It's been a wet but wonderful week here on the polyculture study, here's what we've been up to in the gardens.

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Allium cepa proliferum - Tree Onion

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is the strongest plant from Amaryllidaceae that I have come across and has brought me to tears on a few occasions, just from handling the plants, so seemed like a good candidate.











Here is the planting plan of the patch









Allium cepa proliferum - Tree Onion

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We've started a few new trials in Aponia this season.I was looking into the science behind the pest repellent properties of Amaryllidaceae (Garlic/ Allium family) this winter and was introduced to a great text called Garlic and Other Alliums - The Lore and the Science by Eric Block (thanks Lorenzo Costa for the link). The author looked at various studies on this topic and found that field trials confirm the ability of Allium-derived organosulfur compounds to repel predators and kill insect pests.I thought to see if we could use some of the plants from this family to tackle two of the most harmful pests in our gardens both of which target Brassica crops. The pest are Eurydema oleracea and Pieris brassicaeThe idea is to flank patches of brasscia crops with plants that contain these organosulfur compounds and to cut the plants and spread the material around the brassica when we first notice the pest arrive in the gardens and then cut again at regular intervals throughout the growing season. We'll look at the quantity of pest in each patch and the amount of damage that occurs from the pests.The two pest repellent species I have selected for the trial areandRonan, Misha and Philip set up 3 patches one withanother at the opposite end of the bed withand one will be in the middle with just the brassica crops. We will use Siberian Kale as the Brassica crop for this trial. The trial will begin properly next season as we need the young 'repellent plants' to establish so that when they are cut they will have the ability to grow back easily and quickly.