International Voyage - Herb Garden?

[Ocean Roads]

How many people have small herbs growing in or on your boat and travel internationally?

Do many countries not allow shipboard plants?

I know Cuba is very strict.

We have a fancy hydroponic herb garden in our kitchen at home, and could not live underway with out from fresh basil and dill.

S.

[imagine2frolic]

In the U.S. they will confiscate that upon returning, and trash it, the plants. You will need to do some research on who allows what to be brought into their countries......i2f

[MarkJ]

Its just a herb garden. You can chuck it overboard before entering a port you know has restrictions. Or declare it and they will decide.

We have had wonderul basil, and mushrooms growing too and now have just (yesterday) bought an orchid

Mark

[Squeaks]

I don't want to sidetrack the thread, but where can I get more info on "how to"? We used to have a small (less than 6-inch diameter) multi-tiered grower for sprouts and it was great having fresh every day.
thanks,
John

[nicollej]

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

As Mark was saying in his post, we got a beautiful little Orchid yesterday from an Orchid nursery.

We called her Yorkey The Orchid (because we got her in a place that had Yorkey in the name).

She is beautiful! She is a Brassocattleya Maikai 'Mayum' Orchid. She flowers many beautiful blooms and sometimes will flower more than once a year. She likes lots of light so we will pop her out for some sunlight each day.

We plan to pop her onto a lovely piece of wood and have her grow in the galley. She won't get any bigger than she is the grower told us so she is the perfect size!

Her flowers start a lovely darker purple (with white flecks/sposts), then fade to a lighter purple and even go white before the flowers fall off. Very cool! One of her parent plants (she is a hybrid) is fairly resistent to salt, so that is always a good thing for her living on the boat!

We got her from a lovely Orchid grower who was so kind and showed us all around his beautiful nursery. It was wonderful to see all of the beautiful colours and shapes of the Orchids.

We love her very much, she is gorgeous!

If we get to a country where we cannot have her there it will be no problem (we will ask them what we should do with our orchid and follow their instructions/requests), we will always just tell customs about her and then they will tell us if it is ok or not and we can go from there.

It feels really lovely to have a nice plant on our boat, she brightens up our galley!

We have met other cruisiers who have herb gardens, plants and orchids on their boats and they have never had any problems. So we have done some research and asked other cruisiers about their plants etc when we see they have some.

Little Yorkey is very happy on her new home Sea Life

Some photos for you below to see our lovely little addition to our Sea Life family.

Have a happy and wonderful day!

Good luck with your plants and herb gardens!

Smiles

Nic from Sea Life

[Ram]

I think just about every country would not allow it- that said once in the country you can restart it- I grow sprouts all the time!

[Ocean Roads]

I figure do my normal research before arrival and worst case the night before check in use up all the garden at dinner and replant new seeds after we are checked in.

[denniswbaber]

Would hydroponics and such draw to much power? Any other ideas on how to maintain fresh veggies while under sail?

[BlueSovereign]

Don't even think about entering NZ with anything alive ... or for that matter anything that can be eaten, not even frozen stuff! If it's canned probably OK, but even then there's no guarantees....

William

[Hud3]

With one exception, in all the eastern Caribbean islands I have never been asked about fruits, vegetables, herbs, or the like. Just write "Ship's Stores" in the space for "cargo". The things they want to know about are firearms, ammo, animals, and any large quantities of alcoholic beverages or tobacco products.

The exception was the USVI. They even ask about your trash on board.

[imagine2frolic]

They want your trash as of last June.They want to seal, and dispose of it for you. When found this out entering Miami from the Bahamas......i2f

[sfreivald]

Originally Posted by dirtysouth

I figure do my normal research before arrival and worst case the night before check in use up all the garden at dinner and replant new seeds after we are checked in.

In your experience, is it only the actual plant that may cause issues, or is it seeds, also?

thanks!!

Sarah

PS Nicolle - love your orchid! They are my favorites, I have a phalaenopsis with beutiful pink/purple blooms. Enjoy!

[nelagnelag]

Originally Posted by denniswbaber

Would hydroponics and such draw to much power? Any other ideas on how to maintain fresh veggies while under sail?

We have been doing land-based gardening lately, and I came across sprouts.

Sprouts grow in about 3 days and don't even require soil. You can bring the seeds as foodstuffs (after all, you can sprout dried beans, peas, or chickpeas, in addition to alfalfa, etc.) Just save your plastic blueberry containers. (the ones with lids and a few holes) You don't even need sunlight, so can grow them in your cabin.

Should also be "storm proof", since it's just seeds in a container with water. This seems a very good option for cruisers. Lots of vitamins too.

Beyond this, you could grow root vegetables in a "potato bag", and probably hang the bag so it didn't mind heeling. Same with hanging tomatoes. Sprouts fill most of the gaps as far as vitamins. There are even onion spouts, so you get some flavor.

If I were cruising, I'd do sprouts, herbs, and fast-growing greens such as mesclun, and start experimenting with the potato bag and hanging tomatoes, depending how long I was in one place.

[tackdriver]

Originally Posted by nicollej

We called her Yorkey The Orchid (because we got her in a place that had Yorkey in the name).

Nicole, would that be the delightfully named Yorkeys Knob?!
What were they thinking?
cheers
James

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by tackdriver

Nicole, would that be the delightfully named Yorkeys Knob?!
What were they thinking?

Hi James,
Because its better than calling it Nobbies York!

That great, and historic locale used to be home to me many moons ago

The story of Yorkey is a goodie for the nautical history buffs... Yorkey was a Bache de mer fisherman and flitted between the Knob and Green Island 18 miles away. One day fishing with dynamite he blew his hand off. He promptly rowed the 18 miles to Cairns Hospital.

Mark