Ac Baker

Dave of Darlington worked a lot on chipped branch wood: https://veganorganic.net/2012/04/organic-box-scheme-pioneers-writings-published/

Quote from the link in the original post:

What is Ramial Chipped  Wood (RCW)?

RCW is fresh un-composted woodchip made from smaller diameter younger tree branches.

Nutritionally these are the richest parts of trees, with young tree branches containing as much as 75% of the minerals, amino acids, proteins, phytohormones and enzymes found in the tree.

A review of the use of RCW in agricultural systems documents evidence for increased soil biological activity and soil organic matter (SOM) associated with its application to cultivated soils.

Chipping or crushing the smaller diameter green branch wood in winter when the leaves have fallen encourages fast entry of soil microorganisms, enabling both nutrients and energy to be transferred to the soil humus complex.

Ideally material should be less than 7 cm in diameter and spread in autumn/ winter soon after chipping to keep the chip moist and provide optimum conditions for decomposition. ..

These trial results suggest that RCW may have many of the same  beneficial effects as compost ..

RCW also provides a potential use for brash from tree and hedge management activities and a useful alternative to burning this material in the field, keeping the fertility on the farm and helping move fertility from the hedges and edges out into the field.

I had a book that taught me the alphabet backwards when I was young .. ending I aitch G f e dee cee b a (I hate G if he deceives BA).

Apparently, ordering of letters close to our "alphabetical order" is first documented in 1300s BCE on tablets in the Phoenician language.

We've been struggling with prolonged drought. Barely a few percent of average rainfall for July, so a punishing programme of watering due to consistently above average temperatures & sunshine too.  Today was only a bit of a relief on the temperature, a temperate 20 C but wind to dry things out instead

We have a few runner beans set & growing, and a few tomatoes, but none of the squashes have set any fruit yet for us.  The carrots are doing OK in the trough on the bench above root fly height.  The red yacón is growing slowly.  The brassicas are doing OK, with some hearting up in the cabbages. The ground is far too hard for us to dig up the potatoes yet.

But in any case,  there's no way we can compete in terms of weight, calories or even micronutrients produced, with the weekly quantity of food we're rescuing & getting donated from the local mini-supermarket.

But that's OK.  Community members are getting more & better food, relationships are building, and we're learning more about what contributed to local food security and what we can grow in our changing climate.

I see a lot of people experimenting online with home-made medium for blocking.  

As it's generally used for starting smaller seeds & seedlings, it needs to be finely sifted.  

As it's just for starting the seedlings, home-made compost is too rich.

As it needs to hold its shape, it also need to have organic matter to give it structure.

Interesting conundrum.

Understandable ..

I wasn't familiar with "air pruning".  Reading up, I gather that chinampas are built based on oral knowledge passed down by chinampero farmers. One of these Aztec agricultural techniques is starting seedlings in soil blocks, which does what we now call "air pruning" to avoid seedlings becoming pot-bound.

I'm wondering if jute twine could provide sufficient wicking of water in such a system of soil blocking?

Oh, that's very disappointing.

I'd thought they meant perpetual spinach, which the RHS calls Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla var. cicla
https://www.rhsplants.co.uk/plants/_/perpetual-spinach/classid.2000014666/

A good thought.  PFAF seems to indicate that the tastier types of Physalis are less likely to be perennial in my climate.  Taste & growth testing required, I guess!

https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Physalis+alkekengi

Robert Ray wrote:It is too cold here for the scarlet runner bean to be a perennial outside but they seem to winter over well in the greenhouse. .. the scarlet runner bean produces an edible tuber too.

I think I have similarly cold winters, so need to lift the runner bean tubers.  Mulching failed last winter, although we've had wet winters & spring heatwaves to complicate things.

I'd love to hear from people who have eaten the tubers .. how do they taste, any "gastric effects", how to cook?  Thank you!

Thank you. PFAF.org is definitely a go-to mine of useful information.

ETA: Being in central England, we've been sort-of equivalent to Zone 8 but not quite. Frost is rarer and very rarely colder than -10 C. These days, our average last frost is around mid-May.  Our average first frost is late Oct or Nov.  Our summers are now a lot hotter, frequently reaching 30-40 C.

Still, this list of Perennial Vegetables, particularly in my case the section for for Zone 8, is a useful find from that other thread: https://www.epicgardening.com/perennial-vegetables/