Warming up
It’s not too late to get all the summer crops in. Photo: Sol Morgan
As I write this, it’s certainly not warm and it looks like it’s snowing on the hills. It has been colder than usual recently, even though we had a warm start in August and September.
With that hot spell and now cooler weather, many crops are getting mixed messages.This is causing them to bolt (to flower or run to seed early), often a stress reaction seen in onions planted early, silverbeet, spinach, cabbages and even some lettuce varieties. Hopefully we can still make some use of them in the kitchen and plant again in the hope of later success.
With cooler temperatures prevailing it’s important to keep cloches on warmth-loving crops like tomatoes, peppers, zucchinis, cucumbers and beans. Recycled soft drink bottles also work well. That extra few degrees will ensure the plants keep growing. Plants stressed by cold will be more susceptible to disease and pest attack.
It’s not too late to get all the summer crops in, in fact it’s probably better if you’ve waited this long! You’ll know the soil is warm enough to plant sensitive crops when scarlet runner beans start resprouting from their tubers.
Early potatoes are growing well, though, and with continual mounding they’ll supply a nice feast for Christmas dinner (if not before).
The wet weather is also ideal for slugs and snails, so stay vigilant for these critters (especially around the abovementioned crops). Crushed eggshells, sawdust, ash, coffee grounds and diatomaceous earth are all possible barrier materials to put off these hungry molluscs.
Regular surface tilling (best on a sunny day) with a hoe or niwashi will kill young weed seedlings and disrupt cutworms and wireworms out for a feed.
At this time of year the garden is full of flowers, and with flowers come bees and other important insects that both pollinate garden plants (especially fruits) and keep many pest insects in check. Keep an eye out for predator and parasitic wasps (eg paper wasps and the smaller ichneumonid wasps). They’re a good sign that you have enough food/flowers about.
The orchard will be completing its blossoming period and beginning to form fruit, provided pollination was sufficient. It’s good to put out pheromone traps to disrupt the codlin moths (etc) mating, and manage the understorey and shelter so there’s good airflow to discourage diseases.
Fruit care
Check moisture levels under young trees and water if necessary.
Thin fruit if set heavy, especially pipfruit, eg apples.
Plant passionfruit, citrus and other subtropicals in warm spots with free-draining soil.
Prune citrus, feijoas and other subtropicals.
Prune grapes back to five to six leaves after fruit bunches.
Foliar-feed fruits with seaweed, compost tea, worm juice and/or fish.
Spray citrus with copper oxychloride vs dieback and verrucosis (scab), with all-purpose oil for scale insect or neem for aphids.
Spray garlic and pyrethrum and/or neem oil on apples, feijoas, etc, vs bronze beetle and woolly apple aphid.
Divide and plant comfrey root around the drip line of fruit trees, or in borders.
Watch for silverleaf fungus on fruits, particularly stonefruit. Get trichodowels (vinevax) and insert in trunks.
Herb care
Harvest for drying, eg marjoram.
Plant herbs.
Sow most herbs like basil (indoors) or coriander direct.
Weed and mulch.
Vegetable care
Liquid fertilise young crops with manure brews or worm juice.
Mulch beds once plants establish.
Sow green crops in vacant beds that need improving.
Keep mounding potatoes and yams, or mulch well.
Stake and tie broad beans as they grow. Tip them to encourage fruiting.
Train beans, cucumbers, tomatoes up poles or strings.
Use weed mat on beds, especially for heat-loving crops like melons.
Spray Bt on brassicas to protect against cabbage white butterfly.
Watch for shield bugs and remove. Spray with garlic and pyrethrum when small if numbers are high.
Plant flowers for diversity and beauty, eg zinnias, alyssum and candytuft.
Feed asparagus with compost and mulch. Stake fronds.
Hothouse: Add flowers and herbs, especially basil around tomatoes. Remove lower leaves on tomatoes and cucumbers, and train. Keep well-ventilated and watered.
For transplanting: Leeks, spring onions and leafy greens (celery, spinach, spinach beet, silverbeet, lettuce, endive, cabbages, Brussels sprouts) (17 Nov). Cauliflower, broccoli and flowers (15 – 16 Nov).
Sow direct: Salads, spring onions (17 Nov). Corn, zucchini, pumpkin/squash and cucumbers, French and climbing beans and peas (19-20 Nov). Carrots, beetroot, radish, parsnip (21-23 Nov). Flowers (15 – 16 Nov).
Plant: Best 27 Nov – 10 Dec. Salad greens, spinach, cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, zucchini, pumpkins, yams, kumara and main potatoes. Flowers, eg begonia, canna and carnation. Rhubarb.
General garden care:
Mow and use clippings in compost or as mulch.
Make and turn compost.
Check irrigation system.
Prune perennials and shrubs after flowering, eg roses.
Collect extra rainwater for drier periods.
Sol Morgan, GroWise Consultancy
