Beware the Pig Nut!

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Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
7,981
7,755
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
Oh yes please! Any chance of some seeds? I'd love to be able to add some to my collection of wild food in my garden. I'd have to put them in a pot as my soil isn't great. But I'd love to grow them for myself. I'd be eternally grateful.

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'.

Anyone know how to preserve them?

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 :)
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
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2,664
McBride, BC
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.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
I find the seeds do well in gravelly open areas....pea gravel paths are ideal :rolleyes:....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
 
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Toddy

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Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
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S. Lanarkshire
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 :dunno:

M
 

Nomad64

Full Member
Nov 21, 2015
1,072
593
UK
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.

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. :)
 
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Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
7,981
7,755
Mid Wales
www.mont-hmg.co.uk
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.
 

Toddy

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Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
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S. Lanarkshire
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
 
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Nomad64

Full Member
Nov 21, 2015
1,072
593
UK
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.

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. :)
 

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