Tamarillo (Tree Tomato) - How to Grow: Fruit of the Month

Tamarillo stats/requirements at a glance

Ease of Raising:	1/5	Daily check-ups
Water:	4/5	Daily
Sun:	2/5	Partial shade
Training:	5/5	Absolutely, train for optimal production
Fertilise/Feeding:	4/5	Fortnightly
Time to Harvest:	5/5	Forever, 5+ months
Frost Hardiness:	1/4	Frost tender, can’t cope light frost
Uses		Culinary
Most Problematic Nemesis:		Aphids, Whitefly, Leafhoppers
Container Plant:		Yes, easier to provide protection then

Tamarillo
Solanum betaceum

Quick intro

Tama-whatdayasay?!? This would be the likely response of most of my readers, except perhaps those from New Zealand. The tamarillo is quite the exotic fruit for those outside Oceania and is suitable to backyard fruit growing. It makes and interesting ornamental specimen and the fruits have their own unique flavour to boot.


History

The tamarillo’s history is very obscure and not much literature is available on the matter. It is a native of the Peruvian Andes, South America. It was domesticated and cultivated before the discovery of America. The first internationally marketed crop was in Australia during 1996.  

It is locally produced and very popular in New Zealand, whereas smaller production takes place in Rwanda, South Africa (although I have never seen one in the super markets!), India, Hong Kong, China, USA and Australia.


Science Stuff

Tamarillo, Solanum betaceum, previously known as the Tree Tomato, belongs to the Solanaceae family, which includes other well-known favourites such as the potato, tomato, capsicum peppers and even deadly nightshade!

It received its namesake fairly recently to distinguish it from the common garden tomato, seeing as the fruits are very similar in appearance, but certainly not taste. ‘Tama’ was retrieved from Maori and means ‘leader/leadership’. ‘Rillo’ is thought to have been taken from the Spanish ‘amarillo’, which is yellow. (So the tamarillos are yellow leaders!? LOL!). Other names include Tomarillo and Tamamoro. There are also several scientific names, therefore tamarillos are also synonymous with Cyphomandra betacea, Cyphomandra crassifolia, Pionandra betacea, Solanum crassifolium and Solanum insigne.


Growing Tamarillos

Tamarillos can be grown from seed or a one/two year old plant from the nursery and planted in the garden once the threat of frost has passed. 

Tamarillos are sub-tropical plant and will grow well in warm climates, especially regions that are also suited for citrus cultivation. In very hot and dry climates (such as South Africa) the plant will do well in half-day shade. It requires fertile and well-drained soil, as with most Solanum crops, it is a heavy feeder and will not tolerate water-logging. On the flip side it needs a lot of water due to its sallow root system and a heavy layer of mulch will prevent drying out which can adversly effect fruit production.

Tamarillo Tree
Solanum betaceum

It is an evergreen semi-tree (up to 5 meters tall), although it can be deciduous in cool climates. It is fast growing and will reach peak production after 4 years with a life expectancy of 8-12 years. It grows as a single upright trunk with lateral branches and has very large heart-shaped leaves. Fruits are borne on laterals, so once the desired height is achieved, snip off the growing top(s) to encourage lateral formation. Laterals will carry clusters of white flowers followed by 3-12 egg-shaped fruits per cluster. Laterals that have fruited must be removed and replaced with new branches as they will produce less fruits in the following year.

Tamarillos start to produce fruits from 18 months to 2 years. Fruits can be produced all year round in climates with little seasonal variation, but in South Africa fruits start to set in summer and only ripen in autumn-mid winter. It may seem a bit strange to grow them if they take so long to ripen, but it is truly wonderful to have some ‘fruits’ in the middle of winter! LOL!


Pests and disease

Aphids, leafhoppers and whitefly are a big problem and can amass huge numbers on the new deep red growth. Building up plant resistance through regular fertilising is key and when pests are noticed, (usually when leaves curl at their tips) the culprits will be hiding underneath. Remove all pests as soon as possible. I generally squish them when I see them, but should this be a little gross for you J, you can whip up one of my home-made environmentally friendly pest control recipes.

New leaves susceptible to attack!

If constant vigilance against whitefly and aphids isn’t enough, tamarillos are susceptible to nematodes, tomato worm, tamarillo mosaic virus and powdery mildew.


Other Tamarillo Tips

It will be easier to take care of and provide protection to your tamarillos when they are planted in pots, this means a quick retreat should any ominous weather threaten. Also keep them close to an entrance or kitchen door so that you can inspect them daily for pests, disease or drought.

Tamarillos can be a nuisance to grow if you don’t provide adequate protection. They are intolerant and susceptible to just about everything; frost sensitive, intolerant of waterlogging, drought, strong winds, devastated by hail, cannot stand salt laden soils and pests can be a major problem.

This implies very good soil preparation and thorough examination of its permanent location. Mine are situated against the wall inside a little recess where about 30 cm of roof protrudes over the plants. Here it is protected from the harsh mid-day sun (11h00-13h00), it is tied to the burglar bars to prevent wind damage also frost doesn’t get to it there due to the overhang of the roof. 


Harvesting & Storing

The tomato-looking fruits are ready to harvest once they are evenly coloured and soft to the touch. The fruits come in an array of colours ranging from yellow, orange, and red to purple. Some also have longitudinal stripes. The yellow/orange ones are sweeter and the reds more acetous. They have a very interesting taste, not to everyone’s delight, something like a cross between a granadilla and rock melon. The skin isn’t eaten as it has an unpleasant bitterness.

Unripe fruit, green and purple
Solanum bataceu

Ripe fruit have and even colour (orange)
 and less pronounced longitudinal stripes

Tamarillos do not ripen at the same time and several harvests will be necessary. Pruning is key to good fruit yield and to limit uneven ripening. They are harvested by pulling in a snapping motion, I prefer using scissors, leaving 2-3 cm of the stem still attached for longer storage.

The fruits can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 10 weeks, but discolouration can occur should they be subjected to temperature below 3^oC (38^oF).  They are versatile and can be eaten raw, made into jam, chutneys and added to stews. Tamarillos have a lot of pectin, making their preservation easier. For some tamarillos recipes, see the experts @ Tamarillo - Fruit for life from New Zealand.


Propagation

Tamarillo flowers represent larger and more waxy tomato flowers that can be white, yellow, pink or purple. Tamarillos are pollinated by insects, if you have a lack of pollinators you would likely have to pollinate the flowers yourself by using a soft horse-hair paint brush. Tamarillos are self-fertile but cross-pollination between trees increases successful fruit set. Therefore more than one tree is recommended for cross-pollination. To ensure cross-pollination try to synchronise your tamarillo trees and their flower production. This is done by snipping off any ‘early’ flowers from the one tree when the other has none, this should delay the first flush and hopefully the next flush will be in sync.

Tamarillo Flowers
Solanum betaceum

Tamarillo seeds are similar to tomato seeds. Tamarillos are easy to rise from seed, which will produce upright trees, or cutting that will result in a more shrub-like plant. Seeds will germinate in 4 weeks when grown in 15^oC (59^oF) soil or 2 weeks in 25^oC (77^oF). 


Something interesting: Pepino, Solanum muricatum

Another native from South America and sister species to the Tamarillo, the sweet Pepino (pepino dulce to differentiate from the Spanish word ‘pepino’ that means cucumber) is another melon-tasting exotic fruit that can be grown in backyard gardens.

Sweet Pepino
Solanum maricatum

The plant and flower are more reminiscent of an eggplant, but the fruits resemble melons. It has a taste of a mix between a cucumber or pear and a honeydew melon. Therefore is also called the Pepino melon or pear melon. I would imagine that its growth requirement are similar to most other Solanums, so hot climate with lots of watering and some pruning should improve the fruit yield. I have seen them in the nurseries recently so they should be easy to come by. The Pepino, similar to the Tamarillo has several other common and scientific names, but they are far more numerous i.e 10+ scientific names and additional varieties which are not formally recognised.


My Tamarillos

My Tamarillo has quite the story. My uncle had a tamarillo in his yard and it produced so much fruit that most lay wasted on the ground. I asked him whether I can have some of the fallen fruit for seed. I sowed about 20+ seeds and only 3 germinated. I lost one to disease and the other two made it to maturity (planted in 2010). They made their first flowers two years ago (2012), but no fruit came from it and in 2013 we had about 20. This year we have many fruits on each as they enter their 4th year. What happened to the parent tree from whence mine came? My uncle removed them to plant palms!!! I was not impressed to hear this, to my mind the tamarillo was much more of a feature plant and definitely more valuable than stupid palms…*Sigh*

Tamarillo flowers and fruit at various developmental
stages, Solanum betaceum.

If you don’t have an unappreciative family member with a tamarillo plant available for propagation, I have noticed for the first time this year that they are available at selected nurseries. I did see some at Garden World, please see my Nurseries & Stockist page for contact information.


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Lunar Gardening Revisited & Biodynamics

Demeter, Greek Goddess of the Harvest
Dr. Vollmers Wörterbuch der Mythologie aller Völker,
third edition Stuttgart 1874,
Pitichinaccio,
Wikimedia Commons

My previous post on the same topic has been surprisingly popular and so almost exactly a year later I decided to revisit the topic.

In my previous post I mentioned that lunar gardening has the habit of taking over your life as it dictates when you garden as oppose to your daily schedule. But I have wanted to try lunar gardening again and decided that maybe I can ‘make time’ for it.

So, before I dove into lunar planting in the garden I first wanted to see whether there are any proper scientific studies done on lunar gardening that indicates whether it has a beneficial effect or not. I searched all the dungeons of the internet and didn’t have much success. Most of the scientific papers either investigated the lunar cycles influencing the hatching or emergence in some insect species or the effects on animals. If they investigated direct lunar influence in plant growth, the study was usually poorly designed and that you cannot accurately interpret the results as they were not measuring just the influence of the moon cycles (too many other factors influenced the experiment).

Reading about lunar gardening around the internet it seems that many do not believe in it, whereas others claim that the moon has some mystical effect on plants when you garden by the moon… I am going to give my opinion on the matter and all the new stuff that I have been able to find regarding lunar gardening:

J – On that note I would like to make this an open discussion topic, 

so please feel free to add your opinions on this 

at the comments section here under – J

I do not necessarily believe in the hocus-pocus of the lunar gardening and those who claim that the moon simply cannot have an effect on plant growth should provide me with evidence of such a claim (I read one comment stating that physics simply doesn’t allow for it, but no such equation or proof was later provided so that I can make up my own mind and I also haven’t seen any physicists trying to de-bunk it so far…). Also some horticulturalists state that the health and yield of vegetables do improve with lunar gardening, but not because of any moon-effects, merely because of the fact that a more regular garden management schedule as imposed by the lunar gardening calendar allows you to better plan and take care of your garden. This may be true and if so – why do people then have an issue with it? If it does no harm, why are people that implement lunar gardening seen as raging lunatics who likely dance naked by the moon as well? LOL!

So that is basically my two cents on the matter – I like the idea of lunar gardening because it makes me feel that I am working with nature and not against. The same applies for my views on conservation agriculture: natural or near-natural systems [AKA organic] work better and if the plants bode well by such a system regardless of the reason – why shoot it down? My question would be rather: Why not? You aren’t harming anything or anyone by incorporating it into your gardening schedule and I am also not going to judge those who do feel a certain ‘magic’ from doing it.

Yet, I still have some issues with the structure of it all, the planting of certain crops for only one week per month isn’t practical; surely there must be more refined systems than the simple lunar cycle. After some more surfing I saw that lunar gardening forms a large part of biodynamics; another method of sustainable organic farming, on which you can read more here: The Moon Gardener. In this book they also introduce you to Maria Thun.

Maria Thun, 1941
© 2013 florisbooks.co.uk

Maria Thun devoted her life to studying the effects of moon gardening, and its associated zodiac, on the growth and yield of crops. See developed her own biodynamic calendar based on her observations and the sidereal lunar cycle. For more information on her methods and her biography, please see the following two sites: Maria Thun, Biodynamics Association and Maria Thun Biography. She published a biodynamics calendar each year and has made it available world-wide. I had a look-see of the principles and organisation of the calendar, the 2013 Calendar (The See Inside Option on the right!). The booklet explains clearly the methods and application of her calendar and I really like the fact that you can plant multiple types of crops each week (of course depending on the moon and constellations at the moment J) as well as the overall user-friendliness of the calendar.

Radish trails Maria Thun
© 2013 florisbooks.co.uk

Unfortunately it is a bit late (not to mention silly J) to purchase the 2014 calendar, but the 2015 calendar (a tradition continued by her son Matthias Thun since 2012) is already out and you can get it online at:

The Maria Thun Biodynamic Calendar 2015:
Kalahari: R138
Loot: R135

I would strongly recommend the courier option as you will likely never receive your calendar through the SA Post Office at its current non-operational state…bah!

I have ordered mine and I am thoroughly impressed with the quality of the booklet at only R135! They also discuss some burning issues that their readers enquire about and they include a handy poster of the calendar (good to stick up onto the fridge I’d say!). I am looking forward to using it once 2015 comes around, but until then I am implementing the basic and simple lunar plating principles. I have been ‘lunar gardening’ for two months now, but because of all the changes in the garden (switching to organic fertiliser and conservation agriculture) I cannot yet comment on its advantages (other than the garden looks like a jungle since I implemented all the organic fertilisers, conservation agriculture and lunar gardening techniques).

The Constellations, plants and associated jobs Maria Thun
© 2013 florisbooks.co.uk

If you are interested in Biodynamic farming, The Moon Gardener book I mentioned previously covers that topic very well, but I will likely not be able to implement it in my own garden as Cattle (and all their associated products and waste LOL!) are central to biodynamics.

Please let me know as to your views on Lunar Gardening (or similar system) and if you have implemented it in your garden please share your experiences!

Related Post:

Lunar Gardening: Planting by the phases of the moon

- Update 11 November 2014 - 

I have been made aware of a South African based Moon Calendar by no less than the author herself, Ilona Thorndike. Our current discussion is over at my About Page.

You can find her Moonlight calendar to order on her website: Moon Time. It includes the cycles of the moon and the associated zodiac constellations specific to Southern Africa.



All pictures (except Demeter) are screen-grabs from The Maria Thun Biodynamic Calendar 2013, See Inside Option and are copyright by Floris Books, Edinburgh. Reference website: Floris Books.

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Please share with fellow gardening enthusiasts via the various sharing buttons at the end of posts/pages! Else you can vote for posts through the Google reactions bar at the end of articles. To stay up to date I have provided several reader and social networking platforms with which to subscribe: Twitter, Pinterest, RSS Feed Reader or Email/Follow directly using the Blog Followers widget on the left hand side toolbar. Thank you for reading and please feel free to ask if questions arise - I appreciate comments and ideas too! 😆

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Scale Insects – Pest of the Month

 Scale at a glance

Type of Damage	Pierce-sucking
Plant Symptoms	Stunted growth, leaf drop, leaf curl, death
Favourite Plant	Many trees and shrubs, citrus especially
Occurrence	Year-round in areas with mild winters (SA)
Distribution	Worldwide
Control	Moderate: physical control and preventative measures preferable, biological control agents available

Cochineal insects on a cactus branch (sizes not accurate)
IA Appleton's Guide to Mexico
1884
Wikimedia Commons

Quick Intro


Scale insects are found across the world in all gardens, whether they have ornamentals or vegetables. Scales are often overlooked due to their small size but easily reach epidemic proportions that can kill off even the healthiest of plants. The best way to control scale is to prevent them from establishing on plants the first time round and to make sure that you control their ‘ant’ herders as well.

Science Stuff

Scale belonged to the previously obsolete Homoptera order, which were insects that had fully membranous wings. Now they have been allocated to the Hemiptera order, which include insects with half of their wings membranous and the other half covered in a thicker elytra. They are placed under the Sub-order; Strenorrhyncha and Superfamily; Coccoidae.

There are 23 families in total, of which 3 are of main concern to edible gardeners:

Coccidae – Soft scale

Soft Scale
Coccidae

These are very small insects, 1-2 mm contained within a waxy shell. They can be a myriad of colours, but the most common are light tan – black. Adult females lose their legs, becoming sessile and remain feeding on the same place for the duration of their life cycle. Males are short lived, 1-2 days, winged and never feed. Therefore the main damage to the plants is induced by the immatures and females.

Monophlebidae – Cottony cushion scale

Australian Bug, Fluted Scale,
Cottony Cushion Scale
Icerya purchasi

These are larger scale insects; immatures are 1-2 mm, whereas adults can be as large as 1 cm. They have soft (do not have a waxy cuticle), white bodies. These are hermaphrodites, meaning that no true males or females are present. They keep their eggs within their bodies and after hatching; bear live young. Adults retain their legs (unusual for scale insects) and limited mobility. 

Pseudococcidae - Mealybugs

Mealybugs
Pseudococcidae

Again, small about 1-2 mm grey or white bugs. They do not have a hardened waxy shell, but secrete a waxy coating onto their bodies and eggs (hence the name mealybug). They can often be confused with mealy aphids that have similar appearance and feed on the same host plants.


Hosts

Woody trees and shrubs are most often targeted, this means any fruit trees or perennial herb are likely to be attacked. Citrus, and its relatives, such as curry plants are most often infested, especially during the winter months when trees become dormant and more susceptible to attack.

Microscopic Scale on underside of curry tree leaf
Soft Scale, Coccidae

Life Cycle

Immature scale can be transported via the wind to new hosts. Afterwards it seeks out a suitable feeding place, such as safe crevices or joints of branches. It will likely remain in the same place throughout its entire life cycle. Depending on the species, there can be one or two nymphal (instar) stages. Most adult female scale, except for mealybugs and cottony cushion scale lose their legs and become sedentary. Males die soon after fertilising females. Many scale species are parthenogenic, where unfertilised females give rise to ‘clones’ without any genetic contribution from the males. Some scale lay eggs outside their bodies, but most retain the eggs under their shell and once the eggs have hatched the adults ‘bear’ live young. Each generation the immatures, known as crawlers, move away from the adults and settle upon new terrain until the whole plant becomes occupied or the nymphs are swept away by the wind to start a new colony elsewhere.

Scale adults and immatures on stems and inside crevices

Control

Multiple natural control remedies are available for scale, although several applications or rounds of scale removal will be necessary to ensure that the entire colony has been destroyed.

Firstly, physical removal is the most successful, but can be labour intensive. This means arming yourself with a blunt butter knife or twig or whatever tool is handy and scrape them from the plant bark. You do not require an excessive amount of force to remove them and once you have dislodged them they will die. I know of somebody who grabs a bucket of soapy water and a brush, then scrubs down her citrus trees when the winter infestation strikes!

Natural chemical control includes the use of horticultural white oil (see my Pest Control page for the recipe). Another option is to mix 50% v/v isopropyl alcohol with 1% w/v SDS, the alcohol dissolves the waxy cuticle and the SDS attacks the soft body beneath. Now I don’t think that these chemicals are too readily available to the public, so you can substitute it with ethanol and sunlight liquid – The exact quantities would be determined through some trial and error whereas the effect on the plant might be unknown (I would recommend avoiding the leaves of the plant should you wish to go this route).

Another alternative is diatomaceous earth, which contains small sharp particles that cut the bodies and leads to desiccation. This will control both the scale and ant herders, but might be a bit hard to come by or expensive.

Several insects parasitise or predators prey upon scale. Those that make up the front line in biological control are:

Biological Control Agent	Parasite or Predator	Prey species
Parasitic Wasps	Metaphycus helvolus, Encyrtus spp., Encarsia citrinia, Aphytis spp., Coccophagus spp.	Coccus hesperidum, Saitettia coffeae
Parasitic fly	Cryptochaetum iceryae	Icerya purchasi (cottony cusion scale)
Ladybirds, ladybeetles or ladybugs	Chilocorus spp., Hyperospisspp., Rhyzobius spp. Rodolia cordinalis (Vedalia ladybug)	Various species Icerya purchasi (cottony cusion scale)

The tiny parasitic wasps are most effective in greenhouses as they are simply swept away by the wind in outdoor gardens. Ladybeetles are more readily available, but will only arrive and remain in the garden if the scale populations are very high. Ladybeetle larvae feed beneath the scale insects and some of the adults resemble scale insects, such as the Mealy bug destroyer, so be careful not to harm them during your scale control efforts. Please refer to my Ladybird and Wasps Biological Control Posts for more detail information about each insect.

Preventative Tips

The old adage that ‘Prevention in better than Cure’ certainly applies to scale insects. This comes down to two crucial points:

1) Prevent scale attachment
2) Limit ant access

This can be done by applying Petroleum jelly, such as Vaseline, to the base of the tree or shrub BEFORE infestation. Scale insects cannot move past this barrier which effectively keeps them off the plants. BUT, ants – AKA herders – seek the honeydew (sugary secretion) that scale and other pests produce. Ants will actively tend, protect and transport scale to hosts plant to keep them like cattle and harvest the honeydew. This is the biggest problem, because the ants do figure out how to manoeuvre over the Petroleum jelly and bring along their herds.

Scale and Ant Herders

I have found that fresh Vaseline (still sticky) works very well until it becomes clogged with dust or develops a crusted layer. So depending on the season and weather you would need to replace the Vaseline once every few months. Also any support ties between the plant and stakes or other supports (such as ties to a nail in the wall or I tie the trees to some of our burglar bars) also need to be Vaselined or else the ant tightrope walk along the ties to gain access to the host plant once more.

Ant and Scale Vaseline barriers
Cover all bases and access points

The Vaseline should be applied about 20-30 cm from the ground on the stem if possible in order to prevent it from becoming dirt-clogged too quickly due to soil back splash when it rains.

Another option is to get double-sided tape and stick them onto the stems and other access point. I haven’t tried this yet, but I am planning to in the near future. The same applies to the double sided tape – once enough dirt has settled onto it, it becomes useless.

I have Vaselined all my fruit trees and it makes the world of difference to keep the ants and associated pests (aphids and scale) off the plants in the first place. The honeydew is not only attractive for ants to eat, but the affected leaves soon become breeding grounds for black sooty mould that weakens the plants even more.

Something Interesting: Carmine Dye

One would believe that scale insects are merely an agricultural pests and that no good has ever come from them, but surprisingly a certain group of scale insects have been used to make dye since the middle ages. 

Cochineal Dyed Wool
Saintswithin
Wikipedia

Cochineal insects, a type of mealybug, are soft-bodied, oval shaped and use their beak-like mouthparts to feed on members of the Opuntia cacti (this includes the Prickly Pear). As with many other scale, female cochineal insects are wingless, but have limited mobility and form the bulk of the infesting colony.

They originate from Mexico and South America where they have been raised on cacti for the red substance they produce within their bodies. This is carminic acid (19-22% of a mealybug's body), which is a predator deterrent and when mixed with either aluminium or calcium salts it becomes a red carmine dye. This dye is one of the few naturally derived dyes that is a water-soluble colourant yet remains resistant to degradation, light, heat and oxidation. It is more suited to the dyeing of animal derived fabrics and is also used in cosmetics (lipstick, blush) and food colouring (labelled E120), since it is less allergenic and more stable than many synthetic colourants. 

Cochineal insect
Dactylopius coccus
Carminic acid

- Update September 2015 -

Just a quick note on the Vaseline barrier on the tree trunks. Some trees do not seem to appreciate this Vaseline collar (such as the Brush cherry) and don't form any new bark at the collar site (likely too moist). This means you will end up with a restricted trunk at the collar and a weakened trunk. Therefore I suggest checking up on the collars just to make sure. If you notice restrictions occurring remove the Vaseline from the afflicted tree.

Alternatively you can use the white oil or bicarb/sunlight solutions along with a soft bristle brush to scrub off the nasties - no need to take off any bark in the process, only enough to dislodge the scale.

Good luck!

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Please share with fellow gardening enthusiasts via the various sharing buttons at the end of posts/pages! Else you can vote for posts through the Google reactions bar at the end of articles. To stay up to date I have provided several reader and social networking platforms with which to subscribe: Twitter, Pinterest, RSS Feed Reader or Email/Follow directly using the Blog Followers widget on the left hand side toolbar. Thank you for reading and please feel free to ask if questions arise - I appreciate comments and ideas too! 😆

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Monsters, Garions and Onlics

I have been growing onions and garlic in the garden for quite some time. The onions have been very successful, although the larger bulbs do take there sweet time to develop. The garlic grows fine, but for some reason I have strange things happening to the garlic come harvest time.

The first odd occurrence came when we planted about 40 Hadeco garlic bulbs in the beginning of 2013. These were all planted outside near the veld where the Alfalfa patch is situated. Garlic also takes its time to develop, so they only received as much attention as the Alfalfa (but, the onions that grew there where fine!). When harvest time came around, the garlic well... had disappeared!!! I mean 40+ bulbs just vanished! We still haven't figured out who or what the garlic monster was, but I decided to then plant them in the main garden lest the Garlic Monster strike again.

Our recent oddity regarding my garlic growing endeavours was when I purchased a bunch of cloves in a brown paper bag, about 10 or so. (I can't remember the manufacturer, when I see them again I'll post it here). I dedicated a pot for them and they grew very happily for a few months. Harvest time came round again and I was grossly disappointed, many of the bulbs had hardly developed and others seemed more... oniony...

The minute garlic cloves did not have any proper flavour at all and the oniony ones had such a pungent garlic smell that all vampires would have fled from Ruimsig! Thus investigation into the garlic-onions began...

...We suspected that these garlic-onions are likely the result of garlic x onion hybrids. I have never heard of garlic x onion hybrids before (which I refer to as garions and onlics LOL!) but I have found that there have been attempts to create garlic-onion hybrids for future culinary use. Maybe our bulbs where rejects from the breeding programmes or simply accidents from allium farms, which have lead them to be sold to the unsuspecting home gardener?

I have a link to a patent here that describes the process of establishing a garlic x onion or onion x chive hybrid - Patent US5367111. In this patent the onion (Allium cepa) is the ovum donor and garlic (Allium sativum) is the pollen donor, resulting in a near-intermediate garion/onlic plant. Here is a photo of the one of the garions/onlics from my garden:

Garlic x Onion
Hybrid

The leaves represent that of garlic whereas the bulb is fleshy and layered like an onion. I am not sure about the plants developed from the patent, but these garions and onlics from my garden are definitely not a culinary delight! Alas, I will wait patiently until Hadeco brings out their garlic bulbs in Feb/March to plant once more...

There will be garlic! I will not let Garlic Monsters, Garions or Onlics prevent me from savouring homegrown organic garlic!

[Garlic Monster Picture Credits: Monsters; Aleksandr Obuhov. Garlic; Eric Jewell]


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Please share with fellow gardening enthusiasts via the various sharing buttons at the end of posts/pages! Else you can vote for posts through the Google reactions bar at the end of articles. To stay up to date I have provided several reader and social networking platforms with which to subscribe: Twitter, Pinterest, RSS Feed Reader or Email/Follow directly using the Blog Followers or Follow Your Way widget on the left hand side toolbar. Thank you for reading and please feel free to ask if questions arise - I appreciate comments and ideas too! J

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Dangers of Snail Bait - Please don't use Snail Bait

This post isn't related to the threat of snail bait to your garden, but rather you pets. Earlier today we rushed one of our cats, Diesel to the Veterinary emergency room with a suspected poisoning.

I am quickly going to list the warning signs as a reference for anyone searching for the symptoms that might match these:

Initial (early) symptoms (within one hour of snail bait ingestion):

- Restlessness and fidgety
- Easily scared by normal things, such as other cats sneezing or the wind blowing loudly
- Over reactive, for instance when you pet them they are overly appreciative of the attention than normal

Progressive symptoms (about 2-3 hours after ingesting snail bait):

- Exceedingly restless and scared, cannot sit still or calm down
- Doesn't want to be picked up, but still likes petting and attention
- Looking for dark places to hide, such as in a dark room or under furniture
- Diarrhoea
- Body tremors, swaying and excessive salivation (drooling)

[When I noticed the tremors and salivation, we set out to catch Diesel and take him to the Vet, but this was not easy as he thought that we were chasing him and I think that he was having hallucinations by this point.]

While we were trying to catch him we noticed several of the following symptoms:

- Some disorientation; he still managed to run and jump, but you could see that his co-ordination was not normal
- Trying to vomit
- Confusion; he doesn't seem to recognise you or realise that you are trying to help
- Increased heart rate
- Sweating severely; we noticed that he left wet paw prints on the tiles
- Increased hallucinations, with hissing, fighting and fleeing involved [at this stage he scratched and bit everything and everyone as if we were attacking him].

By this time we managed to get him in the cat carrier and on the way to the Vet. He was panting loudly (almost gurgling) and was still fighting and hissing at things inside his box. I put a towel over his box and we spoke to him in soft tones all the way to the Vet which seemed to calm him down, but he was still fighting and hissing at things in his box every so often.

Severe symptoms (about 4-12 hours after ingestion of snail bait):

- Seizures
- Loss of consciousness
- Coma
- Death


As I am typing out the progression of symptoms you would almost say that it is hard to miss, but snail bait poisoning goes from 'strange behaviour' to 'he needs help now!' in 30 min! First we thought that something had frightened him outside and that he was still scared and would calm down once he realised he was safe. He was fine at around 09h00 then went outside, at 09h30 he was back and being a bit fidgety but not anything out of the ordinary as he has such 'busy' moments at times. At around 10h00 he had moved to the kitchen and ate a bit, went to go sit on the chair, but became increasingly restless. [This was due to his stomach cramping and we recall that he licked his stomach]. We checked him for wounds, but found none and his pupils weren't dilated, yet he was a bit over-reactive and freaky still.

I looked up his symptoms on the internet (at about 11h00) and found that fight trauma or a big scare outside are all in line with his symptoms thus far including the diarrhoea and that we should try to calm him down. I got up to go look for him (likely 11h30) and found him in the window sill where he was behaving increasingly strange. Then I noticed that he was swaying, shaking and drooling. We tried to catch him, but he didn't want to be held, he hissed at us and ran away hiding in my room at first where the curtains were closed [They become light sensitive when poisoned]. We tried to catch him several times again, but he scratched and bit so fiercely that he got away several times. [We didn't want him to run so much, because if it were poisoning, which at this stage we were unsure of, running makes the poison metabolise quicker and symptoms progress a lot faster]. At least he stayed in the house or around the house so we eventually managed to get him in the box (at around 12h15). He had a fever, was sweating, panting and had a very high heart rate at this point.

We explain all his symptoms to the vet (the nurse took one look and rushed him to the treatment room), afterwards we told her that we believe he got poisoned about 3 hours ago. She said that he was in a bad way and that his chances are 50/50 and that they will treat the symptoms, but should he make it through the night he will be OK. We phoned the vet when we got home after some more research and told them we suspect snail bait poisoning, which they were already started treating him for. Now we just need to wait to hear about his condition, but I think that he'll pull through as he is still quite young and healthy.


Additional information about Snail bait and its related poisonings:

- Snail bait contains metaldehyde or methiocarb, unfortunately there is no antidote for metaldehyde, but atropine is given to treat methiocarb poisoning.
- The manufacturers of snail bait use bran, molasses, apple flavouring and corn, most of which resemble the taste and ingredients of pet food.
- Most snail bait comes in pellets, which our pets are conditioned to eat. Apparently they do add a bittering agent to the food, but this does not deter all pets.
 - Snail bait poisonings are accidental and most occur during the spring and summer months when the bait is used to protect seedlings in the garden.
- Snail bait is notoriously fast acting (a few hours), whereas rat poison toxicity can take a few days.
- The first 12 hours are crucial during snail bait poisonings and unfortunately pets will eat them again even when they were poisoned the previous time.



I don't use any chemical or synthetic pesticides in my garden and always promote the use of safe/organic alternatives and given what had just happened to Diesel I am even more resolute to keep it that way. We believe that Diesel might have eaten some of the bait whilst in one the neighbours' gardens.


There are several alternatives to snail bait:

- Snails are mostly active during the night. So you can search for them with a torchlight and collected them in a bucket. You can destroy the snails or feed them to the birds.
- You get adhesive copper tape, over which the snails won't go, and can be applied to the stems or bases of plants.
- Salt perimeters are a bit crude and dis-tasteful, but rather this than pet poisoning.
- Crushed up egg shells at the base or plot perimeter will also deter snails from entering.
- Beer traps. Place some beer in a bowl and sink it into the ground so that it is level with the soil. Snails are attracted to this, fall in and drown. Beer traps are not selective and might capture other insects.

We do not have snails in our garden, so I have never tested any of the above-mentioned alternatives (I know that the salt works, as my parent used to use it in our previous house). It is always best to look for non-toxic alternatives to pest control than to run the risk of poisoning your pest (or some one else's) or your family.

I hope that this article will help any other pet owners to more quickly identify the symptoms (as most of the initial stage symptoms are not mentioned) or to prevent future poisonings. Please remember that all pets metabolise toxins differently and that your cats symptoms might not be the exact same progression or order.



- Update 1 October 2014 -

We had a chat with the Vet who treated Diesel and he said that he suspected that he had been poisoned by Two-step (Albicarb, a carbamate pesticide). He said that it was likely intended as a malicious poisoning of the neighbour's dogs and Diesel might have come across a piece of meat laced with the poison.

After some research on the toxin, I found that the symptoms of pesticide poisoning, (such as carbamates and organophosphates) have very similar to snail bait and that their treatments are the same (atropine, which is a counter-acting drug and not really an antidote). I will leave this post as is for snail bait poisonings (or any pesticide for that matter) and have included the Two-step poisoning as well. The big problem is that pesticide poisoning has similar symptoms to many other problems (such as anxiety) and have overlapping symptoms that makes the identification and diagnosis of one particular poison very difficult. Therefore I will again encourage gardeners to seek non-toxic or organic means for pest control and if you do decide to use pesticide, to use them responsibly, read the instructions and make sure you know their toxicity or possible poisoning symptoms.  

For more information on the status of Two-step poisoning in South Africa, the United States and Spain, please see the following article:

Arnot et. al. 2011. Treatment rationale for dogs poisoned by albicarb (carbamate pesticide). Journal of the South African Veterinary Association. 82: (4). 

The article also mentions that Two-step has a bitter additive, but mentions that most animals do not taste bitter and thus it doesn't deter them from eating the stuff (similar to snail bait).

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