Foraging and Propagation

[xhalmers_860]

I'm wondering if anyone does anything to encourage the species they love to find in the wilderness

I'm interested in both particular techniques like here http://www.waldeneffect.org/20090314mushroom2/ or how to work with cuttings etc, but also things like general rules of thumb for working on the boundary between wilderness and cultivation.

Such rules of thumb might include only taking seeds and cuttings from plants found wild and spreading them nearby - to avoid introducing dangerous species and/or commericalised hybrids. . . . but what else might you think of? Jonny Appleseed . . .

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Not to clear what you're asking for......tips on plant propagation ?.......
You have to be careful when collecting seeds or taking cuttings as some wild plants are protected & it's forbidden to collect any part of them......
Wilderness ? in the UK ?

 

[Toddy]

That's not quite true.......fruits, flowers, fungi, bulbils we routinely forage, so there's no reason not to encourage some to settle in on suitable sites.
I know that I have done it around the places I walk and so have many others
That includes in my garden incidentally Ransoms and three cornered leek, lesser celandine, wild strawberries, pignut seeds, etc.,

Cuttings ? only from willow, but my garden runs alongside a tree lined nature walk. If I don't weed out tree seedlings I wouldn't get out the door in a couple of years. I must pull up hundreds in a year and I try to find homes for a lot of them.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[shaggystu]

....That includes in my garden incidentally.....

same here, yarrow, vetch, ribwort, and greater plantain are the ones that spring to mind. i was lucky enough to have wild strawberries in the garden when i moved in, i say i was lucky, it's more the birds that enjoy them, but i enjoy the birds so it's all good.

Cuttings ? only from willow, but my garden runs alongside a tree lined nature walk. If I don't weed out tree seedlings I wouldn't get out the door in a couple of years. I must pull up hundreds in a year and I try to find homes for a lot of them.

i'm wracking my brain now as to how we go about turning your unwanted willow seedlings into SWMBO's coppice (she's taken a bit of a shine to basketry), we have space, you have trees, why oh why do we have to live so far apart!?!?

stuart

 

[Toddy]

Willow's easy ......cut some wands just when the saps rising and cut them into lengths about a handspan long. Put them the right way up in a jam jar with water in it and put them somewhere light but not in full sun. They'll root quite happily and before too long you'll have rather more willows that you quite know what to do with
It's a very good way of propagating specific basketry willow species. You can maintain different colours that way green, dark brown, reddish and so on.

atb,
Mary

 

[21st century pict]

And I thought it was just me and lord Nelson.

Yea i have been planting all over the place for years now, Yew, Oak, Beach, Rowan. Alder, Sloe, now you come to mention it I even went all the way to Perthshire just to collect some seeds from the oldest tree in Europe the Fortingall Yew, estimated at between 2000-5000 year old.

PS don’t worry all in good places, not under wire, or over pipes and always native to the area.

Pine, horse chestnut, sweet chestnut, hazel, hawthorn, holly, juniper, yellow iris, orange hawkweed.....................

 

[shaggystu]

Willow's easy ......cut some wands just when the saps rising and cut them into lengths about a handspan long. Put them the right way up in a jam jar with water in it and put them somewhere light but not in full sun. They'll root quite happily and before too long you'll have rather more willows that you quite know what to do with
It's a very good way of propagating specific basketry willow species. You can maintain different colours that way green, dark brown, reddish and so on.

atb,
Mary

you're right of course, but, believe it or not, we're struggling a little bit at the moment to find a good willow to harvest. it's all birch round here, with the odd stunted oak, the wet bits are all full of alder and the woodlands are all forestry commision plantation. i'm sure she'll come up with something soon, it's only a matter of time before her tutors at college have to give in to the repeated nagging requests for cuttings

cheers

stuart

 

[blacktimberwolf]

That's not quite true.......fruits, flowers, fungi, bulbils

I did say SOME wild plants were protected & not ALL but many flowers, fungi & bulbs do fall into that catagory........you have to know your plants & not just collect anything you see ...............also they may be on private property.
I know many of you are aware of this but some readers may not be..

 

[Toddy]

That's true

Stu I'm supposed to go with friends to harvest basketry willows very shortly......there are, if I mind correctly, about seven different varieties.
I'll see about taking some cuttings for you and I'll post them down asap so they don't dry out.

cheers,
M

 

[shaggystu]

That's true

Stu I'm supposed to go with friends to harvest basketry willows very shortly......there are, if I mind correctly, about seven different varieties.
I'll see about taking some cuttings for you and I'll post them down asap so they don't dry out.

cheers,
M

well that'd be great if you could mary, i'm sure that gemma would really appreciate that. you'll have to let us know how we can re-pay you though

stuart

 

[xylaria]

I did say SOME wild plants were protected & not ALL but many flowers, fungi & bulbs do fall into that catagory........you have to know your plants & not just collect anything you see ...............also they may be on private property.
I know many of you are aware of this but some readers may not be..

Most really useful plants are really common, most protected plants arent useful. It really is that simple. If dont know want to forage and whats legal then dont do it, read a book or do a course.

I have taken the seeds of burdock and planted them in my garden, that way I can dig them up legally from soft cultvated soil, not from the wild where there is rocks underneth. Generally if I deseed something I will plant the seeds. It is vertually impossible to collect seeds from things like bulrush or nettle with dropping alot of seeds. There is loads of ways of helping nature and sort of cultivating wild plants. Whats the differance between a wild plant that requires no work to produce food if it grows in a wild space or your garden.

The link in OP: I cant see how propergating fungi from that method would work. If it was that easy we would have cultivated morels in the shops. It might work.

 

[lou1661]

spam reported

 

[winst0nsmith]

I'm wondering if anyone does anything to encourage the species they love to find in the wilderness

I'm interested in both particular techniques like here http://www.waldeneffect.org/20090314mushroom2/ or how to work with cuttings etc, but also things like general rules of thumb for working on the boundary between wilderness and cultivation.

Such rules of thumb might include only taking seeds and cuttings from plants found wild and spreading them nearby - to avoid introducing dangerous species and/or commericalised hybrids. . . . but what else might you think of? Jonny Appleseed . . .

Yup, our farm now has ransoms, jack-by-the-hedge, marjoram, yarrow, comfrey, wild strawberry, lemon balm, houseleek and many mints that weren't here when we took residence, mostly from root division, some seed.

According to the Wildlife and Countryside Act, you need permision from the landowner to dig anything up, helping yourself to a small amount of aeiral parts for cuttings/food or a little seed is permissable as long as it aint for comercial reasons but it is still better to ask even though 99% off the time they laugh and say help yourself.

If you're interested in herbs, castles and priory/monastery ruins can be excellent sources.

Here's a great online resource for wild food in Britain:

http://www.pfaf.org/user/default.aspx

The "Collins Guide to Wild Flowers of Britain and Europe" is cheap, easy to use, has good pictures and descritions and also lists various uses and preperations but most importantly- whether they're poisonous or protected. It's the best plant ID/forraging pocket book I've found yet and I've got quite a few.

You sound like you'll also be interested in forest gardens AKA agroforestry, not quite Jonny Appleseed, more Robert Hart...

http://www.spiralseed.co.uk/forestgarden/page2.html

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=659155658226666080


Hope it helps