Russell Cook

Hi everyone,

I plan to buy a piece of unbleached kangaroo rawhide and tan it at home.

Please help with advice about what barks I could use to tan it with. There are eucalypts everywhere here, which I've heard are full of tannin. Alternatively, I am open to using other things such as black tea leaves, or a commercially available formula if they exist.

All of the commercial tanning kits I have looked up are for chrome tanning.

Any tips would be great.

Thanks, Timothy!

I was inspired by this video from David the Good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYikWBnf4dQ

He is doing it on a large scale, but encourages us to experiment.

I am experimenting with Biochar on a very small scale.

I collected some charcoal from a fire (using wood from my own prunings in my yard).

This charcoal filled up the pint (568mL) jar about 20%. I then added liquid fertiliser to the jar, again about up to the 20% full mark.

I then filled the rest of the jar with water.

I plan to stir it daily, then after about 3 weeks dig it into a small area of a garden bed.

Any comments/ tips would be great! (The pics show the jar with just the charcoal and also after adding the liquids.)

Apparently loquats from seed don't produce fruit true to the parent plant. So, I am grafting to ensure I get the fruit that I want, in this case the "Bessel Brown" variety.

Hi all,

I have a grafted loquat in my garden, and want to try making a new one by germinating a seed and grafting a branch onto the seedling. I have 2 options for the rootstock:

1) Germinate a seed from the tree in my yard. This means that the rootstock and scion would be closely related. Also, there is only one loquat tree in my yard, and so there was no cross-pollination. This seems to me to suggest limited genetic diversity for the seedling.

2) Germinate a seed from a tree that is growing in a small grove nearby. There are about 4 loquat trees growing together, and hence a good chance of cross-pollination. Also, these trees are not closely related to what will be the scion.

I tend to think the second option would be superior, any thoughts from the community?

Thanks!

Hi guys,

I have been assuming that this is the case, does anybody know if this is true or not? My local soil is likely to be low in zinc so I like the idea that am doing something to counter this.

P.S. Seasol is the brand of seaweed solution that I buy.

Cheers, Mark, I'll look into the idea of a guild.

Hi all,

Below are pics of my panama berry (Muntingia). I have planted it into my lawn which has about 10-15cm of decent topsoil, under which is quite heavy clay.

At the moment, I have left a patch of bare ground in a 15cm radius around the tree with no mulch. After that, it's just lawn grass.

Would it be a good idea to enlarge the circle and put down some sugarcane or wood chip mulch? Would it be a good idea to use some bricks to make a border around the tree to make it easier to exclude grass from encroaching?

Any tips would be great .

Thanks, Nancy, very helpful!

Hi all,

Attached is a picture of my custard apple tree. I have the idea of planting ginger in the spot on the left of the picture where you can see a black plant pot.

This is basically on the dripline of the tree. Is this a suitable place to plant?