How much to grow?
Many of us will be busy preparing garden beds for planting and sowing. If you’re an experienced gardener, then you’ll already know what goes where and how much to plant to meet your dietary needs, while others will keep learning by trial and error. Obviously how much you sow/plant depends on how much you eat. Some crops you need to keep sowing/planting for ongoing harvesting, like salads, potatoes, carrots, silverbeet, beetroot, and herbs (eg, coriander). Other crops may only need to be planted/sown once or twice, like zucchinis (now and January), parsnips, swede, onions, and garlic.
The guide under this column is to help you get the numbers and timing right. This is a guide only and every season has its variations, as does your place with its different microclimates and soil types. Hothouses and cloches also enable us to extend the normal season, but often require more care.
Fruit care
Complete planting subtropicals.
Prune newly planted fruit trees to chosen shape. Prune vigorous water shoots (and suckers) on established fruit trees.
Mulch fruits with woody compost, and manures (especially citrus and peaches).
Liquid fertilise fruits with comfrey from last year.
Plant strawberries, weed and mulch established beds.
Prune citrus when harvesting. Frost/wind protect young plants. Spray citrus with all-purpose oil for scale insect.
Spray everything with diluted seaweed solution or fish-based foliar spray for added nutrition. Spray berryfruits with BT vs caterpillar damage, and copper oxychloride vs dry berry.
Spray lime sulphur (after blossoming) on fruit trees vs peach leaf curl, black spot, powdery mildew, scale, mites and borers.
Spray garlic and pyrethrum with neem oil on fruits like apples vs bronze beetle attack.
Watch for silver leaf. Prune out affected branches and treat cuts with trichoderma, put bio dowels into trunk asap.
Herb care
Weed herb beds in preparation for sowing annual herbs like parsley.
Sow herb seed indoors. Plant herbs outdoors.
Vegetable care
Set out stakes for beans, etc, or string lines off frames.
Plant potatoes and mound.
Continue planting hot crops (eg eggplants, melons, etc). Make sure beds have lots of compost, dolomite, blood and bone and organic compound NZ fertiliser. Weed mat best for melons, eggplants.
Continue preparing seedbeds for sowings of root crops, etc.
Prepare rich beds for sweetcorn and sow.
Prepare shallow rich beds for kumara and plant.
Sow/plant beneficial flowers, eg alyssum.
Liquid fertilise weekly with cow manure, fish, urine, comfrey, or seaweeds brews.
Hothouse: Continue sowings into punnets/trays. Plant early tomatoes and cucumbers into rich beds. Set out yellow sticky cards in preparation for whitefly control. Keep well ventilated. Spray with garlic and pyrethrum if plants get aphid infestations. Irrigate daily in morning with drippers or leaky hose.
For transplanting: All seeds 20 Nov. Leafy greens (spinach, spinach beet, silverbeet/chard, lettuce, endive, cabbages, celery, leeks)(also 30-31 Oct). Tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini (also 1-2 Nov). (Herbs, flowers, (also 29 Oct).
Sow direct: All seeds 20 Nov. Mesclun salad, spring onions (also 30-31 Oct). Peas, climbing and French beans, sweetcorn, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, pumpkins (also 1-2 Nov). Radish, carrots, beetroot, parsnip (also 3-5 Nov).
Plant: Salad greens, silverbeet, spinach, cabbages, sweetcorn, cucumbers, zucchini, melons, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Main potatoes. Flowers.
General garden care
Irrigate gardens in dry periods.
Mulch-mow lawn and lime/dolomite.
Collect seaweed/seagrass and mulch.
Set up liquid fertiliser drums for manures, seaweed/seagrass, comfrey/weeds.
Sol Morgan, GroWise Consultancy
Vegetable Yields Weeks to Sowing Planting Main
per 2m row maturity dates dates Harvesting
ROOTS & BEETS
Beetroot 4-6 Kg 9-10 Sept-Jan Nov-Aug
Carrots 6 Kg 11-12 Aug-Jan Dec-Aug
Celeriac 5 Kg 17 Sept&Jan Oct&Mar Jan-Aug
Celery 5 Kg 15 Sept&Jan Oct&Mar Jan-Aug
Parsnip 4 Kg 17 Sept-Jan Jan-Aug
Silverbeet 1 Kg/plant 10 Sept-Mar Oct-Mar All year
BRASSICAS
Broccoli 8 per row 10 July-Dec All year All year
Brussel -sprouts 4 per row 20 Nov Jan-Feb July-Aug
Cabbage 8 per row 10-22 July-Dec Aug-Sept & Jan-Feb Dec & July-Aug
Cauliflower 4 per row 14-20 Nov-Dec Jan-Mar July-Oct
LEGUMES
Broad beans 4Kg - sow in block 12-17 Apr-May or Aug Sept-Dec
Climbing Beans 1 Kg/plant 10-12 Late Oct-Nov Jan-Mar
Dwarf Beans 3/4Kg/plant 8 Late Oct-Dec Late Dec-Mar
Peas 10-12 Sept & Mar Nov-Dec
SOLANACEAE
Eggplants 4 per plant 15 Nov Feb
Peppers 8 per plant 12-13 Nov Feb
Potatoes 4kg earlies 7kg lates Aug-Oct& Jan Dec-Aug
ALLIUMS
Garlic 10 bulbs 26 May-June Dec-Feb
Leeks 10 plants 17 Nov Dec-Jan June-Oct
Onions 3 Kg 20 July-Sept Jan-Feb
Spring Onions 20 plants 10 Late Sept-Feb Oct-Mar Nov-April
CUCURBITS
Cucumber 10 per plant 11 Sept Nov Dec-Apr
Melons 4 per plant 12-18 Sept Nov Dec-Mar
Pumpkin/Squash 4-6 per plant 17-24 Sept Nov April
Zucchini 16 per plant 7-8 Sept Nov Dec-Mar
OTHERS
Basil 8 Sept Nov Jan-Mar
Lettuce 8 per row 8-13 Aug-Feb Sept-Mar Nov-May
Spinach 8 per row 8-10 Aug-Feb Sept-Mar Nov-June
Sweetcorn 2 per plant 13 Sept-Dec Nov-Jan Dec-Mar
