Horticultural Bits
01 Jul
0
16
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 1st July 2026
Continuing with the theme on how these fruit protection bags and sleeves with their handy drawstrings make them more versatile than ‘just’ protecting fruit, I also find them useful for protecting seeds.
This is the..
01 Jul
0
17
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 1st July 2026
These fruit protection sleeves and bags with their handy drawstrings are far more versatile than ‘just’ protecting fruit. (And they are superb for doing that.)
Recently I found the large sleeve ideal for drying fru..
02 Apr
0
287
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 2nd April 2026
By far the best all-round pest control method is to simply exclude them. This is of course often easier said than done, but for many many set-ups exclusion netting is the most efficient and practical way to ensure..
26 Mar
0
269
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 26th March 2026
The other day I lopped the top off some sugarcane (Saccharum sp.) for a customer and was taken by how similar to lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) the cross-section looked.
So I thought I’d grab a piece of growing..
21 Mar
0
249
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 21st March 2026
This post is an extract from Update: Aerial Rootin' Shootin' Sugarcane.
Back on the 16th March, after writing [that post], I cut that stem into two pieces to pot up. Here I’ve laid the two pieces side by side su..
20 Mar
0
475
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 15th March 2026
Updated on 20th March 2026
I cut a roughly 2 m cane of Cultivar 1 that other day and was absolutely transfixed by its top piece:
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
Zooming in:
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
Not..
21 Feb
0
604
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 21st February 2026
Strong winds once again brought down some especially tall and very mature canes of Cultivar 2 the other day, so what else could it be but chewing time!
And oh my, these were sweet juicy deliciousness! We’re ta..
09 Dec
0
534
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 9th December 2025
Here we are going to explore the botanical structure of a sugarcane stalk. These parts are common to all stems and branches regardless of species, but they are particularly distinct here in sugarcane (and the s..
05 Dec
0
581
Title image above is copyright © Optimate Group Pty Ltd
(This article was originally published 2nd February 2021 here on our Jujube Tree Nursery site.)
First published here 5th December 2025.
Have you ever seen these very smooth round and oval shapes in leaves before, and not known what made them?..
22 Nov
0
653
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 22nd November 2025
Back on 28th August 2025 I received a magnificent silk floss tree cutting (Ceiba speciosa) from my wonderful pen pal Helen, and potted it right there and then into a used 4.1 L Air-Pot seed tray. If I didn’t a..
22 Nov
1
749
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 22nd November 2025
Some time around winter 2025 (I stupidly didn’t take notes) I uprooted a self-seeded sandpaper fig (there are several species buit this one is most likely to be Ficus coronata), took a bunch of cuttings, and p..
22 Nov
0
1138
Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 22nd November 2025
Some time before 2020 (exact date unknown) I potted up some tiger grass (Thysanolaena latifolia) in a 9 L Air-Pot. More for the aesthetic than for root development as I really like the look of Air-Pot containe..