The chili pepper was first cultivated and bred for its spiciness in Central America, hundreds of years before any part of the rest of the world enjoyed it. During this time, ancient Americans spiced all kinds of food with the chili. In the southwest United States, Native Americans would gather wild chiltepine chilis and protect the plants for future use. Aztecs were said to enjoy hot cocoa spiced with chili peppers. When explores from the Old World began visiting North and South America in the 1500's they brought the chili to the rest of the world. Now, the spiciness of the chili pepper has captured the taste buds of nearly the entire world.
It is amazing how the spiciness of the chili has been utilized in nearly every cuisine possible. Even if a recipe is not made with the spice of chilis many people will put some sort of spicy sauce on it. Think about Tabasco Sauce. people will put it on just about everything. There is probably someone that puts it on there cold cereal in the morning. The odd thing is, spicy flavor is painful and for some reason people like the pain (myself included). Enjoying the spicy pain is a learned taste and some people can build-up quite a tolerance. At least for decades, if not for centuries and millenniums, people have been trying to breed the next spiciest chili pepper. It seemed for years the habanero held the record for spiciest chili. In recent years a number of chili's have claimed to be the spiciest in the world. Recently, the ghost pepper, also known as the naga bhut jolokia, from India held the title of worlds spiciest chili. Now the trinidad moruga scorpion pepper holds the official Guinness World Record for spiciest chili.
The secret to the chili's spiciness is the molecule capsicum. This molecule is secreted by the white tissues holding the seeds inside the pepper. Capsicum binds with pain receptors in the mouth responsible for detecting heat, therefore giving the spicy heat chilis are known for. The body then responds by increasing perspiration, raising heart rate, and releasing endorphins. Capsicum also has been shown to kill certain types of cancer cells and may indirectly aid weight loss. In the wild, birds love spicy chili's, and mammals generally hate the spiciness (except for some humans of course). When birds eat chili's the seeds pass through their digestive tract undamaged and can therefore germinate and grow if deposited in an ideal location. The chewing and digestive tract of mammals however digests the seeds, preventing them from passing through the digestive tract. This is exactly why chili peppers were spicy to begin with. Caspicum deters mammals from eating them and to encourage birds to eat them, thus allowing the perpetuation of chili plants. Cultivated varieties of chili's however are increasing in spiciness simply because humans are selectively breeding only the spiciest chili's in order to produce an even spicier chili.
When we think of potatoes we probably think of Ireland, or Germany, or possibly Idaho. Really though, we should think of ancient Peru and the South American Andes Mountains. In the high elevations of these steep mountains is where the potato originated up to ten thousand years ago. During these ancient times, literally thousands of varieties of potatoes were developed, a far cry from the handful of varieties typically available in the grocery store today. It wasn't until the late 1500's through when explorers finally brought potatoes to Europe. Then, by the 1700's potatoes had spread across Europe and provided the agricultural system and calories needed to start the industrial revolution. It is very likely that without the potato being imported from South America the industrial revolution would have never happened. Without the potato, today's society would be vastly different from what it is, and I'm not just talking about the supper table. Without the food provided by the potato, much of the technology we have today probably wouldn't be around.
Today, many of the thousands of varieties of potatoes are still found in the Andes Mountains. Modern varieties of potatoes developed for wide scale agriculture are more productive though. This additional productivity is not without its cost though. Old varieties, possibly thousands of years old, are more disease resistant, require fewer pesticides and fertilizers, are less prone to crop failure, and taste better. The increased productivity of modern varieties comes at the cost of requiring more chemicals, being more prone to disease and failure, and don't taste as good. Each of the old varieties has a distinct color, consistency, and taste making the potato a very diverse food fit for nearly every meal. Columbia for example uses a great diversity of potatoes in nearly every distinctly Columbian recipe.
If you want to grow potatoes for yourself, the easiest thing to do is buy a potato at the store. The potato can be planted whole in the soil. Or, you can wait until "eyes" grow on the potato and cut a square inch or so size chunk of potato out around the eye. Let the eye and attached chunk of potato dry out for a day and then bury an inch or so in the soil. Potatoes aren't extremely picky on soil type, but do not do extremely well in high clay content soil or rocky soil. Make sure the soil remains moist but not soaking wet.
To see some of the variety of potatoes check out these National Geographic photos: Potato Variety
Sorry this is late, apparently there are some problems with automatic posting and oddly I didn't catch it until today...
Well over a year ago discussed how to grow your own pineapple plant from a pineapple you purchase from the supermarket (Growing Pineapple). Now, almost two years after planting the pineapple top we finally have a flower, which hopefully means we will have a fruit within a few months. If you want to grow your own pineapples it really is quite easy. First, buy a healthy looking pineapple from the grocery store. Second, cut the green top off of the fruit. Cut the top off about one inch below the green leafy portion, making sure at least some of the fruit is attached to the top. Third, let the top dry out for several days. And lastly, plant the top in potting soil and make sure to keep the soil moist. Within a few weeks your top should root and begin to grow. You can tell if you have a healthy pineapple by looking at the leaves in the very middle of the plant. If these smaller leaves are green and growing you know you have a healthy plant. If there are no small leaves or if the leaves look unhealthy the plant is not doing well and you might want to start over with a new top. In my experience nearly every top will root. I have only seen one of these plants produce a flower though. I would guess the other pineapple plants will eventually flower.
If you were to go out and buy fruit trees it could cost you quite a bit of money, that is, if you could find them. Fruit trees can be quite difficult to come by and if you do, they are expensive. But, if you are a little adventurous you can purchase fruits from the grocery store produce section, plant the seeds and find out what happens. Of course, this will take a little patience and an experimental mind-frame but a little work and a little money can produce a lot of interesting plants. Not only that, plants grown from grocery store produce can teach you a lot about cultivating plants. If you want to change your brown thumb into a green thumb, try your hand at growing seeds you find in grocery store produce. There are probably a couple dozen different plants you can grow from the grocery store but today we will be talking about the avocado.
Avocados are relatively new to the supermarket, especially in the north. They have been around a long time though in Florida, Texas, and California. They aren't as ubiquitous as the banana but with a little searching most grocery store produce sections will turn up a small display. Sometimes grocery store avocados can be a little pricey, say a dollar or more per fruit, but that is nothing compared to the price of purchasing a tree or the great experience you will get trying to grow it yourself. Once you buy the avocado the first thing you have to do is eat it. Typically this isn’t very hard being most people love avocados. And these fruits are extremely healthy for you with healthy unsaturated fats, fiber, and lots of vitamins. Studies have shown that avocados decrease cholesterol levels and possibly have anti-cancer effects. If you don’t want to eat your avocado you can simply cut it open and take the seed out. Once you have the seed, clean it off well and let it dry for a day or so.
An avocado seedling. Note the seed planted partially under the surface.
After drying, bury about three-quarters of the seed in some sort of soil. The rounded side of the seed should be buried and the more pointed one-quarter end of the seed above the soil. Keep the seed in a relatively warm location and make sure the soil stays moist. Then wait, it may take up to two months for the seed to germinate. I have achieved about a 50% germination rate this way. There are many other ways to germinate avocado seeds which include wrapping the seed in wet paper towels or letting the round end soak in water. These other methods have been far less successful for me.
Once you do germinate a seed you will have to be patient again. If you want fruit you will likely have to wait five or more years. Avocados also do not tolerate temperatures much below freezing so if you live where it freezes you will have to grow it inside. Avocados make nice house plants but if you want it to bear fruit it will need lots of light.
Its that exciting time of year again when everyone starts planting garlic. Well, everyone should be planting garlic anyway (Just my opinion). Garlic is one of those love it or hate it foods. And I absolutely love nearly everything about it, planting it, growing it, harvesting it, and eating it. Garlic is one of the most ancient cultivated crops around and has persisted in gardens for over 6,000 years. Amazing! I am sure one of the reasons it has persisted that long is its interesting flavor as well as the fact that it is easy to grow and is calorie packed. While calorie may not be in the lime light today, for thousands of years farmers worked hard to grow calorie efficient crops to sustain themselves and their families. And garlic packs 42 calories per ounce, far more then the average of 10 or so calories per ounce most garden crops produce. Ancient Egyptians ate so much garlic that it was considered a dietary staple. Ease of growing, ease of storage, and dense calories are all likely reasons it became a staple rather than just a seasoning. Just a guess, but the strong odor is likely the reason garlic is utilized more as a seasoning and less as a staple today. Some regions, especially in the Mediterranean still however utilize garlic as a staple today. The astonishing health benefits of garlic have been known for thousands of years. In-fact, during the middle ages garlic was known as a cure-all. Yes, many, but not all, of these are real benefits and have been verified scientifically. In our lab we have shown how garlic is an extremely strong antibiotic, far stronger than many if not most modern antibiotics. A clove of garlic a day may really keep the doctor away...
If you look in the grocery store you may only know of one or two different varieties of garlic. This is far from the truth, in-fact, their are hundreds of different types of garlic that have been cultivated and developed all over the world. Each of these specialty garlics has its own soil preference, growth habits, colors, and flavors. Their is an amazing diversity of garlic flavors ranging anywhere from mild to spicy, earthy to elegant, weak to strong, bitter to and yes, some even claim sweet. I once tasted a so called sweet garlic and I have to say, there was nothing sweet about it. But even so, there is a garlic perfect for you out their somewhere. I have found many. Garlic is a great food for everyone, both high and low alike.
The Garlic Man
Several years ago I came across the Garlic Man on the internet. I had grown garlic for many years but the information on his website was encyclopedic and inspired me to grow more garlic. His website offers growing, health, and much more information on garlic as well as selling more varieties of garlic than I ever imagined. I ordered a mixed warm climate adapted package of garlic varieties and found a few that grew extremely well here in the Sonoran Desert. He also offers packages of garlic for other climate areas as well as for taste. I find the U-Tube video on the Garlic Man below to be inspiring. Bob Anderson truly has earned the title of the Garlic Man. Here is his Website: http://www.gourmetgarlicgardens.com/ Grow your own garlic
The two varieties of garlic I have found that grow best in the Sonoran desert are Sonoran (big surprise!) and California Early. Sonoran grows especially well here and forms very large beautiful heads with many large cloves. California Early also does extremely well but the heads and cloves are not quite as big. I have tried probably ten other types, and some do work but none really compare to these two. Other gardeners in the Arizona desert may have different results though. If you want to grow garlic know this: it is extremely easy! Just plant it at the right time of year in decent soil, water as needed but not much, and wait a long, long time. You can order garlic cloves from a seed company or you can just buy a head of garlic from the grocery store. They will work pretty much the same. Here are some steps to follow.
Sonoran garlic cloves. Note, the flat side is always planted downwards in the soil and the pointed side upwards.
Step by step growing garlic
1. Get soil ready for planting. Garlic is not particularly picky about soil type. It does however prefer loose, well drained soil. The soil needs to be rock free and cannot be waterlogged though. Mixing in compost also helps a lot. You can also grow garlic in a pot ether in or outdoors.
2. Plant at the right time of year. In mild winter areas where garlic tops will not be killed by frost the beginning of October through mid-November works well. The closer to the beginning of October though the better. In cold winter areas where frost will kill back tops plant later in October up to a few weeks before the ground freezes. In cold areas it is important not to plant the garlic too early, causing it to sprout and then die back. Dying back wastes valuable energy stored in the clove and can reduce the overall size of the garlic head next summer.
3. Soak garlic cloves overnight in water. This is not an essential step, but will greatly speed the germination and establishment of your garlic plant. Garlic that is not soaked often will take a few weeks to sprout, but with soaked garlic I have seen it sprout in as little as three days. This is more important in southern areas with mild winters being you want them to sprout as soon as possible.
Sprouting garlic cloves after soaking. Rarely do cloves sprout this fast, but these apparently were just ready to go.
4. Plant your clove about two inches deep with the pointed end up. The flat side should be down.
5. Water as needed, but remember, garlic is not a water hog.
6. As the garlic grows remove any flower like stalks. This will cause the plant to put more energy into growing healthy bulbs. Also, you can eat garlic leaves chopped-up in salad of in stir-fry.
7. When leaves start dying back in the spring to early summer the garlic is ready to harvest. Simply use a pitchfork or shovel and dig up the heads.
8. Remove the dirt from the garlic heads and leave the stalks attached. Dry the garlic in a warm dry location. Once all of the leaves are crispy brown the garlic is ready to eat.
Remember, if you don't succeed the first time at growing garlic, try again and try something slightly different. Different soil, planting method, type of garlic, planting time and so on. Also, read what the Garlic Man has to say about growing garlic and try some of it out. I don't doubt, you will eventually succeed.
Well, I hope some of this was interesting and helpful.
Horseradish plant started from a section of horseradish root I purchased last fall in the grocery store.
One of my favorite ways of obtaining and growing plants starts in the produce section of the grocery store. Here there are an abundance of seeds and roots from the produce that is for sale that can be grown in the garden or inside. I have mentioned obtaining fresh ginger root from the grocery store and growing it, but this last fall I also did it with a section of horseradish root. I simply purchased a healthy looking section of root and then made sure it was dried out well by letting it sit on a counter for several days. After that I simply planted it in the ground about three inches deep and waited to see what happened. I planted the root mid-October, it took a few weeks before any sprouts appeared, and the leaves died back after our winter frosts. About March however the plant started growing like crazy! From what I have read horseradish can become an invasive weed in the garden in more temperate climates but in Phoenix the summer heat should make it die back. So my plan is to let it grow until the heat kills the leaves, then I will see if there are any roots to dig up.
Section of horseradish root similar to what I planted in October.
Starting plants from materials found in the grocery store produce section can be quite exciting. You never know quite what you are going to get. You also have access to a lot of different plants that normally are not available in seed catalogs or garden stores. Unfortunately, growing grocery produce is experimental and some of your attempts will fail, but that's the way science goes. We are still trying to successfully germinate and grow coconuts from the grocery store. We are currently on our second coconut attempt and if we don't succeed we will try again!
Start sweet potato slips for planting by placing a sweet potato in a jar of water. The bottom of the potato will start to root and the top will form bunches of leaves (slips). The slips are small vines that can eventually be planted in the ground.
From everything I have heard, sweet potatoes are some of the hardiest, most easily grown, most versatal garden plants in the south. While I have grown sweet potato vines before I have never grown them for food. From my experience, the vines are extremely tough, so tough in-fact it can be difficult to kill them. The only thing that can kill them is a hard frost, which here in Phoenix only happens every three years or so. Late this spring I will be planting some sweet potato slips in hopes of producing some potatoes for next fall. Sweet potato slips simply are short vines that sprout off of a sweet potato. You can buy them through seed catalogs but they are also extremely easy to produce on your own. All you need is a sweet potato.
1. Set a sweet potato in a jar of water such as in the picture above.
2. The sweet potato will start to root in the water and form bunches of leaves at the top. These bunches of leaves will eventually lengthen and turn into vines. These short vines are the slips. The sweet potato can be left in the water and used as a house plant if you don't want to grow potatoes.
3. Once a slip is about 8 inches or longer, cut it off and plant it in soil. This slip will root in moist soil and form tubers. Tubers simply are roots a plant uses to store its food, in this case the tuber is a sweet potato.
4. It will take at least 100 days to form sweet potato tubers and after that time you can dig them up and eat them.
A possibly easier way to do this is to simply partially bury a sweet potato in moist soil. Eventually a plant will take off from this buried potato.
Ginger plant hidden away in a safe greenhouse microclimate where it can grow protected from intense sun, heat, and cold.
I'll admit, I'm pretty obsessed with figuring out how to grow things. There is so much that can be learned through simply trying to grow new plants. Even if its not something particularly or immediately practical, figuring out how to grow it can teach you about how to grow other more practical things. Ginger is an excellent example of this. Ginger: not practical where it is cold, or where it is hot, or where the sun is intense. Being we are in Phoenix Arizona, the sun is too intense and hot during the summer and too cold during the winter. One of my coworkers tried growing ginger plants from store bought roots (or stolons) several times before he finally figured out how to protect the plant. It turned out to require moist rich soil, and a shaded, cooler, and wetter portion of the greenhouse. Even here though the plant dies back during the hot part of the summer and cold part of the winter but comes back each fall and spring for several months. The goal is to eventually get it to flower, which may require a slightly different set of conditions.
The problem and reason why most people have "brown thumbs" is that they try once, it doesn't work, so they give-up. I have seen people grow things very productively in circumstances where they in no way should grow. The rule is, as with most everything, if at first you fail try again. The key is in growing the ginger... Microhabitat! A microhabitat is a small area in the landscape where conditions are slightly different from the rest of the habitat. For us to grow ginger successfully we had to find the microhabitat of temperature and light intensity different from the surroundings. The same goes for growing just about anything else, you must create or find the ideal light intensity, soil, and temperature for that plant to grow in. The same exact principle holds true in the environment. Why do most all plants grow in the desert? Microhabitat! Without plants like Palo Verde creating a shaded, cooler, moister, and better soil environment under their canopy very few desert plants would grow at all.
While growing ginger is an interesting lesson in microhabitat, ginger itself is a pretty interesting plant. Supposedly it has been found to have anti-viral, anti-bacterail, and anti-cancer compounds in it. If you want to read more about ginger click here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger.
If you want to figure out how to grow your own ginger, purchase a ginger root from the local grocery store and plant in potting soil. The ginger root itself is actually a stolon, a sort of underground stem that also functions as a root and stores nutrients for the plant. The stolon will require moist but well drained soil and sunlight. While I don't know exactly, ginger doesn't seem to like temperatures above 100 degrees or below 40 degrees, and prefers humidity and partial shade. You will have to play around with the conditions to create the "perfect" microhabitat.
Ginger root, actually a stolon, which is a modified underground stem the plant uses for storage of nutrients. If you want to figure out how to grow your own ginger, purchase one from the local grocery store and plant in potting soil. The photo is in the right orientation to how you should plant the stolon. You may have to try several different things before you find the correct microhabitat.
Coconut seed planted sideways and half buried in potting soil.
Apparently starting a coconut tree is pretty easy so we are trying to start one in our greenhouse. You simply need a fresh coconut seed from your local grocery store. (In case anyone doesn't know the coconut is a huge seed itself.) You should be able to start a coconut tree in any warm sunny window in some potting soil, or outside during the summer. We placed a coconut half buried sideways in a five gallon bucket full of potting soil to see what would happen. make sure the top and bottom of the coconut are about even with the soil surface or just below and keep the soil well watered. You can tell the bottom side of the coconut by the three "eyes", make sure these are about even with the soil surface or just under it. See the photos below of the "eyes". The root will first appear out from between these "eyes". This method of half burying the coconut mimics the seed being washed up on the shore by the ocean tide and partially buried in sand. The coconut I found out is a fairly interesting plant. It moves throughout the world by floating through the ocean until it is washed up on shore. Coconut trees are limited to the tropics due to their inability to withstand frosts but even so, the seeds have been found washed up on shore as far north as Norway! There is all kinds of crazy-cool facts about the coconut, including during WWII coconut water, from the immature coconut seed, were used for blood transfusions.
We planted the above coconut seed about a month ago and a root nub appeared after a few weeks. The nub hasn't grown much since that time but time will tell if its alive or not. From what I've read coconuts grow well in hot humid environments that have no freezing temperatures ever, such as the tropics. Unfortunately for us in Phoenix we get frosts about every three years, so our tree will have to remain in the greenhouse. But at this point we don't even know if we can get the seed to sprout into a tree. We'll report back if and when it actually works.
The three "eyes" on the bottom of the coconut.
This coconut is laying on its side, in the orientation it is to be buried. The left side to the coconut is the top and the right is the bottom with the "eyes". The line down the middle is a cut mark the grocery store puts in the shell to make it easier to break open. Bury the coconut about halfway and in this orientation.
To the right are three pineapple plants we started about a year ago in our greenhouse. Anyone can start their own pineapple plant in a warm sunny window, a one gallon pot or larger, some potting soil, and a store bought pineapple. Simply cut off the pineapple top so you have about 1 inch of the pineapple attached to the leaves and let is dry for several days. Then bury the 1 inch remaining portion of the pineapple in the potting soil and water. Make sure the soil stays wet and the pineapple will eventually start to root in a week or two. Not all tops will root and you may have to try this with a few different pineapple tops before it will work. You can pull up your pineapple in the first few weeks to see if any roots are growing, but be gentile as to not break any roots. You will know your pineapple rooting experiment is working if the very central leaf in the top is growing. The top center leaf is the leaf growing from the plants apical meristem, which is growing tissue at the apex or top of the plant. All plants have an apical meristem which adds height or length to the plant. If the apical meristem is growing your plant is healthy. We are going to keep our pineapples growing indefinitely. We have heard that it is possible to produce fruit after about three years, but we'll see.
Growing plants of all types is an important and easy learning/teaching tool, or skill for that matter. All kinds of things can be learned about plants as you grow them, everything from botany to agriculture to history and culture. Growing a pineapple in this way teaches plant propagation as well as about apical meristem growth. Another interesting thing about pineapple fruit is that they contain an abundance of protease, an enzyme that digests protein. Which makes me think... maybe there is some cool protein digestion experiment we can think up of using pineapple.
