Beware the Pig Nut!
- Thread starter Broch
- Start date
Wow! pig nut heaven! Never seen so many in one place. Fabulous sight.
Anyone know how to preserve them?
I fear that they can!
The sheep are intended to help manage the land for wildflowers but I’m still working on the best rotation plan!
I fear that they can!
The sheep are intended to help manage the land for wildflowers but I’m still working on the best rotation plan!
Yes, this whole 'grazing level' question is quite a problem. I am trying to assess what grazing level would be beneficial for the wood if at all.
I'll see what I can sort out
. However, and Toddy will be able to tell us, I seem to remember they take a couple of years to grow a single 'nut'.I've never tried as I can find them most times of the year (despite warnings that you can mistake the tuber for other things when the leaves die back) - I'll have to get a load and see what can be done but research has drawn no results for 'preserving pignuts'
BTW, you need to get yourself an avatar so we can find your posts more easily in a thread
Giver the anatomy of a pig nut, I suggest you store them as you would for any other root crops
such as potatoes, carrits, parsnips. . . .. . . .
The lack of suggestions makes me think that:
a) they go "off" pretty quickly after harvest,
b) like taro roots, better left in the ground to grow until needed.
such as potatoes, carrits, parsnips. . . .. . . .
The lack of suggestions makes me think that:
a) they go "off" pretty quickly after harvest,
b) like taro roots, better left in the ground to grow until needed.
It can also be a bit of an enterprise to get them out of the ground. Though carroty, unlike regular carrots in habit, they can sit quite deep and where the soil isn't terribly friable
I find the seeds do well in gravelly open areas....pea gravel paths are ideal ....but scattered on top of a plant pot and left in peace, they come up as feather leafed rather short stems the first year. Second year, they'll put out flowers, and there is a 'nut' just not a very big one. Third year they come up tall and with a big flower head and the nut's worth munching....and that big flower heads will seed masses of ripe seed across the path again ...or in our case under the blackcurrant bush, in beside the fig tree, in the lawn, growing through my chamomile....thank heavens it's a benevolent sort of plant
M
....but scattered on top of a plant pot and left in peace, they come up as feather leafed rather short stems the first year. Second year, they'll put out flowers, and there is a 'nut' just not a very big one. Third year they come up tall and with a big flower head and the nut's worth munching....and that big flower heads will seed masses of ripe seed across the path again ...or in our case under the blackcurrant bush, in beside the fig tree, in the lawn, growing through my chamomile....thank heavens it's a benevolent sort of plant M
Mind my garden is shaded by woodland and none of it gets sunshine all day long.
If you're in choice grassland you might do it in two
M
If you're in choice grassland you might do it in two
M
Fears of pignut Armageddon perhaps a bit exaggerated - sheep have been in amongst the pignut for a week or so now and after some initial chomping by this year’s lambs for whom everything is still an exciting new adventure, they have settled down and left the pignuts alone.
Be interested to hear what you decide and if you are going to add grazers, what you go for.
Fears of pignut Armageddon perhaps a bit exaggerated - sheep have been in amongst the pignut for a week or so now and after some initial chomping by this year’s lambs for whom everything is still an exciting new adventure, they have settled down and left the pignuts alone.
Be interested to hear what you decide and if you are going to add grazers, what you go for.
I was going to ask you because I noticed today that the sheep in the field next to the wood have left the pignut in the field alone.
I'm really trying to find reliable (unbiased) information for grazing levels but so far 'experts' seem to be at odds especially when I tell them I want to preserve the wet, slightly darker, nature of the core of the wood where all the fungi, ferns and lichen are. I am limited in what beast I can use because the wood is in the middle of sheep and cattle farming - unless I used a neighbours animals I'd have to get involved in movement licences if I understand the rules correctly.
You could use it for panage for a couple of weaners ? If you don't ring their snouts, they'll turn over the ground beautifully, and fertilise it as they go
And, they make bacon, ham, gigot chops ! etc., too.
I'm not suggesting wild boar, but the principle's rather the same. They belong in our woodlands, and that turnover of stuff allows new growth. Just like a fallen tree changes things in a surprisingly healthy way, so do pigs.
Blooming menaces to keep fenced in though.
M
And, they make bacon, ham, gigot chops ! etc., too.
I'm not suggesting wild boar, but the principle's rather the same. They belong in our woodlands, and that turnover of stuff allows new growth. Just like a fallen tree changes things in a surprisingly healthy way, so do pigs.
Blooming menaces to keep fenced in though.
M
Yes, that's the thing holding me back on that. We live near a village called Bwlch y Cybau (pass of the pigs - or thereabouts) so I'm trying to find out if pigs were ever reared in this area or just driven through!
Mrs N does the paperwork for our smallholding but IIRC getting a CPH number for your woods is free and should be pretty straightforward and once you have one it is just an admin job to put your own pigs or other livestock in there or borrow some from further afield.
https://gov.wales/get-county-parish-holding-cph-number
We don’t have pigs (yet) but as Toddy suggests, if you can keep them contained to the areas you want, a couple of weaners for a few months should turn things over nicely.
I’m trying to work out a management plan to preserve/promote the wildflower meadows but it all seems as much as an art as a science and I suspect it will take several years of trial and error to get stock levels, grazing and mowing patterns and times right.
https://plantwild.co.uk/meadow-maintenance/
Let us know how you get on.
I try to live life as though today is my last, but plan as though I've got 20 years left - but that's just not enough for this kind of trial/experiment
