What Is The Devil Plant?

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How we going everybody now we had a nice sunny day it’s it’s dropped down quite dramatically we’ve got a southeasterly breeze coming through and I’m starting to feel the chill now today’s topic is uh the eggplant the devil plant that’s what we’ve called it for the number of

Years it can be known as the devil fig and it is class as of weed in some parts of the country uh but this nevertheless has naturalized itself in Australia and it’s been around here for decades and in my travels of many years around the home gardens of Australia I’ve come across

Many of these plants in the Natural State like this now these are small plants that you’re looking at this is a 6in pot and an 8 in pot now they are tough as Nails except for frost now they don’t like frost because this one here

And I can show you that quite easily the old growth that we had on here got knocked out see that’s a dry wood there that was the original one that was growing here then the frost came in and knocked it out for six so place them aside under a

Bit of canopy and sure enough it’s sprouted back up cuz the roots are tough as nails now this has got prickles all over along the center of the spine here of the leaf that is so the prickles there really sharp and on the underside as well so really plants develop all

These defense mechanisms due to their I suppose in their natural habitat where they’ve grown they’ve been attacked by Wildlife another another so they start putting on these spiny Thorns as you see as a mechanism to defend themselves against animals I suppose that would eat them now I don’t know what animal would

Have eaten this in the past but we don’t eat it and it does produce a fruit uh unlike your typical eggplant it is from the solonia family so you got your eggplants you Tomatoes you got your eggplant wild rot stock I know it as cow’s add devil’s plant uh as I said

Earlier uh devil fig some of you may know it there are many many many different types of these out there this one here that you’re looking at this is Andrea’s one uh the show we filmed recently this is one propagated by cutting and given me uh these all are

Propagated by cut cutting by the way so little Twigs you cut off and you stick it in the ground and walk away and don’t look back cuz they’ll grow like a weed as they are a weed strong roots have a look at that it’s already well established so that’s a nice healthy

Plant there and what we do with these so you’re asking well you’ve seen the devil plant we mentioned it briefly uh I’ve seen it in a lot of homes well what they do and predominantly in the warmer regions of Australia South Australia for example when I traveled out there in the last

Decade Gardens that I saw in the front yard had ultimately what it was was a devil plan growing with eggplant grafted on top so these will grow for years on end and if the weather permits you can graft a little beauty like this eggplant Bonar or if you like The Supremes whichever

Variety of eggplants you like if you can graft one of these onto this as a root stock and you’ll be able to maintain it for a couple of years 3 four years in fact and if you’re living in South Australia or Queens New South Wales well

I’ve seen them and I’m sure many of you have as well if you’re at Aid Gardner and you know of this plan you would have seen them around the traps in front yards backyards grown 6t 8T tall carrying eggplants throughout the year now why do we graft them well we graft

Them because eggplants take such a long time to grow and to produce their fruit so well and especially where I am here very late and we get very little fruit so our summer seasons somehow are either getting shorter or radically uh changing in climate so you’re getting a short

Burst of hot days and then cold days so that nox here plant abouts meaning that’s not able to produce its fruit so by grafting it onto this you got an early start you got a strong root system it won’t affect the eggplant itself as a fruit in any shape or form all it’s

Going to do is provide you lots of eggplants for a long period of time for a number of years in fact so what are we doing with these well I’m propagating these by cutting and growing my stock levels so that I can start grafting these and with actually got an igloo

Coming in so we can have these going all year round and producing crafted eggplants so that we can actually get them out there into the into the gardens now I’ve seen a lot of it in homes as you saw Andrea he’s got his own and he

Simply graphs it on top a plant of this size is a little bit too small to graft on yeah you can cuz the diameter of the stem in the bottom is not bad meaning that it’ll match up with the eggplant here but again that is still a little

Bit too small in height that is I like them a little bit taller and in in fact this one’s not too bad as well now we’ll going to demonstrate the grafting I’m not going to do it now cuz it’s too cold that’s for me that is not for the plant

So this is the diameter that we want to graft on to you don’t want it to get any thicker than that or any wooder than that so that’s a good size there and you’ll just basically nip that off split it down to Center and I’ll do that in

The next episode but what we’ll end up doing is with this the top half there will remove the leaves and stick them in the ground and will propagate more so you’ll never run out of these so if you’ve had some experience with these and you got your own i’ love to see them

So if you’re watching me on Facebook share your photos and experiences of growing eggplants onto the devil’s plan or the devil feig plan if you like um but if you’re watching us on YouTube please share or comment anybody around the traps in your neighborhood who’s got

These and if you have seen them I dare say they’ll be at least 5 6 ft tall these can grow up to 30 ft tall if not taller left in their own space and perfect environment they’re ideally the you know the east coast of austal Alia sort of Queensland and New South Wales

Uh and I dare say they are probably class at a weed uh or one of these variants but these plants here well they’re everywhere and we’re going to what’s going on apologies folks Mr cameraman got a little bit excited and they’re still going in the background there

Anyway so if you’re interested in one of these they’re not ready yet folks you’re welcome to share an email with us and tell us your expression of Interest we’re going to have lots of the these made available and we are going to graft them as well we’re not selling the root

Stocks we’re going to have them prepared and grafted on top and flourishing before we release them uh these are a wonderful plan we’ve had them for many years I’ve done it for many years I I let it go for the last few but they’re back in action and slowly by surely I’d

Love to have these in everyone’s home and do maintain it if you are growing one of these plants don’t let it go to seed cuz it can Sprout up everywhere uh it’s not yeah they really Cara sorry car’s here layer yeah I’ve lost it I’ve got three dogs

And I don’t I don’t recognize them they’re gone okay all right folks so these will become available soon share your email if you want to uh get one for yourself later in the season and share your experiences and if you’ve got one or a neighbor’s got one i’ love to

Hear from you as well otherwise if you’re watching this as we’ve just uploaded it switch over to the 3aw radio network on 693m and tune into the garding program with me and Emily power talking ging give us a call if youve got a gardening question or you want to share some great

Gardening tips and later on I’m sneaking over to dandong North at one Gloria Avenue uh at the popup little uh facility store Center that we got there in um Mar anthy’s place so if you’re in the neighborhood pop down and say hello we’ got some great specials running on

And on our website Vil garden.com everything you need discounted every day from me Vil Mesi