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Winter Apple Berry Eremophila Debilis Seeds
Pack of 10+ fresh seeds!
This dainty little fella is one of my favourites, as there are not many, truly sweet, Bushtucker fruits.
It’s a pretty little ground cover, that gets a Sweet Apple tasting berry, with a small smooth stone inside.
The berries themselves, only get about 5mm diameter when growing wild in the bush, and for that reason I can see why it’s not really well know, or commercially grown.
But, if you look after it a bit, the fruits will get about 12mm especially if growing in nice soil or a pot that gets the odd water…
It’s amazing how much it grows and how many fruits are produced in “captivity”. Such a huge difference!
You don’t see it very often in the bush either, as it gets eaten off above the ground down to the dirt.
Everything here has a go at it. The Kangaroos, Parrots, Bandicoots everything really. I have even seen the Magpies eating the fruits.
Yet once you know what your looking for, it’s amazing how common, and widespread it really is.
I have seen it growing up the centre of dead gums, over dry stony creek beds, up sheer cliff faces, rocky ledges, even in the crumbled cracked bitumen on the side of a highway!
Very hard to kill them by neglect, and with just the tiniest bit of TLC they really reward you.
The leaf is long and slender having small points or teeth down the sides which look really cool, but are not sharp at all. More like a soft succulent. The plant itself would probably make a good lawn surface, as it’s nice and cool to walk on, and it can certainly handle getting knocked around a bit!
Every single segment on the main stems and branches produces 1-4 fruits, and provided you wait until they are a shiny white colour, they are really delicious.
I have seen them on bush tucker forums, with some folk saying they can be a bit bitter, but not these ones purple/mauve flowered ones, well not that I have ever had anyway?
They also say they are hard to grow from seed, but again I have to disagree. Just pick the fruit ripe and let them dry in a dark cool dry place (as I have already one for you, as per the picture).
Then, when you’re ready to plant, just soak the fruit in water for an hour or so, and rub off the skin.
If you leave the skin on they will take ages to grow, as I suspect as it contains natural germination inhibiters(I think that’s what the other folks problem with them was too?).
With the skin removed, I just wacked them in a pot 1cm deep, in the cheapest potting mix I could find. I got 41 plants from 60seeds.
Not bad at all really, and you could probably do a lot better, just by using a better soil mix.
They took about 2months for them all to come up, and it was a bit erratic, but even so, 10seeds should get you a few plants.
They grow readily from cuttings too, so that’s plenty of seeds to get you started.
There you go folks, another awesome native beauty for your collection!
Sustainably wild harvested and home grown seeds, no chems, no nasties, no problems!
