Sowing Seeds In The Wilderness

Discussion in 'Gardening, Plant Propegation, & Farming' started by Corzhens, Jul 17, 2017.

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  1. Corzhens

    Corzhens Master Survivalist
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    When you are in the wilderness for a trek or hunting trip, have you considered sowing some seeds in that raw land? That is the habit of one family friend who is a hunter in the olden days. As part of his activity in the foreest, he would be sowing seeds of guava, papaya and other small trees that grow fast and bear fruit in a year or 2. He was proud to say that there were times he was surprised when he came back to the same hunting area to find some ripe papaya in a young tree that obviously was a product of his sown seeds. He is like the legendary Johnny Appleseed of America.
     
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  2. Tumbleweed

    Tumbleweed Expert Member
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    That is a great idea, but I am not sure what plants would work for that in our climate. We buy papaya and eat it; but I have never tried planting the seeds. I don't think that they would survive the winter here.
    Most of the plants that would be okay are already native to the area; but perhaps grapes would work since we have wild grape vines here in the South.
    I have also read about what is called "Urban Gardening", and this is where people plant veggies or flowers in empty lots, or even along the sidewalks. Of course, they probably have to be close by so that they can tend to any plants that are grown in this manner, and not like something that could just grow wild in the woods.
    We have been having trouble growing a regular garden here because our house has so many huge trees all around the neighborhood that we just do not get much sun, and lately we have been having rainy weather, which makes it ieven less sun.
    I have been planting more berry bushes, and other plants that grow year around, and do not depend on the sun and a good growing season.
    Jerusalem Artichokes is a good plant to grow almost anywhere, and would probably work to plant out near woods or open meadows.
     
  3. Bluesky9

    Bluesky9 Member
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    I have a squash plant blooming in my pasture right now. Don't know how the seed got there, but it probably came out of my garden.
     
  4. Oldguy

    Oldguy Master Survivalist
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    Done that for decades, never had any success.
    Every usefull plant I have ever planted in the bush has been eaten by the wildlife. Any watering, fertalising, soil prep etc makes it a prime target for wildlife to eat it, only things that survive is stuff I have fenced off VERY well.
    All attempts at prior preps for gardening have failed in our bushland and any preps that are not well fenced are a waste of time in my opinion.
    Fence first or forget it!
     
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  5. Bluesky9

    Bluesky9 Member
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    I agree with Oldguy. This last summer, we built a 5 foot woven wire fence around our garden and orchard. Not cheap, but...
     
  6. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    It can be done BUT not with garden plants. Plants that you garden with have been bred to be high producing plants with an emphasis on flavor and size of the fruit. A similar wild grown plant has been bred by nature to produce fast and small so that it can propagate itself through natural means. Garden plants thrown out into the wild is sort of like freeing chickens into the woods hoping to have a future food source. It just doesn't usually work. Garden plants need to be grown in a garden.

    On the other hand what you can do is plant and spread more natural wild plants around that are good as food sources. Lambsquarters are a great source of protein and are a weed and grow like a weed. Blackberries here grow wild in vast numbers. With a little encouragement they will do even better. Wild grapes and certain fruit trees are wild and native here. Persimmons especially grow well in low lying areas. There are various wild grains that while not as prolific as farmed grains do provide a lot of food potential. Small wild pecans don't require a lot of attention once established and certain oaks acorns are better food than others. Find out what grows naturally where you live that is a good food source and encourage it to grow and spread it around.

    The second level that these plants will provide is that other animals will come to them and you can harvest them. Squirrels and rabbits like a lot of there things and the deer and hogs always show up in the fall when the persimmons start to fall off the trees. Mulberry trees produce fruit and birds. The birds will eat the fallen rotting fruit and get so drunk that they can't fly!
     
  7. F22 Simpilot

    F22 Simpilot Master Survivalist
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    Can you buy the all natural seed? Would it grow well under artificial light?
     
  8. Ystranc

    Ystranc Master Survivalist
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    In the uk I have been planting fruiting trees in in hedgerows for years. Apple, plumbs, mirabilum, sloe and wild cherries
    I plant gooseberry and gojiberry anlong my boundaries because they have some nasty thorns on them.
    Not only do these plants give me fresh fruit over several months but they also attract additional wildlife which improves my hunting.
     
  9. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    Probably you can't buy commercial seeds. There just isn't much demand for it but you can gather them yourself since you want plants that grow well where you live. They are by their nature very hardy plants and should grow well under artificial lights. The thing is that if you are gardening them you would do better with heritage garden plants that will produce better and also provide viable seeds.
     
  10. Oldguy

    Oldguy Master Survivalist
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    everything that grows naturally around here is very quickly harvested by the wildlife, been planting and watching that most of my life with very little success, fencing is essential around here.
    My most successful tactics with wildfood has been to selectively clear fire lanes across and along well used trails and then making hides with cleared access routes so one can approach and enter silently, a few markers at known cross points and one can make some easy kills.
     
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  11. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    Have you tried going underground? Some plants have very good nutrition in their roots. If nothing else you should be able to have a lot of success harvesting and eating the pests. A 22 caliber air rifle would work well for that. Once they are thinned out you might have more success with the plants. Depending on your climate amaranth might be a possibility. The nettles are good food sources that most animals won't mess with.
     
  12. Oldguy

    Oldguy Master Survivalist
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    If I am around to tend to my plants I will build a fence from bush materials.
    Possums and roos will eat anything above ground and wombats and feral pigs will dig up most anything underground.
    Only success I have had is with mature fruit trees but that is very seasonal and you gotta get in before the cockatoos fly in, a flock of cockatoos can ruin a whole orchard in hours and the mongrels will return every year there after, only thing they don't normally go after is lemons but in a drought they go them too.:mad:
     
  13. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    I've heard about the pig problem you have down under. We are in the same boat here. We have raccoons and rabbits that are tough on the garden if it isn't fenced. LOL, we have a cat that is doing his part to keep the bunny population under control. That cat is a killer. He kills several a week during the spring when little ones are plentiful. From what I've read you have rabbits and cat problems there too.

    I have been known to fence and even put a net over my garden. The net caught a bunch of birds. If times were hard I would do that again for the birds. It was a coarse net and worked a little like a gill net. The birds learned to avoid it but if I have been better about taking the caught ones out they probably would have kept coming.

    I don't know enough about the different ecosystems down under to be much help.
     
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