Plants cant go with what plants??

[New Desert Tortoise Mommy]

Hi everyone! Im doing a big project... well big to me with my busy busy schedule. Well one thing im doing is going to see if i can get my green thumb back and grow plants for my torts so i dont have to worry about chemicals from already bloomed plants from the store. Im going to make plant trays to take in and out of the new enclosure for them to graze in. I have a list of seeds im going to buy.

Question is!! Can theses plants be planted with eachother? And what como should i do? Im going to start with only 2 trays for now. Please and thank you in advance!
Heres the seeds im getting:

Strawberry clovers
Desert marigold
Dandelions
California poppy
White and blue mazus

*There new enclosure will big so the trays will be 2 or 3 feet long*

 

[New Desert Tortoise Mommy]

I also found this seed mix with over 500 seeds combo. Is there anything in this mix they cant eat? And i wont get the mix ill just get individual seeds.

 

[Yvonne G]

I'm not the one to ask because I don't worry about tortoise-ok or not. I plant everything and assume the tortoises know what's good for them and what's not good. This may not be something you want to take a chance on doing because tortoises from continents where the plant doesn't grow naturally may not recognize if its ok or not. The only things I steer clear of are the ones that I know for sure are toxic, like oleander.

 

[leigti]

I'm going out on a limb here and assuming you have a desert tortoise it should be easy to find seeds for native plants from the area you're tortoise comes from. Sometimes you can find them at farm supply stores, or look on tortoise supply.com or Carolinapetsupply.com and they have tortoise safe mixtures.

 

[leigti]

I know nothing about what plants can go together, I just sprinkle a bunch of seeds in water them. No, I do not have a green thumb but even I can grow weeds

 

[New Desert Tortoise Mommy]

I'm not the one to ask because I don't worry about tortoise-ok or not. I plant everything and assume the tortoises know what's good for them and what's not good. This may not be something you want to take a chance on doing because tortoises from continents where the plant doesn't grow naturally may not recognize if its ok or not. The only things I steer clear of are the ones that I know for sure are toxic, like oleander.

Okay thank you so much!

 

[Tom]

I have grown all sorts of things over the years and here is what works best for me in Southern CA.

1. http://www.tortoisesupply.com/TestudoMix
2. http://www.groworganic.com/premium-horse-pasture-mix-irrigation.html
3. I have many varieties of spineless opuntia.
4. Grape vines. Plant them in full sun in the hottest part of the yard. The leaves are great tortoise food. Pinch off budding grape clusters for more vine and leaf growth.
5. Lavatera. They can take the heat in the summer and the cold in the winter. Leaves and flowers are both good.
6. Mulberry trees. Easier to find some near you and cut of branches. Most people are thrilled that you want to prune their mulberry trees for them!
7. Anything in the squash family. The leaves and blooms are good tortoise food, and the "fruit" is fine on occasion too, unless you want that for yourself.
8. Clover does okay in winter but dies off in summer.
9. Alfalfa does okay in summer, but doesn't grow much in winter.
10. Gazanias thrive here. Full sun or partial shade. They bloom all year long for me. I feed out the flowers to all my torts.

 

[New Desert Tortoise Mommy]

I know nothing about what plants can go together, I just sprinkle a bunch of seeds in water them. No, I do not have a green thumb but even I can grow weeds

Yes 3 CDTs haha and i will go on the website and look thats awesome. Just about all the flowers i named and posted a picture of besides the mazurs are wild desert flowers. Thank you very much!

 

[Tom]

I'm not the one to ask because I don't worry about tortoise-ok or not. I plant everything and assume the tortoises know what's good for them and what's not good.

I did a thread a few months back about a couple of tortoises that died from this practice. Sometimes they know what not to eat and sometimes they eat it anyway.

 

[New Desert Tortoise Mommy]

I have grown all sorts of things over the years and here is what works best for me in Southern CA.

1. http://www.tortoisesupply.com/TestudoMix
2. http://www.groworganic.com/premium-horse-pasture-mix-irrigation.html
3. I have many varieties of spineless opuntia.
4. Grape vines. Plant them in full sun in the hottest part of the yard. The leaves are great tortoise food. Pinch off budding grape clusters for more vine and leaf growth.
5. Lavatera. They can take the heat in the summer and the cold in the winter. Leaves and flowers are both good.
6. Mulberry trees. Easier to find some near you and cut of branches. Most people are thrilled that you want to prune their mulberry trees for them!
7. Anything in the squash family. The leaves and blooms are good tortoise food, and the "fruit" is fine on occasion too, unless you want that for yourself.
8. Clover does okay in winter but dies off in summer.
9. Alfalfa does okay in summer, but doesn't grow much in winter.
10. Gazanias thrive here. Full sun or partial shade. They bloom all year long for me. I feed out the flowers to all my torts.

Wow thank you!! I will go on the website and go shopping for all of theses. Im tired of the store !! Haha thank you

 

[New Desert Tortoise Mommy]

Yah i personally wont let my torts deiced. They love to try everything at least once before they find out if they dont like it

 

[Iochroma]

Here's a thread about seeds: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/buying-seeds.109810/#post-1024037
I really think you should look at the mixes from Desert Seed Store.
Also, two trays are not going to go very far. If it takes three or four weeks to grow a tray full enough to feed, and they eat it in a day, you will need dozens of trays. Torts eat a lot

 

[Odin's Gma]

I can't speak to some of those plants going together because of my lack of familiarity with a couple of them, but poppies get much taller than the rest and could cause competition for sun at certain stages of growth, but, for "snack trays" I wouldn't worry too much about that. I know our sulcata takes out most of the plants long before I have to worry about the plants sharing resources.
I have a thread about tort trays and indoor gardening that could help with ideas for what to plant.

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/gmas-indoor-winter-gardening-and-sulcata-brag-thread.112815/

 

[Prairie Mom]

I also found this seed mix with over 500 seeds combo. Is there anything in this mix they cant eat? And i wont get the mix ill just get individual seeds.

View attachment 122139

There are a few in this list that this amateur who is typing recognizes as okay for tortoises. Some I don't know. The arroyo Lupine gives me concern. I thought that all in the Lupine family were toxic.

I found these nifty plant lists made by the University of California. They are not geared toward tortoises, but you may have fun looking some of these up. The safe list details flowers and plants with absolutely no known toxicity and the toxic list details HOW they are toxic and even lists oxalate crystals as cause for concern.
Safe list:
http://ucanr.edu/sites/poisonous_safe_plants/Safe_Plants_by_Common_Name/

Toxic list
http://ucanr.edu/sites/poisonous_safe_plants/Toxic_Plants_by_common_Name_659/

 

[Prairie Mom]

I also agree with lochroma's comment about the 2 trays. It will take a month or more for the trays to be big enough to feed, but you could always clip from the trays and feed the clippings to your tortoise. I've found that wheat and barley seeds grow really quickly. You can have decent blades of grass in a week or two.

 

[New Desert Tortoise Mommy]

Wow thank you everyone!!! Thats a good point about 2 trays. I was just planing then to be big trays but not to big but yeah they do eat alot lol. Well this saturday ima ready everything and decide and buy everything to start growing !! Yay