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Post by billw on Sept 3, 2013 14:15:11 GMT -5
I have seed heads drying from 22 skirret plants, which is going to be a heck of a lot more than I can use. If you want to try some skirret seed, PM me.
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Post by rowan on Sept 3, 2013 15:31:08 GMT -5
This is my second time trying to grow skirret here. It is too hot to grow it normally so I thought I would sow these seeds very early in spring to see if I could get them to produce before the hottest part of the year.
Damn it, we are having the hottest start to spring on record so I guess that it won't even germinate; I think I will have to ask others what it tastes like. What does it taste like? lol.
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Post by billw on Sept 3, 2013 15:52:28 GMT -5
I found this year that it really likes to be an understory plant. Skirret seedlings that were doing nothing in damp soil in partial shade burst into vigorous growth after they were covered by an enclosing canopy of potatoes.
It is less sweet than a carrot, less starchy than a potato, and less... hm, parsnippy, than parsnip, yet reminiscent of all three.
That is the good ones. The bad ones are like gnawing on an old dandelion root.
It seems like a perennial that is most productively grown as a biennial - roots are not particularly impressive the first year.
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Post by khoomeizhi on Sept 3, 2013 16:15:59 GMT -5
if i don't get seed this year, i'll let you know bill. mine got infested with some tiny beetles last year that totally took out the seed crop. just ending flowering now.
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Post by steev on Sept 3, 2013 20:30:30 GMT -5
Sounds like the sort of thing that's really good to eat if you have nothing better. I think I've got a couple seed packets I've not gotten around to planting; I should do that. Who knows, I might actually like it; my taste does tend to run to the unrewarding or irrelevant; that which produces effortlessly tends to bore me. I need a pig to deal with the stuff that's successful; I sure don't want to eat it all.
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Post by billw on Sept 4, 2013 12:28:17 GMT -5
if i don't get seed this year, i'll let you know bill. mine got infested with some tiny beetles last year that totally took out the seed crop. just ending flowering now. Interesting. I had the exact same thing. Hundreds of tiny beetles in the flower heads. I put them in a bucket in the refrigerator and that took care of it. |
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Post by MikeH on Sept 4, 2013 16:41:23 GMT -5
When it flowers the bumble bees love it, so we've planted our roots out in the orchard. Given how easy it is to propagate through division, I'll probably dig a few up next spring as soon as the ground thaws enough, do a division, pot up the results, and plant out in the orchard when roots are showing at the pots' bottom holes. As for food, yields are far better on potatoes and sweet potatoes. It's more of a stealth food I think. It's well camouflaged among another stealth food, Queen Anne's Lace.
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Post by billw on Sept 4, 2013 18:21:45 GMT -5
If you compare the yields to carrots, then it fares a little better, but it is like a carrot that goes to seed every year, so it takes a bit more space. On the other hand, it appears to like full shade and I don't have much that would be better yielding in shade.
I'm going to grow a few hundred plants next year and see if there is any interesting variability to be found in the skirret genome.
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Post by steev on Sept 4, 2013 21:49:23 GMT -5
Well, a full-shade plant couldn't be a bad thing, so I guess I've got to dig out the seed. The Romans are said to have liked it, but there are so few of them around, these days; hope it's not due to skirrit.
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Post by robertb on Sept 5, 2013 16:40:42 GMT -5
If you've got any seed spare I'd be grateful.
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Post by richardw on Feb 4, 2017 20:56:20 GMT -5
Ive grown a block from seed and is flowering well at the moment, my question is, will the roots still be eatable even though its grown reproductions stems
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Post by billw on Feb 4, 2017 23:03:35 GMT -5
Yep, it is a perennial and will go to seed every year. That has no effect on the size or flavor of the roots as long as the plants have sufficient water.
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Post by richardw on Feb 5, 2017 3:45:34 GMT -5
Thanks Bill, getting plenty water and is in full flower about shoulder height at the moment.
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Post by caledonian on Feb 23, 2017 17:52:49 GMT -5
Just out of curiosity, have any of you with healthy populations of skirret tried lopping off the flowers and seeing what that does to root quality?
I'd try it myself, but my seed sources keep running out of / not carrying skirret at critical times. I'm fascinated by the news that it loves being an understory plant - wish I had access to land that wasn't so exposed.
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Post by richardw on Feb 24, 2017 14:53:18 GMT -5
All my plantings have to be out in the open because what trees i do have which could be used for understory planting just get so dry.
Skirret may love being a understory plant but it does perfectly fine out in fun sun also.
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