Egg shell seed tray update, fall berry bushes, compost tea

Left image: So the egg shell tray experiment earlier this month was a partial success, with 9 out of 10 pak choi egg cells germinating. This isn't the most efficient way to grow seedlings, but I imagine that I'll have quite a collection of egg shells by the time spring rolls around next year!

And on the right, to get ahead of the fall online ordering rush, I sent for a Mojo Berry mulberrry bush and a yellow raspberry. When the pandemic had us all on lockdown in March, garden nurseries were either at full stop or backlogged for weeks in processing orders. I hope we never have to go through that again.

This year I also tried using compost tea for the first time. Take several generous scoops of compost, add water, allow to sit for a day or two, and pour off the liquid into a watering can. This.stuff.works! The amount of growth in everything that I used it on was utterly amazing. For instance, my potted kaffir lime tree. Note the leaves to the left: these are normal size, the same size when I first bought the tree. To the right are the leaves after fertilizing with compost tea. I gave only one application each to the kaffir lime and calamandino, and they look very healthy.

Cosmos varieties and Lilliput zinnia

The small harvests these days consist of the last of the tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, and Mara de Bois strawberries. Not a bad total yield for this year given a late start in June. Tuscan kale and kohlrabi seedlings are in the ground for winter, but the real stars now are the flowers as they continue bloom after bloom. I get so OCD about deadheading spent flowers that they don't stand a chance of reseeding until I say so.

Crimson Emperor nasturtium

Mara de Bois strawberry stand

The Mara de Bois strawberries are doing so splendidly that Man of the House solved the problem of limited space by building a stand to start stacking up the planters.  What's nice is that some of the wood is upcycled from an Ikea mattress support board, and the paint was leftover from last year's dog house color.

I am completely sold on Mara's.  They do well in planters and so far haven't presented any health issues.  I've already potted up 10 'daughters' out of 22 plants, and as you can see, they're already putting out blossoms of their own.

Information online says that you can sever the daughters from the mother plant at 4-6 weeks, but as I potted them with roots already growing out of the base, I cut them loose after 10 days.  All of them did suffer (wilted) for a day or two, but after watering them well and placed into a cool, shaded area, they sprung back to life in no time.  The daughters are putting out new leaves (I snip off the blossoms, it's pointless to leave them on at the current growth stage) and I feed them a weak solution of fish emulsion every week.

I thought Mara de Bois produced small to medium-sized berries and they do for the most part, but every so often I get a fairly large one like this. In shortcakes, turned into jam, or eaten fresh are the ways I've been using them. Picked when perfectly ripe (I actually smell them before picking), Mara's are sublime. If I can harvest at least half a dozen large ones at once, dipping them in a variety of chocolate will be the next thing to try.

Mara de Bois: 13 weeks later

First Mara de Bois strawberries

Actually 13 weeks and a day since the bare root plants were tucked into potting soil. These two could've stayed on the plant another day or so, but I didn't want to wait any further for our first taste test. Result? Very good! They taste a little bit like the tiny alpine strawberries that grow wild here, only sweeter and juicier. The size is small to medium, and the shapes range from heart-like to oblong or roundish. I'll try my best to wait for the others to fully ripen and see if there's much of a difference in the level of sweetness. I always figured these would be great for morning breakfast, but after tasting them in the late afternoon after a full day of sun, the warmth and sweet strawberry flavor made Mara de Bois, literally, melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

Several days ago


Strawberry plants all along the railing (super easy pickings!)

Mara de Bois strawberry chronicles

I have to confess, in previous years I buy one or two strawberry plants from the nursery, set them in the ground, and pretty much let them fend for themselves. There is no fussing over them, no diligent watering routine, and maybe only a sprinkle of guano if it happens to cross my mind. But after reading so much about the popularity of Mara de Bois strawberries, I figured it was high time I got serious about growing this luscious fruit. First plan of action, get ourselves to Ingegnoli (in Milan) where they had bare root Mara de Bois (an everbearing type) among the varieties on offer. I picked up 25 (19,50€) and a box of fertilizer designated for berries.

On the way home it occurred to me that those fancy french Maras might appreciate a potting soil specifically made for their kind, so we bought 6 (20 liter) bags at the next nursery on the drive back. The following day I spent all morning planting them in window boxes, along with a handful of Framberry runners that I saved from last year. I'm dreaming of berries all summer long but better to not get ahead of myself. I'll track their progress and update in future posts.