Veggie-Might: September 2009

It’s amazing the change in form and size of a plant once it has decided to bolt to seed. I thought it would be interesting to put together a bunch of pictures of various crops in the throngs of vegetative reproduction. Here are a few plants that are currently getting their freak on in my ‘patch’.

PAK CHOI

I decided to let the last one go to seed just to see if I am able to get any viable seeds out of it as they were all quite tasty and very easy to grow in small containers. After a couple of weeks it's gone to seed in a BIG way! I'm not too sure where the seeds are supposed to come from though as there is no obvious seed ball etc. built up behind where the flowers drop off.......?

EDIT: Applestar from http://www.helpfulgardener.com has the answer! That being that "with the mustard family like Pak Choy and Broccoli, those spindly things after flowers fall fatten up into pods and develop little round seeds inside".

EDIT: 7 November 2009

I'm still waiting for the Pak Choi to dry up a bit before collecting the seeds. It just refuses to 'die'.

EDIT: 15 November 2009

I ended up getting a heap of seeds from my Pak Choi plant that I will plant once the sun returns!

SHISO

These poor plants didn't get much time to get established before my wife mauled them to get a Shiso fix and it may have shocked them into bolting to seed..... From all accounts they should just self-seed themselves in the container and there is plenty of room for extra plants. I might have to work on rigging up some kind of electric deterrent to keep my wife away from them for a while though!

EDIT: 7 November 2009

I got enough Shiso seeds for another round of planting and interestingly the seeds were all more than double the size of the shiso seeds I originally purchased.

EDIT: 30 April 2010

The size of the seeds didn't help me when it came to stopping the plants from bolting.....

CORIANDER

I purchased this plant as a seedling and it subsequently developed very lush foliage that was able to cope with heavy harvesting, however after a particularly brutal harvest it turned its attention into trying to bolt to seed. In the end I gave up the fight as can clearly be seen and hope to get some viable seeds to try again.

EDIT: 7 November 2009

I managed to get a decent amount of seeds out this dry looking coriander mess!

Also my Buk Choy has been desperately trying to go to seed but I've found that the growing flower heads look and taste a bit like broccolini and go great in a stir fry. YUM!

EDIT: 20 November 2009
I did manage to get a few seeds from one of my buk choy plants.

FLAT PARSLEY

This is one of my oldest and most used plants in the patch so I was a bit worried that it had started to bolt. I let it get to this stage just to get the photo before trimming it right back and giving it a good feed and a drink. I hope it bounces back quickly!