================

Genesis 2:8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.
benboo
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by benboo »

If you want to see the plants listed in the book for your specific area go to http://perennialvegetables.org/perennia ... mate-type/ you could just google each plant instead of reading the book!
stevelau1911
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by stevelau1911 »

I think maybe the most useful plant that comes up every year would probably be garlic. I have a dozen species in the ground now, and the best part is that deer never touch them. They also never have any pest problems, and it seems like they will stay there and multiply as long as they are left in the ground. They are also supposed to keep deer away which seems to be true since I never had any deer problems up to the point I harvested my garlic in July last year, but I have several hardnecks now which are supposed to mature a bit later. They are also perhaps the only crop that can be planted in fall/ winter and be harvested as early as mid June with good results.

Blueberries are another dependable edible perennial which seems to produce well as long as it is big enough, and they are also pretty easy to propagate from cuttings taken in early spring. The robins also seem to leave them alone until they get very ripe.

I have a few asparagus which are on their 2nd year, and still kind of small, but I could imagine that they would be pretty consistent producers once they mature, behaving like a clumping bamboo that dies back every winter.

I also have some fruit trees & cold hardy kiwi. As far as growing fruit trees, I've found that cherries tend to grow super small, hardly edible, peach trees grow OK, but get lots of dark spots over the fruit, and apples are the worst as they get damaged by insects + fungi. Pear trees seems to be the only producer that doesn't need chemicals to produce good fruit, but the draw back with them is that they don't seem to be heavy producers.
benboo
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by benboo »

The only garlic I have is elephant garlic, and isnt it technically a leek or something?
stevelau1911
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by stevelau1911 »

It is technically a leek, and doesn't even have the spicy taste that you normally get from real garlic. It's only good attribute is that you can get golf ball sized cloves.

I think I have around 14 species in the ground now, about half of the hard necks, and I'm not growing elephant garlic anymore. I might just plant a couple cloves just to have it while I put the rest on eBay.
benboo
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by benboo »

Could garlics be used to keep deer and other pests away from bamboo? it could be planted along the edges of the grove, and as the grove spreads, pull the garlic and plant the offsets along the edge again.

this might not be practical for large groves, but might work with mine :?
stevelau1911
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by stevelau1911 »

Yes.

I had a couple hundred garlic bulbils growing around my atrovaginata over last winter/spring and they grow pretty good because they get to be in the nice loomy soil. This would work on juvenile bamboos since they don't make too much shade until the new shoots leaf out by June which is when they should be about ready for harvest.

The problem with growing them on larger groves is that you have rhizomes all over the place which prevent you from loosening the soil for garlic without destroying the following year's shoots.

Also I've never had serious pest problems with bamboo. The largest extent of damage I've had is a few leaves getting chomped on, but the don't seem to like the taste of bamboo. I believe having lots of garlic in a spot will keep deer away because I've never seen signs of deer damage close to wherever I grow stuff that are prone to deer damage. I doubt elephant garlic will keep deer away, but any soft/hardneck garlic with a nice pungent, spicy taste/ smell should work.
stevelau1911
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by stevelau1911 »

After doing a little bit of research on growing raspberries, they are supposed to be one of the easiest edible perennials that any beginner gardener can grow. I got an ever-bearing species for late season, and a thornless type which is supposed to fruit a little bit earlier, and these guys seem to be growing very rapidly in the last couple days with the warmer weather.

These pictures are from 3 days ago, and they are twice the size now so I'm expecting the growth to accelerate even more when summer comes around.
Image

Image
Alan_L
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by Alan_L »

Are those your water-absorbing crystals? You're using them as mulch? I don't think they'll do anything that way. :)
canadianplant
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by canadianplant »

Why havnt I seen this thread! Here is a list off the top of my head, sry if I repeat any:

Fruit trees (apples, persimmion, pawpaw, peaches, hardy citrus, cherries...)
Raspberry (nice collection of them!)
Native Serviceberry (amelenchiar(sp))
asperigus
Southern Blueberry
Kiwi
Colocasia/Alocasia ( THe roots is startchy, but the leaves of some can be cooked and eaten like spinach apparently)
Egyptian walking onions
Good King Henry
Most leafy greens will reseed themselves, and in warmer climates, you can get 2 or 3 crops (swiss chard, rocket, musellin, lettuce, spinach)
Passiflora Incarnata (native too :D )
huckleberry
Some yucca have edible flowers
Edible pine nuts
Species roses have edible hips
Ground cherry (a species of "chinese lantern")
There are perennial broccoli (not sure how well it will do down south)
Celery is biennial (again, not sure how it will like the heat)
Herbs (most if not all will make it there)
Strawberry (southern veriety)
Carrots are biennial, and will self seed
Any type of chives
Figs
Elderberry
Current
Hickories
Some dogwood species
kentucky coffee tree
Beehives (not a plant but, they use plants :D )
Nut trees (hazlenuts, filbrets, pecans, pistachio, chestnut etc)
artichoke
collards
perennial cabbage (walking stick cabbage, plus it gets 5 feet tall!)
fennel
sorrel
perennial kale
buckwheat
nettles
watercress
ginger
hackberry
mulberry
some daylily species
solomans seal (young shoots)
stevelau1911
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Re: Edible perennials?

Post by stevelau1911 »

Alan_L wrote:Are those your water-absorbing crystals? You're using them as mulch? I don't think they'll do anything that way. :)
I mixed the water absorbing crystals into the soil after I took the picture so I'm not using them as mulch. There are however still some of them on the surface, and they seem to be doing a very good job at keeping their water regardless of the full sun so far.
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