Strawbini advice please!

[selfraising]

I have some strawbini seeds which I've never grown before. Instructions on the packet aren't great. Has anyone grown these before? Can I transplant them? Any advice would be great.
Thanks

[zazen999]

Yeah - they are just like spinach but grow the little strawbs under the leaf nodes.

Just grow like lettuce.

[selfraising]

Thanks. I'll give them a go. Can I sow every 2-3 weeks like lettuce?

[zazen999]

Yes, but not too late or they don't ripen in time. They're not frost hardy so treat like summer lettuce rather than winter.

[snohare]

Is there a particular type of soil that they prefer zazen, or are they not fussy like lettuce ? I am intending to grow them this year as well, and I was thinking I'd put some manure in the soil, but it'll be quite fresh.
Of course my other burning question about them, which is probably unanswerable really, is - what do they taste like ?

[selfraising]

Hi Snohare
Glad I'm not going to be the only strawbini grower!! I'd like to know about the soil as well and what sort of light they prefer. I've read that you use the leaves like spinach and the fruit tastes a bit like a bland raspberry. When are you going to start sowing yours, we can compare notes!

[zazen999]

Well, I was really excited about them and when they came it was a bit of an underwhelm...but I did start them off late and it was 2007 - the year of the rain.

I gave my seeds away in the parcel that shall not be named...

[selfraising]

Oh well I'll give them a go anyway as a novelty and hope that we get a decent summer this year!

[snohare]

Selfraising, I was thinking of getting plant seedlings (from Real Seeds I think it was) so that would be determined by when they decided to deliver. But if my finances keep on the way they are, I will be buying a packet of seed, in which case I will do them simply whenever I can.
My Cunning Plan (A) is to grow them at a castle near Braemar, which is notorious for late frosts. My thought was that I'd put them in hanging baskets and hang them on the castle walls, assuming there were places I could do that. Failing that, I can hang them on the fence around the vegetable plot, or simply put them in the raised beds. But as at present I have neither raised beds nor baskets, let alone topsoil or brackets, and the idea has to be okayed by the powers that be, it is literally all up in the air !
I'm hoping that we can not only grow some historically correct heirloom varieties of vegetables and fruit, but also get the Castle a reputation for unusual plants, fruits and tubers that will draw in visitors. Strawbinis seemed to tick all the boxes there.
I'm guessing that as with strawberries the flavour is dependent on levels of moisture in the fruit, which is dependent on how wet the roots are. Hence, my thought that hanging baskets might work well, as well as being visually spectacular.

[selfraising]

What a great idea snohare!! Didn't realise you could buy them as plant seedlings. I've had to order more seeds because somehow I've manage to lose the packet I got the other week!! The fact that they seem to be such an old plant is what attracted me to them in the first place. I think I read somewhere that they were first cultivated by monks 400 years ago. Have you got any other ideas for unusual plants/veg?
Forgive me if I'm ignorant but is Braemar Castle where the highland games are held? My father came from Elgin but I've never been

[snohare]

Braemar did host the Highland Games once, but as they became more popular due to patronage by Royalty (ie Queen Victoria) a new Games Park was built on the other side of the village from the Castle, which is where they are held nowadays. So you did not too badly on the local history...
Do I ever have ideas about unusual plants ! Salsify - common until the carrot came along. Sown like grass it crowds out all weeds, dig up with a fork and roast or bake. Scorzonera, which like salsify is called the oyster plant (they both taste a bit like oyster apparently, I've never tried oyster but I like scorzonera) came from Italy, looks like a black carrot and has few if any pests. (I am aiming for pest-free plants wherever possible.) Chinese artichokes are on my list for this year too, as a replacement for blight -vulnerable potatoes. Skirret if I could get the seed, does very well in cold weather, maybe a bit of Romanesco (Roman equivalent of broccoli, now remarketed)...I've got amaranth, linseed and buckwheat seed to try, plus maybe Good King Henry, and I have coconut yams, sweet potatoes, and oca.
I'm hoping for ulluco if Real Seeds have any, but their Yacon harvest failed so that's out the window. This far North, growing tropical plants is a real art; coconut yams need a nine month growing season, and sweet potatoes six months, so I am overwintering them under glass in cold frames, after starting them off last year. Just my luck to have the hardest winter in donkey's years just as I start growing turn-to-mush exotics in unheated frames !
Eventually, I aim to be growing all sorts of exotic plants. (Not all at the Castle. I think they'd draw the line at coconut trees and sago palms !)
And high on my wish list, but far out of reach, even further than the coconuts...I want to grow tea bushes.

[snohare]

Braemar did host the Highland Games once, but as they became more popular due to patronage by Royalty (ie Queen Victoria) a new Games Park was built on the other side of the village from the Castle, which is where they are held nowadays. So you did not too badly on the local history...
Do I ever have ideas about unusual plants ! Salsify - common until the carrot came along. Sown like grass it crowds out all weeds, dig up with a fork and roast or bake. Scorzonera, which like salsify is called the oyster plant (they both taste a bit like oyster apparently, I've never tried oyster but I like scorzonera) came from Italy, looks like a black carrot and has few if any pests. (I am aiming for pest-free plants wherever possible.) Chinese artichokes are on my list for this year too, as a replacement for blight -vulnerable potatoes. Skirret if I could get the seed, does very well in cold weather, maybe a bit of Romanesco (Roman equivalent of broccoli, now remarketed)...I've got amaranth, linseed and buckwheat seed to try, plus maybe Good King Henry, and I have coconut yams, sweet potatoes, and oca.
I'm hoping for ulluco if Real Seeds have any, but their Yacon harvest failed so that's out the window. This far North, growing tropical plants is a real art; coconut yams need a nine month growing season, and sweet potatoes six months, so I am overwintering them under glass in cold frames, after starting them off last year. Just my luck to have the hardest winter in donkey's years just as I start growing turn-to-mush exotics in unheated frames !
Eventually, I aim to be growing all sorts of exotic plants. (Not all at the Castle. I think they'd draw the line at coconut trees and sago palms !)
And high on my wish list, but far out of reach, even further than the coconuts...I want to grow tea bushes.

[snohare]

Oops, sorry, clicked twice on the button ! Now if only I can get ocas to multiply like that....

[Two_Sheds]

Oops, sorry, clicked twice on the button ! Now if only I can get ocas to multiply like that....

Click on Edit, then Delete. Delete this message.

[Two_Sheds]

Can I transplant them? Any advice would be great.

Sow thinly, strawbini seed is very small, in rows 18" apart.
Thin plants to 10" apart when larger
Or sow indoors in seed trays and transplant May onwards.
Grows to 2ft tall.
Whilst usually grown as an annual it can overwinter if weather is not too severe and is perennial in habit.