Witsa runner beans

 The Mayford version of Witsa has been available the last few years after being off the market for an extended period.

They were available just before/after lockdown in 2020 if I remember correctly, and were also available from Livingseeds, which had a plausible explanation for the temporary disappearance.

I've been growing them for a while - again - and they're just as successful as before.

Perennial and Spanish shallots from Livingseeds.co.za

2025/03/27 - Thursday

I've been struggling to get hold of shallot starts or sets, but eventually some popped up on the Livingseeds web site a few days back. I ordered two packs of each, and made a start planting out one pack each today.

Selected and cleared two Temu growbags of their previous occupants. They're irrigated and facing north west, so reasonable sun at this time of year - there's been a noticeable change in temperatures, and I'm wandering about in a tracksuit top even on quite sunny days. I suppose autumn is here.

Here's the perennial shallots being embedded:

Note that the sets don't look that amazing - light mildew on the root end, but the bulbs are firm. Hopefully they take OK.

Now here are the spanish shallots:

These are in much better nick, and are similar to the ones one can occasionally buy at Woolworths or PnP. I've had little luck propagating the store bought varieties, though.

Livingseeds claim they have other varieties they'll be introducing over the next few years.

A few years back there were a lot of shallots for sale - in orange pocket quantities - from The Farm Box. Available for a month or three at a reasonable price. Haven't seen any there since.

1st April - the other two packs of starts planted out.

2nd April - shallots on sale in PnP - "du Toits" - about 12 per bag, bought 8. Planted one. About R25 per pack. Gave 2 to Msrk and Gen.

Thursday April 3 - bought two packs of "french" shallots from Woolworths, R39-99. Bigger than PnP variety.

Friday April 4 - planted out 3 tyres with 5 each of the PnP shallots, and 3 tyres with 5 each of the Woolworths version, plus the remaining three in a 4th tyre. Planted out just before a nice bit of rain.

Back in action

 It's been seven years or so, and I've been actively growing stuff since August last year, mainly potatoes in grow bags. This is how I began my retirement gardening adventure, but at that point I didn't know enough to do it properly.

This time I  got a selection of six types of seed potato from Livingseeds and a bunch of 10 gallon grow bags from Temu (cheaper than those from Takealot) and set them going.

Here's some of the results:

That's after 5 months or so.