I have been asked by some readers to talk about what to do to help gardens during drought times with a special request from Twizel.
There are many things that you can do to conserve water in your gardens and use what water you have available wisely.
Your soil type will have a bearing on the water holding capacity of your soil.
Soil that is rich in humus has the ability to hold the equivalent of 80–90% of its weight in moisture, and therefore increases the soil's capacity to withstand drought conditions.
Humus will hold 4 times the moisture when compared to clay.
The long term protection against droughts is to progressively build up the humus content of your garden soils.
How do we do this?
By applying organic material as mulches to your gardens and in some cases by incorporating into the existing soil. In cases of sandy soil or clay soils to begin with green waste free of herbicides, animal manures, paper, untreated sawdust, bark fines can be dug or rotary hoed into the area.
Then a layer of the same applied to the soil surface too about 40mm deep.
What happens is this: When organic matter starts to decompose these molecules are broken down into smaller and smaller molecules by the micro-organisms in the soil (mostly bacteria and fungi).
This is a complex process and we do not need to understand the details of the process. What is important is that most of the usable chemicals in the organic matter are extracted by the micro-organisms and are eventually made available to plants.
At some point, all of the good stuff in the organic matter is used up and there are some molecules remaining which can’t be used by micro-organisms or plants.
This remaining material is called humus. It consists mostly of carbon and so it is still organic, but micro-organisms just cant decompose it any further. Humus is so stable that it can persist in the soil for hundreds of years.
Like a giant sponge it soaks up minerals and water up to about 80-90% its weight.
Soil scientists report that for every 1 percent of organic matter content, the soil can hold 16,500 gallons of plant-available water per acre of soil, down to one foot deep. That is roughly 1.5 quarts of water per cubic foot of soil for each percent of organic matter.
This is why farmers that farm without chemicals (which destroy the soil structure) and use time proven natural farming methods have far less problems during drought times.
Storing rain water in the open (ponds/lake) is very wasteful and so much water is lost to sun and wind.
When that same water is stored in the soil underground and held by humus for future use you have the perfect answer to drought conditions.
A layer of organic material over your humus rich gardens will further ensure less moisture loss to sun and wind.
This is not going to happen overnight and is a long term project but improvement will occur within a year.
There are do's and dont's in ensuring that humus is building up in your soils and as we have explained, it is the micro-organisms consisting of bacteria and fungi that must be present in large populations to make humus.
The dont's are; no chemical sprays (especially Glyphosate or brands such as Roundup) no chemical fertilisers ( a little for special reasons occasionally is ok) no chlorinated tap water.
Put a special carbon bonded filter and housing onto your garden tap to remove the very harmful chlorine if its in your water supply)
The do's are simple, progressively add organic, chemical free material to your gardens as a mulches, compost, newspaper, herbicide free grass clippings, untreated sawdust and bark fines, chook manure and other animal manures, kitchen scraps, blood & bone, Bio Boost, Sheep Manure pellets etc.
When weeding gardens just lay the weeds on the soil surface because they are very valuable in feeding the soil and putting back the nutrients they have taken out..
Most importantly apply a soft garden lime, plus dolomite and gypsum about every 3 months.
Calcium is very important for your soil life populations and they are making your humus.
Apply a combination of Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) and Mycorrcin as a soil drench and repeat every month to every 3 months. Follow these simple instructions and every year drought problems will become less.
In drought times you dont want to waste what water you have and when the soil becomes too dry the surface tension does not allow the water to penetrate. The water runs off over the surface and is lost.
It takes a lot of wetting with water to get the water into the soil. Before watering break the soil surface tension by either using MBL or dish washing liquid in warm water, lathered up and applied to the area with a watering can.
Leave for a while to penetrate in then apply non-chlorinated water to the area.
This is also a great way to ensure your container plants get all the water you apply instead of most of it running out of the drainage holes.
Another useful methods to get water deeper into the soil for a tree or shrub is to cut the bottom off a plastic 2 litre cordial bottle and bury it deep into the soil near the plant; neck down and cap off. Then simply fill the bottle with water when you water.
After watering or after rain apply a mulch over any bare soil. Water will pass through mulches so no need to pull back to water.
Special warning on citrus trees and other plants that do not handle wet feet in winter, ensure later on when the rains come to pull back any mulch from these plants to prevent root rots.
Plants also transpire moisture through their foliage which means they need more water to replace the moisture losses.
During sunny, hot times and windy times the loss of moisture through the foliage can be great but we can reduce this moisture loss by 30 to 40% by spraying the foliage all over with Vaporgard.
One spray will last for 3 months and allow the plants to retain more moisture and grow better. Applications of potash every month to the soil will also increase the plant's drought resistance.
Grey water generally is very good for your gardens and can not only be beneficial for the moisture but may have nutrients as well. Two things though; Do NOT store grey water for more than 24 hours.
Only use laundry detergents that are very low in sodium (salt).
A quick bit on tomatoes..There are two growth aspects of tomatoes, Determinate which are bush tomatoes only growing about a metre tall and you dont need to remove laterals. (Russian red etc)
Then there are Indeterminate or vine tomatoes which grow very tall and as a supported vine can be 10 metres long.
These require staking and once a certain height is reach as well as removing laterals prick out the growing tip as well.
Fruit forming high up need ample support or the top will break under the weight and wind.
Yes in a glasshouse supported and usually hydroponic grown you can have plants several metres in length producing untold tomatoes over a long period.
The vine is usually bare except for the last metre or so with leaves, flowers and fruits.
The secret is the plant is kept feed which is a mistake many gardeners make they stop feeding the special tomato foods when they start harvesting the first ripe fruit. The plant runs out of tucker and fails.
Apply my Secret Tomato food about every month once you start harvesting to have a longer season.
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This week a few tips and some of what is happening currently that may have an effect on your gardening for better or worse.
Firstly an interesting tip from a lady gardener this week who phoned and told me that her telegraph cucumber plants were only producing female flowers and no male flowers for pollination.
The variety is not self setting so all the embryo cucumbers were just rotting off through the lack of pollination. To overcome the problem she has taken pollen from a male flower of a zucchini plant and pollinated the female cucumber flowers.
I asked what the end result was and whether it worked or not.
Yes it has been successful and she has produced telegraph cucumbers with good flavor and the only variant is that the fruit are possibly larger than normal.
All very interesting and something that maybe useful if you have the same problem.
With pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers, rock melon etc I prefer to hand pollinate to ensure fruit set.
It is done simply by removing a male flower with ample pollen on the stamen and wiping this over the centre of the female flower. If pollination does not take place the embryo fruit will grow a bit then rot off.
A reader also asked about removing spent flowers from plants my reply was; What we call dead heading means removing the spent flowers the reason for this is to prevent seed setting and it can also encourage further new flowers in some plants.
The wind currently has being knocking things around so make sure you have tender plants such as tomatoes securely staked. I have a potted banana plant that is currently flowering (I am rapt) and I have been informed that the young growing bananas get very heavy as a bunch and can get knocked off the plant in high winds.
Luckily the plant is in a 100 litre container so I was able to move to a more sheltered spot, certainly do not want to lose my first bunch of home grown bananas in Palmerston North.
Talking about tomatoes and the dreaded psyllid as I said last week I have this year the best tomato plants that I have been able to grow for over 5 years and a few gardeners that also are using the cell strengthening products I suggested last year are likewise enjoying great results.
The psyllid nymphs are so small that you need a strong magnifying glass to see them, ideally 10X.
I found on Trade Me a 3pc Jewelers Lens Kit, Loupe Magnifying Glass Set for only $14.24 with magnification of 3X, 5X and 10X.
Price included shipping from UK so a real bargain and very handy for checking foliage of your plants for small insects especially if your eye sight is not as good as an eagles'.
With magnification of 10X the plain looking foliage of plants becomes a new interesting world and in my case has given me a whole new prospective and respect for the plants.
A common problem is that gardeners do not pick up on the first signs of insects establishing on plants and by the time they are discovered you already have large populations doing a lot of harm and much more difficult to control.
If on the other hand you spot a few pests and deal to them immediately you and your plants will be far better off.
Some years ago I suggested that glyphosate was most likely to be the agriculture chemical that did more harm to the soil, animals and humans than any other agriculture chemicals commonly used.
Evidence is proving my thoughts to be correct and now counties are waking up to the health problems the chemical causes.
Monsanto announced Wednesday that sales in the company’s agricultural productivity segment, which includes its probable carcinogen Roundup herbicide, fell 34% to $820 million. Monsanto’s shares fell over 2% as a result.
The Biotech giant also said Wednesday that it now plans to cut a total of 3600 jobs, or about 16% of its global work force, through fiscal 2018, and expects to record $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion in restructuring charges.
In October, Monsanto said that it would slash 2,600 jobs worldwide as part of a global restructuring effort to cut costs and boost savings, including consolidating some business and research centers and getting out of the sugar cane business, Reuters reported.
Monsanto has been struggling for investor confidence following the announcement in March 2015 that the World Health Organisation’s cancer agency had declared the world’s most widely used weedkiller – glyphosate – a “probable human carcinogen”.
To make matters worse for Monsanto On October 16, 2016 (World Food Day), Monsanto will stand trial for "crimes against nature and humanity," in The Hague, Netherlands.
The claimants say the US-based, transnational company is responsible for introducing multiple genetically modified crops and numerous toxic chemicals into our environment – including saccharin, aspartame, polystyrene, DDT, dioxin, Agent Orange, petroleum based fertilizers, recombinant bovine growth hormones (rGBH), Round Up (glyphosate), Lasso (an herbicide used in Europe), Bt toxic plants, and more.
One gardeners asked me recently if there is no more Roundup how will we control the weeds?
I replied by asking what did people do before Roundup was invented?
I also said that I have not used any herbicide chemicals for over 20 years and I have survived along with my gardens and my biggest problem is the masses of earthworms happy living in the gardens and containers.
More good news:
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Wednesday that a preliminary risk assessment of the pesticide Imidacloprid shows that the chemical poses a threat to some pollinators, specifically honeybees.
Imidacloprid is one of four neonicotinoid pesticides that honey producers and environmentalists have long suspected to be linked to rapidly declining bee populations in North America and beyond, a phenomenon widely known as colony collapse disorder.
The EPA is in the process of reviewing the class of chemicals to determine whether they pose an ecological threat to pollinators, starting with Imidacloprid.
I dont often talk about flower gardens even though I grow flowers for colour, to attract bees and for the pleasure they bring to all that behold them.
I have been meaning to write for a while now on what I term a perpetual flower garden or in other words one that keeps on renewing itself season after season.
I have been experimenting with a street frontage strip about a metre wide in front of my street fence.
I have a few climbing roses along with a few varieties of perennials and annual flowering plants.
I allow the flower plants to seed and reproduce new seedlings which are not weeded out but allowed to mature and flower.
Plants such as straw flowers, Russell Lupins, petunia, pansy, alyssum happily come and go among the perennials, geranium, lilies, daisies and foxgloves.
A perpetual garden is always changing and you can add a few different flowers to it every so often.
The main thing you need to know is what is a weed and what is a self sown flower seedling.
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Welcome back to a new calendar year of gardening. The gardening year itself is actual half way through as it started on the 1st June last year.
Having now past the longest day of the year we slowly head to the shortest day with ample time to plant more vegetables as long as you don't muck around.
Areas with short seasons will not be able to grow new plantings of tender crops such as tomatoes unless you have a glasshouse.
Planting time for leeks and brassicas seedlings for autumn and winter harvest. Protect brassicas with Neem tree Granules in the planting hole and on soil surface and cover with crop cover to keep butterflies off the plants.
Quick growing salad crops can be planted for succession which means a few plants every 2 weeks for a couple of months. This is mainly lettuce, radish and spring onions.
Winter flowering plants will be appearing in your garden shops soon and once they do plant out for those early displays. Check the spring bulbs you lifted last year to ensure they are sound. Throw any soft ones away to prevent rots affecting healthy bulbs. Planting out will start about March if conditions are suitable.
The Spring was not very good for many gardeners including myself, the extremes of temperatures, with cold winds made spring feel more like an early winter and the tender plants sulked.
As the weather settled in December tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, corn and peppers responded and have been growing well since then.
I am very impressed with my tomato plants and new Tamarillos, the best looking plants that I have grown for about 5 years likely because I am using the New Silicon Cell Strengthening products and having some yellow sticky cards means the only psyllids I have seen so far are on the sticky cards.
If the tomatoes etc carry on without psyllid damage into late autumn I can give the thumbs up to this new program.
Before Christmas I had a few gardeners contact me with tomato problems which after seeing pictures or having the condition of the plants described to me, the problems either turned out to be psyllids or herbicide damage from purchased compost.
Roses and strawberries are also responding better with the settled weather now the stress of the weather has been removed.
Clearer skies this season has meant more direct sunlight hours which has made a difference to corn and flowering of pumpkins and cubits, so thank you to those that endeavor to control our weather. I am even getting to see a good display of stars when I take the dogs out for their toilets about 11pm.
It looks like an interesting year ahead of us with what is happening around the world, so its a good time to be prepared for any contingency.
Food security, which means planting vegetable gardens to fall back on and to also improve the nutritional value of your diet.
Many of us older generation are amazed at the masses of people at Supermarkets especially at holiday time when they are going to be closed for a day. You would think that doomsday had been announced and people were stocking up for a month or more.
Food security means to have a good vegetable garden and cupboards stocked with non-perishables so if something happens to go wrong you don't need to panic for a while.
Another very good reason to grow as much of your vegetable needs as possible is for your health.
By growing your food naturally without using chemicals means your crops will be brimming with nutritional values and without toxic chemicals.
Your taste buds will tell you how great your crops are, your body will have the vitamins and minerals it needs to repair the damage conventionally grown and processed food does.
You will have more energy, lose weight and think clearer. A few back up food supplements such as Organic Virgin Coconut oil, MSM and Shark Liver oil Caps certainly help with your health.
When you can, choose organic grown foods as they are free of the hundreds of chemicals used in growing crops and processed foods these days.
Your health and the health of your loved ones is dependent on the life style choices you make and prevention is easier than cure.
Growing your own and making good food choices does not mean you cant indulge in some not so good food items. The more goodness you have allows the body to get rid of the rubbish and harmful substances and keeps you healthy.
Health begins in the soil for all earth bound living things on the planet. The soil is a mass of living microbes and fungi along with many other soil dwellers such as earth worms.
Upon this handful of soil our survival depends. Husband it and it will grow our food, our fuel and our shelter and surround us with beauty. Abuse it and the soil will collapse and die, taking humanity with it. - From Vedas Sanskrit Scripture 1500 BC
There is a bit of wisdom from 3516 years ago and a truth that has been forgotten in the last 60 to 100 years. Your gardens or containers will produce healthy rich produce if you simply husband the soil.
This means NOT destroying the soil life with chemical fertilisers, chemical sprays, weedkillers including glyphosate.
NOT watering your gardens with tap water containing chlorine, instead remove the chlorine with a 10 micron carbon bonded filter and housing.
Gardeners that have taken my advise on this important aspect tell me their gardens and plants are so much better now.
Using animal manures, chicken manure along with Calcium & Health, Rok Solid and Magic Botanic Liquid allows the soil life to grow and restore health to your soil.
Mycorrcin feeds the soil life increasing their populations allowing your plants to feed better and grow stronger.
Remove disease (pathogens) from your soil with the new natural product Terracin.
This year I will introduce you to another two natural products which can make your good gardens even better.
One is a product to introduce into your garden's soil a range of new beneficial microbes and fungi.
The other is for promoting and providing beneficial microbes to populate the foliage of your plants assisting in the prevention of diseases.
It also puts the natural defense mechanisms of plants on full alert.
But and there is a big but, if you persist in living in a chemical garden then these products will not make any difference, just a waste of time and money.
Have a Happy, Healthy New Gardening Year..... Wally Richards

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Pollination can be a problem for gardeners when it does not occur naturally.
Various plants use different modes of pollination from attracting insects such as bees to move the pollen to air movement or vibration.
Often we think of the honey bees as the main pollinators, which for a number of plants and crops they surely are, but then there are bumble bees, native bees, flies, moths, butterflies and other insects which can all assist in the pollination process.
A number of native plants have white flowers to attract the moths at night as New Zealand did not have other pollinators other than our native bees.
The wind, or more to the point, breezes are also responsible for moving the pollen in some plants to complete the fertilisation process.
A good example of this in the vegetable garden is sweet corn, the pollen is formed on the male flowering heads at the top of the plant with the female corn tassels below, given a light breeze and the pollen dust falls to the tassels below or to the corn plant next door.
This is the reason we plant corn in clumps, fairly close to each other to ensure that a good set is achieved and the cobs are full. Each one of those fine tassels that form on the ears of corn are connected individually to a embryo corn seed and each tassel needs to receive pollen to fill the cob completely.
Those cobs that only have a number of mature seeds with misses means that those misses did not receive pollen from the tassel.
When I grow corn I like to do a bit of hand pollination on a sunny day when the tops are laden with pollen. This is simply done by running your hand up the male flowers and dumping the contents on the female tassels below.
It helps ensure fuller cobs at harvest time. Also 2 weekly sprays of Magic Botanic Liquid makes for better, bigger sets on the cobs.
When nature and elements don't do the pollination for you, then this is where you the gardener, can step in and do the job yourself.
Some plants are what we call self fertile which means that the plant will ensure that it will set seed without the need of another plant of the same species being anywhere near. Many of these are wind pollinated.
The rest of the plants of various types are likely to need another similar plant nearby to ensure a good fruit or seed set. These other plants are often referred to as pollinators and without one you will still get some fruit setting, but no where as good as if you had a pollinator also. Many of these will be pollinated by bees or other insects.
Then again in some plants such as with Kiwi Fruit you have a situation where some plants are male and some are female and then you need at least one male in close proximity to about 1 to 5 females.
Where room is limited we have overcome the problem of having to plant two separate kiwi fruit vines by grafting a male and female onto the same root stock.
Even then there is no guarantee that you are going to achieve a good fruit set as it requires bees to visit both the male and female flowers to move the pollen. Because of the varroa mite, which has destroyed most if not all the feral bee colonies there may not be any honey bees around your gardens any more.
Then it comes down to the bumble bee and native bees along with other insects to do the job.
Chemical Insecticides such as Confidor also has caused all pollinators populations to decline.
Another problem may occur where the possible pollinators are elsewhere in the garden collecting nectar and leaving your tree alone even though its in full flower.
You can help to attract the possible pollinators to your target tree by dissolving raw sugar in hot water and adding more water and then spraying the sweet liquid over your target tree.
Another problem can occur if a plant is in a too shady situation where it does not get sufficient sunlight directly on the plant to initiate flower buds or if the buds form, they buds don't open into flowers.
We often see this on roses in the shade which don't flower well and also on flowering house plants that are too far from natural light to flower properly, such as flowering begonias.
Cold conditions can mean a plant such as a tomato will flower but not produce pollen, thus the flowers fall off after a few days. Cold setting types are best for those colder times.
Also if it gets too hot then tomatoes will not set fruit and that can be seen at times in glasshouses.
Tomatoes are not pollinated by honey bees but the vibration from a bumble bees wings does the trick as they fly near the plant.
A light breeze on a sunny day when the flowers are pollen laden does the job and generally speaking tomato plants outdoors will set fruit well.
In glasshouses and similar sheltered areas the plants may fail to set and this can be overcome on a sunny day by simply tapping the stake or trunk of the plant to cause a vibration.
A very important aspect in the flowering fruiting cycle is to have ample potash available to any flowering/fruiting plant.
A monthly sprinkle of Fruit and Flower Power on the soil in the root zone will greatly assist.
Pumpkins, zucchini and melons have both male and female flowers on the same plant and the pollen needs to be moved from the male to the female. If you have good populations of bumble bees around then they normally do the job for you otherwise you will not have a crop. The female flower is easy to determine as they have the embryo fruit behind the flower, the male does not.
To ensure a good fruit set I like to, on a nice sunny day, pluck a male flower off the vine that has ample pollen and after removing the petals rub some of the pollen onto the centre part of the female flowers.
If the fruit is not pollinated it will still grow for a time but then rot off.
Passion fruit can be another one that a bit of hand pollination will help ensure a good crop.
Too much nitrogen in the form of man made fertilisers or animal manures can cause plants to vegetate which means they produce lots of growth but little or no flowers.
If this is happening then apply Fruit and Flower power to kick in the flowering cycle and stem the rapid growth.
Some plants such as bougainvillea need a bit of stress to give a great show of flowers.
If you feed them well and supply ample water they tend to grow all over the place and not flower.
Instead let them dry out for a time to kick in the flowering cycle and don't feed them much either.
As a gardener you need to remember that most plants only flower to reproduce themselves by seed.
When their lives are threatened then they quickly go into a flowering cycle.
The best example of this is a number of annual weeds that grow lushly in the spring when there is ample rain but as soon as the soil starts to dry they start to flower.
On our vegetables such as cabbages and silverbeet we need to keep the soil moist because if we allow it to dry out too much the plants will bolt or in other words, go to seed prematurely.
One last aspect is potatoes, early types will be mature and ready to harvest when the tops start to flower.
Late types will be ready when they have flowered and the tops start to die back.
Often you may see that fruit not unlike tomatoes form on the potato tops, these are the fruit which are not to be eaten as they are poisonous, these fruit contain potato seeds.
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December is the first month of summer according to the seasonal calendar and we are now starting to see a little settling of the weather.
I am always amazed at how wide the differences are between areas of the country and how what used to be reliable patterns year after year are now very different and harder to predict.
It would appear that new patterns, that have started developing in the last few years, are becoming the new norm and if anything these patterns are intensifying.
I can only talk of the patterns where I am in Palmerston North; that for last few years have been crappy weather for spring and early summer. In the last few seasons we have had a false spring about August then the weather turned to custard till the new year.
This year we never saw the false spring, just un-seasonal weather for spring along with numerous cold snaps. The results of this means the warmth loving plants such as tomatoes, cucumbers and corn have not done well.
My tomatoes and cucumbers even in the glasshouse have only slowly grown and are about 8 weeks behind where they should be.
Numerous gardeners have said the same from other parts of the country and those without glasshouses have fared worse.
Chilly winds and cold night temperatures are of no help to those plants that enjoy nice warm constant temperatures.
Even my strawberries have not done well and have only recently starting to produce some bigger ripe berries.
Hardy plants on the other hand, because of the extending day light hours, weeds, lawns, brassicas and lettuce are growing very well.
Not so good in areas where you have not had reasonable rain fall. These drought prone areas appear to becoming really difficult to garden and farm.
There is a silver lining in so much as many insect pests have not reproduced well and thus they have not become a real problem yet.
Plant diseases that thrive in these weather patterns which place stress on plants result in black spot, rust, mildews and blights causing damage to the foliage of roses and other plants.
You can treat for the diseases but as most are not fatal to established plants it can be better to allow nature to run its cause and when the weather improves, new growths will take over and plants will start to look better again.
Simple sprays of baking soda with Raingard or alternatively sprays of Condys Crystals are inexpensive and will likely give greater improvements plus protection than the expensive chemical concoctions.
The insect problems are starting to happen with a bit of warmer weather and their populations will explode once the weather settles down.
If you can stop the rapid increase in pest populations from happening you will have better plants and gardens later on.
So far the tomato/potato psyllid populations have not started to build up because the temperatures have not being good for their breeding.
They are around and in my glasshouse the sticky yellow whitefly traps are catching several adults each week along with other pest adult insects.
The stick y yellow pads are a great line of defense for glasshouses or out in the garden.
I am also using the silicon cell strengthening program on all the plants in the glasshouse and so far it appears to be working well. The test will come when the weather settles.
A word of caution is with potatoes growing outdoors that have reached maturity and are ready to harvest or will be soon.
I had a gardener last year that left his potatoes in the ground after they had matured with the tops still on. They harvested a couple of plants and the tubers were of a good size and lovely to eat.
The same with the next couple of plants harvested. But when it came to the following ones, including the rest of the crop, the potatoes had the black rings inside them and tasted bad.
Now after finding out that the crop was ready if he had either harvested all the potatoes or alternatively cut the tops off at ground level and covered the stumps with soil then the tubers would be safe from psyllid attack.
Potato crops planted within the last couple of months or so and even if planting now will need to be protected from the psyllids.
Rhododendrons come under attack from thrips about this time of the year causing the silvery leaves which is the scar tissue from the pests feeding.
There is an easy solution by just sprinkling Wallys Neem Tree Granules from the trunk to the drip line. Repeat about 8 weeks later.
Citrus trees should also be treated the same way to prevent insect pests from establishing.
Aphids on roses and other plants can be controlled with a combination spray of Key Pyrethrum and Wallys Neem Tree Oil. Mixed with warm water and sprayed just before dusk to take care of pest insects on the plants.
That includes leaf hoppers, mealy bugs, beetles, caterpillars, psyllids, whitefly etc.
The black pear/cherry slugs will be starting up about now and when you see them on your plum, cherry or pear trees spray the tree with Wallys Liquid Copper.. Like the garden slugs and snails they cant handle being in contact with copper.
A second generation will appear in about February if you dont control the first flush, they will do far more leaf damage.
There are grass grub beetles out in early evening feeding on some of your plants.
If you find holes in the leaves of plants but no culprits to be found then likely its either beetles or birds.
Go out with a torch after sunset and check the plants for beetles.
If you find them then make up the Key Pyrethrum spray and spray them directly as if they were flies using fly spray.
Key Pyrethrum is a more natural quick knock down, used at only one mil per litre of water and has only a one day withholding period on food crops.
Porina caterpillars in the lawn are easily controlled with Wallys Neem tree Oil.
Cut the lawn so the grasses are shorter and then just before sunset spray the grass with the Neem Oil mixed at 15 mls per litre of warm water.
Spray to get the solution to the base of the grass where the caterpillars feed.
Later when they come out to feed they will get a dose of the oil and then starve to death.
Neem Oil is safe for animals, children and bees on the lawn where the chemical poisons are not.
In fact on dogs for fleas simply take the Neem Oil and mix with an equal amount of shampoo and use that on your moggies.
There are many safe alternatives to use in your garden that are not likely to cause you health problems or problems for your children, pets and beneficial insects such as Lady Birds and Bees.
I am available to answer your questions for safer alternatives.......
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There are a few plants that are traditionally associated with Xmas making this an appropriate time to have a wee look at them.
Holly and mistletoe are two greenery plants that were used in days gone by during the festive season.
Holly is still widely used as imitation holly in Xmas wreaths.
In Pagan times the English had the “he holly and the she holly” being the determining factor in who will rule the household in the following year.
The “she holly” have smooth leaves and the “he holly” prickly ones.
A word of caution here if you hang a Xmas imitation holly Wreath on your door you are advertising who will rule the home for the coming year..
Mistletoe also had its beginnings in the past and may still be hung from the ceiling by some people.
When in vogue if you met someone of the opposite sex under the mistletoe you were to kiss.
In the 18th Century, the exchanging of kisses between a man and a woman was adopted as a promise to marry.
At Christmas a young lady standing under a ball of mistletoe cannot refuse to be kissed.
The kiss could mean deep romance, lasting friendship and goodwill. It was believed that if the girl remained unkissed, she cannot expect to marry the following year.
(From Wikipedia) The custom of the Christmas tree developed in early modern Germany (where it is today called Weihnachtsbaum or Christbaum or "Tannenbaum") with predecessors that can be traced to the 16th and possibly 15th century, in which devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes.
It acquired popularity beyond Germany during the second half of the 19th century, at first among the upper classes.
The tree was traditionally decorated with edibles such as apples, nuts, or other foods. In the 18th century, it began to be illuminated by candles which were ultimately replaced by Christmas lights after the advent of electrification.
Today, there are a wide variety of traditional ornaments, such as garland, tinsel, and candy canes. An angel or star might be placed at the top of the tree to represent the archangel Gabriel or the Star of Bethlehem from the Nativity.
If I remember rightly in America there was a tradition of stringing popcorn to decorate the Xmas tree.
Pine tree branches or tops in NZ are still popular with some households and they certainly bring in a fresh pine fragrance into the home for a time. They also drop their needles after a while and a bit of a job to clean up in the New Year.
Placing the base of the pine into a bucket of wet sand will help the tree to last longer and some say an aspirin added to the water will also help preserve.
Even better is to not only dissolve an aspirin or two in water but also add a tablespoon or two of sugar and a little bleach.
The artificial Xmas Trees suit more people these days and they are easily recycled for use in Xmases to come. Types include artificial pine and yule trees and colours such as greens, white, pink, red, purple, yellow and black.
This year my partner has opt for a black tree with white, red and blue decorations while previous years trees of different colours are in their boxes in storage.
Xmas lilies are one of the two most popular flowering plants for Christmas.
They flower around about the Xmas period and are sought out by many to decorate their indoor vases as well as outdoor settings. Long lasting in a vase especially if you use the aspirin/sugar/bleach in the vase water.
I had a phone call from a retired gentleman this week complaining that his Xmas Lilly plants were not preforming and likely he would have very few flowers or none at all this Xmas.
I asked him if in previous Xmases had he picked the flower stems for indoors and the answer was yes, with nice long stems. That is the problem I told him, by cutting nice long stems leaves very little leaves are left on the plant to gain energy from the sun for the following year's flowering.
Short stems leaving ample leaves behind will ensure reasonable flowering the following year.
I told him about another retired farmer that had a long driveway with Xmas Lillies planted on both sides of the drive.
Each year he would cut the flowers and sell them to the local florist for his Xmas pocket money. At about 50cents a stem and so many lilies flowering he could have a deposit for a BMW.
Unfortunately because too many flower stems had been cut too long over a few Xmas periods he ended up with only sufficient pocket money for a dozen beers.
The answer in his case was to only cut one third of the flowers each year allowing the other two thirds a couple of years to recover.
For those of us that dont want to buy cut Xmas Lily flowers every year instead have a look around your garden centres for some potted Xmas Lilies. These will likely be one bulb in a small container.
Buy three of them and a large container where the 3 plants can be planted while allowing for room to expand. Use a nice purchased compost to pot them up and use some Rok Solid and Sheep Manure pellets under the plants.
Leave outside where they will get a few hours of sun light each day and keep the mix moist. As the buds start to open bring the tub indoors and place on a large saucer or tray for catching excess water.
If possible position in front of a morning or afternoon sun window. The tub can be moved to a centre point for display when guests are due and later put back into the better light.
Once flowering is finished take the tub outside and place in a sheltered shady spot for a few days to harden up. Then into a full sun area till next Xmas. Every Three years re pot and the smaller new bulbs can either also go into pots or your garden.
Ideal food to water in occasionally would be Matrix with MBL added.
Poinsettia with their lovely red bracts are a favorite of many at Xmas time.
(Euphorbia pulcherrima) is a culturally and commercially important plant species of the diverse spurge family that is indigenous to Mexico and Central America.
It is particularly well known for its red and green foliage and is widely used in Christmas floral displays.
The red bracts (leaves) are not the flowers; the flowers are those insignificant berry looking things in the middle of the young red bracts.
Later these flowers will fall off unless fertilised/pollinated leaving the leaves in their red colour for several weeks.
They need a good light situation so make sure they spend most of the time within a metre of a sunny window.
Dont over water as they dont like wet feet. The plants you buy have been treated with a dwarfing compound to make them squat.
Later as this effect wears off they will become much taller and scraggy looking.
I have seen poinsettia planted outdoors in a frost free, sunny, free draining situation where they will grow about as tall as your home and put on an excellent display of red leaves in winter.
To make them flower its light control, 8 hours of good light and 16 hours of darkness for a couple of weeks or until the top leaves start to turn red. In a room without bright lights in winter they will flower without any help from you.
If you want a neat flowering plant to give as a gift buy a Moth Orchid (Phalaenopsis) if looked after correctly they will flower for months even in some cases always having some flowers.
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Garden centres these days have a great range of gift items besides the normal gardening products.
In fact a visit often will not only take care of the gifts for gardeners but also many other interesting items for those people that do not garden.
I always enjoy shopping at the garden shops as it is hassle free, usually ample free parking, and in some cases you can have a look around and then have a cup of coffee in their cafe while thinking about your final choices.
Happy Xmas shopping.
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Sometimes you can tell who is a gardener by the in-ground dirt on their hands and under their finger nails.
Working the soil with your bare hands causes the problem and for those gardeners that prefer to have clean looking hands and nails it means extra work after gardening cleaning up their best gardening tools, their hands.
This applies not only to females but males also who prefer to have clean looking hands.
The solution is to wear gloves which is not really a solution at all as most gardening gloves are made of materials that add bulk to your fingers and loss of sensitivity making your fingers cumbersome.
If handing prunings of thorny plants then the thickest, toughest gloves are the most practical for protection of your hands.
When it comes to handing transplants or weeding in between seedlings you want your hands to be as sensitive to the touch as possible.
For some years I have used latex gloves with all the disadvantages they have. They can tear while putting on if they are too tight or if there is the slightest bit of moisture on your hands.
Even though they come in boxes of 100 gloves from small to extra large they dont necessary fit perfectly, your fingers so you can end up with a bit of a tit at the end of your fingers.
Latex gloves tear easily and you end up with a dirty finger or more which means a clean up job later on. Sweat from your hand gathers inside the glove and over a period of time your skin starts to wrinkle as if you spent too long in the bath.
They are white and outside in the garden it looks like you are ready to preform an enema on your plants, just need the white coat and a stethoscope to complete the picture.
The advantage of the latex gloves is that you lose little feeling in your fingers, you prevent your hands from ingrain dirt and you can handle things you may not like to handle with your bare hands.
Besides they are cheap and once used you just thrown them into the rubbish bin.
Now what say I told you that I have found gloves that have all the advantages of latex gloves with none of the disadvantages?
You would surely be impressed as I was when I tried these gloves for the first time.
The gloves come from Malaysia and are named Black Dragon coming in boxes of 100 gloves by weight.
They are premium, powder free black nitrile gloves, stronger than latex and more resistant to chemicals.
Non-sterile, ambidextrous gloves made from 100% nitrile rubber that is 5 times stronger than latex.
Non-slip textured finger tips for greater grip and beaded cuff for added strength (less likely to tear when donning). The black colour hides dirt and looks cool!
They come in sizes Small, Medium, Large, extra Large and 2x large but made in Malaysia where their hands maybe a little on the smaller size I found that my normal Large size to be a very snug fit.
I used a pair for a few hours gardening, no tearing and no build up of moisture in the gloves which means they dont make your hand sweat as latex gloves do.
When I finished I peeled them off and threw them in the bin. Shortly after this I remembered that I meant to mix up some Neem Oil and Key Pyrethrum to spray under and over my strawberry plants leaves.
Though the sprays are safe to use and spray over your hand when folding back the leaves it nice to have the gloves on.
I pulled the Black Dragons out of the bin turned them from inside out and blew them up to open. I was able to reuse them no problem. If you do likewise the pack of 100 gloves would last you for years.
I see that Trade Me has boxes of the gloves for sale for under $30.00 which means for about .30cents a glove. If you are interested put Gloves Black Dragon into the Trade Me Search engine.
Best gardening gloves I have ever come across. The gloves would make an excellent Xmas gift. Also available by mail order on www.0800466464.co.nz with Wallys other gardening products etc.
A phone call this week was from a gardener with a very excellent solution to keeping birds, cats and insect pests off your vegetable plot.
They had one of those pipe gazebos in storage which they put back together and placed it over their vegetable garden.
It is an A-Frame with pipes that slot into each other or into holders at the corners and roof.
Over this and down the sides they placed crop cover so the whole of the garden within was protected.
The pipes can be pushed into the soil to say a depth of 20cm which would make the structure fairly strong. The crop cover could be laced onto the pipes to hold taunt and in place.
Soil or 100x50 wood to hold the bottoms to the ground allowing one part to be opened for access. Crop cover will only give a 15% shade factor and allow rain to pass through yet sheltered against wind which can still pass though at a reduced rate.
An ideal solution and I noted that Mega Mitre 10 currently have a good size gazebo for under $40.00 and a car port type for under a $100.
Talking about crop cover and protection against birds and insects such as codlin moth and the guava moth.
Wrap the small upright apple trees in crop cover or some of the branches of the larger trees.
A combination of tap and clothes pegs makes a cocoon of protection for the fruit that has set.
I have just done my apple trees for the season after finding it was so effective last season.
Covering fruit against bird and insect damage means no need for spraying. When I was in the Philippines a few years back I was amazed to see mango and papaya fruit in the trees wrapped in newspaper.
Amazing because trees 20-30 feet tall bearing untold fruit all wrapped up safe and sound.
You will see papaya (paw paw if you dont know better) still with the foreign newspaper on for sale in green grocer shops.
Now the weather is starting to settle (with less freezing breaks) insect pests will be breeding.
Check your plants, look under the leaves, if your eyesight is not 100% use a magnifying glass.
When found, spray late in the day just before dusk with Wallys Neem Tree Oil and Key Pyrethrum.
If you get the early insect pests then they will not get to breed and cause more problems.
Those using the Cell Strengthening products against damage from the psyllids on tomatoes etc should apply the sprays every 2 weeks. Use on capsicums, tamarillos, okra, potatoes and chilies also.
Spray your strawberry plants every two weeks with Mycorrcin and apply Wallys Secret Strawberry food every 6 weeks.
Purchase some flowering ornamentals such as roses and colour spots to pot up now for gifts at Xmas time.
Direct sow the seeds of corn, beans, zucchini, pumpkins and cucumbers where you want them to grow.
Direct sown, have better root systems and produce better. Place some Rok Solid where you are going to sow. If sowing different types of corn keep each well separated as cross pollination will change what is harvested.
Worst is pop corn grown near sweet corn.
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Every day my email box has over 100 emails, more than half are spam and unwanted, about quarter are information or from Real News sites and the balance are from readers asking about problems they are have, so for a change, I will share a few with you.
Email reads: Hey Wally, Hope all is well, Just a quick idea for your next article, Butterfly's.
Reason is that this year there will be at least 80,000 less swan plants for sale due to a large commercial grower retiring.
I am apart of the MBNZT (Monarch Butterfly NZ Trust) & just really want to get the word out there about swan plants & not only are the butterflies good for our garden but the are a wonder to see, + the extra factor is the kids love to watch them change, if you can help at all that would be great, Phil
So gardeners you better germinate a few seeds yourselves and grow some swan plants.
Likely other nurseries will pick up the shortfall as the plants are so easy to grow..
Seeds of Asciepias physocarpa (Swan Plant) are available from Egmont Seeds by mail order if you cant find them in your local garden centre..
Germinate in a good compost in a seedling tray and later on prick out into small pots to grow on and plant into the garden or direct sow where you want them to grow.
Space seeds out about 20 to 30 cm apart when direct sowing.
When several caterpillars are feeding on a swan plant they will literally eat themselves out of house and home. Once all the foliage has been stripped the plant will die.
That is a shame as it can be prevented by simply taking a small piece of Crop Cover and placing it over a branch or part of a branch and securing it so that no caterpillars can not eat the leaves inside.
The rest of the plant can get stripped of foliage but because some leaves are protected the plant will recover and produce more foliage.
If those aphid pests attack the plant then best control is to use your fingers to squash them so you dont harm the caterpillars using any type of insect spray.
If you dont like doing that then you can remove the caterpillars and a branch for them to feed on (place in a vase) then with all the caterpillars removed and no eggs on the plant you spray with Key Pyrethrum.
The pyrethrum breaks down quickly in sunlight so next day it will be safe to put your caterpillars back on the plant. Do not use any other sprays especially Confidor as it lasts in the plant for months killing all the caterpillars that hatch out.
There is a predator wasp that also kills the caterpillars and to safe guard the caterpillars you can wrap the plant in Crop Cover held in place at the overlaps with clothes pegs.
The caterpillars will live safely on the plant inside the cover and mature to become monarch butterflies.
Next: Hello Wally,
Passionfruit - not having much luck. We have had a vine planted now for nearly 2 years now, against the tin shed in full sun but it looks sick.
Leaves are yellow and it doesn’t even try and fruit. I have fed it with citrus food, sprayed it with Sequoia to try and get the leaves green again but today I see some of the leaves are falling off.
In desperation we brought another vine last week and planted it in a large tub right next to the old one. Now it is sulking, the top half is just limp. I have done everything I can think of to revive it but to no avail.
What am I doing wrong and what can I do to rectify both of them. I am told they are so difficult to grow. We live in Lower Hutt is that a problem for them? Hoping you can help as I would hate to pull them out. Regards Mavis.
My answer was; It likely depends where in NZ you are and your weather patterns..
I used to be able to grow them easy in Palmerston North 30 odd years ago. Far better summers then and sacks over the plant for protection against frosts in winter.
Now days I have yet to grow one outside without going to a lot of trouble... Best was to grow in a container in a glasshouse then let it wander outside which worked with frost protection in the winter.
They must be very free draining as wet feet in winter kills them. The current weather is not suitable so far... (Sounds like you have watered too much)
A challenge to grow if you dont live in a nice warm part of NZ. They are heavy feeders so when actively growing, lots of chicken manure, Rok Solid, Blood & Bone and Fruit & Flower Power. Keep dry during the cool months and only prune when actively growing.
Due to lack of bees these days because of insecticides such as Confidor, you may need to hand pollinate the flowers.
Then we have: Hi there Wally, Do you have a good all round planting guide for vegetables for the different seasons …using your particular fertilizers and nutrients?
It would be very useful in a future article.
Right now we are all thinking about putting our spring garden seeds in propagating pots or into the garden and know that each vege seed or plant has different requirements.
I would like to use more of your products but am not sure which plants need which product.
The internet takes so much time and your products are not mentioned.
I have just read that Beans don’t require Nitrogen so what do you put in the soil to grow them and what product follows on, when they are growing and established.
Then, tomatoes, potatoes and capsicums, cucumbers and lettuce etc requirements are different again.
To call and get advice on the whole spectrum of summer veges would be difficult. Hope you can put something together using your organic products and send to us all via a article. Wendy
Initially I figured that this is a complex question but then I realised that basically for all crops all you need to do is provide sufficient goodness and minerals which means applying the likes of calcium, animal manures, chicken manure, blood & bone, sheep manure pellets, Rok Solid, Neem Tree Granules and Bio Boost along with purchased compost not made from green waste.
Heavy feeding crops such as leeks, silverbeet and cubits (pumpkins etc) can have extra manure including side dressings of liquid feeds.
Garden Lime for all vegetables except for tomatoes and potatoes where you use dolomite and/or gypsum.
Spraying the crops with Magic Botanic Liquid every 2 weeks certainly makes a difference.
In Nature there is no special feeding of plants most flourish as long as there is not too much competition for light and food resources.
The harm is when soil life called the soil food web is harmed by chemicals including chlorine in tap water.
Just off topic but of concern is a recent study that showed that 85% of cotton sanitary products contained glyphosate according to a study by the Socio-Environmental Interaction Space (EMISA) of the University of La Plata, Argentina. Cotton swabs, wipes, tampons and sanitary pads were also found to contain glyphosate and AMPA.
“85 % of all samples tested positive for glyphosate and 62 % for AMPA, which is the environmental metabolite, but in the case of cotton and sterile cotton gauze the figure was 100%,” Dr. Damian Marino of EMISA explained.
Glyphosate is stated by WHO as being a possible carcinogenic.
Would this account for the dramatic increase in cervix cancer in the last 20 odd years?
The reason for this is that the cotton plants are sprayed with Roundup prior to harvest to make harvesting of the boles easier and in the Roundup Ready Cotton crops they are sprayed with glyphosate to kill competing weeds while plants are growing.
Maybe that is the reason why a number of women have adverse reactions to cotton products. Use over many years could logically lead to health issues.
There are no tests that I am aware of in NZ for glyphosate in cotton sanitary products or for cotton sterile pads used on wounds and its unlikely that under funded Govt departments would even look at the possibility of testing/checking. Maybe my old mum was right, 'Better to be Safe than Sorry'
The worlds 4 biggest producers of cotton are China, India,United States and Pakistan all use Glyphosate extensively and in fact China is the biggest manufacture/exporter of glyphosate and their customers apparently include Monsanto for Roundup formulations.
For further info see
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Ten_NGOs_Ask_China_to_Stop_Producing_Glyphosate.php

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With the passing of our traditional planting time (Labour Weekend) we are at that point of the season where its about 8 weeks to the longest day.
This means that over the next 16 weeks we are going to have more hours of sunlight than any other similar part of the year.
Think about that for a moment, that is the time frame of nearly 4 months and most vegetables that we grow will mature within that period of time/daylight hours.
So not only is the growing conditions of the weather supposed to be suitable for planting out the more tender plants such as tomatoes and capsicums it is the optimum time for light hours.
As I sit here writing on Saturday, Labour Weekend, I look outside and see its sunny but a chilly wind which is really flapping my NZ flag.
This makes me very grateful to have glasshouses where my tomato plants are warm and secure from the elements. They are sharing this protected environment with cucumbers, capsicums, cayenne peppers, okra, bitter melon and seedlings of pumpkins.
Most of which would either not survive outside of the glasshouse or pack a big sad and not grow.
I pity those gardeners that are facing similar weather conditions, wanting to get their more tender plants going outdoors so they dont miss this optimum time.
Till the weather settles you can use various ways to protect your plants so you can have those early tomatoes to pick along with other vegetables.
For upright growing plants such as a tomato or capsicum place four strong stakes deeply driven into the soil about 30 to 40cm apart at the cardinal points, the first stake should be facing the prevailing wind, the second about 40 cm behind and the other two diagonally opposed to the first two.
Plant your seedling tomato in the centre putting some Neem Tree Granules in the planting hole along with Rok Solid.
If psyllids have been a problem in past seasons water into the root zone Silicon & Boron Soil Drench before sprinkling Wallys Secret Tomato Food with Neem Granules onto the soil.
Take out your plastic wrap and wrap a couple of times around one stake starting about 4 cm above the soil level.
Then run the wrap around the outside of the other 3 stakes and back to the starting stake keeping the bottom of the wrap about 4cm above the soil.
This allows an air passage for the wind to pass through and strengthen the base of the plant against wind damage later on when the shelter is removed.
You run the wrap around two or three times up the stakes to about 40cm in height.
Later as the tomato grows you can add more wrap to a higher level.
If your stakes start to bend inwards simply put a couple of slats of wood across the tops of the stakes and secure with a small nail. That forms a cross above your plant.
Sprays of Silicon Cell Strengthener combined with Silicon Super Spreader every two weeks at the end of the day for strengthening the tomato's cell against psyllids feeding.
For dwarf beans make some hoops out of number 8 wire to place into the soil about 20cm apart down the row. The hoops should be about 20 cm tall in the centre with a similar spread.
Down the furrow where you are going to plant your seeds sprinkle the new product, Calcium & Health along with Rok Solid then plant your bean seeds. Over the hoops place crop cover and secure down on all sides.
Later when weather settles remove and side dress the plants with sheep manure pellets.
For climbing beans plant in the same manner in front of the frame they are going to climb and then out about 20cm drive home some strong stakes every 50cm in a line.
Staple windbreak to the stakes to protect the beans while establishing. Windbreak can be used similarly to help protect other crops.
Hardy plants such as brassicas, silverbeet, lettuce and celery do not require extra protection but will grow faster if it is provided.
Growing your own vegetables naturally without using chemicals is extremely good for your health and the the health of your family. They taste much better than commercially grown produce and are more filling when considering weight problems.
Weight problems sometimes are caused by the body not getting the goodness it requires from the food you are consuming so it calls for more food hoping the next lot will have more goodness and be more satisfying.
To make this point I read this week that in the United States there are more than 34,000 pesticides derived from about 600 basic ingredients that are currently registered for use.
I dont think there are that many in NZ yet but there already are far too many; most if not all are unnecessary.
If Certified Organic Producers can grow their crops without using any of these chemicals then they are proof it can be done. Logic also tells me that for thousands of years people grew crops without harmful chemicals.
Using these chemicals means that the general population illnesses are on the rise, including asthma, autism, learning disabilities, birth defects, reproductive dysfunction, diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, along with several types of cancer.
Their connection to pesticide exposure becomes more evident with every new study conducted.
We see that in our day to day lives; for instance one person I spoke to this week told me that 3 friends had been diagnosed with cancer in the last few days. I quote the following from a recent study:

Agricultural practices that rely on this type of chemical addiction are stripping the soil of nutrients with remarkable implications.
They are devastating the nutritional value of crops, making dramatic changes at an alarming rate ­ in less than a lifetime, to be specific.
As an example, there has been a 41.1 to 100% decrease in vitamin A in 6 foods: apple, banana, broccoli, onion, potato, and tomato.
Of them, both onion and potato saw a 100% loss of vitamin A in a 48-year span from, 1951-1999.
Its a two sided sword, the chemicals pollute the environment and poison our food while vital minerals are lost.
Is it any wonder that there are more sick people than ever along with health problems starting at much younger ages than we saw 50 years ago.
Gardeners that I talk to every week from all over NZ who are growing as much of their own produce as possible tell me that their gardens are great and that they and their children are of good health seldom seeing a doctor because there is no need.
Remember the first recognized doctor who stated the bases of health saying; Let food be thy Medicine and Medicine be Thy Food. Say no More!
A couple of things; hang those Sticky Yellow White Fly Traps to catch adult pests insects which means those ones dont get to bred.
I like the new blue plastic meat trays from one of the Supermarket chains, ideal for placing under your seedling punnets.
I was awarded with keeping a rare variety of tomato seed viable for just over 25 years by storing them in a glass jar in a fridge for all that time.
A strike rate of about 20% has given me a tomato called Manawatu Special originating from Europe and the First World War by a returning solider.
Excellent tomato; I was given a few seeds many years ago and grew them to produce lots of seeds for more plants to sell back when I had plant shops and nurseries.
I had thought after all those years they would have lost the germ.
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Plants, just like ourselves, have built in protection against diseases though immunity systems.
We build up our immunity naturally over the years by surviving disease attacks and by having a healthy nutritionally rich diet. That is not to say that we are immune to disease attacks but under normal situations we can fend off most health problems if we have very good health.
If we get into stress then our metabolism does not have the same stamina and we catch a cold or worse.
It is said the leading cause of heart disease and cancer is stress. I think its the stress that is the straw that breaks the camels back, after unhealthy living and insufficient nutrient rich food.
The same applies to plants, place them into stress and they will more likely catch a disease.
I have written a lot in the past on how to build the health of plants by building the health of the soil; having soil that is rich in humus, minerals, earth worms and soil life. These past articles can be found on our web site at www.gardenews.co.nz
Even when we have the best soil on earth, plants can still catch a cold when they are placed into stress and our current spring weather is very stressful to our plants and to us keen gardeners.
Chilly winds, too wet, too dry, only the occasional nice day does not make for great gardening and our plants don't do so well either.
We can however increase the immune systems of plants by a few monthly sprays of Perkfection Supa for roses and other plants.
The active ingredient of Perkfection is ‘Phosphite ion’ or Phosphonic Acid. (Potassium ions are also present). Perkfection is very safe to handle and spray and when used on food crops there is no withholding period other than your normal washing of produce before eating.
Perkfection is used extensively by commercial growers of produce and fruit as its safe, effective, in prevention and control while not restrictive on exports of produce.
We have suggested Perkfection Supa for Roses and Other Plants as an alternative to more toxic sprays, for the assistance in recovery from/or prevention of, the following problems, Black spot, Downy Mildew, Phytophthora Root rot, botrytis, Canker, heart rot, damping off, crown rot, leaf blight, silver leaf, late blight, collar rot, pink rot, brown rot, Armillaria, and gummy stem rot.
Now that’s a big list of common plant diseases which means that many of your disease related problems can be overcome with applications of this product.
Besides using Perkfection over your roses for the likes of Black spot and Downy mildew you can also use it as a spray over all your fruiting plants and trees including your strawberries.
It can be used also over your potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, beans, cubits (cucumbers etc) lawns, onions, passion fruit, Cauliflowers, cybidium orchids and ornamental plants and vines.. In fact there is no where you cannot use Perkfection to advantage.
Being ‘Synthetic Organic Phosphates’ what you are doing, is placing this valuable material, onto the foliage of your plants, where it is very readily absorbed and transferred through the whole of the plant.
This fortifies the plant’s cells, increases the plant’s immune system and makes your plants less susceptible to invading pathogens.
There is however a down side, as with any good thing, you can use too much and the recommendation is to use Perkfection at 4 ml per litre of spray once a month for about 6 times in a season.
(Note a season is the normal period of time for that crop or plant. Roses are from Spring till Autumn. Most annuals 5-6 months.)
The reason is that, you can over load your plant with organic phosphates causing a clogging of the cells and halting growth until the system clears.
If a plant has a problem spray the first month with Perkfection at 7 mls per litre.
For plants you wish to fortify use at 4ml per litre for 2 to 3 months.
Prevention is better than cure and by spraying your plants in the spring you give the greatest protection to leaves and fruit, autumn spray will give greatest protection to roots and tubers.
I have suggested that on the 1st of the month to spray your roses and other preferred plants with Perkfection, MBL (Magic Botanic Liquid) and Mycorrcin. Then 14 days later (15th) spray with Mycorrcin and MBL.
What we are doing is boosting the plant's immune system, supplying a large range of minerals and elements, feeding the beneficial microbes to increase their populations which also work to eliminate diseases.
If insects problems occur then include Wallys Neem Tree Oil with Key Pyrethrum added..
All these sprays are compatible.
Here are a few examples of situations where Perkfection Supa has made a big difference;
Buxus, from early damage to nearly dead plants, sprayed monthly the plants recovered their foliage and are now thriving after 6 months.
Silverleaf on roses and fruit trees caught in the earlier stages, remove damaged branches and spray with Perkfection.
Dry Berry on berry fruit including strawberries (other name is downy mildew) a couple of sprays usually does the trick.
Grapes spray once there is a good show of leaves then repeat monthly for about 3 times to assist in prevention of botrytis.
I have a guava tree which after several years of excellent fruiting it suddenly developed a disease that badly effected the fruit.
A few other gardeners also reported the same problem so I contacted the nursery that propagate the trees and asked the head nurseryman about it. He named the disease (which I forget what it was) and told me that they treat the problem with a chemical spray.
Knowing me fairly well he said that he did not know what I could use as I was against harmful chemicals.
So that season when the guava was starting to produce new growths in the spring I sprayed it with Perkfection and again every month of so while the fruit were growing.
The result was a tree full of fruit and no sign of the previous problem.
Wet weather diseases on citrus and plants that do not like wet feet can be helped to recover with the use of Perkfection. It will help stimulate new root development.
It would also be a good idea to clean up the rot in the roots with a soil drench of Terracin followed by a drench of Mycorrcin 3 weeks later.
Terracin is a natural product that suppresses pathogens in the soil allowing the beneficial microbes to increase which means there is a fight for food resources and the now large numbers of beneficial microbes win. Isnt life simple when you work with Nature instead of destroying it with man made chemicals.
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Plants have one objective in life and that is to reproduce.
Reproduction is mostly done by seeding (spore in ferns) but can be also achieved through division, suckering, cloning, producing bulblets or pups.
The desire to reproduce is their strongest attribute which is one that can make gardening very difficult at times. (weeds, suckers, oxalis)
There are two basic forms of plants, one is called annuals because they germinate, grow, flower, seed and then die. The other type are perennials which live for a number of seasons or in the case of some trees thousands of years.
There are inbetweens such as bi-annuals which for our purpose here we will not worry about them.
Perennials are fairly straight forward, they live, they flower, they produce seeds, they may produce off sets, suckers (new plants from their root system) all while they live for more than one season.
They can have their foliage removed and survive to generate more foliage unlike an annual plant which if their foliage is removed the root system dies.
It is the annuals that we are going to talk about because as far as I am aware they only reproduce naturally by seeding.
(They can in some cases be grown from cuttings which in Nature if a bit of their foliage falls onto a suitable bit of dirt they could produce roots and become a clone of their parent plant.)
Annual plants are very aware of the current growing conditions and as far as I can figure they have a reasonable insight on what the conditions are likely to be in days to come.
Seeds will not germinate in Nature till the conditions are right which means temperatures in both soil and air along with adequate moisture.
If the temperatures are right in summer but its too dry to germinate nothing happens till the soil moistens up sufficiently. A day of rain changes the moisture level and the seeds laying dormant germinate (which includes weeds)
Two possible events may occur then; one is that further rain or your watering follows and the plants/weeds grow up tall and strong and when maturity is reached they produce flowers and seeds.
The other possibility is there is no more rain and the soil dries, the plant/weed has only grown a few inches and it will realise that it is becoming too dry and immediately mature, flower and set seed before it dies.
This is where you will see lots of baby weeds in dry areas flowering their hearts out to seed before they wither in the dry conditions.
Their seed falls on to the dry dusty soil to wait for the next moist time to germinate and start the cycle all over again.
From this we learn that annual plants or ones we call weeds when they encounter stress or checks in their growing they will feel that their lives are threatened and go to seed.
We call this 'Bolting' and you will see the term bolt resistant which means the particular species will tolerate a bit of stress before going to seed.
When it comes to non fruiting vegetable plants we want them to reach maturity without going to seed prematurely. So our cabbages, lettuce, silverbeet, celery etc will produce good plants to harvest and eat.
If left after maturity they will eventually go to seed.
What we dont want is the same plants to go to seed before they reach maturity.
Some vegetables are very prone to bolting unless the growing conditions are perfect from the time they germinate to the point of maturity. One such plant is Pak Choy which I have found easily bolts at the merest check of growth.
Thus we have the gardening problem of bolting.
If we are growing our own seedlings for planting out and we nurture the plants from germination to planting out by giving them adequate direct sun light, sufficient moisture for sustained growth (not drowning them) and we prick them out without damaging the roots after 'hardening off' and provide the young plants with good growing conditions we have great success.
If we fall down and the plants get into stress then later on they will likely go to seed.
We call this a 'check' in their growth it could have been caused by becoming too dry, too hot, too cold, too soft and insufficient direct sun light.
When we buy vegetable seedlings we dont know if they have suffered stress or not during their short lives to date.
The nursery that grew them dont usually make mistakes as its their income that suffers if they do so.
Instead they give the plants optimum growing conditions and then harden them off before transporting to a retailer.
Hardening off is very important; when grown in a glasshouse where every thing is controlled the foliage of the seedlings is soft and if shoved straight out into the real world they are likely to die or suffer stress.
To overcome this the seedlings are transferred to special houses where they are protected but gradually exposed to the elements.
Alternative is to spray them with Vaporgard to protect the soft foliage and they can then be hardened up quickly.
When the seedlings reach a retail outlet they are often placed under cover where they can become soft again. Watering is a problem if they dont receive sufficient for their needs.
As the seedlings are bigger now and they have large root zones filling the cell pack or punnet they can dry out very quickly and may require watering more than once in a day.
The chances of being stressed before they are planted out in your garden have increased. If the plants are indoors out of natural light or in bundles they are soft and stressed.
You plant them out and they lay down on the soil like left over road kill and they struggle to stay alive and grow.
Then you wonder a few weeks later why they have gone to seed before they were ready to harvest.
Vegetable plants that produce fruit such as tomatoes and capsicums there are no problems as you want them to seed/fruit and as long as they have not got too old in the pots they will likely be fine.
With flower plants the bigger the better and no worries about whether they have been stressed or not.
When purchasing foliage type vegetables try to buy nice small young plants in cell packs (least root disturbance) so you can take them home and grow them on to plant out later.
A day before planting out spray the seedlings with Vaporgard over and under foliage this acts as a stress guard and reduces transplant shock, protects the plants from the elements and reduces moisture loss through foliage.
Instead of laying down you plants will sit up and start growing much quicker in their new situation.
If you place Crop Cover over them with hoops you will protect the plants from birds, cats, insects and the elements.
They will grow just about twice as fast which means you will be enjoying your own home grown vegetables much sooner.
This allows you to re-plant and have more harvests during the growing season.
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Now that we are halfway through Spring and quickly heading to the first month of Summer (December) there is a fair bit to do in our gardens so lets run a check list in case some things are missed.
It will depend on what you have in your gardens as to whether any or all things aspects concern you.
Roses: generally at this time we have new foliage, buds and some flowering taking place.
If there is any sign of black spot or rust, spray the roses and soil underneath with a solution of potassium permanganate mixed at ¼ a teaspoon to a litre of non chlorinated water and spray. (It may stain walls etc temporarily).
Food for Roses ; ideal is horse manure, blood & bone otherwise sheep manure pellets with the blood & bone. These should be covered with some purchased compost.
Add to this a sprinkling of Rok Solid and once a month a small sprinkling of Fruit & Flower Power.
If you want good roses avoid soil damaging fertilisers such as rose fertiliser and nitrophoska.
Bio Boost is also a good natural slow release one and very well priced.
If you have roses that need recovery from past chemical sprays such as Shield (now banned) the chemicals will have broken down the natural immunity of your roses.
You may like to start a recovery spray program which I wrote about originally just on 10 years ago.
On the first of the month mix the following at their label rates per a litre of water, PerKfection Supa for Roses, Magic Botanic Liquid, Mycorrcin & Wallys Neem Tree Oil.
Spray late in the day just before sunset. Then on the 15th of the month repeat spray all the above except for PerKfection Supa.
Only water with non chlorinated water so you don't harm the beneficial soil life including the gardeners best friend, earthworms.
In some cases the health improvement of your roses will be quickly noticed; although some may have the additional problem of inherently poor breeding and always be a sickly specimen (even if they have brilliant flowers)
Lawns; I have had a number of enquiries about lawn problems starting with moss in lawns.
Dont waste your money on sulphate of iron as it only burns the top of the moss which then it quickly comes back.
Instead, jet spray the moss with Moss & Liverwort Control. It kills the moss completely without damaging the grasses.
If there is a spongy feeling when walking on the lawn that indicates a thatch problem. Simply spray the lawn with Thatch Busta to clean up the thatch. (Do the moss killing first, wait about 2 weeks then the Thatch Busta.)
Bare patches in the lawn indicate the root damage caused by grass grubs in the autumn/winter period and these same grubs are now down deep, pupating to emerge shortly as beetles.
They are too deep to do anything about them at this time so dont waste your money on treating. The horse has gone so no need to close the gate.
Another bare patch problem with holes in the lawn indicate that porina caterpillars are at work eating at the base of the grass in the evening (when they are safe from birds) to return to their tunnels before dawn.
A simple spray over the lawn with Wallys Neem Tree Oil will stop the damage and cause them to starve to death. In areas where porina are a problem treat the lawn this way every 3 months.
When the grass grub beetles emerge they are going to eat the foliage of several plants so after you have noticed holes in the leaves go out after dark with a torch and have a look.
If you have beetles then spray then with a mix of Key Pyrethrum and Wallys Neem Tree Oil.
Repeat nightly.
Also a bright light in a window facing the lawn with a trough two thirds full of water with a film of kerosene floating on the top; placed directly under the window pane, will trap lots of beetles (maybe a few Codlin Moths too)
They fly at the bright light hit the pane and fall into the water where the kerosene stops them from escaping.
Feed the beetles to the chickens next morning or flush down the toilet.
By the way if you do not have two or three chickens and you have room for a small hen house and run it is a great investment.
They will convert kitchen scraps and weeds into the best manure around and as a bonus supply you with a few eggs that you will find really tasty and magic for baking.
Not only that you are a bit more self-sufficient and protesting in a small way against the battery hen practices.
Weeds; they certainly grow at this time of the year and as long as you deal to them before they set seed they are not too much of a problem.
In fact weeds are a excellent asset to your garden soils as they have taken up goodness which can be returned to great advantage.
You could pull the weeds out, shake the soil off them and lay them back down on the soil.
That is good but even better; with a sharp knife slice through the weeds just below soil surface.
This leaves the roots in the soil to rot and provide food for the soil life and it does not disrupt the beneficial fungi in the soil.
The foliage can be laid on the soil surface where it will be quickly devoured by the soil life and worms.
Your soil will build up humus quickly if you spray the dying weeds with Mycorrcin.
Doing these things (sure it takes a bit of time but it is so therapeutic and anti-stressful) will overtime make for dream gardens and plants.
Citrus; its a good time to sprinkle Wallys Neem tree Granules underneath the citrus trees from the trunk to the drip line. This will help prevent insect damage.
If you have chook manure give a good sprinkling of that otherwise any animal manure or sheep manure pellets along with blood & bone. Cover with compost. Sprinkle Fruit and Flower Power once a month.
A spray of Wallys Liquid Copper with Raingard added in the spring and autumn will help with any citrus diseases. If the trees are looking a bit sad add Perkfection Supa to the copper spray.
In cases where wet feet have rotted roots treat the area with Terracin to suppress the pathogens and help save the tree.
Three weeks later spray the soil with Mycorrcin.
Note always use non-chlorinated water which is easily achieved with a special carbon bonded filter on your outside tap.
Codlin Moth; apple trees are starting to flower and if in the past you have had codlin moth problems then likely they will be even worse each year.
From the trunk to the drip line sprinkle Wallys Neem Tree Granules.
After fruit set you can wrap some branches with crop cover, taped at the trunk end and the overlap held with clothes pegs.
The moths cant lay their eggs on branches protected by the crop cover.
It would work also on guava moths.
Alternatively hang a tin of treacle in the tree in a onion bag, monitor every couple of days for moths caught which tells you when they are on the wing.
Spray the apples with Wallys Neem tree Oil and Raingard and repeat about every 10 to 14 days till no more activity in your treacle trap.
Pear Slugs; In warmer areas and later in cooler areas the pear slugs will attack pear and plum trees, they eat small holes in the foliage and look like a black slug.
Simply spray the tree with Wallys Liquid Copper to control.
Remember be nice to your gardens by being natural.
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This season is shaping up to be more like what was the common weather patterns of 20 to 40 years ago.
It maybe a bit different dependent where in New Zealand you are but from what I gather from phone conversations; many areas are similar to what we are experiencing in Palmerston North.
Traditionally in New Zealand Labour Weekend was the time for planting out vegetables and flowers in our gardens.
This was not done just because it was a long weekend, the reason was that by about the end of October it would be relatively safe to plant out the tender plants as the possibility of frost was fairly unlikely.
In Northland and some areas you could advance this by about a month but in some southern areas later in November would be a better time.
In areas such as Palmerston North we would only be planting out hardy plants such as brassicas, silverbeet and lettuce prior to Labour Weekend and even so, likely creating micro-climates for the early plantings.
Potatoes could be planted about this time keeping them covered as the shoots poked through the soil to prevent frost damage. They would be ready to harvest for Xmas day.
A row of peas would also be planted as they are hardy plants, once germinated and be ready to harvest fresh peas on Xmas morning.
New potatoes, fresh peas to have with a real luxury (at that time) roast chicken specially breed and fattened for this important event. (Well that is what it used to be like about 40 odd years ago.)
When Labour Weekend arrived we would be geared up to plant out the seeds of corn, beans, beetroot, radish, carrots, parsnips, pumpkins, squash and melons.
Tomato plants along with cucumber and kumera would have been already germinated or sprouted as with the later and planted out often with shelter to start with.
Keen gardeners would always be trying to beat the elements and have some plantings done before Labour Weekend using various methods to warm the soil and protect young plants.
These methods could be used at this time in some areas where it is a slow start to the season.
Planting out of tender plants such as cucumbers before the soil has warmed up and the chill factors have dissipated means they will just sit, shiver and likely turn up their toes and die.
Those of us that are fortunate these days to have glasshouses can get a really early start to the growing season because of the shelter a glasshouse offers and more warmth to heat the growing medium and air.
You can get an early start as long as your plants are kept a little on the dry side so that the cold temperatures at night wont cause them problems .
Plants grown in containers can do well in the glasshouse and then hardened off or sprayed with Vaporgard before planting outdoors when the weather has settled.
Those without glasshouses can also beat the current conditions with a little ingenuity and the desire to do so.
Heating the soil is important to encourage germination, root development and early growth.
For instance; you want to get a early crop of dwarf beans germinated and growing, you make a trench about 10 cm deep and 10cm wide where you want to grow the beans.
Mow your lawns and collect the clippings which you are going to pack into this trench to fill to about 4cm from the top. Trample the grass clippings down and add more to get about a 6cm layer of clippings.
Over this sprinkle Wallys Calcium & Health or soft garden lime.
A dressing of blood and bone, animal manure or sheep manure pellets, Rok Solid and a sprinkling of BioPhos then cover with a good purchased compost made from animal manures not green waste.
The compost will fill up about 2-3cm then place your bean seeds onto this compost and spray them with Magic Botanical Liquid (MBL) and Mycorrcin combined. These natural elements speeds up germination.
Then cover the seeds with more of the compost. The heat from the grass clippings breaking down will warm the compost above nicely and encourage germination and good root development.
Its only a few days and your new beans are sprouting through the compost to face birds pecking them off, plus cats trying to help you with additional manure, cold winds to damage the tender foliage unless you take the next step.
Make some hoops using number 8 wire sufficiently long enough to go into the soil and be about 20cm high in the centre of the row.
Over the hoops you can either place clear plastic film or crop cover. The far side is held in place by putting soil on the cover the ends and the front held down with lengths of timber.
We now have a mini tunnel house which will protect the young plants from the elements, birds and cats.
They can grow quite happy under their protective cover till they reach the cover and then you can fold the cover back on a nice day to start hardening off.
Replace back late in the afternoon and uncover again next morning if its going to be a nice day. Do this 2 or 3 times and then remove completely, rinse with the hose, dry and store for future use.
Crop cover comes 4 metres wide at about $5.00 a metre length. It prevents most insects, has a 15% shade factor and reusable for many seasons.
For taller growing plants such as brassicas use the crop cover over hoops made from rigid alkathene pipe making the hoops about half a metre tall.
Each seedling can be planted putting the same products into a deeper planting hole (a handful or two of grass clippings) If you have access to chook manure place this instead of the grass clippings especially for lettuce. Your plants under the crop cover will grow twice as fast as any planted without this shelter.
Another alternative is 2 litre clear plastic fruit juice containers with the bottom cut off and the cap removed. One of these is placed over each seedling at planting time and pushed into the soil to make steady. In both these cases you are creating what we call a micro-climate.
You like zucchini? Ok take a 45 litre container and half fill with compost not made from green waste, put some grass clippings plus chook manure, Calcium & Health, Rok Solid, Blood & Bone, Bio Boost, and BioPhos then cover to a couple of cm from the rim.
Place your Zucchini plant in the centre and water in with some MBL & Mycorrcin. Put two hoops of No8 wire at right angles to each other to form a cross about 20cm tall in the centre.
Over these place the crop cover and tuck into the inside edge of the container.
Four short 3mm stake can be pushed down at the cardinal points in between the wires at the sides to hold the cover better in place. Later on remove all when weather settles and your zucchini will be close to flowering.
If you dont have any bumble bees around to pollinate the female flowers you need to do this by hand. Check every day for more female flowers and pollinate.
The plant will grow nicely all season in the container, check every so often for insects under the leaves and if found spray under the leaves with Wallys Neem Tree Oil and Key Pyrethrum.
Early produce always gives great satisfaction and achievement for gardeners.
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Now that the weather is improving gardeners will be starting to plant out potatoes and tomato plants.

In most parts of the country we now have another pest to contend with and that is the psyllid from America, Bactericera cockerelli.
This miniature pest first appeared in NZ in 2006 and has being spreading throughout the country ever since. I first came across the problem about 6 years ago in Palmerston North when a late crop of potatoes produced only a pea sized crop.
At the time I thought I had got my food program wrong as the plants had large amounts of foliage and pea size spuds.
At that time my tomato plants were not really affected through in hindsight the later tomatoes were smaller at maturity than the early ones.
Since then the problems the pest causes to my potatoes and tomatoes has become far worse.
I know that some gardeners have actually given up, thrown in the towel and stopped growing tomatoes and potatoes.
Originally Neem Tree Granules and sprays of Wallys Neem Tree Oil with Key Pyrethrum helped but without continual spraying the battle would be lost eventually.
Some gardeners started spraying Diatomaceous earth combined with Neem Oil to lacerate the nymphs and have the anti-feeding & smothering properties of the Neem Oil.
Another method is using Quarantine cloth over the the plants from the outset.
I used this method on a new raised bed over a crop of late potatoes planted in January two years ago and harvested a good crop of undamaged potatoes in May.
The next time I tried the same on an early crop of potatoes on the same raised garden it was only partially successful as there were adult psyllids that appeared inside the cover that must have been in the soil, pupating, to emerge after the crop was underway.
I have even gone to the trouble to build a quarantine house to grow a tamarillo plant and tomato plants in but once again the pests were either already there or I carried them in and the end results was not good.
My largest glasshouse (ex-conservatory) is more successful with regular spraying but I am sure its more to the very high temperatures the house gets to during the day. (Up to 50 degrees C.)
I have placed quarantine cloth over all vents to prevent invasions. A month or so ago I cleared out all plants and containers from the house and then after a few weeks burnt sulphur inside.
Then from the outside looking through the windows, I saw a few adult psyllids beating up against the glass trying to get out from the sulphur fumes.
To know your enemy allows you to work out possibly controls.
From NZ Bio-Security web site comes the following...
The psyllid has three life stages. The life stages are egg, nymph and adult.
Outdoors in North America there are thought to be 4-7 overlapping generations per year.
In greenhouses development and survival can occur from between 15.5°C and 32.2°C, optimum development occurring at 26.6°C. The development threshold is 7°C. In a greenhouse averaging 18°C psyllids will take 33 days to complete the life cycle.
Psyllid adults can mate more than once. The first mating usually occurs 2-3 days after emergence.
Females lay up to 510 eggs over their lifetime. Eggs are laid over a period of about 21 days. Eggs hatch 3-9 days after laying.
Eggs are oval in shape and yellow to orange in colour. The eggs are attached to the leaf by a stalk.
Eggs can be laid on all parts of the leaf and are very obvious when on the leaf edges.
The nymph goes through five scale-like nymphal stages. The psyllid remains a nymph for between 12-21 days. Over this time they change from light yellow to tan to greenish brown in colour.
The nymph will grow to 2mm in length and feed on the underside of the leaf. Wing buds appear in the third instar and become obvious in the fourth and fifth instars. The wing buds distinguish the psyllid from whitefly nymphs.
Adult psyllids are 3-4mm in length with long clear wings. The adult can resemble miniature cicadas. On emerging the adults are light yellow in colour. After 2-3 days they change to brown or green in colour. After 5 days they become banded grey or black and white in colour.
Psyllids feed like aphids. Psyllids insert stylets into the plant, suck the sap and excrete the excess water and sugar as honey dew or as a solid waste (psyllid sugar). Psyllid sugar is the symptom that you are most likely to see on your plants.
Nymphs and possibly adults inject a toxin into the plants when they feed. The toxin causes discoloration of leaves and the plant to become stunted exhibiting ‘psyllid yellow’ and ‘purple top’. Leaf edges upturn and show yellowing or purpling.
The plants internodes shorten and new growth is retarded.
So you can see from this that 1 female lays 500 eggs which can be 500 adults in about a month and if half them are females you then have 125,000; then about a month later 31,250,000 nymphs feeding on your plants.
When the temperatures are ideal about 26 degrees they multiply out of sight and that is what you are fighting.
This season I and a number of other gardeners all who are annoyed about not being able to grow tomatoes like we use to, are trying a new concept; making the cells of the plant too tough for the nymphs to feed.
The logic of this is simple, if the cell wall of the plant cant be penetrated for the nymphs to feed on when they emerge then they will starve to death within hours of hatching, breaking the cycle. The method is best applied from seed stage but likely young plants will be ok but could already be affected when purchasing.
Here is what I am going to do; Drench the mix where I am germinating the seeds with Wallys Silicon & Boron Soil Drench. Keep mix moist with non-chlorinated water.
After germination give the plant a further drench and the spray the foliage with Wallys Silicon Cell Strengthener combined with Wallys Silicon Super Spreader which assists the strengthener to penetrate the foliage. Repeat spray two weekly.
Prior to transplanting, drench the growing area with the soil drench, then plant. Two weeks later drench again and spray the foliage with the combined cell strengthener spray with the spreader added.
No more drenching unless you transplant again and keep the spray program going every 2 weeks till the plant has about reached its mature size then a back up spray once a month.
The idea is to keep silicon going into the plant as it grows, I don't think it would work so well if you were starting with a mature plant.
The silicon sprays are compatible with any other sprays you may like to use such as Perkfection Supa, Magic Botanic Liquid, Mycorrcin, Neem Oil and Key Pyrethrum. Mix only with non-chlorinated water and avoid chemical sprays which will only weaken the plants.
Placing Neem Granules in the planting hole and on the soil surface will also help.
I am hopeful this season to have lots of tomatoes once again, time will tell.
If the psyllids are removed, the plant may start to grow normally.
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Spring is making its presents known with blossoms breaking out on deciduous trees and spring bulbs making a great show.
Roses are coming out of dormancy producing foliage and buds making for expectations of breath taking displays.
I am enjoying this spring because unlike the last few springs that turned out to be false springs; (they were a month of great weather in August then it turned to custard in September) this spring is not pushing winter out so quickly which slows us down about being too keen too quickly.
Talking to a few other older gardeners we agreed that its more like how it used to be some years ago.
The weather still allows us to get a few of the 'waiting to be done jobs' without creating the desire to rush in where fools tend to tread.
Hardy plants and vegetable seedlings can be planted out now as long as you hardened them off first.
This is when you go to a garden centre buy your hardy plants such as lettuce and brassicas, making sure they are a bit on the smaller side rather than big plants, then putting the punnets into a sunny but sheltered situation such as on a porch, for a few days to grow on and get used to the outside world.
A spray of Vaporgard does wonders for them as it will take the stress off when you transplant them.
The more I use crop cover with my early plantings the more I come to appreciate how great it is.
Crop Cover is 4 metres wide and costs only about $5.00 a metre length, it does not fray and so far I have used the same covers for 3 seasons without any sign of aging.
You need some No8 wire hoops for lower growing vegetables (up to about ½ a metre in centre) and some rigid alkathene pipe to make hoops about a metre tall in the centre.
Plant your seedlings, put the crop cover over the hoops, place soil on one side and hold the ends and other side down with lengths of old wood or similar.
This shelters the plants against wind, creates a micro-climate, keeps most insect pests off the plants as well as birds and cats.
The crop cover has only a 15% shade factor which wont upset the seedlings and cause stretching as long as your plants are in a fairly sunny location.
You can use the same crop cover after your fruit trees have set fruit to cocoon wrap them to prevent insect and bird damage as the fruit matures. Great stuff to make gardening easier.
Many gardeners like myself prefer to grow their plants from seeds because we have full control over their development. It allows us to grow a far bigger selection of types and varieties than what we can find in the garden centres.
I also prefer what we call open pollinated seeds because if you raise say cabbages from open pollinated you will not have every plant maturing ready to pick on the same day.
Commercial hybrid seeds will have this feature which is ok if you are selling a paddock of cabbages but not so good in the home garden unless you are going to freeze or preserve.
The range of seed varieties available by mail order in NZ is very good. Do a search on Google for Egmont seeds and Kings Seeds.
For NZ heritage seeds have a look at Koanga Seeds.
To germinate seeds you will have the best success if you use a heat pad.
Put 'Heat Pad' into Google and you will find suitable ones from about $20 upwards. The same pads can be used for pets and home brewing.
Place your heat pad onto a sheet of polystyrene that is a little bigger than the pad. This directs all the heat upwards where your seedling trays or punnets are going to be sitting.
Dont waste your money on seed raising mixes, they are expensive and you are better of to use a natural compost such as Daltons or Oderings.
Half fill your seedling tray with the compost and then with a garden sieve, sieve more compost over the courser material below. Space your seeds out across the top of the sieved material or if you are using cell packs place two seeds into each cell.
Next mix some Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) at 20ml per litre into a small trigger sprayer (you can add Mycorrcin if you have it and if germinating tomato seeds add to the MBL a little of Wallys Silicon & Boron Soil Drench this can be used for other seed types also to advantage)
The silicon is to help strengthen the young plant's cells to reduce problems from the dreaded psyllids.
The MBL really makes a difference to the germination time and the silicon helps strengthen the new seedlings cells, the Mycorrcin gets the beneficial microbes multiplying as well as feeding the newly germinated plants.
Now sieve a little more compost over the seeds to cover them and wet this down nicely with the mixed spray.
I like to set up the heat pad on a bench in the kitchen so that every day I will see it and not forget to mist the punnets with non-chlorinated water. Mist twice a day (or more if need be) to keep the mix moist.
As soon as the first seeds germinate and show their embryo leaves you must move the seedling tray into a 'good light from over head' such as a bench in a glasshouse or outside into a wooden box with a sheet of glass over it. (A small old drawer is perfect)
Your seedlings will not stretch and become weak if you do this. Even on a window sill they will stretch to the glass as the light is not from overhead.
More losses and frustration with seed raising is because the young plants are not given natural overhead light. You have been warned!
Outside in the glasshouse they will need to be checked every day and misted or watered by standing the seed tray in a trough of water for a short time to wet the mix from below.
Dont leave the trays sitting in water instead put back onto the bench. The mix of MBL etc that you used can be used for these drenches.
Talking about seeds I was having a conversation with an elderly lady gardener recently when the topic of curly leaf on stone fruit came up.
I was told by her if you grow a nectarine or peach tree from a stone you are very unlikely to have curly leaf disease on those trees!
In her case 100% of no curly leaf on all the many of stone fruit varieties she has grown from stones over the years. That is very very interesting. Yet she admitted that she had purchase two grafted dwarf nectarines and every season they have a bad case of curly leaf.
I said that growing from stones would take a few years to cropping, The answer was no, only a couple of seasons.
My thoughts on this are; grafted trees are done mainly to limit the size of the tree at maturity.
This is likely similar to putting a choke at the graft, only allowing sufficient nutrients and moisture through from the root system to produce a certain size tree at maturity.
This would make the fruiting part of the tree weaker and more prone to diseases such as curly leaf.
Interesting thought. TO THE LIST OF ARTICLES

Written by Wally Richards.
Firstly I must submit a sincere apology to all my readers over the years for encouraging gardeners to cultivate worms for healthy soil and gardens.
Fortunately our beloved Government has shown me the error of my ways through the new Health and Safety Reform Bill where Worm farming is classified as 'high risk'
I had not considered the implications of worm farming before, one doesn't, does one? You just take some things for granted because you have been doing them for years without considering the harmful consequences to yourself, family and visitors.
On the other hand the good news is that when one enters a paddock full of steers or bulls to collect manure for their gardens and compost heap, you don't need to worry anymore about being trampled to death because its now classified as low risk.
Mushroom hunters/food gatherers will be rejoicing as they gather their mushrooms without having to constantly look over their shoulders.
I have needed to put on my thinking cap to understand how these changes have come about and its to do with the type of worms used for worm farming, namely Tiger Worms.
We used to assume that they were only called Tiger Worms because of their stripes, not so, they are far more dangerous than that. Aptly named after their feline counterpart, roaming jungles endangering all that they come in contact with.
If you don't believe me, you only have to see how quickly Tiger worms can clean up a rotting carcass. Which reminds me of the horrible threat that is often used, 'When they bury you, the worms will get you'.
Hence the reason I presume so many people opt for cremation.
Let us consider some NZ history about this dangerous predictor we know as Tiger Worms (please note that other worms living in the soil are always referred to as earth worms no matter what species they are and there are over 4400 known and named earth worms but only one deadly Tiger Worm)
Originally the easiest place to find these dangerous worms was on farms under cow pads. (That is the lump of manure from cattle's toilets)
These days you are unlikely to find Tiger Worms under cow pads because in their wisdom non organic farmers have killed off the Tiger worms through the use of superphosphate, herbicides and chemical drenches.
(For city folk; the drenches are for killing worms and parasites)
This obviously has made going onto a paddock a lot safer as there are no longer any Tiger worms to be fearful of.
I presume that the steers and the bulls used to be very agitated because of the danger that Tiger Worms represented to them.
That would explain why they would chase you when you went into their paddock.
They were obviously trying to warn you of the danger and shoo you away for your own safety.
If you happened to be a slow runner and got trampled to death it was only because of their desire to save you from a fate worse than death.
I also assume that the Government in their wisdom have noted this and that cattle now are no longer agitated (being locked in a paddock with Tiger Worms) and its now of low risk to spend time with them in their paddock.
(Like the story of Ferdinand the bull, mild as a lamb till he got a bee sting in his rump steak)
For us with worm farms we likely will need to keep records of activities associated with the handling and farming of these dangerous critters.
To protect visitors and children a suitable child proof fence may need to be installed around the worm bins similar to that required around swimming pools.
I am sure the ministry will soon supply gardeners with a set of guide lines for their own safety while doing gardening activities in areas where Tiger worms have been known to be lurking.
If you think this is a joke, think about the regulators that have egg on their face, which reminds me that poultry farming is also very hazardous; especially for the chickens.
And Now for some real danger (Monty Python lead in line) Moss and Liverwort on paths when wet can result in slipping and breaking of bones especially for us senior and should be most respected persons.
Moss in lawns looks unsightly and interferes with the grass growing.
Lichen on trees causes damage to the bark over time.
Liverwort in gardens and on containers can spread and hamper plant growth.
Liverwort of roofs, glasshouses, public paths and fences can be unsightly, damaging and dangerous.
These problems can be easily be fixed with a product called Wallys Moss & Liverwort Control which is mixed at either 50ml per litre of water for moss and liverwort or at 25ml per litre for lichen.
The product cannot be watered on, it must be jetted on with a pump up sprayer having adjusted the nozzle to make a jet. This forces the product into your target moss etc making for a good control.
If applied otherwise by a watering can or lawnboy, the results will be very poor and you have wasted your time and money.
Applied correctly it works a treat, will not harm other plants or lawn and very cost effective if compared to other products that do similar controls.
If using over other plants besides the moss etc it is recommended that you lightly water the foliage of the plants 30 minuets after using the Moss & Liverwort Control.
It takes only that short period of time to get into your liverwort, moss etc and start working.
It takes about 2 weeks or so to see the moss etc turning colour and dying completely.
My own experience has being no re-infection for quite sometime though you may need to do some back up spot spraying for bits you missed initially.
The algae that forms in water containers such as bird baths can be easily cleaned up with just a couple of drops of the product into the water.
Put the drops in then with the hose add some more water which will cause the water to foam activating the kill factors.
Do not use in fish ponds that have fish in them as the product depletes the oxygen in the water as it works which would cause the fish to die.
Remove the fish or supply them with a source of oxygen before treating.
The best way is to remove the fish; treat the pond and then place a air stone in the pond on a air pump to get oxygen back into the water.
Then place one fish into the pond to test if all is ok after an hour or so before returning the rest of the fish.
To keep the pond clean of algae put a wad of straw into a plastic bag with a stone for weight.
Punch lots of little holes into the bag after sealing and toss into the pond. Replace every 6 months.
On large ponds more than one bag maybe needed.
On farm size ponds just throw in a bale or two of straw..
Now to get my protective gear on so I can put the food scraps into my two worm farms.
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When it comes to plant growth many gardeners only think on terms of temperatures rather than daylight hours.
Temperatures do have a bearing on growth as warm soil along with mid range temperatures between 20 to 30 degrees certainly assists in growth but the amount of sunlight a plant receives makes the real difference.
It does not have to be sun light, it can be artificial light that will keep plants growing.
When I was a nurseryman it was common practice to increase the amount of light hours some plants received in the early or late part of the season by having lights in our glasshouses..
For instance in winter we would have a timer to turn on the lights at 6 am for about 2-3 hours and then to turn them on again at 4 pm to run till 9 pm. This along with the natural light during the day increased the light hours from about 8 hours to 15 hours.
The additional 6 hours of light would cause flower buds to form and set plants into flower much earlier than otherwise. So we could (for instance) sell hanging baskets in flower early in spring.
Its the increasing daylight hours at this time that is initiating dormant deciduous roses and trees to open their buds for flowers and leaves.
I was talking to a keen gardener from Twizel this week. (The local paper publishes my weekly gardening articles.) He asked if the articles could be adjusted to the different areas in NZ because of the difference in season times when comparing say Auckland with Invercargill.
Sometimes the articles would not be applicable to Twizel gardeners till a month or two later.
The gardener said the season is much shorter for them when compared to say Auckland.
I suggested that the season was not as short as he thought when you looked at the amount day light hours gardeners have in the southern areas for growing time.
Let me explain; on the 1st of January the sunrises in Auckland at 06.05 and sets at 20.43.
On the same day the sunrises in Invercargill at 05.51 and sets at 21.31 that means they have an extra hour and 2 minutes of sunlight.
In winter on 20th June it not so good for the southern gardeners as in Auckland the sun rises at 07.33 and sets at 17.11.
In Invercargill rises at 08.20 and sets at 16.59 a loss of 1 hour and 9 minuets of sunlight.
This does not matter too much as along with the cold of winter not too much is going to be growing anyway. The extra hour in the middle of summer is vital as it is the growing time.
If you lived in say Alaska where there is 6 months of darkness and 6 months of sunlight you could with 24/7 sunlight grow a plant to maturity in 3 months which would take us 6 months.
All garden writers and gardening books have great difficulties in allowing for the differences in growing from one location to another.
It also comes down to a vast difference in growing within a few metres because of what is called Micro-climates. A gardener with a micro-climate maybe a month ahead of another gardener down the street that does not have a micro-climate.
There is a nursery on the outskirts of Palmerston North with a growing on. holding area for young plants, is in the bottom of a deep old gravel pit.
I asked why one time and was told the stone sides of the pit kept a higher temperature than surrounding area making for better growth plus wind free.
For readers in the South its not all bad, your cold winters are the envy of northern gardeners for reducing bug and disease problems and your added sunlight hour in summer makes for more growth.
In one of the emails I received this week was the following statement:

'I think the fundamental shift in thinking that we have to make is that farming is about harvesting light.
Through the process of photosynthesis we’re going to change light energy into biochemical energy, and that biochemical energy becomes our plants, our animals, the carbon compounds that are made by that process.
We are fundamentally light farmers and when we make that realization, the sky’s the limit.'

A recent study in regards to pesticides and male fertility was recently released which should be of great concern to those using chemical pesticides.
The following is some snippets from the information I received.

Male fertility is declining, and for years researchers have been trying to figure out why.
The numbers may seem shocking, but between 60-80 million couples around the world are having a difficult time conceiving, and there is a likely culprit, especially considering evidence arising from the latest study published at Science Direct.
Titled, “Potential pathways of pesticide action on erectile function – A contributory factor in male infertility,” the study shows that along with heavy metals, radioactivity, and poisonous fumes of organic chemicals, pesticides are largely contributing to erectile dysfunction and the downfall of male fertility.
It is estimated in some studies that as much as 52% of men over 40 are suffering from erectile dysfunction.
How is this possible when in times past such a phenomenon was rare?
The numbers of birth defects we are observing as a planet are also on the rise.
Is this any surprise, though, when Syngenta covers up how their pesticide, Atrazine, was causing frogs to change genders and have serious fertility issues?
Or when Monsanto lies about the true effects of their herbicide, glyphosate, on fertility?
In the Journal of Reproductive Toxicology, titled “Glyphosate impairs male offspring reproductive development by disrupting gonadotropin expression:”
Pesticides are responsible for decreasing testosterone concentration either by inhibiting release of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) or luteinizing hormone (LH) Pesticides are also responsible for “apoptosis of leydig cells and hence decreasing overall concentration testosterone.”
What’s more, pesticides cause increase secretion of hypothalamic corticotrophin-releasing hormone which stimulates the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and cortisol. High cortisol level inhibit gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH).
The result? LH and testosterone decrease.
They effect leydig cells which are responsible for creating testosterone and without proper functioning, low sperm count.
Glyphosate alone decreases testosterone levels by as much as 37%!
Pesticides mess with neurotransmitters that are responsible for creating an erection.
It almost reads as if pesticides were specifically designed to cause infertility.
There was much more to the article but the above I think is sufficient for you to get the picture.
Next time you go outside with your chemical sprays and weed killers think again as it maybe affecting other aspects of your life.
The problem is even worse as these chemicals are in the food we eat if not grown certified Organic or grown by yourself chemical free.
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Calcium (garden lime) is a very basic mineral that is often overlooked by gardeners.
Kiwi gardeners in the past would dig over their vegetable garden at the beginning of winter after the last crops had been harvested. The soil would be turned to the depth of one and a half to two spade depths, bringing the subsoil to the surface and then left in unbroken as mounds for frosts to work on.
Over these clods of soil a good coating of garden lime would be applied making it look like it had snowed after application.
The idea was to bring up from the subsoil minerals to the surface. Weeds would be buried underneath to compost down and the soil would be exposed to the elements as the lime would be washed in.
In spring these clods would break up with a light touch of the hoe turning the garden into a lovely fine tilth of healthy soil. Potatoes, brassicas and other vegetables would be planted to not only feed the family as they were harvested but also to store and preserve surpluses for the coming winter.
Life was hard but very rewarding; it was a different world.
The principals of liming our vegetable gardens has not changed even if this practice is too often neglected these days.
I was talking to a keen gardener on the phone this week who explained to me that he was gardening naturally (without the use of chemicals) and he had felt that the results were not as good as he would have liked.
So last season he gave the garden a good dose of gypsum (calcium & sulphur) and the improvement of the crops was really noticeable. Even his dad (an old, very experienced gardener) remarked that he had finally got things right.
Getting things right can be as simple as giving your gardens a good dose of a fast acting lime.
I say fast acting because not all limes are equal in the time frame that they can be of benefit to the soil.
Some garden limes come from lime stone that can take up to 10 years to become soluble and useful in the soil.
That is like putting your money in the bank and having to wait 10 years to get any interest.
On the other hand soft limes start working for you immediately on application.
Lime sweetens the soil as we say which means it lifts the pH to be more alkaline.
NZ soils over time become more and more acidic because of our rain fall, these days likely even quicker because of pollution.
All our beneficial friends in the soil require calcium to thrive, as one source explained it; calcium is like the coal that feeds the furnace, calcium feeds the soil life making for great gardening.
Acidic soil becomes anaerobic and breeds the microbes you do not want, called pathogens or diseases.
The soil has the same principals as our own bodies, if we become acidic inside we can become sick and diseases such as cancers can thrive. If we keep our internal body alkaline then we will be much better off.
Soil pathogens can be suppressed by using Terracin followed by applications of Mycorrcin (article two weeks ago).
There maybe minerals in the soil that plants need but cant take up because of the lack of calcium.
In plants calcium is part of cell walls and membranes; it controls movement in and out of cells, reacts with waste products and neutralizes toxic materials.
Calcium activates many enzyme systems, it improves microbial activity and it enhances uptake of other nutrients. It is essential for cell division as well as increasing cell density, and improves texture (crunch) of crops.
Calcium is critical for balancing excess nitrogen as well as disease suppression. Having the correct amount of calcium in the soil will require less nitrogen. The calcium will loosen the soil and make more nitrogen available.
Lack of sufficient calcium will result in the following plant disorders; Necrosis at the tips and margins of young leaves, bulb and fruit abnormalities, (such as blossom end rot in tomatoes), deformation of affected leaves, highly branched, short, brown root systems, severe, stunted growth, and general chlorosis.
It must be remembered that these problems are caused by an inadequate supply of calcium to the affected tissues. These deficiencies can even occur when the soil appears to have an adequate presence of calcium.
A new gardening product is now available called Calcium And Health which comprises of a fast acting calcium along with important elements for your health and the health of your plants.
Calcium & Health contains fast attacking lime, magnesium, selenium, boron, sulphur, potash and phosphate in a balanced ratio for your gardens.
Using this new product on your food crops is going to help ensure you obtain these essential elements in your diet.
A number of gardeners are concerned about their bodies not obtaining elements such as selenium from the vegetables and fruit they grow.
By applying Calcium & Health to your gardens will help increase the goodness and nutritional values of your home grown diet.
Used at 60 grams per square M (scoop provided is 60 grams) or as I like to do is place a small amount into the planting hole of seedlings.
Avoid using the 60 grams around acid loving plants as it does increase the pH but about 20 grams will be of benefit without interfering with the pH to affect the plants.
I also recommend you using gypsum and dolomite in your gardens as well; these later two can be used around acid loving plants as they are pH neutral.
The important aspect to remember is that calcium is vitally important to the health of your plants and soil.
Every plant needs calcium to grow. Once fixed, calcium is not mobile in the plant.
It is an important constituent of cell walls and can only be supplied in the xylem sap.
Therefore, if the plant runs out of a supply of calcium, it cannot re-mobilize calcium from older tissues.
If transpiration is reduced for any reason, the calcium supply to growing tissues will rapidly become inadequate.
Without adequate amounts of calcium, plants experience a variety of problems as our gardening friend found out at the beginning of this article.
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There are disease and pest problems that gardeners have to combat each season to ensure that their plants and gardens are productive and looking their best.
The first course of action is to promote healthy soil, teeming with soil life and earthworms; then endeavor to maintain this most desirable situation.
Weather patterns, temperature fluctuations, light levels, droughts and floods all put stress onto our plants making them vulnerable to diseases and pest problems.
Organic gardening people claim that they have less disease and pest problems because their plants grow naturally and are more resistant.
I go along with that because in Nature diseases and pests are primarily there to take out the weak plants making way for the strong healthy ones.
When plants are affected by disease or pests gardeners will try to solve the problems with either natural or chemical remedies. This has been the norm, using prevention or control products that help solve the problems.
How about a different approach? This is by strengthening the plant's cells so that it makes it difficult for diseases to establish and for insect pests to feed?
That is a very interesting alternative to what we have been used to doing in the past.
Recently I have had contact with representatives of an overseas company that has a vast range of natural solutions to agriculture problems.
One of my concerns that we talked about was in regards to the psyllid that attacks tomatoes, potatoes, tamarillos and similar plants.
The psyllids came from Australia where they are not a great problem as in NZ because of the temperatures in Australia. In NZ our milder summer temperatures are ideal for psyllids to bred and that they do in their thousands.
The nymphs on plants are not visible to your naked eye without a magnifying glass of at least x10. Then you may get a real shock at how many are on your tomato plant etc.
What happens is we plant out our tomato plants and they appear to grow nicely, as they gain height and set fruit we start to notice the lower leaves yellowing and falling off.
This progresses up the trunk and then fuzzy molds appear on the trunk and the plant goes into a decline and eventually dies.
I understand that the psyllid has a weak feeding mouth therefore they have difficulties to feed if the plant has tough outer cell walls which they cannot penetrate. All we need to do then is make the cells of our susceptible plants Armour like, making it difficult for them to feed.
To do this we drench the soil with a product rich in silicon and spray the foliage with a combination of two silicon rich products.
The idea is to get silica up through the root system into the plant where it will trans locate to the foliage while we also put silica into the foliage. A two way treatment of silicon.
How it is done: Prior to planting we drench the soil with Wallys Silicon plus Boron Soil Drench used at 10ml per litre of non-chlorinated water to cover one SqM.
Then about 1-2 weeks after planting when say a tomato is starting to show new growth a further drench is applied to the root zone.
The product comes in a 500ml bottle that does 50 SqM
Then we start a foliage spray program using Wally Silicon Cell Strengthener Spray at 5ml per litre of non-chlorinated water (250ml bottle makes 50 litres ) mixed with Wallys Silicon Super Spreader used at just 1mil per 5 litres of non chlorinated water. It comes a 100ml bottle that makes 500 litres of spray, using the 1ml Transfer Pipet supplied to measure.
The pipet is granulated in 0.25 mil steps so just over 0.25of a mil into one litre or 0.5 into 2.5litres of nonchlorinated water.
While our tomato plant is growing upwards a spray of the combined products 2 weekly dropping off to once a month at full height. (Similar for potatoes etc)
Use all the spray mixed up and any left over can be used on preferred plants such as roses etc.
Overseas trials using this cell strengthening program has show positive results in plant protection.
I have been told that in NZ over half of the commercial Tamarillo growers have lost their crops to the psyllid. I know I can no longer grow one successfully.
Up north there is a Tamarillo grower whos plants are without any noticeable damage from psyllids yet another grower not too far away has lost all his plants to the pest.
The reason is the that the unaffected plants are growing in silicon rich soil and they have grown up with the protection of tough cells that the pests cant piece to feed.
This may allow us gardeners to once again grow plants such as tomatoes, potatoes and tamarillos through the summer months successfully.
It may also assist in preventing other problems such as white fly, blights and some other diseases, time will tell as gardeners let me know their results next year.
Another use for this silicon program could be curly leaf on stone fruit trees, I say this because many years ago we had a product that was a sprayable diatomaceous earth (rich in silicon) which a few gardeners used on their stone fruit trees in spring and reported that they had little or no curly leaf.
At the time I could not understand why but now I can understand how it would have helped strengthen the leaf cells and resist the disease.
So the same program of a drench now followed by a second one when leaves start to move (which means the sap is rising). Then spray the leaves later on when flowering is finished.
I am going to grow a couple of Tamarillos from seed using the silicon products this season and see how they go. A third plant will also be grown without the silicon treatment to use as a control.
This plant should eventually die while the other two thrive.
You can also test out these silicon products on other plants you may have problems with such as Buxus plantings. I will be interested to hear how you have got on.
The program provides a number of other benefits as well the armour-like protective layer in the outer cell wall.
Silicon promotes more efficient photosynthesis, increasing sugar and mineral levels (brix) particularly in orchard and vine crops.
Minimises the effects of manganese, aluminium and sodium toxicities.
Improves plant growth, lifting yields and quality.
Improves pollination and increases pollen fertility.
Strengthening cells with silicon is certainly a very different and interesting way of overcoming some gardening problems.
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Soils contain diverse communities of microscopic organisms some of which (pathogens) are capable of damaging plants.
Pathogens may grow in the soil feeding on the rotting roots of a host plant say for instance a tomato plant. These pathogens will be fairly specific in regards to their preferred host plant.
Thus if you plant a new tomato plant in the area where previously one died there is a reasonable chance that the pathogens present in the soil will attack and damage the new tomato plant.
If we were to plant say a lettuce instead then it is fairly unlikely that the lettuce would be affected by those pathogens that like tomatoes and members of that family of plants.
These specialised interactions between soil organisms and plants can kill seedlings and even adult trees. Some organisms target young plants but others only appear as problems in later stages of the plants life.
Then there are pathogens that are able to cause disease problems in many different plant species.
The soil organisms that have the potential to be plant pathogens include fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes and protozoa.
Some pathogens that attack leaves, stems of plants survive in the soil at various stages of their life cycles. Therefore, a soil phase of a plant pathogen may be important, even if the organism does not infect roots.
In spite of the potential for severe damage to be inflicted on plants by soil pathogens, most plants do not display serious symptoms of disease.
Disease usually occurs when conditions are particularly unfavorable, or when a soil pathogen is accidentally introduced into an area where a highly susceptible plant species is growing.
Because of the intensive chemical induced production of agriculture, horticulture or forestry this increases the opportunities for diseases to develop compared with the undisturbed natural ecosystems. Also by planting of similar plant species together in monoculture increases the probability of a disease outbreak. (A glasshouse full of tomatoes for instance)
In contrast, the damage caused by the fungus Phytophthora cinnamomi to many different plant species, in diverse natural ecosystems, demonstrates the damage that can be caused by a pathogen that infects the roots of many unrelated plants.
The control of pathogens and prevention of plant disease is a natural soil biological process.
Indeed, in most situations, plant disease is not strongly evident even when potentially pathogenic fungi are present in a soil.
In Nature soil pathogens are normally held at bay due to the beneficial microbes.
Where on the other hand chemical agriculture practices creates soil conditions and a high density of susceptible roots that encourages the multiplication of pathogens.
Once potentially damaging organisms become present in high numbers in a soil, they may be difficult to eradicate. Management practices are required that create conditions in the soil that are not favorable to pathogens so that their growth is limited and therefore, disease it restricted.
Owners of glasshouses become concerned about the build up of disease in their glasshouse soils when tomatoes and similar crops are planted year after year.
In the past there was chemicals such as Basamid that we could use to sterilise the soil. That product has been banned. Besides Basamid was non-selective and it destroyed the good with the bad and having no beneficial microbes to control the pathogens one could find disease problems quickly building up in the soil.
Another common problem is a row of shrubs or trees are planted as a hedge or screen, they grow nicely and then one day a plant in the row becomes sick looking and dies, followed by the plant next to it and so on. You may put in plant replacements but they also die. You have soil pathogens that will kill the whole row in time and be impossible to plant that species there again.
Now we have a natural answer for the home gardener called Terracin.
Terracin uses a combination of a Bacillius amyloliquefaciens BS-1b a beneficial soil microbe and the enzymes, bacteriocins, secondary metabolites and signal molecules from the fermentation of Enteroccocus faecium to suppress a broad range of fungal pathogens.
Terracin works fast. Firstly the B amyloliquefaciens directly attack the pathogens by excreting strong antimicrobial substances that inhibit the pathogens growth.
The enzymes and bacteriocins from the fermentation extract weaken the pathogen by break down its outer cell walls.
The signal molecules and secondary metabolites then activate the beneficial soil microbes that produce antimicrobial substances which act to further suppress the pathogens.
As the populations of beneficial microbes rise they suppress pathogens by simply out competing them for food. (That was simple wasn't it?)
Once the pathogens have been suppressed it is important to re-establish a healthy population of beneficial microbes so 3 weeks after using Terracin you drench the area with Mycorrcin.
It is also important not to water the area with Chlorinated water (Put a 10 micron Carbon Bonded filter on your tap) as chlorine just kills the microbes and you waste your time and money.
To use Terracin either mix 20ml into 1 litre of non-chlorinated water and spray over 10SqM.
Alternative is mix 2ml of Terracin into 1 litre of non-chlorinated water and water over 1 SqM of soil.
As we stated earlier there maybe pathogens in your soil because of past management (chemicals, herbicides and manmade fertilisers) and even if your vegetables or roses appear to be growing happily a application of Terracin followed up by the Mycorrcin could improve your plants noticeably.
If no difference afterwards you will be comfortable in the knowledge that your gardening methods are working with Nature not against it.
The applications of Terracin can be over or around existing plants with benefits to them.
It always amazes me that after removing the access to harmful chemicals such as Basamid that our ecological scientists can come up with a perfect solution working in accord with Nature.
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A reader asked me recently if I could write an article on Frosts asking what good or what harm they do; so lets have a wee look at old Jack Frost.
By the way Jack Frost is the personification of frost, ice, snow, sleet, and freezing cold weather, a variant of Old Man Winter, held responsible for frosty weather, likely derived from Saxon times.
In days past, when quarter acres ruled and people grew most of their vegetables; then in autumn or early winter all bare gardens would be dug over to the depth of one to one & a half shade depths, leaving the exposed clods to the elements and even more so for the frosts.
Garden Lime would be sprinkled over the exposed soil and left.
The combination of the lime and frosts would alter the structure of the heavy soil which in spring would easily break down into a nice fine tilth to plant in.
In the process soil pests such as grass grub larva would be exposed for hungry winter birds to feed on and pathogens would be killed with the hard frosts.
When digging the traditional vegetable garden or turning over an existing one a trench a couple of spade depths would be left around the perimeter.
This greatly assisted drainage of the vegetable patch as water would drain into the ditch to be evaporated by sun and wind.
Because animal manures, chicken manure and compost was incorporated into the vegetable gardens, worm populations were high along with all the beneficial microbes and fungi.
Vegetables then were very healthy and no sprays were used or needed.
I have often ask at the gardening talks I give if people can remember their parents or grandparent gardeners using sprays or not. Often the people look a bit stunned as the penny drops and they reply no they didn't.
Then they realise that they in comparison do a lot of spraying.
The dug gardens are not so common now days instead opting for no-dig gardens or even better raised gardens.
When we have good hard frosts the diseases and pest insects that are harboring over, waiting for better conditions, they can be seriously knocked back because of the frosts.
The harder and colder the conditions will mean less problems in the spring/summer period.
The down side to frosts is the damage that can occur to tender plants and for areas that are not used to frosts such as Tauranga and Auckland it has come as a surprise to them this winter to have a few frosts.
Cities are less prone to frosts these days than say 50 years ago.
The reason would be more pollution plus more heat from houses, street lights and vehicles.
In Palmerston North we have very mild frosts in winter and some years none at all because of the above factors.
Outside of the city, not too far down the road, we can see heavy frosts when the conditions are suitable.
Frosts need still air and a cloudless sky to happen. You will not get a frost settling when its windy, raining or overcast. Which can catch some gardeners out as it can be raining when you go to bed and during the night it clears and a frost settles.
A good reason to have your tender plants protected with Vaporgard so you don't get caught out.
The old digging over of the vegetable garden leaving the sods exposed to frosts certainly reduced greatly pathogens in the soil making for far less diseases in the summer.
With no-dig gardens, raised gardens and soil growing in glasshouses means this event does not happen and fungal pathogens can become a problem.
Soon to be released is a new natural product which is a soil biocide when used as a drench will break down the outer cell walls of pathogens and activate beneficial soil microbes that produce antimicrobial substances which further suppress the pathogens.
Then as the populations of beneficial microbes rise they suppress pathogens by simply out competing them for their food.
A very simple, effective method, working with Nature instead of what some used to do, using chemicals (now banned) that would kill the beneficial's as well as the pathogens.
One important aspect of course is not using chlorinated water on gardens as it kills the beneficial microbes often leaving the pathogens as the soil becomes anaerobic.
Not good. I will write more about this biocide product soon so for those that need to get rid of diseases out of the gardens and glasshouses can do so before the spring.
On the subject of climate change and the Co2 aspect I received this week an email which will likely be of interest to readers and should be of interest to farmers, agriculturists and the government (if they would listen to common sense)
Here it is: As experts at the Potsdam Institute for Climate the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis have pointed out, we will need “breakthroughs in so-called ‘carbon negative’ technologies.” And one of those “breakthroughs” is right under our feet:
Call it the photosynthesis option: because plants inhale carbon dioxide and store it in their roots, stems, and leaves, one can remove carbon from the atmosphere by growing trees, planting cover crops, burying charred plant materials underground, and other kindred methods.
In effect, carbon negative technologies can turn back the clock on global warming, making the aforementioned descent from the 2 C degrees overshoot to the 1.5 C goal later in this century theoretically possible.
How do we exercise the “photosynthesis option?” By replacing the current chemical-intensive industrial agriculture system with an organic, regenerative alternative.
In other words, every choice you make when it comes to the food on your plate, could help avert a climate disaster. End
See all things can be fairly simple when you take money and greed out of the equation.
If we buy organic, grow naturally without soil disturbance we can, with the help of plants, sequest billions of tons of carbon into the soil where it does good.
I have seen reports that what they call conventional agriculture practices (Chemicals, tillage, ploughing, digging not to mention burn off of bush and clearing of rain forests) has released much more C02 than all the burning of fossil fuels over the years.
If our chemical-intensive food chain was replaced with a natural, regenerative alternative, peoples health would greatly improve, great savings on our health bill.
Also as its been proved, healthy food makes happy people and children, better learning, better society and the only negative aspect would be the bottom lines of numerous companies.
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There are a number of things that are vital to a healthy plant besides sunlight, food and water and a healthy ‘Soil Food Web’. That is those micro-organisms and beneficial fungi which not only live in the soil but also ‘in’ and ‘surrounding’ a plant.
Earthworms are also vital to healthy soil and plants; if there are no earthworms or few in number, you have a problem and you cannot hope to have a really healthy garden (soil) till you have good worm populations.
I talk about this and the following in relation to food crops but the same principals apply to having great roses also.
Plant Diseases are natural and are the garbage removers in nature, assisting in the quicker decomposing of plant material that has done its time, converting it back to organic food for other plants to live on.
In nature we talk about the ‘survival of the fittest’. Plants that become weakened for some reason are very susceptible to diseases.
Pests also tend to hone-in on weaker plants rather than on the strong healthy ones. Gardens of my childhood, 50 odd years ago, were brimming with life, plants & roses were very, very healthy, no chemical sprays were used (there was no need for them)
It was impossible to put a spade into the garden without cutting a few worms in half.
The soil we had in those days was feed compost made from chook manure (everyone had a few chooks), and organic wastes. Other animal manures would be sort after along with sea weed.
All of these feed the soil life and worms, so plants in gardens, radiated health.
Vegetables and fruit grown were also brimming with health and contributed to a much healthier society than we see today. So what went wrong? We introduced chemically made fertilisers into the gardens and these fertilisers, knocked back the soil life including the worms.
Plants lost their healthy glow and diseases began to appear. So problems evolved, which made the chemical companies smile as they created new chemical sprays to solve the problems.
Fungicides may control some diseases but they also kill the beneficial fungi that the plants need for good health! New chemical poisons where found for killing the insects which were attacking our unhealthy plants.
These poisons were also killing the soil life and after a time the sprays (DDT, Arsenic of Lead etc) were found to be very dangerous to ourselves as well.
So they were banned. To be replaced by what was considered safer poisons, many of which have also been banned.
Most of the now fewer chemicals available to the home gardener currently, are likely to be banned also in time to come, as they also prove too dangerous to the environment and our health.(many have been already banned in some countries)
Herbicides also knock back soil life and can have long term residues. Weed killers containing Glyphosate is the most used chemical in agriculture with millions of tons of it going into the planet, worldwide each year.
Besides the damage it does to the soil over the long term it has been certified as a probable carcinogenic by the World Health Organisation.
Well that is the back ground to what has happened to our gardens and why our roses and other plants are not healthy as they should be.
What can you do to grow healthy roses and other plants? Firstly stop using chemical fertilisers and sprays. Purchase instead organic compost and mulches from your garden centre.
Look for the ones that contain animal manures and not made from green wastes as roses die if given compost made from herbicide effected composts.
.Sheep manure pellets was shown by consumer to the best all round garden fertiliser in trials they did a several years ago.
Other products that are beneficial to the soil include, blood and bone, sea weeds, Gypsum, Garden Lime, dolomite and any animal manures.
These will help feed the soil life and restore things as nature intended.
You can also fed the soil life with products such as Magic Botanic Liquid & Mycorrcin which assists in repairing the damage done by chemicals.
I was told by a gardener that had sprayed one group of roses with these two products for a season.
In autumn the roses thus treated were in flower, new buds coming, no sign of diseases and looking very healthy. Another group of roses not so treated were finished for the season, covered in black spot and rust and not looking happy.
The gardener also told me the treated ones all had produced scents that he had not noticed before as they were not scented type roses.
We need to build up the health of the soil and as this can take a season or two, during this time we need to protect our plants from diseases and pests without using chemical solutions that are going to affect the soil life. Pests can be controlled with Neem Tree Oil.
Neem Oil also tends to reduce the problem of black spot. Diseases such as rust, black spot, powdery mildew and botrytis are controlled by Sulphur sprays, not copper.
Copper is best for blights, downy mildew and bacterial diseases along with fruit tree’s diseases. Thus a film of Sulphur over the foliage will give good external protection. Used every 14 days with Raingard added. (The alternative is sprays of potassium permanganate or Condys Crystals)
For internal protection you can boost the plant’s immune system with Perkfection Supa. Used once a month only. If your garden lacks a good number of worms, then you need to get worms going again and the best way to do this is buy in bags of worms.
Put some into a good worm farm and seed the rest into the garden. You do this by making a hole and placing shredded wet newspaper and kitchen scrapes into the hole. Place a handful of worms into the hole then cover with wet paper and compost.
Do this in each major garden such as rose bed and vegetable gardens. To keep the worms happy and multiplying, mulch gardens a couple of times a year with wet newspapers covered with animal based compost or mulch.
It is also important for both worms and soil life not to water your gardens with chlorinated tap water. Put a filter (10 micron carbon bonded) to remove the chemical from the water.
Roses also need a certain amount of magnesium, potassium and trace elements. These are easiest to supply as Rok Solid plus Fruit and Flower Power. The small amounts required of these will not affect the soil life and be of benefit to your roses.
The reward would be perfect shaped roses, lush green foliage a mild to heady perfume.
A good healthy program would be a two weekly spray of Mycorrcin, MBL & Wallys Neem Tree Oil.
Every second spray or once a month add Perkfection Supa to the above at the lessor spray rate on the label.
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I remember as a kid growing up on a quarter acre section in Elizabeth Street Palmerston North right next to the Standard Brewery.
We had two big vegetable gardens, a hen house with a run, a number of fruit trees and berry bushes, in all sufficient to provide some food for every meal.
We were poor and had borders in the spare bedrooms and my mother would go out and do cleaning jobs to make ends met. My grandfather died when I was 9 months old (I remember the morning he passed)
His wife, my grandmother, passed when I was 5 years old. I have an excellent memory of that house and those times and the stories that were told on an evening, often about times gone by.
My mum and grandparents lived through two world wars and the great depression of the 30's when my grandparents and their 13 sons and daughters had to walk off their farm and start again.
Food security was the number one priority in their lives and for very good reason, they needed to be as self sufficient as possible and have as much food available to last as long as need be.
That was 65 years ago and things have certainly changed, there is not the large sections like there used to be with chickens and ample vegetables growing all year round.
When times get tough, more people start to garden, to try and save some money but too many people depend on the Supermarket for their day to day needs.
When the Supermarkets are not going to be open for a day because of statuary holidays and they cant trade, causes an incredible number of people to stock up just before. You would think that the end of the world had been announced.
Which means in my mind there are a lot of people out there that are very vulnerable in regards to food security.
If in the event of a natural disaster most people would only have sufficient supplies for a couple of days or so. Disasters can happen at any time without warning and because they dont happen much in NZ many people dont worry about the possibility.
There are other types of disasters such as a great depression which you can see possibly coming if you look for the signs.
Currently there are ample signs of world wide problems which could result in you and your family not having or being able to obtain food for your table.
Unfortunately the news media in NZ only skirt around or not even mention what is really happening around the world so many people live in a false state of bliss.
Not all I have found. Through numerous conversations with gardeners from all over NZ every week, many of these people are switched on and do have grave fears of what may lay around the corner.
They have done as much as they can to offset the problem of food on the table.
Vegetable gardens in the ground or even better on raise gardens and containers, stocks of non-perishable food such as caned food, preserves, flour, rice and pasta.
Remember, gardening is seasonal, spring and summer are the main growing and cropping times, where less vegetables can be grown through the winter.
Your food security needs to have ample stored food to last in between seasons.
Water is also another important aspect as families in California are quickly finding out, you need to have a good supply of water on hand for yourself and for your gardens and a means of collecting and storing rain water.
If you have pets you need also to have ample non-perishable food & water for them also.
I have known in the past, older Chinese people using all the soil area around their houses to grow food. Likely they had known hardship in their past and they did their best to have food security.
In an email recently from a farmer friend there was a lot of information about lawns and why they are a waste of time and money. An extract from the article said;
'The real kicker is that the area we give over to lawns is often the best area we could have used to grow food. When we talk about lawns, we're usually talking about the sunniest and flattest spots on the property. And it's wasted. Turf grass doesn't feed anyone - not a soul.
It doesn't feed the birds. It doesn't feed the bees or the butterflies. And it certainly doesn't feed your family. So, the question has to be asked... why are we still doing this? I can't even imagine a good answer to that question.'
I beg to differ in regards to the 'you cant eat grass' because you can as some desperate people have found out in dire times. A few cabbages or lettuce taste a lot better.
In times of need or to be prepared for possible problems, turning part of your back lawn into garden makes a lot of sense to me.
By using my idea of raised gardens made out of roofing iron sitting on their long sides held together with painted 100 x 100 fence posts; about a metre wide and as long as you like.
These can sit on the lawn with the long side facing in a northerly direction with several sheets of cardboard at the bottom laid on top of the old grass.
The bottom half is filled with organic waste like lawn clippings, prunings, old compost or potting mix, fallen leaves, untreated sawdust, etc. Over this you can once again put a cover of cardboard and then chook manure or any other animal manure and finished off with purchased compost (because its weed free).
There should be a gap of 20cm or more from the top of the fill to the top rim of the iron.
The sun on the northern side of the raised garden heats the growing medium, the gap between the top of the garden and the growing medium creates a micro-climate.
Wind passes over the garden and plants grow about 3 times faster and better than if they were planted out in the open. Having the wooden posts (painted to seal in the chemicals) means you can stretch either bird netting or crop cover over the garden to prevent bird and cat damage. (A protruding nail in each post) If you want to use crop cover in the summer to prevent insects getting to the plants then place some hoops in the garden and use the crop cover over them.
Ideal for all types of low growing vegetables. Tall growing such as corn and tomatoes you can start them off under crop cover and then later on just remove the cover so they can grow to full height.
Vegetables that can take a lot of room such as zucchini should be planted in 20 plus litre containers.
Pumpkins and squash can be grown at one end of a raised garden and then trailed out from the garden.
Dwarf beans will do well in a raised garden where climbing beans are best against a sunny fence.
One very important thing to remember make sure any raised garden is more than one metre away from the drip line of any tree, shrub or vine.
The further away the better; the reason is that the tree will find that there is a wonderful source of food in the raised garden and send millions of fibrous feeder roots into the garden and ruining it.
Otherwise raised gardens are a tremendous investment against any future shocks.
If you cant build a raise garden because there is no room then garden in containers and stock up with non perishable foods.
Beside the more produce you can grow naturally the healthier your family will be.
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Those of us that have had a lot rain in recent times may have problems in their gardens with wet soil and root damage.
Many plants do not like what we call wet feet; this is caused by excess water around the root zone.
On the other hand plants we call Bog Plants love sitting in water and will suffer if it becomes too dry.
Most semi-tropic plants hate wet feet which makes it colder for them in winter and more often than not they will die.
A lot of plants other than bog plants (which have adjusted to wet feet) need a reasonable amount of oxygen in their root zone and when saturated with water the oxygen goes and rots set in.
Citrus trees hate wet feet and will suffer and even die during wet times if their root systems are sitting in water for too long.
I was sent a photo this week of several citrus tree leaves that were curling back on themselves asking what is the problem?
Talking to the gardener I was told that they had a number of citrus trees in a grove planted on flat land, sunny situation with shelter from wind.
An ideal situation. Only one tree was badly effected with the curling leaves and leaf drop. That tree was at one end of the grove. Citrus trees close by, nearest to the affected tree were starting to show signs of the same problem where trees further away were apparently good as gold.
I knew the answer to the problem as soon as I saw the picture of the leaves but instead of telling the gardener straight off, I like to build a picture in my mind's eye as to what the total situation is and then offer solutions.
My next question was about drainage of the area which I was told was fairly good but they had recently a lot of rain.
Next question, was there any mulches under the trees?
Unfortunately the answer was yes.
Mulches are a great way to retain moisture levels in the soil during dry times but this becomes a big disadvantage during wet times.
The soil cant breathe, moisture is trapped, roots rot.
I remember a few years ago one gardener contacted me in winter to ask about her very expensive ornamentals that she had planted on a slope on their property.
The problem was that the gardener had placed old carpets down as a mulch to conserve moisture in the summer on the slope. Winter comes, rain falls, ground gets soaked, water cant evaporate because of carpet, roots rot, expensive ornamentals dead.
At the previous property where I lived in winter the back yard would be under water in some areas for weeks. Heavy clay soil and no drainage. It was so bad when I first moved in that a number of native plants would died in winter.
To solve the problem the first thing I did was plant a twisted willow in the far corner to soak up water.
A few cabbage trees later on and then as they matured other hardy plants were able to survive.
I also laid a length of Nova pipe which drained into a sump hole, a submersible pump was put in to suck up water and send it down into the storm water.
Even with all this there would be days or even weeks where surface water would pond a few inches deep.
In the middle of this ponding area I grew citrus trees in containers partly buried in the ground.
Large holes were drilled into the sides and base so the roots could penetrate out into the surrounding soil but most of the roots were in compost above the water level.
Result was excellent citrus trees that were happy in the middle of a lake of water.
If you have citrus or other plants where the leaves are curling and dropping then likely they are in water soaked soil and the roots are rotting.
It could be that the trees have been there for years and no problems in the past but things can change.
More rainfall than normal soaking the soil for longer periods of time does not help.
Maybe a water course has changed because something in the area has changed such as a concrete path has been put in or maybe a neighbour has constructed a garage, it does not take much to change a water course and make an area wetter than in the past.
With climate changes areas prone to heavier rain falls will need to look at long term solutions such as under ground drainage systems and soak holes.
Talking about climate change I read an interesting article about the hundreds of undersea volcanoes that are known of and that about a third of these are currently active, releasing enormous amounts of Co2, heating the oceans and melting polar ice thus greatly affecting climate.
Apparently shifts of gulf streams in the oceans can greatly influence global weather patterns causing problems such as years of drought in California.
An interesting question arises as to what is a 20 million dollar house worth when you cant flush the toilets or get water out of the taps? A new phase is called Drought Refugees.
If your citrus (or other plants) are suffering from wet feet, firstly ensure that any mulch is removed.
Next; just outside of the drip line dig a trench about one and a half spade depth and remove the soil from the area. It is an old method that causes the water from the saturated soil to move into the trench where it will evaporate quicker through sun and wind.
Next spray the foliage with Perkfection Supa at the full strength rate and a month later at the lessor rate for another 3-4 months. This product will help the tree to overcome the root rot problems if it has not gone beyond the point of no return.
For those poor people that have had their properties flooded you will likely have a lot of river silt in and around your gardens. River silt will enhance your soil as it is rich in minerals etc. A good example of this is the annual flooding of the Nile and the crops they obtain afterwards.
One gardener asked about problems of sewage and vegetables and what they should do as someone said they should be pulled out. I dont see why as sewage is great manure and I know of ample people in the past that clean out their septic tanks onto their gardens to get great crops.
The only caution is to wash produce well after harvesting and to also wear latex gloves when working in the gardens and to wash well afterwards.
In India I have heard when there are floods and health risks, people cover their legs with Neem Oil before wading in contaminated water. Apparently that keeps them safe from infection.
Anyway; keep dry and warm, spring is on the way.
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All too often I am asked questions about problems that have already occurred and its to late to prevent them. Its like the old saying, closing the gate after the horse has gone.
Unless you are onto it, you will miss the vital times when your efforts will be worthwhile and make a difference for that season.
We are now into July; the middle of winter and if patterns follow the past few seasons we are likely to see some good weather in August which will mean, (with the extending day light hours) things will start moving.
The following are situations for gardeners that have these problems from the past. Here is what I believe to be the best ways to handle them.
If you read my article last week about making the soil healthy then apply that also to the following problems because healthy soil will make for healthy plants given time and in most cases.
Plants trees etc that do not become healthy and have a weak constitution, likely through breeding, should after a few seasons of effort be disposed of and replaced with another specimen that can be healthy.
Curly leaf is a disease on stone fruit trees which mainly effects nectarines and peaches.
The spores from the previous season are sitting waiting for the leaves to form and the right conditions to infect. The worse the damage was last spring will lead to even more damage this spring unless you intervene. If the damage is severe enough, not only will you not have any crop but you can also lose the tree.
The trees and the ground under them should be sprayed with Lime Sulphur now.
Leave for about two weeks and spray again with potassium permanganate at ¾ a teaspoon into a litre of water with 3 tablespoons of Ocean Solids, dissolved and then added to a further 10 litres of water.
Spray the whole tree and drench the soil underneath from trunk to beyond the drip line.
What we are trying to do here is kill as many spores of the disease as possible that are on the tree and in the soil under the tree.
Some years ago I suggested scattering Ocean Solids under the trees before they start to move in the spring, the information on this came from Sea90 for those familiar with that method.
I have heard some positive feed back from gardeners that have done this and they also said that if any damage starts to appear on the foliage they spread some more Ocean Solids.
Likely the sodium chloride neutralizes the spores as well as increasing the mineral uptake of the tree.
The traditional method of control is to spray the tree, once the leaves start to appear, this is done every 7 to 10 days with Wallys Liquid Copper and Raingard.
The idea here is to keep a film of copper over the leaves as they are growing to kill the spores when they land on the leaves. This spray program is repeated for about 2 months. The Raingard is very important because without it the copper would wash off in rain and that is when the disease spores strike.
I have also suggested the use of Vaporgard to be sprayed over and under the foliage once a good amount of leaves have appeared without damage. The film is also a barrier to the spores and will assist the tree to produce more energy from sunlight helping to retain a good crop of fruit.
Talking about fruit and food I noted this week in America that a lot of people have become very concerned about what is in their food chain.
This includes Artificial colors and flavors. Pesticides. Preservatives. High-fructose corn syrup. Growth hormones. Antibiotics. Gluten. Genetically modified organisms.
Their concerns have meant that they are much more careful about the food and drinks they buy and where they buy it from.
An analysis by Moskow found that the top 25 U.S. food and beverage companies have lost an equivalent of $18 billion in market share since 2009.
Major packaged-food companies lost $4 billion in market share alone last year, as shoppers swerved to fresh and organic alternatives. That is voting with your feet and wallets.
Growing your own fruit and vegetables naturally is the answer to better health.
Codlin moth another annoying pest that spoils apples, walnuts and sometimes pears.
At this time the codlin are in cocoons, pupating waiting for the right time to emerge to mate, lay their eggs and damage your apples.
Where they are hiding is in nooks and crannies on the tree, but mainly in the soil under the tree.
What you could do at this time if you had a few chickens is netting off the area under the tree, rake the soil and put your hens in there to gobble up any cocoons they scratch out.
Failing that you could try drenching the area with Wallys 3 in 1 for lawns. The eucalyptus and tea tree oils in the product takes out soil insects and hopefully the cocoons as well.
Next at end of July sprinkle Wally Neem Tree Granules under the tree from trunk to drip line.
What I think this does is create a smell from the granules breaking down that prevents the moths when they emerge to detect the apple tree above them.
They sit there waiting for the tree to come along and hopefully will be eaten by birds.
The pests are not going to emerge till the apples have set on the tree after flowering and the weather conditions are congenial.
Once the flowering has finished you can put a can with treacle in an onion bag and hang it in the tree.
This will attract the male moths, by monitoring the trap you will know when they are on the wing.
Then you can start spraying with Wallys Neem Tree Oil and Raingard every 10 to 14 days.
You dont need to spray the tree just the apples so they have a coating of oil on them when the grubs take their first bite. Once activity stops in your trap you can stop spraying.
Another alternative I discovered last season was to use crop cover wrapped around the fruiting branches and pegged with clothes pegs.
It can be taped on at the beginning of a branch, one layer only which allows sufficient light to leaves and fruit and I found not only did it keep birds from pecking the fruit it also prevented any codlin moth damage.
Psyllids on potatoes, tomatoes, tamarillos and some other plants.
A real problem pest which ideally with potatoes you plant the seed potatoes as soon as possible, protect them from frost by mounding up over foliage then once this has become impractical then use crop cover over hoops to give frost protection.
Harvest the crop about Labour Weekend or as soon as mature.
In early and out as soon as mature is easy solution. If you want a late planting use the special Quarantine cloth over the crop to prevent the psyllids getting in.
Tomatoes and other plants are a problem and sprays of Neem Tree Oil and diatomaceous earth can certainly help but there is another possibility that I am currently working on with an overseas company that has a big range of natural products.
The idea is; to strengthen the plant's cells so that the weak piercing-sucking mouth parts of the psyllids have difficulties piercing the strong cells of the plant and therefore cant feed and die.
This currently is work in progress, as they say and will let you know further as planting time approaches.
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We have reached that time of the year when the new gardening year begins.
As from the 22nd the daylight hours will start to slowly extend and it does not take long for plants to respond and start a new year of the four seasons.
If your living time clock is like mine, it will be no time at all before we are talking about the longest day of the year along with Xmas and hopefully some sort of summer.
Now is a good time to reflect on the past 12 months and dependent where you are in NZ, would have determined how the seasons were for you and your garden.
Likely like myself you would have had successes and instances which were not so successful. (Gardeners never have failures just challenges)
We can learn by our challenges and work out ways to improve or circumvent them and in the worst case scenario grow a different species. (because you didn't really like the one that wouldn't preform anyway)
We are always learning and the more experiences that we have makes us not only wiser but also bestows us with greater feelings of accomplishment. Ready to start a new gardening year?
Birds, our feathered friends of which I have a lot around because I have chickens that get feed morning and night, bringing dozens of sparrows to the chicken run around their feed time in the afternoon.
So I sprinkle a good amount of wheat by the run for the sparrows so they will survive another night.
In the mornings on the other side of the property a third of a loaf of bread is put out for the breakfast of the sparrows, black birds and starlings. They are always patiently waiting on the fences and surrounding trees and buildings for these events.
I live in the vain hope that my efforts will be rewarded by them eating all the insect pests that attack my plants. More often than not I find that they prefer to dig up my raised gardens for the multitude of worms I have. When planting young seedlings they rip them out as obviously they become an obstetrical in the birds hunt for protein.
Gardens often ask me the question about holes in their silverbeet, brassicas and lettuce plants.
They have sprayed and put poison baits down for slugs and snails to no avail.
The reason is that the birds are eating the foliage because they are hungry.
Flowers also are eaten and especially blue ones of your polyanthus..
The proof of this was brought home to me recently where I have a crop of brassicas planted a few months back and protected with crop cover against caterpillars (white butterfly) and woolly aphids.
Last week I thought the plants were not only safe now but could do with a bit more light to reach maturity, so removed the crop cover. At that time the leaves were perfect not a hole in them.
Since then holes have appeared as the birds are able to get to and eat the foliage.
That crop cover is a great asset to your garden, it keeps most insects off the plants along with birds and cats.
Last spring after my two upright apple trees set their crop of apples I wrapped the crop cover around them taping it at the bottom around the trunk and used clothes pegs to secure the overlap and top.
As it gives a 15% shade factor it did not effect unduly the amount of sunlight to the foliage. The apples grew well, no codlin moth damage (had been in previous) and when the apples matured the bids missed out. I did similar with my other fruit trees as the fruit was reaching maturity and had no bird damage.
I find bird netting catches, hard to put over a tree and they still can do damage; but no way with crop cover. My trees are easy to do as they are in 100 litre containers but the same principle could be used on a few of the lower branches of large trees. Wrapping a few branches with the fruit inside a white cocoon made from crop cover.
Its 4 metres wide and sells for about $5 a metre length. Good for years of use.
Garlic and shallots should be going into your gardens now if you haven't already done so.
If you dont have room (they are a 6 month crop) then plant them in purchased compost in a polystyrene box that is at least 180mm deep with drainage. I gave full instructions in a recent article which is at www.gardenews.co.nz if you dont currently have a copy.
New season potatoes; dependent where you are in NZ and if you have access to seed potatoes, any time now and during the next month or so is a very good time to plant them deep and keep covering the leaves as they break through to protect.
Later crop cover over some hoops will protect the plants from any late frosts. Get in early and your crop will not suffer psyllid damage. Crop should be harvested as soon as mature (dont leave tops on for the pests to attack) Harvest should be before Labor Weekend.
That then frees up all that area for your summer crops.
Another thing that I have noted is my 3 Feijoa trees in containers are not producing as well as in previous seasons and there is two reasons for this; one is they likely need a root prune plus a good reduction in the number of fruiting branches.
Feijoas grown in open ground cant have a root pruning and in fact they do not need it but they have to be very well fed and watered to produce those really big fruit.
Even the open grown ones will become too bushy with lots of fruiting branches and thus smaller fruit.
Open up by cutting a number of branches back to the trunk so that the remaining branches will fruit better.
If you have any fruit trees, roses or perennial plants in containers now is the perfect time to lift them out of their containers and see whats happening down below.
You may find a mass of roots at the base circling around the bottom of the container. These need to be cut off with a saw removing about the bottom third of the roots. You may also find root mealy bug down there which is also sapping goodness out of your plant.
Place a good purchased compost in the base of the pot to the right height after cleaning any mealy bug white bits from inside the pot.
Then place Rok Solid, Wallys Neem Tree Granules, Blood & Bone, Sheep Pellets onto the compost and just cover with a little more compost before returning the plant to its home. Sprinkle more Neem Granules, Rok Solid and Sheep manure pellets onto the top of the mix.
Your plants should preform much better in the spring. There are lots of leaves around at this time for you to collect and run over with a rotary mower to break up and catch, so you can bag them into black plastic rubbish bags. As you bag them spray with either Mycorrcin or Thatch Busta and sprinkle some garden lime also.
Stuff the bags full and tie off the top. Then with a nail or small screw driver punch lots of small holes all over the bag and place in a sunny spot out of sight.
Every month or two turn over to expose the other side to sun light. After about six months or so you should have some lovely smelling leave mould for your gardens and containers.
Plant new season strawberries now so they can establish for best results later on.
Keep warm.
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Before we get onto this weeks subject; a question that was asked this week from a gardener who has coal ash from a fire place and wanted to know if they could be use on the garden.
Apparently a little used sparingly can be an advantage but not a lot as there are properties in a ash that could cause toxicity in larger amounts.
Also some could be applied in thin layers to your compost if you so desired.
Wood ash from burning non-tantalised wood is great for the garden and in particular for flowering and fruiting plants. Spread it around it is a nice mild source of potash (Hence the name)
You should not be burning tanalised wood in your wood burner as the gasses that will seep out into the room are not good for your health and likewise the chemicals still present in the ash are not good for your gardens.
Now that winter is starting to make its presents known it is important to protect frost tender and cold tender plants and the easy way to achieve this is a spray of Vaporgard, Spray On Frost Protection.
The film gives down to minus 3 degrees frost protection within 3 days of application for about 3 months.
If there is just an occasional frost every few days this is likely to be the only frost protection you need.
If however there are several frosts in a row, night after night then extra protection will be required from the second night on till there is a break in the frosts.
Your sprayed plants will gain more energy from the sun light which is also a great advantage this time of the year when day light hours are much sorter.
A lady gardener from the Deep South email me recently about her two container planted lemon trees which she has brought indoors because of frosts down to minus 6.
Her question was also what to feed the plants with?
I pointed out that being indoors the plants will suffer from lower light when compared to being outdoors or in a frost free sheltered situation, ideal is a glasshouse or conservatory.
Indoors right in front of a northern facing window would be best and once a week rotate the plant 180 degrees to get even light and prevent stretching.
This light thing indoors is very important this time of the year for your indoor plants.
Another aspect is the watering of the plants, all container plants should be kept a little on the dry side and only given smaller drinks to prevent stress from dry growing medium.
Saucers underneath plants are great to prevent getting surplus water all over the place but an hour or so after watering any water in a saucer should be removed to prevent wet feet.
Container plants outside where they are rained on should NOT have a saucer under them this time of the year and have the container raised slightly off the ground to allow water to drain away quickly.
Losses will occur if your plants are wet in the root zone during winter.
If you have plants which require free draining situations you can spray their foliage with Perkfection Supa to help prevent wet weather diseases.
In door plants need only a fraction of their water requirements in winter when compared to summer.
The reasons are low to nil growth because of lessor light levels with shorter daylight hours.
Which brings us back to light and the amount of light plants receive when they are grown indoors.
For instance my excellent light meter tells me that at my south-west facing window at 1pm right against the window pane I have 550 FC (Foot Candles) Where my plants are on a shelf 50cm away from the window pane its down to 325 FC; One meter away 250FC and at 3 meters 160 FC if I take a measurement at the far side of the room we see its only 50FC.
That is where only the lowest light loving plants will survive in winter if they are kept fairly dry in their mix. A spray of water over the foliage is beneficial at times and ensure that the foliage is dust free as that further reduces the light level available.
A window facing the north will have a much better FC reading at the window pane but once again the FC drops dramatically once you are about a metre or more away from the pane.
Our eyes automatically adjust to light intensity so we do not notice the light levels till they become very low or very high, plants on the other hand do notice.
A general rule of thumb is the plants with the largest leaf surface will do ok in lower light levels where plants such a maidenhair ferns, with very small leaf surfaces, need a much higher light level to grow well. We can think of ferns in a shady area outside, but outside there is much more light than indoors with light entering only though a window. Not overhead.
In summer time you have long hours of light and that makes a difference to plants that need a good level of light even if they are not near a window. In winter these plants will look poorly as a result of low light levels and instead of moving the plant closer to the window the tendency is to water the plant which maybe the last straw and the plant dies.
Flowering plants need ample light to form flower buds and open the bud into flowers.
A cyclamen within a metre of a good light window will flower well but if taken across the room you will see both flowers and leaves stretching to the light source. Over water when they are like that and goodbye cyclamen.
A timely reminder to be very careful watering container plants keeping them a bit on the dry side and where possible move them closer to a good light source.
In mansions in Victoria times and the likes of Downton Abbey where lushes ferns, palms and other indoor plants appeared to flourish in rooms that were of low light often with drapes closed to protect furnishings and paintings from UV.
So how come the plants always looked good?
Very simply; they had two of everyone with large conservatories where each week the servants would take the plants out of the house and into the conservatory then pick up its twin to replace inside the house. The plants would not suffer in the week and would be refreshed when in the conservatory.
The answer to the food question back near the beginning I just sprinkle a little Rok Solid over the mix and dilute either some Matrix or Mycorrcin to give some mild food.
You dont really want to encourage growth in winter.
Keep warm.
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So far this winter it has been much milder than what we would normally expect, which is nice on one hand but not so good in regards to garden pests and diseases.
If the weather remains similar through till after July it can mean a lot more problems in the spring unless we take some preventive actions now.
Lets start off with those of us that are fortunate to have a glasshouse and what we can do to control pests and diseases in the house while it is empty of plants.
A number of gardeners like to sterilise the soil if they use soil in their glasshouse rather than a concrete floor with containers for growing.
Potassium permanganate can be used to kill fungus diseases in the soil and sprayed around the glasshouse for the same reason.
What you do is mix ¾ a teaspoon of potassium permanganate with 3 tablespoons of salt (Ocean Solids)
into a litre of hot water to dissolve and then add that to a further 9 litres of water.
Using a watering can, liberally water into the soil which should be moist prior to using but not wet.
The 10 litres can be applied over 5 to 10 sqM of soil dependent about how concerned you are on diseases. The heavier the dose the greater the result (within reason)
Leave for about a week then lightly water the soil to water in deeper, a few days later give another watering, leave for a week then give the soil a good drench.
The 10 litres made up can be also placed into a back pack sprayer and with the nozzle turn to make a jet spray all the crevices between panes of glass and elsewhere that disease spores maybe lurking.
If you have moss, liverwort or molds inside or outside of the glasshouse then firstly spray them with Wallys Moss & Liverwort Control. When they have died back blast them off with a jet of water. When its dried out spray the potassium permanganate mix then you can treat the soil as mentioned above..
If you have containers that you use for growing in the glasshouse these should be emptied into the compost bin or onto gardens and the containers sterilised with the potassium permanganate.
After these treatments for diseases then its time to treat for insect pests. Sprinkle Wallys Neem Tree Granules over the soil at 100 grams per SqM and lightly water.
Next obtain some Sulphur (yellow stuff called sublime Sulphur or flowers of Sulphur)
This is an old trick I just learnt recently from a gardener; you burn the sulhpur in the glasshouse with all the vents and door closed. The amount you burn would depend on the size of the house and in larger glasshouses maybe more than one burning at the same time.
To burn I found the easy way was to place a bout a 100 grams of sulhpur onto a steel hearth shovel and light it with a flame weed burner that I have and once burning nicely get out of the house as it can be suffocating. Alternative would be to have hot burning coals that you sprinkle the Sulphur onto.
I remember as a child that when there was diseases such as flu around we would burn a small amount of Sulphur sprinkled on hot coals carried on the hearth shovel through the house to kill the air borne diseases.
Maybe worth remembering if there is a plaque happening.
Dont burn the Sulphur in the glasshouse if there is plants growing as it will kill some plants, I tried it and some plants survived where others died. It certainly killed a lot of whitefly and psyllid as they could be seen beating against the panes of glass trying to get out.
Be very careful and maybe if you are not sure light the Sulphur outside of the glasshouse and once burning place into the centre of the house and get out quickly.
In the garden any sign of yellowing leaves you should start sprinkling Fruit and Flower Power in the root zone to supply the magnesium needed and the potash to harden up the plants. Repeat monthly.
More frost tender plants should be sprayed with Vaporgard to give them frost protection down to minus 3 for 3 months from one application.
I have successfully kept Impatiens and petunias growing through the winter for about 3 years which saves money in not having to replace each year. The plants should also be in a semi-protected situation to help ensure they can survive. If it looks like two or more frosts in a row then frost cloth or additional protection will be needed.
Vaporgard works well for the occasional frost a few days apart.
I have also kept tomatoes, potatoes, tree tomatoes, banana plants and palms happy and growing with its protection during milder winters.
Roses are always a bit of a problem when the winter is mild as they stay in foliage and can still produce a few flowers off and on.
The milder the climate the less chance of them having a much needed winter rest.
If they do not have a dormant period in winter they will not preform as well next season.
A good hard frost will do the trick but you can also force them to rest.
For Bush or Standard roses about now or in early June cut the canes back to half their length, remove any spindly wood and dead wood. Pick up the the rubbish and send to the tip or bury in a garden.
I dont advise putting into the compost as they take sometime to break down and the thorns are not nice.
If you have a chipper then after chipping they can go into the compost.
Next spray the remaining canes with Lime Sulphur to burn off any foliage and kill diseases and pests that are remaining.
Leave for about a month and then spray the canes with potassium permanganate at the rate of ¼ to ½ a teaspoon per litre of water. The soil surrounding the roses should be sprayed also.
Note both Lime Sulphur and Potassium permanganate can stain so if against the house or a wall it would pay to place a sheet behind to prevent staining.
The stains will weather off but may last for sometime.
The roses will then have a rest and be ready for pruning at end of July.
With climbing roses either cut off or tie back branches that are in the way; cut out any diseased or old dead canes and then you can treat with the above sprays if you wish.
Keep the weeds down in your gardens by weeding regularly so they dont seed and make for a bigger problem.
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I have always enjoyed growing different plants that are not commonly available. This is one of the aspects that makes gardening more enjoyable and exciting when you have successes.
Three vegetables that I currently grow and are writing about are not rare but also not common for many gardeners.
The first of these is called Chayote or more commonly known as Choko.
Originating from Mexico where the vines grow prolifically they have little financial value there likely because they are so prolific.
Specialist fruit and vegetable shops or flea markets are likely to have chokos for sale at this time of the year for about a dollar each.
Most people likely do not know the fruit and by pass them where people from Asia are likely to be the main buyers.
Choko are a member of the gourd family; Cucurbitaceae, along with melons, cucumbers and squash.
In Asia they are commonly diced up and used in stir fries and soups.
The fruit does not need to be peeled to be cooked or fried in slices. Most people regard it as having a very mild flavor by itself.
It is commonly served raw with seasonings (e.g. salt, butter and pepper) or in a dish with other salad vegetables and/or flavorings. It can also be boiled, stuffed, mashed, baked, fried, or pickled in escabeche sauce.
Both fruit and seed are rich in amino acids and vitamin C.
The fresh green fruit are firm and without brown spots or signs of sprouting. Smaller ones are more tender. I actually I like the fruit raw eaten like an apple they are crisp and refreshing.
The tuberous part of the root is starchy and eaten like a yam (can be fried).
The leaves and fruit have diuretic, cardiovascular and anti-inflammatory properties, and a tea made from the leaves has been used in the treatment of arteriosclerosis, hypertension, and to dissolve kidney stones. So a very versatile, interesting plant.
They are easy to grow and the older fruit will start shooting from the base then all you need to do is place the fruit sideways, half buried in compost with the shoot upwards.
Start off in a container where it will root up and then protect in a glasshouse or similar (even a window sill) till spring when it can be planted out.
It must be planted in a free draining situation, sunny and a degree of protection from frosts.
Spray the vine with Vaporgard for frost protection in winter and cover with frost cloth when there is two or more frosts in a row.
It is a sprawling vine so planted by a fence or shed where netting is placed, allows the vine to climb.
The first season from experience I found no fruit but a lot of growth and some winter damage.
The next season I once again thought all it wanted to do was grow but as the day light hours shortened small flowers and fruit started forming. The fruit grow rapidly and within a week or so a baby fruit becomes bigger than your fist.
For the health and mineral benefits we have; Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 80 kJ (19 kcal): Carbohydrates 4.51 g : Sugars 1.66 g : Dietary fiber 1.7 g : Fat 0.13 g : Protein 0.82 g.
Vitamins are Thiamine (B1) (2%) 0.025 mg: Riboflavin (B2) (2%) 0.029 mg: Niacin (B3) (3%) 0.47 mg: Pantothenic acid (B5)(5%) 0.249 mg: Vitamin B6 (6%) 0.076 mg: Folate (B9) (23%) 93 g.
That is an impressive range of B vitamins making 43% of total them there is Vitamin C (9%) 7.7 mg: Vitamin E (1%) 0.12 mg: Vitamin K (4%) 4.1 g
The Trace metals are Calcium (2%) 17 mg: Iron (3%) 0.34 mg: Magnesium (3%) 12 mg: Phosphorus (3%)18 mg: Potassium (3%) 125 mg: Zinc (8%) 0.74 mg
Health wise how good is that? So easy to grow and eat raw to obtain full benefits of the vitamins and minerals.
Next we have a less common one called Jerusalem Artichokes which is a root vegetable from the Helianthus tuberosus family, also called sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple or topinambour, it is a species of sunflower native to eastern North America.
Grown from tubers it can be successfully grown any where that has reasonable drainage and sun light.
Grown in a container, waste area, vegetable garden or flower garden it will thrive.
In a container it grows about a metre or so tall in open ground from a couple of metres to 3 or 4 metres tall dependent on soil and growing conditions. In autumn it produces smaller sunflower blooms and dies back about this time of the year when you can start harvesting the tubers.
The nobly tubers contains about 10% protein, no oil, and a surprising lack of starch. However, it is rich in the carbohydrate inulin (76%), which is a polymer of the monosaccharide fructose.
Tubers stored for any length of time will convert their inulin into its component fructose.
Jerusalem artichokes have an underlying sweet taste because of the fructose, which is about one and a half times sweeter than sucrose.
Jerusalem artichokes have also been promoted as a healthy choice for type 2 diabetics, because fructose is better tolerated by people who are type 2 diabetic.
It has also been reported as a folk remedy for diabetes.
Temperature variances have been shown to affect the amount of inulin the Jerusalem
artichoke can produce. When not in tropical regions, it has been shown to make less inulin than when it is in a warmer region. You can find recipes for the tubers on the Internet, steamed or baked and excellent for soups. They have a nutty, earthly taste a bit like Gin sing.
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) is Energy 304 kJ (73 kcal): Carbohydrates 17.44 g: Sugars 9.6 g: Dietary fiber 1.6 g : Fat 0.01 g: Protein 2 g.
Vitamins; Thiamine (B1) (17%) 0.2 mg: Riboflavin (B2) (5%) 0.06 mg: Niacin (B3) (9%) 1.3 mg: Pantothenic acid (B5) (8%) 0.397 mg: Vitamin B6 (6%) 0.077 mg: Folate (B9) (3%) 13 g: Vitamin C (5%) 4 mg: Trace metals Calcium (1%)14 mg: Iron (26%) 3.4 mg: Magnesium (5%)17 mg Phosphorus (11%) 78 mg: Potassium (9%) 429 mg
Last and the most uncommon of all is yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius, syn.: Polymnia edulis, P. sonchifolia) a species of perennial daisy traditionally grown in the northern and central Andes from Colombia to northern Argentina for its crisp, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots.
The peeled roots are lovely to eat raw, sweet to the taste without the side effects of sugar..
The tubers contain fructooligosaccharide, an indigestible polysaccharide made up of fructose.
Fructooligosaccharides taste sweet, but pass through the human digestive tract unmetabolised, hence have very little caloric value.
Moreover, fructooligosaccharides have a prebiotic effect, meaning they are used by beneficial bacteria that enhance colon health and aid digestion.
Easy to grow, plants grow about 1.5 metres tall large leaves with a texture like Borage harvest, roots in autumn.
If you can obtain a starter tuber of yacon its well worth growing.
Also if you know someone that is taking lots of medications then this following U-Tube clip could be of interest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dozpAshvtsA

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Garlic is an easy and valuable crop to grow if you do a bit of preparation before sowing.
Firstly let us look at some of the virtues of this well known vegetable from the onion family.
Garlic has a variety of Sulphur compounds which gives it the distinctive pungent odor.
People that eat great amounts of garlic will perspire that odor which maybe ok and not noticed if you live in Rotorua. I am lead to believe that it tends to put off blood sucking insects such as mosquitoes and a traditional protection from Vampires.
Garlic compound Allicin is known to have great anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-oxidant properties. That is why garlic is best had when it’s finely chopped, minced or pureed and let sit for some time. Garlic is also a reliable source of selenium.
Allicin, along with other compounds like ajoene, alliin, etc. also have a healing effect on your circulatory, digestive and immunological systems and help in lowering blood pressure, detoxification, healing, etc. Helps to keep bacterial and viral infections at bay. (Like Colds & flu)
The chemical ajoene found in garlic may help treat fungal skin infections like ringworm and athlete’s foot.
If you have a skin infection, you could apply the juice of some crushed garlic cloves onto the area once or twice a day.
Ajoene has natural anti-clotting properties which is great for those with heart conditions or prone to strokes it is a natural blood thinner.
Down side; it increases the risk of bleeding after surgery.
To help stay healthy have one crushed garlic clove everyday on an empty stomach.
Allicin in garlic blocks the activity of angiotensin (a protein that is responsible for increase in blood pressure) and helps in reducing blood pressure.
With age, your arteries tend to lose their ability to stretch and garlic can help maintain their elasticity.
It also helps protect the heart from the damaging effects of free oxygen radicals.
The sulphur-containing compounds of garlic also prevent our blood vessels from becoming blocked and slows the development of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).
The allicin present in garlic helps moderately lower our blood triglycerides and total cholesterol. This compound also helps reduce arterial plaque formation.
So for those with heart conditions or want to prevent heart disease a clove a day on an empty stomach makes sense.
If you cant eat a clove straight then after chopping and standing for a while add some honey and take on an empty stomach which is likely first thing in the morning.
Wait for about half an hour before having anything else other than filtered water.
Raw garlic juice may be used to immediately stop the itching due to rashes and bug bites.
Garlic increases insulin release and regulates blood sugar levels in your body, especially if you are a diabetic.
Garlic’s anti-cancer properties are due to the allyl sulphides it contains.
According to studies, diallyl sulphide found in garlic inhibits the transformation of PhIP (a type of compound that has been associated with increased incidence of breast cancer) into carcinogens.
Garlic helps with iron deficiency and anaemia.
According to recent research, garlic may help to regulate the formation of fat cells in our body by converting pre-adipocytes to fat cells (adipocytes) by preventing the conversion.
The above gives you many good reasons to grow your own garlic which allows you to avoid the use of chemicals in your crop.
From May to July is the best time to plant your garlic cloves which soon root up and produce their first green stalks.
Garlic grows slowly though the winter months and when the daylight hours lengthen, nearing the longest day, the bulbs will form.
The ideal place to plant is in a sunny sheltered spot. Garlic loves frosts so no covers are required.
In open ground fork the soil to make it friable and then sprinkle blood & bone, Rok Solid, dolomite lime and BioPhos over the area and lightly fork in.
Plant the cloves about 10cm apart, with the pointy end upwards, pushed down into the soil until its buried.
Then cover with a good purchased compost so the cloves are buried by about 2.5cm or 1 inch. The reason to use the compost is for the extra food and to suppress any weed seedlings.
A mulch of mowed leaves is ideal to place over the bed before the foliage emerges to the depth of 5cm to 10cm.
This is also a great use of the leaf fall at this time, run over the leaves with a rotary mower collecting the chopped up leaves in a catcher. And spread over the bed of garlic.
Alternative is grass clippings or pea straw.
Keep the area between the plants free of weeds.
If you do not have room in gardens to grow garlic then you can grow some cloves in larger containers. Use a good purchased compost such as Daltons or Oderings as the filler to about half the depth of the container and then proceed as in open ground with applying the goodies etc.
Normally the tops will be fairly free of problems but if soil insects have been a problem in the past add Neem Tree Granules to the soil and sprinkle some onto the compost before the mulch.
If rust attacks the foliage spray with Condys Crystals at the rate of quarter a teaspoon per litre of water.
Black aphids can be controlled with Wallys Neem Tree Oil and Key Pyrethrum combined.
The best time to harvest is when the tops just start to yellow, often about mid January. Harvesting earlier may mean the bulbs are not as big as they could be.
Harvesting later than this may mean bulbs splitting or decaying.
With aid of a hand fork lift the mature bulbs and clean the soil off the roots.
Place the plants in a dry place such as under a car port to dry for a few days. The dying leaves will add more goodness to the cloves.
After drying hang in a dry place out of sun light or remove dry leaves and place bulbs apart in a box in a dry place.
The bulbs tissue once they are dry become very absorbent and can absorb moisture from damp air making them mouldy.
That is the reason I dont like hanging the bulbs unless it is in a very dry place.
Your garden centre should have garlic cloves now if you have not saved sufficient from last years crop to plant.
A word of warning dont buy and plant the Chinese garlic as readers have told me its a waste of time. (Likely its been irradiated to stop it growing and it is not as good as NZ breed garlic)
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Last weeks article was about weeds which prompted a reader to send me an email with a very novel and practical idea.
The email reads; HI Wally
As usual a great article but I have some alternative thoughts on weeds, or nature's most unloved plants.
It is true there was a time when we didn't have roundup (and I can't wait till it is banned) but during that same time we should also let nature do it's thing and let weeds grow in areas where people stupidly waste money spraying.
For example along the bottom of hedges or along the edges of paths and road frontages.
We have this obsession with control and tidiness. I want to start helping people understand that weeds have a role in covering the earth when we disturb it and why can't we let weeds grow and be the feature plants?
Where a weed wants to grow is where the soil needs them and aren't we feeding the soil after all?
They attract so many insects and bees and are much prettier to look at along road sides than dead brown strips along drains or edges.
In France they don't spray or control 'weeds' they allow the grass and plants to grow along the sides of roads or other places like meridian strips.
It would save so much money not to spray or even mow, it would give beneficial insects a better chance, bringing nature more into balance and be so much more low maintenance.
You have influence and knowledge but I think it is time we cut the perfect looking garden ties with England where those controlled ideas of gardening originally came from.
I just had to write and share my thoughts and thanks for listening. Julia

I have known Julia for many years and she has excellent ideas, using the plants we often refer to as weeds, which can be easily used for food and health.
Julia has an excellent book on what weeds can be used and the benefits derived.
Have a look at her web site at www.juliasedibleweeds.com for more information including workshops that she does.
The idea of allowing weeds to grow in places to encourage insects, bees and birds is so logical when so much of our environment is threatened by misuse and chemicals.
If I recall correctly the English hedge rows was an area where farmers and owners let Nature do its thing making it a haven a haven for wildlife including our friendly snail eating hedgehogs.
A few years back there was a movement for people to plant wildflowers along their road frontages and other areas.
I turned an area of lawn into a wildflower area and the bees loved it. The flowers were mostly annuals and when they died down the area would be a bit messy until the dropped seeds took over with a fresh display.
I have done similar along the road frontage of my warehouse where annuals and perennials flower and die back as the seasons pass. Low maintenance, looking great for good period then a bit scruffy for a while.
Cottage gardens are another form of gardening where by and large you just allow Nature and the plants to do their own thing.
Road frontages or grass verges are an area where this idea could be constructively employed.
These areas are owned by councils but it falls on the owner of the land behind the frontage to mow the grass and weeds that grow there.
I notice that some owners have placed raised gardens on their strips and growing vegetables in them which is also a good idea.
If we were to plant fruiting trees that had non-invasive root systems along our road frontages they would also be very practical supplying free fruit for all those that would benefit.
The rest of the verge could be left to a selection of edible weeds.
Under trees in parks and reserves where councils spend your rate money spraying herbicides to make the soil bare is not only a waste of money, harmful to children that play there, not environmentally friendly and over time causes the trees to yellow and eventually die due to the buildup of chemicals in the soil.
That reminds me of the mother walking through the park with a toddler running and a baby in the pram, when they came across a council worker covered from head to toe in his protective clothing, mask and breathing apparatus.
The mother asks is it ok to walk through?
The council worker replies its quiet safe? Yeah Right.
A problem that I see is that verges are a combination of grass, grass weeds and a few weeds and if allowed to do their own thing by not mowing them down, it would not be such a good mix of plants.
Maybe Julia can help in this respect for instance on her web site she names a lot of edible weeds such as Alpine Strawberry, Indian Strawberry, Amaranth, Green or Purple, Catsear, Chicory, Chickweed, Cleavers, Clover, Red and White, Creeping Mallow, Bitter Cress, Dandelion, Dock and Dove’s Foot Geranium.
You likely have some already established and with a bit of searching you can find many others.
What we need is a seed supplier of mixed edible weed seed packets.
In the herb selection of your garden shop you are also likely to find a few also and if there are packets of wildflower seeds these can be sown to.
Herbs and weeds are very self sowing and once you obtain a few specimens they will perpetuate without any input from yourself.
Insects will have a home, birds will have protein, bees and bumble bees will love the flowers such as borage and catnip.
Make up a sign or signs saying ENVIRONMENTAL SANCTUARY so you wont be criticised or feel embarrassed with your fledgling area.
It would likely be a talking point and once neighbors and others see the value of creating a Natures haven they may do the same.
What a wonderful place that would be. Besides who really likes mowing the councils bit of grass?
Health wise you can have great advantages as Julia's site will show you.
Dandelion for instance, the leaves contain high amounts of Vitamins A, B and C, potassium, calcium, iron, phosphorous, and other minerals.
They also contain protein 19-32% in 100g which is an impressive amount just from green leaves.
Dandelion leaves are bitter which stimulates the release of saliva and improves digestion.
They are also a tonic, help lower cholesterol levels, increase blood and lymph circulation and are blood purifiers.
The leaves and flowers can be used in smoothies, salads, pestos and stir-fries.
The flower-heads can be used to make wine the roots to make coffee.
This could really upset the pharmaceutical companies if you grew weeds and became healthy.
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The article for Week ending 4th of April about the World Health Organisation classifying Glyphosate as a probable carcinogenic raised a number of questions from gardeners one of which is 'How will I control weeds without having glyphosate'?
Now I maybe old but I do remember a time of gardening before the chemical was ever invented (which was back in the 80's).
I also told one reader that I stopped using glyphosate over 20 years ago when I found that it started to make me feel nausea after spraying and I also found it was the cause of skin problems on my dogs according to a specialist.
I do concede that Roundup and other glyphosate weed killer brands can make the control of some weeds much simpler and in certain situations I even suggest it as a effective control.
The concern that I have is the unknown amount of the chemical in our food chain and what harm it is doing to ourselves and children.
For the home gardener to be using a little around the section to control a few difficult weeds is not a real problem but for a commercial grower of produce to spray the crops we are going to buy and eat is a real concern.
See my article at http://www.gardenews.co.nz/list.htm#GARDENING%20CHEMICALS%20RAISING%20HEALTH%20CONCERNS
Carrots, potatoes, peas, wheat, barley crops sprayed with glyphosate to desiccant; which means to dry out their crops so they could harvest them faster or preventing them from going to seed as in the case of carrots while waiting for the market to improve..
Root vegetables such as carrots, onions and potatoes are where the plants store their goodness along with any chemicals they absorb while growing. Without tests to determine the amount of glyphosate in these stable stable crops we maybe at risk according to WHO .
So what do you do to keep weeds in your gardens under control?
Firstly if you do not mind using chemicals there are any number of weed killers available other than glyphosate but in choosing to use them it is better to keep them away from your food growing areas.
On the more natural side of things there is the good old fashioned method of weeding by hand, used successfully for thousands of years with no known ill effects on soil or your health.
In fact outside of weeding during the hot sunny times of the day without adequate protection or better choosing a cooler time of the day it is a very relaxing task.
I actually liken it to a form of meditation where you focus on the weeds and leave the preferred plants and seedlings to grow.
Weeds can be pulled out easily when the soil is wet or even better use a sharp knife slicing through the growing stem under the soil surface leaving the root system to rot away and feed the soil.
The sliced tops minus their roots can be laid on bare soil to also rot and feed the soil.
In fact using this method your weeds become a valuable asset as a green crop does.
The key to make this easiest, is to weed regularly when the weeds are still seedlings.
For larger weeds a weed eater with a Pivotrim Pro attachment does a good job and less risk of damaging tree trunks.
Waste areas, cracks in concrete and in between cobbles just pour salt onto the weeds and repeat when they reappear.
Edges around lawns can be treated with the same or old sump oil is an alternative.
Spraying weeds on a sunny day when the soil is dry with vinegar or cheap cooking oil dehydrates the weeds.
Ammonia sulphate, Urea and potassium Nitrate can be used to sprinkle over weeds when dry and then they will burn out the weed and crown. It is an old method for weeds in lawns.
Lawn sand used to be used for weed control in lawns before the chemicals were made.
If I remember rightly one part sulphate of ammonia to about 5 parts sand, broadcast over a lawn with particular attention to where the weeds are. This would burn the weeds and the grasses but the grasses would recover where the weeds would not; hopefully.
Steam and flames are two more methods that can be employed to control weeds and there are appliances available to those that like to use these methods.
The steam is a better option than the fire method being safer around buildings and dry times.
Try this recipe; Trim the weeds with a sharp pair of garden shears. This helps open the plant to receive the natural weed killer.
Mix 4 litres of white vinegar with 1 cup salt and 5 mils of Raingard. The white vinegar lowers the weed’s pH, the salt dries out the plant, and the Raingard helps the solution stick to the plant.
Pour the solution into a sprayer, and spray it over the weed’s stalk and leaves. Apply it liberally.
(Best done on a sunny day when soil is dry)
Reapply the solution after 24 hours until the weed is completely dead.
Do not allow spray to drift onto preferred plants as they will suffer.
Some weeds have a preferred pH level to grow successfully and if we alter the pH we weaken or kill the weed. For instance if you have gorse growing then dump a good amount of garden lime in to the root zone and the gorse will die.
A garden hoe or a Dutch Hoe can be used to cut or slice weeds in garden plots and are quick and easy tools to use.
Thus as we did before the 80's we can do in the future when glyphosate has been banned in our country and else where as is happening in other countries.
I note a lab in America has started testing water, urine and babies milk for glyphosate and are looking to establish the same protocols in other existing labs though out the world.
See http://feedtheworld.info/glyphosate-testing-test-yourself/?ngo=Organic+Consumers+Association+%28OCA%29
Investigating reporters in America have taken up the baton about glyphosate and found that according to evidence unearthed from the archives of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) in the United States, it has been established that Monsanto was fully aware of the potential of glyphosate to cause cancer in mammals as long ago as 1981.

See http://www.globalresearch.ca/monsanto-knew-of-glyphosate-cancer-link-35-years-ago/5443741

It would be a great start if NZ Food Safety started testing our food for traces of glyphosate it would likely help to improve our health and reduce the health bill. Maybe someone should ask them?

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Each week I have to think about what to write for the coming week and sometimes it is you, my readers, that give me an answer and this week is no exception as two readers phoned with lawn problems that could be fixed with one solution.
To start with it is now autumn and we have had rain so the soil is nice and moist; still a bit on the warm side except for those colder areas.
It is the perfect time to sow lawn seed and I recommend 'Super Strike' as it makes a nice lawn that is fast germinating.
If you are sowing a new lawn then you should have prepared the area and killed off all the weed seeds that had germinated (or do this before sowing your lawn seed)
If you are over-sowing a lawn you are better off to hire a scarifier to rip out the thatch and leave the groves for your new seeds to fall into.
Sowing new seeds every autumn helps thicken up the grasses and keeps weeds from germinating.
A lawn like that is not cut low but at a height of about 25 to 50 mm dependent on your preference.
About 30mm is what I like to see.
If you are not going to sow fresh seed you should treat the lawn for thatch problems which means spaying or using a lawnboy to deliver a product called Thatch Busta.
This natural product eats up an inch of thatch in a month during reasonable conditions.
It also saves ripping your lawn apart using a scarifier or scarfing rake (which is hard work)
Grass Grubs are near the surface at this time of the year and eating the roots of your grasses.
These grasses so damaged will likely lift up easily as they have hardly any roots left or the grasses will die in the spring when they try to grow making bare patches.
Yates used to have diazinon as a lawn pest control but that chemical has been banned in NZ so no longer available. As in early articles it was also not suitable on some soil types.
Yates does have a attach onto the hose lawn spray which is using Confidor the chemical that is now known to kill honey bees, bumble bees and native pollinators.
It has a very long term residue in the plants and soil so if used then later on (weeks and maybe months later) when daisies, buttercups, clover or other lawn weeds flower, the bees get a dose and goodbye bees.
There was a product from Australia called Professor's Mac 3 in 1 for lawns.
It has a very safe insecticide which is Eucalyptus oil at 10g/L and Tea Tree oil at 2.5g/L along with a natural lawn food and wetting agent.
I especially recommended it for people with pets and gardeners that prefer to use natural things in respect of the environment.
Unfortunately the company that produced it sold to another company in Australia and I was unable to import it in its pre-packed container.
Instead I have brought in a few drums of the product to decant into 1 litre containers and renamed it to Wallys 3 in 1 for Lawns. It will treat 50 sqM of lawn safely
Garden Enterprises also has a chemical one for those that dont have pets and have large lawns; called Wallys Lawn Pest Control. The 500 gram pack of granules will do 250sqM.
Applied at 2 grams per square metre through a Scotts Spreader and then watered to activate.
Being a chemical all safety precautions should be used especially wearing gumboots.
This product is also excellent to kill wasp and ant nests in the ground, sprinkle liberally and lightly water. Effective kill period is about 6 weeks.
For either product see http://www.0800466464.co.nz/13-pest-control?p=2
If porina caterpillars are a problem eating at the base of the grasses at night, then the simple and very effective way to control is to mow the lawn to about 25mm, then late in the day spray the lawn with Neem Tree Oil at 15mls per litre.
That night when they take a bite they will stop eating and die of starvation. On small lawns drenches of Neem Tree Oil at 25mls per litre is another safe way to control grubs near the surface. The soil should be a little moist before applying with a lawnboy or similar.
Neem Tree Granules (Powder form) can also be used very safely, sprinkle over a freshly mowed lawn that has moist soil and lightly water to move the powder off foliage onto the soil surface.
Ideally use a roller over the lawn to press the powder into the soil.
Now one of our readers asked about the grass verge in front of their property.
The problem is paspalum that horrible grass weed that makes any lawn look a mess.
There is no spray that will kill it (there was and it is now banned) so you are left with three possibilities.
Wiping the foliage with a mix of glyphosate and Raingard without touching your grasses.
Sprinkling urea or sulphate of ammonia onto the clump so the nitrogen will burn it out.
Finally one gardener told me years ago about taking a screw driver with a bottle of diesel and plunging the diesel soaked blade into the heart of the clump.
All these methods are sort term as there will be seeds in the soil or blown in from surrounding areas.
I have thought of a long term solution that would still look ok and no more mowing of what belongs to your council. Kill off the area with a herbicide or with lots of salt. (If there are no trees growing)
Once dead you remove the top couple of inches of stubble and soil and send to the tip.
If there are plants growing on the verge cover the area with weed mat. If not cover with black builders plastic.
Then over this place artificial grass and peg down with no 8 wire having bent one end over to make like a hook. These days there are several grades of artificial grass and the more expensive ones are hard to tell from the real thing from a bit of a distance.
Those gardeners that have slopping lawns that are hard to mow or have to use a weed eater to mow could use the same process of either weed mat with ground covers or with artificial grass.
For people that need to get a lawn mowing person in to mow their lawns using artificial grass could be a big savings over the long term. You do the sums and if you have your lawn mowed between once a week to once a fortnight you are talking a few hundred dollars a year, plenty of money to make the change.
No mowing, no weeding, no feeding, no mud, no cracked or brown lawns in droughts, no lawn pests to control, no watering to keep green. You have saved hundreds of dollars.
There are companies that will do the job for you in some areas.
Do a search on Google putting into Google, Artificial Grass.
Then you cam sell your motor mower as well.
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I receive lots of phone calls and emails from gardeners asking for help with their gardening endeavors.
About 10% of these will be a very familiar problem which is; 'plants do not grow'.
A few questions often reveals the reasons; such as the over use of man made fertilisers such as general garden fertiliser or even worse nitrophoska blue.
Often these fertilisers are used to excess (or for too many years) and not only do they damage the soil life but they can also 'lock up' in the soil, stunting growth.
The pH of the soil is changed because of the acidic nature of manmade fertilisers.
A little sprinkling of manmade fertilisers, used occasionally to give plants a boost along, is fine as long as the acid aspect is neutralised with a good application of soft garden lime.
Small applications are not going to make fertiliser companies rich compared to handfuls on a regular frequency.
What I am told often by gardeners is; I plant seedlings they slowly grow and seem to sit still for a long time then either mature or go to seed.
I usually ask the gardener when was the last time you limed (Calcium) the soil.
More often than not it is sometime ago or not for a very long time.
A lot of New Zealand soils are a little acidic and become more so over time with our rainfall.
I read one time that calcium is the fuel that feeds the micro life in the soil and without it (soil food web) your plants do not do so well.
Most vegetable plants love a sweet soil which is the term used for an alkaline reading on a pH metre.
The exception to this is potatoes and tomatoes. The vegetables that really love lime are brassicas, peas and beans.
The old gardening way was to apply garden lime to the garden once a year in the middle of winter.
There are two sources of lime one from lime stone and the other from crushed shells.
Lime stone lime is gritty and slow to breakdown and thus plants may wait some years before they obtain the benefits. Where soft lime breaks down quickly.
Soft lime can be tested by wetting your forefinger and thumb and placing a little of the lime in between.
If it feels soft and makes a slurry then its good value. Lime stone lime is likely to feel course like sand unless it has been powdered down very finely.
After an application of lime the plants start to respond and grow better.
When minerals become locked up because of the over use of fertilisers I also suggest drenches of Magic Botanic Liquid. (MBL)
This excellent product is good for unlocking and along with a dose of calcium, plants respond very quickly and really grow.
Sometimes I have gardeners call me back to say that within a week of doing the above the plants have show new amazing growth.
There are areas in your garden where you do not want to apply garden lime at all or only a little.
In the annual/perennial flower garden a little occasionally is good.
For acid loving plants use gypsum or dolomite or even better a combination of both.
These contain not only calcium but also Sulphur (gypsum) and magnesium (dolomite)
Which means they can also be used to advantage where you use garden lime on flower beds and vegetable gardens.
Rather than a dose once a year in winter you are far better of to give a sprinkling every 3 months.
The beginning of each season is a good time as it is easier to remember.
So at the beginning of spring and again at the beginning of summer, autumn and winter.
If you have not been in the practice of doing this you will likely notice an improvement in your gardens because you are nurturing the essential soil life. (Do not use chlorinated water on your gardens either, filter it out with a 10 micron carbon bonded filter)
Here is another interesting mineral that can be deficient in gardens and when applied they come to life and take off.
That is phosphate and the product that makes the difference is called BioPhos which is reactive rock phosphate broken down naturally using microbes rather than acid.
That is how rock phosphate is converted to superphoshate. Acid is applied to reactive rock phosphate.
Superphoshate damages the soil life and causes inert soil through continued use and likely is the reason why many gardeners will not use it.
Conventional agriculture and farming using super and nitrates kill off the soil life in their paddocks.
There by the first essential part of the food chain is destroyed, effecting the healthiness of plants/grass, animals and ourselves. This is so simply logical, that you wonder why it is allowed to continue?
Mind you it does not make any money for fertiliser, chemical and pharmaceutical companies so we must respect their bottom lines even if we and our environment are not healthy.
Even worse; in the process of converting rock phosphate to superphoshate a pollutant is produced on the 'scrubbers' called, fluoride acid (hydrofluorosilicic acid); a classified hazardous waste, but it is barreled up and sold, unrefined, to communities across America and the world including New Zealand.
Communities add hydrofluorosilicic acid to their water supplies as the primary fluoride chemical for water fluoridation.
This has to be one of the biggest scams in recent history, a waste product that would cost millions to clean up and disposed of, is sold at a profit on the pretense it will substantially help fight tooth decay?
BioPhos not only provides plants with the phosphate they require it also introduces beneficial microbes into your soil. BioPhos does the following for plants;
Photosynthesis and storage of sunlight energy
Formulation of simple sugars
Use of sugars and starches for growth
Transfer of energy during plant chemical reactions
Maintenance and transfer of plant’s genetic code
Development of new plant cells
Germination, size, number and viability of seed
That is why some gardeners really notice a big difference when they apply the natural product to their gardens and plants.
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Now that day light savings has finished we realise that winter is coming and in a number of areas light frosts have already occurred.
From my own experience in Palmerston North and talking to gardeners in other areas including Invercargill, the winters now days are very mild to what we experienced when we were young.
Heavy frosty mornings with frost lasting well into midday but nice sunny blue skies except when we had what we called a black frost.
That was when the frost did not disappear because the day would have heavy clouds, which did not allow the sun to warm the ground. Not nice.
These days in Palmerston North at least we do not have too many frosts in winter and usually the ones we have are light and soon disappear. Outside of the city you do not have to go far to find a good frosting when the conditions are right.
What has changed besides 'climate change' is the warmth that a city generates from houses, vehicles and street lighting. Pollution in the air also acts the same as cloud cover trapping heat and preventing frosts to settle. We are more likely to see fogs than frosts.
This bodes well for the more tender plants which would be damaged or killed by a good frost.
It does not help with control of pest insects and plant diseases which a good heavy frost will knock them for a six.
For us gardeners we still need to give more tender plants some protection and later in winter use methods to reduce disease and insect pests.
Now is the time to take action to help your plants survive the winter chills.
Apply Fruit & Flower Power to the root zone of plants that could be damaged, your preferred plants and any tender plants. The potash and magnesium in this product hardens up the foliage, strengthens the root system and helps to maintain nice green foliage.
Apply this month and again monthly for the next two months on evergreen plants but only once on deciduous plants and trees.
Wet weather diseases are caused by lots of rain and insufficient drainage.
The root systems need oxygen and if there is too much water then there is insufficient oxygen, the roots can hold their breath (so to speak) for a while but then they will start rotting.
You will see leaves turning yellow, curling and dropping followed by the plant's death.
You can assist the plants to withstand wet weather diseases by spraying them with Perkfection Supa once a month for the next 3 months on evergreens such as citrus. One spray on your roses and deciduous trees at this time.
If you can; ensure that the drainage around plants that hate wet feet is improved where possible.
One easy way on established plants such as citrus or around the edge of vegetable gardens is to dig a trench one or two spades deep. On citrus and similar just out beyond the drip line.
Excess water will drain into the trench where wind and sun will evaporate it away quicker.
This is only needed where you know that ponding takes place during rainy times, good free draining areas are not so prone to the problems.
For our final protection of tender plants we can use the 'spray on frost protection' called Vaporgard.
Mixed at 15mls per litre in warm water and sprayed over the foliage of tender plants it will give them down to minus 3 degrees frost protection for 3 months within 3 days of application.
This works very well on the first frost but if there are several frosts in a row, night after night then additional protection such as frost cloth will be needed.
The reason for this is the damage to the cells does not have a chance to repair before they are frozen again.
Tender plants that are in containers can be moved to places where they are protected such as under the eaves or under evergreen trees. I now can keep impatiens and petunias in containers going year after year by using all the above suggestions and having them in sheltered areas.
Plants such as capsicums and peppers growing in open ground can be sprayed with Vaporgard under and over foliage and a couple of days later carefully lifted and placed into containers.
Then moved to a glasshouse or protected area like a porch where they will continue to produce for you slowly over winter as long as you keep them a little on the dry side.
Now that the soil is cooler and rains have starting to moisten the gardens; means you can plant your spring bulbs in sunny areas. Container grown bulbs are likely planted already.
Let your strawberries run and root in for a fresh lot of plants later in May.
The latest news is very interesting as chemical company giants, Monsanto and Bayer are taking a hammering as reports about the harm some of their main products are doing to our health and the environment.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently placed glyphosate on level 4 meaning its a very probable cause of cancer. (Level 5 means it does definitely cause cancer.)
Monsanto's cause was not helped by the video of pro-GMO Patrick Moore claiming Monsanto’s glyphosate is “safe to drink,” then walking out of an interview when asked to prove it, has been making the cyber-rounds. But perhaps no one has framed it better than Jeffrey Jaxen, a writer for Before It’s News.
Jaxen calls the Moore interview a “Big Tobacco Moment,” comparing it to the publicly televised statement in 1994, by William Campbell, then-CEO of tobacco giant Phillip Morris, who told Congress, “I believe nicotine is not addictive.”
Jaxen wrote: “When paradigms shift, tyrants fall, or corporations lose their market it is often not from some spectacular event, but by a single, humanizing display.”
If you have not seen it goto https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/gmos-big-tobacco-moment-shocks-public-awake
Bayer is loosing its battle; saying their toxic neonicotinoids such as Confidor are safe. Study after study show neonicotinoids are a key culprit in bee declines and are harming other organisms, from earthworms to birds.
Bayer filed a lawsuit against Friends of the Earth Germany in an effort to shut down their campaign to save the bees. Thanks to the work of concerned people across Europe, Bayer lost and Friends of the Earth Germany won.
This demonstrates the importance and power of organizing and when the truth is revealed, people can push back against corporate power, and win.
On the home front it was reported that Lloyds of London are not covering events of smart meter fires or health risks associated with wireless devices.
Likely soon most insurance companies will follow suit as they normally do when Lloyds makes exclusions..
Are Smart Metres causing fires? According to TV3 news yes; with in the last five months there have been 67 call outs in Canterbury to malfunctions involving power boxes, and 422 throughout the country.
Your power company installs a smart metre and then when there is a power surge it can blow up appliances and possibly set your home on fire, which has happened in NZ and overseas.
Then you could find your Insurance company has wavered damage cause by Smart Metres.
Not only that but health problems cause by High Intensity Radio Frequencies are not going to be covered either.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF-djNIb5Oc

People and children sensitive to this radiation can have problems of head aches, nose bleeds, emotional problems and sleeplessness. Makes for more interesting times.
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The news this week coming from the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that glyphosate the active ingredient in Roundup (and found in other weed killers), 'probably' causes cancer.
There has been mounting evidence of this from various science reports and findings over the last few years.
All of which Monsanto denies as they did in the past with Agent Orange as being safe.
The health problems came to light in Vietnam when Agent Orange (and similar) herbicides were used to defoliate jungles causing servicemen and local populations major health issues..
On the 21st March 2015 (The Guardian article said) – Roundup, the world’s most widely used weedkiller, “probably” causes cancer, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) – WHO’s cancer agency – said that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide made by agriculture company Monsanto, was “classified as probably carcinogenic to humans”.
It also said there was “limited evidence” that glyphosate was carcinogenic in humans for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, said scientific data did not support the conclusions and called on WHO to hold an urgent meeting to explain the findings.
“We don’t know how IARC could reach a conclusion that is such a dramatic departure from the conclusion reached by all regulatory agencies around the globe,” said Philip Miller, Monsanto’s vice-president of global regulatory affairs.
Concerns about glyphosate on food have been widely debated in the US recently, and contributed to the passage in Vermont last year of the country’s first mandatory labeling law for genetically modified food.
The US government considers the herbicide to be safe. In 2013, (Based on information supplied by Monsanto's scientists) Monsanto requested and received approval from the US Environmental Protection Agency for increased tolerance levels for glyphosate.
Monsanto will fight this tooth and nail because of the many millions of dollars the company makes every year from selling this herbicide.
In March, 2015, 17 experts from 11 countries met at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC; Lyon, France) to assess the carcinogenicity of the organophosphate pesticides tetrachlorvinphos, parathion, malathion, diazinon, and glyphosate (table).
These assessments will be published as volume 112 of the IARC Monographs.1
In NZ already we see that some of the above chemicals have already been removed or restricted by EPA and ERMA. Which is very good but there appears to be no controls or restrictions on glyphosate.
We do not even test for the chemical in our food chain and I am sure that if we did the results would be alarming.
Glyphosate does not disappear when it hits the soil (Which was another lie Monsanto told when Roundup was first introduced) Instead it has a soil life of months or years dependent apon what research you read or on what soil type.
One thing would appear certain is that if land is cleared using glyphosate at the recommended rates and a food crop is planted then that produce will have glyphosate traces in the foliage and even larger concentrations in root crops.
Farming practices that Monsanto recommends make matters even worse; this includes killing pasture grass with glyphosate and immediately putting stock into graze. (Likely spraying while stock is there)
In dairy this means that glyphosate would be in milk, cheese and all by products.
Does Fontera test for glyphosate? I dont think so but it is an interesting question. It could likely mean that traces of glyphosate would be in baby formula?
Then its also in your meat from farm produced stock. The health of the stock is very likely affected also.
As I wrote back in February, Monsanto also encourage farmers to use Roundup as a desiccant, to dry out all of their crops so they could harvest them faster.
So Roundup is now routinely sprayed directly on a host of non-GMO crops, including wheat, barley, oats, canola, flax, peas, lentils, soybeans, dry beans, carrots, parsnips, onions, potatoes and sugar cane.
To sum up there is very likely a lot of glyphosate in your food chain coming in small amounts from all those foods we normally eat and no one tests for the chemical!
A few parts per million in your potatoes, onions, meat, breakfast cereals, milk, cooking oils, bread, carrots, sugar etc.
Add it up for one day's meals and maybe thats a lot of parts per million?
We do not know because glyphosate is assumed safe according to our Govt departments who presumably only relate to what Monsanto says to the FDA. The fox is guarding the chickens.
Here are some facts:
Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide, currently with the highest production volumes of all herbicides.
It is used in more than 750 different products for agriculture, forestry, urban, and home applications.
Its use has increased sharply with the development of genetically modified glyphosate-resistant crop varieties.
Glyphosate has been detected in air during spraying, in water, and in food.
There was limited evidence in humans for the carcinogenicity of glyphosate.
Case-control studies of occupational exposure in the USA, 14 Canada,6 and Sweden 7 reported increased risks for non-Hodgkin lymphoma that persisted after adjustment for other pesticides.
The AHS cohort did not show a significantly increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
In male CD-1 mice, glyphosate induced a positive trend in the incidence of a rare tumor, renal tubule carcinoma.
A second study reported a positive trend for haemangiosarcoma in male mice.
Glyphosate increased pancreatic islet-cell adenoma in male rats in two studies.
A glyphosate formulation promoted skin tumors in an initiation-promotion study in mice.
Glyphosate has been detected in the blood and urine of agricultural workers, indicating absorption.
Soil microbes degrade glyphosate to aminomethylphosphoric acid (AMPA).
Blood AMPA detection after poisonings suggests intestinal microbial metabolism in humans.
Glyphosate and glyphosate formulations induced DNA and chromosomal damage in mammals, and in human and animal cells in vitro.
One study reported increases in blood markers of chromosomal damage (micronuclei) in residents of several communities after spraying of glyphosate formulations.
Bacterial mutagenesis tests were negative.
Glyphosate, glyphosate formulations, and AMPA induced oxidative stress in rodents and in vitro.
The Working Group classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans”
One of my pet thoughts is the great number of people that have allergies these days compared to say 50 years ago before glyphosate.
The chemical in the food chain could well be the cause of a number of these health conditions.
Here is an interesting thought, where trade agreements that allow companies to sue countries if legislation used to protect the populations reduces the profits the company had being making!
Why not have the reverse where a company that supplies a product/chemical that is found to be harmful later on, then that company is totally liable for all the costs involved to that country.
That might have a few chemical companies and pharmaceutical companies change their ways.
Latest news; glyphosate also causes antibiotic resistance in harmful bacteria like Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium.
My personal opinion, its the worst gardening chemical currently for gardeners health.
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In India there is a native tree botanically known as, Azadirachta indica, also known as Neem. It is a tree from the mahogany family Meliaceae.
Neem is one of two species in the genus Azadirachta, and is native to India and the Indian subcontinent including Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Neem is a fast-growing tree that can reach a height of 15–20 metres (49–66 ft), and sometime to 35–40 metres (115–131 ft). Evergreen, but in severe drought it may shed most or nearly all of its leaves.
Products made from Neem trees have been used in India for over two millennia for their medicinal properties and many other uses. Neem products are believed by Sidha and Ayurvedic practitioners to be anthelmintic, antifungal, antidiabetic, antibacterial, antiviral, contraceptive and sedative.
Neem Tree oil is cold pressed from the kernels of the Neem Tree and 80% of India's supply of Neem oil is now used by Neem oil soap manufacturers. Although much of it goes to small scale specialty soaps, , large scale producers also use it, mainly because it is cheap.
Additionally it is antibacterial and antifungal, soothing and moisturising. Neem Soap can be made with up to 40% Neem oil. Well known brands include Nimglo (available in NZ) which can help with a number of skin conditions.
Once the kernels have been cold pressed, what is left is Neem Cake which is very dark with a distinct Neem Smell.
Some manufactures repeatedly cold press the cake to extract more oil then end result is a light brown coloured Neem Cake which has very little of the Neem benefits and insecticide properties left.
The dark Neem Tree Granules are best by far for using for control of pests and soil conditioning.
In India the Neem Cake is used as a Fertiliser and Soil Conditioner as well as assisting in the control of nematodes and other pests.
Neem Cake has an adequate quantity of NPK in organic form to aid plant growth.
Being a totally botanical product it contains 100% natural NPK content and other essential micro nutrients as it is natural the percentages of the components vary so we have;
N(Nitrogen 2.0% to 5.0%), P(Phosphorus 0.5% to 1.0%), K(Potassium 1.0% to 2.0%), Ca(Calcium 0.5% to 3.0%), Mg(Magnesium 0.3% to 1.0%), S(Sulphur 0.2% to 3.0%), Zn(Zinc 15 ppm to 60 ppm), Cu(Copper 4 ppm to 20 ppm), Fe (Iron 500 ppm to 1200 ppm), Mn (Manganese 20 ppm to 60 ppm).
Neem Tree Granules are rich in both Sulphur compounds and bitter limonoids.
According to research calculations, Neem cake tends to make soil more fertile due to an ingredient that blocks soil bacteria from converting nitrogenous compounds into nitrogen gas.
It is a nitrification inhibitor and prolongs the availability of nitrogen to both short duration and long duration crops. This means improved growth when used at planting time.
Neem seed cake also reduce alkalinity in soil, as it produces organic acids on decomposition.
Being totally natural, it is compatible with soil microbes, improves and rhizosphere microflora and hence ensures fertility of the soil. It does not harm earthworms, in fact they thrive in it.
Neem Tree Granules improves the organic matter content of the soil, helping improve soil texture, water holding capacity, and soil aeration for better root development.
The Neem Tree Granules contains salannin, nimbin, azadirachtin and azadiradione as the major components. Of these, azadirachtin and meliantriol are used as antifeedants while salannin is used as an antifeedant for the housefly in India.
These are the properties that assist in the control of soil insect pests such as nematodes and grass grubs through the anti-feeding properties.
Success in their control will be determined by the amount of oil in the Neem Granules and the way to determine this is by the colour of them. Dark is very good where light brown/tan has less properties.
A interesting aspect with using Neem Tree Granules is their ability to control pest insects in the canopy of some plants.
I believe what transpires is this; you place Neem Tree Granules in the planting hole and on the soil surface when planting seeds or seedlings. (For existing plants you apply them to the root zone of the target plants. )
The Neem Tree Granules break down releasing all the properties previously mention and these are taken up by the roots of the plants.
This means nematodes and other insects attacking the roots will get a dose and stop eating to die of starvation. The properties trans locate up into the foliage of the plant which may effect insect pests feeding on the plant.
The properties are not needed by the plant so it starts converting them to carbohydrates (sugars).
If the plant is very efficient in this then likely there will little or no control on insects pest on the foliage feeding. On the other hand if the plant is lax in this, then there are excellent results in control.
The smell of the granules breaking down on the soil may also work to discourage some insect pests or confuse them as to whether the plant is a host or not.
Plants that they do not work on in regards to control on foliage include beans and cucumbers.
Plants that do have a good degree of control include brassicas, tomatoes, potatoes, citrus, roses and cabbage trees. Landscapers have told me that they have used Neem Tree Granules on many different types of plants in hedge, shelter and general plantings with very good results.
Its a matter of finding out for yourself as to what works in your garden and not.
One reader told me during the week that they were having good results from sprinkling Neem Tree Granules around their plants and seedling even to keeping cats off the gardens.
That is the first time that I have heard of this and likely the smell from the dark Neem Granules breaking down puts the cats off. I would like to hear if others have the same result but I doubt that it would work on all cats.
As you can see there are many benefits for your gardens using this natural product, soil conditioning, building up humus, feeding plants and protecting their roots and maybe their foliage as well.
Keeping cats and maybe vermin away from your plants as an extra benefit.
Look for the product at your garden centre or Mitre 10 called Neem Tree Granules.
Also available in sizes from 750grams to 20Kg bags (some on special from our mail order web site at www.0800466464.co.nz
Also we have fresh stocks of MSM and a new product, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) powder at 500 grams for $25.00
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Citrus is the most popular fruit tree family that gardeners grow in NZ.
In days goneby, on our quarter acre bit of heaven, there would just about always be a lemon tree which was a must for winter colds and sore throats. Likely a grapefruit tree also for breakfast fruit and to make marmalade. For some gardeners the range would extend into oranges and tangelos/mandarins.
In recent times people have started growing their own Lime trees in containers or in warmer areas in the open ground.
As a youngster I would visit my uncle Jack; a second World War returned service man who had been a Desert Rat fighting Rommell. My uncle had an excellent citrus grove of mature trees and likely every variety available in those times. The remarkable thing about his grove was that every tree he had grown from pips.
Most citrus trees once established will bear a main crop each year but have cycles of lessor crops as well, which means that you could have fruit to pick all year round.
One thing that annoys me is the waste from mature trees in gardens, producing so much fruit that the owners cant use and even with giving away to friends, fruit falls and rots while we pay so many dollars a kilo at a green grocers.
I had another example of this recently; a reader from the South Island had been to a Wedding in Tauranga and on the way back in their camper van they stopped off to met me.
They asked if we liked avocados which the answer was yes. They had a box full on board of nice big fruit and gave us a bag full. They told me that there is so many avocado trees growing in peoples gardens that fruit fell to the ground and were run over or mowed.
Here we are paying a few dollars for 3 much smaller avocados which likely are rejects because of their size.
Anyway back to our citrus trees. Feeding citrus, dont waste your money on citrus tree fertiliser or as often called fruit tree fertiliser, it does more harm than good and is only a fast food anyway.
Instead go back to the old sustainable way of feeding your citrus with a good dose of blood & bone in the spring and again in autumn.
If you have chook manure spread that also from trunk to drip line, if no chook manure either use sheep manure pellets or Yates Dynamic Lifter.
The blood & bone etc should be covered with a good compost that has NOT been made from green waste. (Ask, if the bag doesn't say and if in doubt leave)
Every month from bud/flower time till harvest sprinkle a little Fruit & Flower Power under the tree.
This is magnesium and potash in balance and very important to obtain nice green foliage and juicy fruit with good flavour. If you have a citrus that has dry fruit then you must apply Fruit & Flower Power regularly to put it right.
A question often asked is it correct to remove the flowers on a new citrus tree?
The reason for this is to encourage general growth rather than a few fruit early in the tree's life so larger crops will be available quicker.
Most citrus trees are grafted onto root stock to help overcome wet feet problems and give fruit quicker as the grafted material is mature wood..
The exception to this is Meyer Lemons which are often cutting grown and hence cheaper to buy than grafted.
If you have a grafted tree you can distinctly see the graft just a few inches above the soil line.
The root stock used to be from a unproductive but hardy type called Bitter Orange and as far as I am aware it is still used. It has very thorny branches and small bitter fruit. Sometimes a new growth will develop on the root stock and when this happens it must be cut off.
These growths will grow straight up very quickly and in some cases when left on the graft will be choked off and die losing you your tree.
There is only one sensible way to prune a citrus tree and that is by total removal of branches off the trunk to open up the tree. Cutting the ends off branches allows for new branches to develop on the branch making for a denser tree more prone to disease and pests.
If you have a tree that you have to cut the end off a branch rather than the whole branch then later when the side branches develop you can cut them off at source. That will keep it under control.
If you have a tree that is spindly and would benefit from more branches then simply nip a couple of centimeters off the end of the few branches to encourage more branching.
Citrus trees can be plagued by several pests the worst of these being whitefly.
Other pests include mites, trips, mealy bugs, scale and guava moth grubs.
The very simple way to control all these pests is to sprinkle Neem Tree Granules under the tree from trunk to drip line. I have received this tip from several gardeners who have reported that it takes about 6 weeks or so to rid the tree of pests. So simple and no harm to bees and beneficial insects such as the bright green ladybird that loves to hunt in citrus.
Dependent what the problem pests are and possible re-infestation, likely a 6 monthly application of Neem Tree Granules along with your feed program would be ideal. Additional application if required to clean the tree. This will also take care of borer.
Black sooty mould on your citrus tree indicates an insect problem and to clean off the black stuff spray the tree with Karbyon, leave for 2 days then hose off. Thick layers may require additional treatment.
If you dont remove the mould the tree loses potential energy from the sun as the covered leaves cannot photosynthesize.
There are a few diseases that can effect citrus and in the main these can be prevented or controlled with Liquid Copper and Raingard sprays. It is good gardening practice to spray Liquid Copper and Raingard twice a year as a preventive, doing it in spring and autumn.
Wet feet is the biggest killer of citrus trees and they must always be planted in very free draining soil or higher than the soil level by planting on a mound. The upper root system will then be out of ponding water.
Going into winter you can fortify your citrus trees against wet feet by spraying with Perkfection Supa.
Right now is an excellent time to feed, treat for insect pests and spray your citrus trees.
If you want to plant a new citrus tree, buy now but hold off planting till we get a bit more of the autumn rains.
Ever wondered that when you prepare a bed and plant up seedlings which establish good, but when the bed dries down the seedlings wilt but small young weeds are fine?
Thats because seed grown get deep roots quickly and dont wilt when the top soil dries.
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Every now and then I get excited about a product that will make a big difference to my gardening efforts and this week I am very happy to announce that I have found one.
Firstly let us start back many years ago when I owned gardening shops and we sold lots of a product called Alaska.
Gardeners including myself would dilute this fish emulsion product in water to feed the soil and plants or spray the foliage to deter pest insects while foliage feeding.
From memory the product was brought into NZ from North America by Watkins and we would sell untold bottles because of the improvements it made to plants and gardens.
Later on Yates brought out Watkins and when they condensed down the product lists, removing the 'me too' products, Alaska disappeared.
Alaska Fish Emulsion was made by a firm called Zapata Haynie in North America from fish wastes that originally came from Alaska. Though their product is no longer available in New Zealand to my knowledge they are still selling it in America. According to the Internet their Alaska now is deodorized which is a pity because the smell was one of the benefits of the product.
The new product I recently discovered is made and distributed in NZ by Independent Fisheries Ltd (Christchurch) it is produced from the waste of sustainably harvested fish caught in our clean southern waters.
The company has improved the fish emulsifying process by using an ancient Persian organic farming fertiliser recipe.
The product is called Ocean Grow; it promotes soil microbial life and also the ability to provide nutrients available for both plant root and foliar absorption.
Earthworms also love it which is another way to encourage them into your gardens.
You will remember from my earlier articles about the importance of feeding the soil life to have healthy plants and great gardens.
To manufacture raw fish waste is used, this contains enzymes from the fish gut which digest the fish protein into amino acids suitable for digestion by bacteria (this is usually done inside the fish gut).
Acid is added during the process, the effect being two-fold.
Firstly, as with any fish product with a high bacterial loading, which will tend to ferment, the acid controls fermentation and secondly, the acid breaks down bone and protein from the raw fish and releases water, (hence the term acid hydrolysis and hydrolysate).
Process digestion allows breakdown to a very small particle size, with the exception of a few overs, all of the hydrolysate passes through a 65 micron sieve. The overs are disregarded from this process.
The particle size is important if you are spraying the product as you do not want to spend all day unblocking jets.
It also means the product when it settles will remix quickly with only a small shake of the container.
Ocean Grow is made using a unique process that retains the fish nutrients present in the whole fish (including the head, spine and bones thereby retaining all the great Omega’s) thus making them readily absorbable by roots and foliage.
Fresh raw fish is minced with liquid fish extract and inoculated with a proprietary blend of cultures, vitamins and natural enzymes from the fish gut which digests the fish, breaking it into tiny amino acids. No heat or added water is used in this process which means all the minerals, trace elements, vitamins and hormones remain active.
Ocean Grow can be used as a pest deterent.
Insect pests find their host plants through either smell or radiation reflected from the plant.
If a smelly product which also has the ability to distort the light radiating off the plant, then pests will hopefully ignore the plant and fly on to elsewhere.
I have seen over the years some interesting trials using this aspect and the old Alaska product did greatly help to reduce insects finding garden plants.
Ocean Grow should provide this same prevention aspect and you could add our Neem Tree Oil to the spray to further enhance the two actions, repel and control..
Another aspect comes from the scientific explanation that insects such as aphids, butterfly’s, the diamond back moth etc. have a tubular mouthpart (the proboscis - a bit like a hypodermic needle) which they use for sucking, it is hollow to allow plant juices sucked from the phloem (tissue carrying the organic nutrients) to pass through to the insects digestive system. Oils on plant foliage can block the proboscis and thus act as a deterrent for insects feeding on foliage with an oil coating.
It is thought that this is why fish fertiliser solutions with oil content such as Ocean Grow act as a deterrent to sucking insects such as aphids and butterfly’s.
Like our pure Neem Tree Oil, Ocean grow can prevent damage from rabbits and possiums.
Possums and Rabbits are said to dislike the smell of fish fertiliser or Neem Tree Oil.
The taste of both oils are not nice which also repels them. They can even be sprayed onto fence posts and tree trunks to deter them. It is thought that if you regularly spray your roses with a fish based liquid fertiliser it keeps the possums away because they hate the smell. At the same time you are feeding your roses.
If you Add Raingard to to spray it will prevent the oils from washing off for up to 14 days giving you longer protection. Some birds may also be deterred from eating ripening fruit.
History shows us that cultures like the North America Natives would place a fish in a hole, cover with soil and then place a corn seed into the soil.
The seed would germinate and send roots down into the now decaying fish to produce a strong healthy plant with an excellent harvest at maturity.
We cant stick a fish in the planting hole or under a plant so easy these days but we can gain the same befefits for our vegetables, roses and other garden plants by using Ocean Grow.The product comes in two sizes 500 ml which makes up to 100 litres and 1 litre to make up to 200 litres.
Worth its weight in gold to us gardeners.
According to the manufacture, Ocean Grow is available at garden centres such as Oderings, Kings Plant Barn, GIN (Ican) group of nurseries, California and Nichols.
If your local garden centre or Mitre 10 does not have it ask them to stock it.
I give the product 5 stars.
We have Ocean Grow on mail order at http://www.0800466464.co.nz/15-plant-nutrition?p=3

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March is the first month of Autumn but according to my plants, autumn conditions started in early February which does not bode well to what the next few months will bring us.
It is an interesting situation this gardening season having a very poor spring then through summer till January. After which summer hit for about a month with some very warm/hot conditions but lacking in strong direct sunlight as a result of many hazy days (likely trapping heat) Then in February it was like a fight between the heat tempered by some fairly chilly winds.
I had a call this week from a reader who has been studying sun spots and the effects they have on global weather.
An interesting discussion which would appear that low or no sun spot activity means cold temperatures and a possible mini ice age. Lots of solar activity tends to create the reverse.
The current solar cycle (number 24) ends in 2020 when a the new cycle number 25 begins.
It would appear that we may have peaked with sunspot activity about now and predictions are that there will be less activity heading to no activity around about 2020 which would indicate some chilly times ahead.
The whole thing can be very confusing as to what is natural and what maybe influenced by mankind. In my book I think I would rather prefer natural no matter what that means to the possible effects mankind has on the climate or this Geo-engineering thing.
We have had a couple of milder winters but poorer summers its as if the seasons are becoming less distinct; while people in our senior years can relate to hard frosts in winter, for instance, coming out of school at lunchtime to see frost still thick on the ground especially in shaded areas. Yet on the other hand we had lovely long hot summers. (I am referring to Palmerston North area, and realise its not the same everywhere in NZ)
Plants tell us what we cant see or realise. For instance about 40 years ago I could grow passion fruit vines in the open, in good draining soil and have ample fruit in summer. In winter I would throw sacks over the vines to protect them from frosts. In more recent years I really struggle to grow a passion fruit vine outside without the help of a glasshouse or shelter. I put this down to milder springs and summers.
My phone conversation has lead me to think maybe we could be heading for some cold times.
No matter what the weather makers throw at us one thing is for certain the day light hours are decreasing and that is one factor that plants really relate to.
March is normally the last month to plant up vegetables for harvest later in winter.
Taking advantage of the light hours and warmth still available you can get good growth towards maturity as the light/growing times diminish.
It really is getting a bit late in many areas to start vegetables off by seed so buying seedlings is the best option.
Vegetable seedlings of foliage plants (brassicas, lettuce etc) need to be young plants in their punnets, not large plants which likely have been stressed already. Stressed plants dont mature, they go to seed.
Often when you plant out seedlings from punnets they collapse initially then slowly pick themselves up and start growing.
You can reduce this stress situation by spraying the seedlings with Vaporgard which reduces loss of moisture from foliage and helps balance out the potential root damage.
Prepare your soil or raised garden/container with a good amount of food such as chicken manure, any animal manures, blood & bone, sheep manure pellets and garden lime.
Good food will stimulate good growth and that is what we want, to take advantage of autumn conditions.
In the planting holes for the seedlings place a little of each of the following, Rok Solid, BioPhos and Neem Granules.
If planting out brassicas check the seedlings before planting and rub off any yellow eggs on the leaves as these are caterpillar eggs.
To keep white butterflies and moths from laying more eggs use the crop cover mesh over hoops so they cant reach the plants.
This will also stop birds and cats from doing damage.
Keep the soil moist by light watering till autumn rains take over. We are now seeing dew in the mornings so that means there is less watering to do overall.
Strawberry plants are running now and that means you have free new plants to use or give away later on.
There is nothing to do other than direct them to areas of clear soil so they can root up.
The time to lift and re-organise your strawberries is about May.
If you are wanting to grow tomatoes through the winter in a glasshouse now is the time to take cuttings of existing plants. The laterals on the plants are ideal for this.
Russian Red and other cool temperature varieties are best as they will produce pollen in the lower temperatures of winter.
Capsicums and hot pepper plants in containers can be moved into your glasshouse or similar to protect them through the winter and continue harvesting them.
Open ground grown plants maybe lifted carefully after spraying with Vaporgard to pot up and keep growing.
Talking about Vaporgard you could start thinking about frost protection of tender plants and spray them soon.
A sprinkling of Fruit and Flower Power around them will also assist in toughening up the plants for winter.
If you want a nice show of winter flowering plants now is the time to get them in.
Unlike vegetable seedlings you can now go for the over grown ones in punnets or colour spots as that is what you want, for them to flower.
Some sheep manure pellets and blood & bone are ideal under the plants along with a little Rok Solid.
Spring bulb time is now with new seasons stocks in the garden centres.
If you are in drought situations or with water restrictions delay planting out till the autumn rains come.
Otherwise the sooner in after the soil temperatures have drop to 10 degrees or lower.
If growing in containers place the pots in a more shaded area getting only early of late sun so the bulbs will not cook.
Later as winter comes on they can then be relocated into full sun areas for flowering in spring.
Place some Rok Solid under each bulb at planting time as you get better flowers.
That was a tip from a daffodil hobbyist than grows competition daffodils.
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My articles for many years have had a thread running through them; Namely, Gardening is Healthy.
Gardening is getting close to nature, it has a calming effect, relieves stress and you are rewarded by your efforts. Gardening is good exercise for both body and mind.
Gardening gets you outside into the fresh air and through the sunlight gives your body the Vitamin D it needs to be healthy. (As long as you dont cover up all the time with sunscreens)
Garden practices, being natural without the use of man made chemicals, creates healthy soil and healthy plants, which when applied to your vegetables and fruit, makes your immune system strong and your body healthy as you consume them as part of your food chain.
If more people gardened, the health of our citizens would greatly improve and waiting lists for hospital treatments would shrink. (Like they were 50 odd years ago)
There is a problem when this happens because food producers and pharmaceutical companies would not make so much money out of us and they would either have to find new jobs or fight against us making our selves healthy.
This week I received an news item from America which is amazing to say the least. It reads:

'As the people continue to walk away from the broken medical and agricultural/food systems, like any abusive relationship, the abuser will do anything to maintain their waning control.
Organic and non-GMO food markets have exploded in the last five years so much so that any corporation wishing to not follow the trend risks financial hardship or ruin.
In addition, pharmaceutical companies are feeling the strain as less people want their toxic medications and crippling side effects. In an attempt to curb this mass rush for the exits, psychiatry has green lighted a public relations push to spread awareness about their new buzzword “orthorexia nervosa”.
CNN, Fast Company, Popular Science, and other top outlets have all began to trumpet the talking points on cue recently.
“Orthorexia nervosa is a label designated to those who are concerned about eating healthy. Characterized by disordered eating fueled by a desire for "clean" or "healthy" foods, those diagnosed with the condition are overly pre-occupied with the nutritional makeup of what they eat.
In short, if you turn your back on low quality, corporate food containing known cancer causing toxic additives, and a rich history of dishonesty rooted in a continuous “profits over people” modus operandi…then you have a mental illness.
The cherry on top is that if you have the pseudo-science labeled disorder of orthorexia nervosa, you will be prescribed known toxic, pharmaceutical drugs from some of the same conglomerate corporations that you are trying to avoid by eating healthy in the first place.
Orthorexia has not yet found its way into the latest edition of the psychiatric bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), yet is commonly being lumped in with other eating disorders.
Stepping back and looking at the ones pushing this label on us shows highly questionable motives. Psychiatry as a whole is deeply in bed with a pharmaceutical industry that makes the drugs to “treat” every one of these “disorders”.
It is often these companies that are wielding influence behind the scenes to invent more mental health categories with their toxic products as the answer.
This latest media push to popularize orthorexia as a mental disorder with a goal to marginalize or derail the food revolution appears to have been dead on arrival.' End.

Reference http://www.jeffereyjaxen.com/blog/officials-declare-eating-health-a-mental-disorder

Orthorexia comes from Greek orthos, “correct or right”, plus orexis, “appetite”.

Would you believe that? People that have the common sense to grow and eat healthy food because it keeps/makes them healthy, active and mentally astute are labeled as having an eating disorder because pharmaceutical and agriculture companies are loosing market share. Tough.
The Food Act which currently is being fast tracked through Government is placing more controls and regulations on food, reducing your rights and looking after the corporations under the pretext of food safety!
I had the privilege this week to be visited by a retired 86 year old agricultural worker who has been collecting data on his vegetable garden performance and the many commercial agriculture operations in his area of Rata and his expertise.
Commercial growers are suffering with reduced returns because they are not getting the volume of produce they normally obtain.
I was shown a pile of newspaper clippings most of which were from farming publications and light readings taken by this gentleman which confirm the amount of direct sunlight needed for successful vegetables and fruit growing is being reduced.
The reason he told me is what he called strange Vapor Trails that progressively turn the clear blue sky to a hazy blue, deflecting sunlight while trapping heat.
I was shown a series of photos that he had taken over a day showing exactly how this transpires.
Here is a man that has spent his life growing commercial crops, according to him just about bathing in chemicals in the process because protection was not even thought of years ago.
But he is healthy, alert and doing well because he grows all his own vegetables and fruit naturally for his own home consumption. Because of this he has likely avoided the damage the chemicals should have done to his health.
Reminds me of a Chinese family of Market Gardeners that had acres of vegetables growing yet well protected by their home was a nice size vegetable garden.
When asked why have a private garden when you can walk out into the fields and pick vegetables to eat. He looked at me for a few moments, likely summing me up, then he said “no too dangerous for family”
One bit of good news this week in the DomPost said that a report by the local government and environmental select committee was tabled in Parliament in response to a petition of nearly 6600 people in 2008.
The report says that the EPA should reassess neonicotinoids (the insecticide such as Confidor).
The EU has placed controls on its use in member countries (And being sued by Bayer for doing so; how can a company be allowed to sue the EU or a country? Sounds like TTP stuff.)
Honey bees and Bumble bees are badly effected by this chemical family as we showed in last weeks article. Hopefully they will be sensible and either ban or strictly control these dangerous insecticides, especially in regards to the home garden market.
On the brighter note now is the time to plant your winter vegetables out but if buying seedlings of vegetable plants look for the smaller ones in punnets.
I was in one of the chain store garden departments this week and saw vegetable seedlings that had been knocked down in price but if planted they would be useless as they would just go to seed. They were over grown in their punnets and stressed.
Good garden shops would have composted them.
Small is good in vegetable seedling and you can grow them on at home till ready to plant out. Use hoops and crop cover over brassicas seedlings to keep birds and white butterflies off. Happy Healthy Gardening for Autumn.
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Recently I have bemoaned the weather conditions of the current gardening season and how unusual weather patterns with lack of strong direct sunlight as a result of hazy skies.
One Dunedin reader emailed me to say rubbish its been the best gardening season ever and some crops have done far better than normal!
Looks like gardeners will need to uproot and move to Southland where the air is fresh and clear, where vegetables, potatoes, roses, cherries and tulips grow the best by far.
I was in Wellington this week and visited a friend who is a retired plantsman. They live on Oriental parade up the side of a cliff overlooking the harbor with a million dollar view.
The cliff, many years ago was terraced out to accommodate all the houses and part of this terracing allowed my friend to have a couple of nice size vegetable gardens and a small glasshouse.
I looked at the sky and saw a lovely deep blue, I looked at his tomatoes and sweet corn all growing well and normal. No stretching, no stunted growth as I have in my gardens and similarly reported by many gardeners from other parts of the country.
Ample direct full sunlight and his only problem is keeping the soil moist. So all I can do is ask how come the skies are not hazy over Wellington as they are in many other parts of NZ? Has the Govt past some legislation to prevent haze over the Capital? Certainly a mystery!
This week a groundsman from a school in the north island phoned to tell me about the success he has had with their roses. Because of the poor spring early summer his roses (like mine) took a hammering and the stress caused leaf diseases such as black spot along with poor flowering.
So a few weeks back he gave all the roses a dose of Ocean Solids and Rok Solid, watered them in and according to him it was only a week or so and out came new healthy growths.
Now the roses are looking a treat going into autumn. Feedback like this is really good value.
Many gardeners are complaining about the lack of honey bees and bumble bees in their gardens.
The logic cause is some insecticides sold and used without consideration to our pollinators which are being killed as a result.
The honey bee was firstly hit by the varroa mite taking out likely all the feral honey bees in the country, then along comes Confidor to further destroy the bees.
Bumblebees are not affected by the varroa mites but their numbers have dramatically decreased in my garden and accordingly reported in many other peoples gardens.
This week I had confirmation on what I had suspected the reasons for their low numbers, I quote;
'The scientists fed bumblebees neonicotinoid at levels commonly occurring in agricultural concerns and then measured how it accumulated in their brains. They found that the insecticide impaired brain cell function in the bees, causing them difficulty with such tasks as realizing that flower scents imply food and being able to find their way back home after foraging.
Such problems impacted whole colonies, the team found.
By providing nests with the same amount of neonicotinoid in sugar water in a cup, the researchers determined that bumblebee colonies that had been exposed to the insecticide fared poorly in the number of bees in their nests as well as in the size and condition of the nests themselves.
"Our research demonstrates beyond doubt that the level of neonicotinoids generally accepted as the average level present in the wild causes brain dysfunction and colonies to perform poorly when consumed by bumblebees," said Dr. Chris Connolly, of the Dundee School of Medicine, in a statement.
Overall, the team documented that low levels of neonicotinoids caused a 55 percent drop in live bees; a 71 percent reduction in healthy brood cells; and a 57 percent drop in the total mass of a nest.
"This is not proof that neonicotinoids are solely responsible for the decline in insect pollinators," said Connolly, "but a clear linear relationship is now established.
We can now be confident that at these levels, neonicotinoids disrupt brain function, bee learning and the ability to forage for food and so limit colony growth”'
The reference.

https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/bumblebees-brain-impaired-widely-used-insecticide

It is about time the EPA, ERMA, MAF banned the sale of neonicotinoid insecticides in New Zealand including the ones for the Home Garden Market, Yates Confidor, Yates Lawn Pest Control.
If we lose our bumble bees in our gardens the world becomes a sorrier place and our food crops that require pollinators suffer badly.
It would be good to see garden shops in NZ make a stand as has happened in the UK and in America by refusing to stock these insecticides, they are not needed as there are many safer alternatives.
There is one aspect about the weather not being more normal is that insect pest populations dont multiply as quickly as they would do under normal summer conditions. On the other hand disease problems become more troublesome.
February is usually the worst month for many insect pests, hot and dry with ample host plants growing in home gardens and commercial operations.
When you find an insect pest such as caterpillars, whitefly, leaf hoppers, vegetable bugs etc on your plants and you spray with an insecticide of your choice, dont just treat the plants you have seen the insects on. Check all plants and weeds in the area for the same pest and where found spray also.
If you dont you will find that there will be a re-infestation happening very quickly.
Sometimes you just have to spray regularly because over the fence there are thousands of the pests on plants. (Which your neighbors are not trying to control)
As the winter comes on then populations will naturally drop but then many of your crops will also be finished and only the winter vegetables to care for.
If an insect pest cant get to its host plant you have saved your self a lot of problems trying to control.
The new insect mesh called Crop Cover (by me) that is 4 metres wide and costs about $5.00 a metre length is ideal to put over your crop or even over branches of a fruiting tree to keep both insects and birds off the crop.
Once the flowering is done and hopefully a few bumblebees are available to pollinate then use the crop cover. It will not harm bumblebees. It would keep codlin moth, guava moth and other pests off the crop thus protected.
Alternatives which can be used include the following safe ones, Neem Tree Granules, Neem Tree Oil, Key Pyrethrum, diatomaceous earth and Liquid Sulphur (for spider mites only).
None of these would harm bumblebees unless they were sprayed directly especially with pyrethrum.
All spraying should be done just prior to dusk when the bees have gone home for the night.
Pyrethrum has a very short life of about 2 hours in UV light so less possible harm to beneficial insects next day. Neem Oil on the other hand does not kill any insect instead it (generally) prevents insects from eating once they have consumed a little of the oil. As beneficial insects don't eat our plants they are not affected.

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The Chinese have a saying; 'Have an Interesting Life' which on the surface sounds like a nice thing to say to someone but the real meaning is for the person to have many trials and tribulations which makes for an interesting life even if it is a hard one.
This current gardening year is certainly a very interesting one and looking at the recent night time temperatures we could already be into autumn like conditions.
This makes for the shortest summer ever and very bad for us gardeners.
My phone and email has had a constant stream of gardening problems much of which I would put down to insufficient DIRECT sunlight.
Cubits such as pumpkins having lots of male flowers and very few females and even hand pollinated fruit not growing then falling off.
No flowers on some other plants, or petals that form but fail to open, one lady complained that she has a rose that has opened but not fully as normal.
Seedlings bolting and going to seed prematurely adds to current problems.
With the rapid change to lower temperatures two problems arise, firstly its very easy to over water and kill plants that cant stand wet feet, sprays of Perkfection will help control those wet weather type diseases.
Powdery Mildew will abound on cubits, pansies and other plants which will make the problem of light and getting energy from the sun far greater and shortening the life of the plants concerned.
Two remedies, place a tablespoon of baking soda into a litre of warm water to dissolve and then add one mil of Raingard, spray the susceptible plants under and over the foliage.
Baking Soda will prevent or control powdery mildew, repeat 2 weekly.
The alternative is Liquid Sulphur with Raingard.
Rust will also like these conditions so spray the plants when rust appears with potassium permanganate, quarter a teaspoon to a litre of water, spray as needed.
Blight on tomatoes is another disease that like the current conditions and a spray of Liquid Copper with Raingard all over the plants every 14 days will help prevent and control. You can add the Perkfection once a month to give further protection and help keep the plants producing longer.
Dont stop feeding your tomatoes either as ample good tomato food with plenty of potash will extend the fruiting season.
This current gardening year has been the worse one I have experienced in over 60 years of gardening which I suppose makes it the most interesting. Even my sweet corn is really struggling at this time when in January/February it should be thriving.
I pity commercial growers who must be struggling with the unusual conditions.
I know many of you have suffered drought conditions but here in Palmerston North we have had no water restrictions so water is not a problem and recently we have had good prolonged rainfall as well.
The main problem has been lack of natural direct sunlight, instead getting hazy skies which, no way in all my life time, can be said to be normal or natural!
Weeds are always a problem for gardeners that cant get on top of them and I only suggest herbicides when there is no easy alternative to the problem but to keep them away from food crop areas.
Instead I prefer to recommend more natural alternatives which can still cause some harm to soil life but not as dangerous to your health as the chemical ones.
For instance common salt or agriculture grade 11 salt is ideal for controlling weeds where you dont want plants to grow other than well established trees or shrubs. On pathways, drives, cobbles and waste areas, throw on the salt, lightly water and kill the weeds.
Where you have weeds in gardens that can be selectively sprayed use vinegar or cooking oil on a hot sunny day but take care not to spray preferred plants.
A weed eater is also a good way to keep weeds under control.
Glyphosate is the most extensively used weed killer on the planet with millions of tons used annually. It is available in several brand names other than the original Roundup.
Monsanto invented the herbicide glyphosate and brought it to market under the trade name Roundup in 1974. But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that the use of Roundup surged, because of genetically engineered seeds to grow food crops that could tolerate high doses of Roundup.
With the introduction of these new GE seeds, farmers could now easily control weeds on their corn, soy, cotton, canola, sugar beets and alfalfa crops--crops that thrived while the weeds around them were wiped out by Roundup.
Eager to sell more of its flagship herbicide, Monsanto also encouraged farmers to use Roundup as a desiccant, to dry out all of their crops so they could harvest them faster. So Roundup is now routinely sprayed directly on a host of non-GMO crops, including wheat, barley, oats, canola, flax, peas, lentils, soybeans, dry beans, carrots, parsnips, onions, potatoes and sugar cane.
I was made aware of the this recently from a retired carrot grower who said it is common practice when a crop is ready to harvest to spray with glyphosate which kills the top, prevents the crop from going to seed before its harvested. Root crops store food/chemicals in their roots which is what you and I are eating.
NZFSA does not test produce for glyphosate yet overseas where labs do test for the chemical it is found in high concentrations. Monsanto recently appealed to the FDA to increase the allowable level of glyphosate in produce.
Monsanto has falsified data on Roundup’s safety, and marketed it to parks departments and consumers as “environmentally friendly” and “biodegradable," to encourage its use it on roadsides, playgrounds, golf courses, schoolyards, lawns and home gardens. A French court ruled those marketing claims amounted to false advertising.
In the nearly 20 years of intensifying exposure, scientists have been documenting the health consequences of Roundup and glyphosate in our food, in the water we drink, in the air we breathe and where our children play.
They've found that people who are sick have higher levels of glyphosate in their bodies than healthy people.
Here is a short list of what health problems glyphosate can cause; Alzheimer’s disease:
Anencephaly (birth defect): Autism: Birth defects: Depression: (Glyphosate disrupts chemical processes that impact the production of serotonin, an important neurotransmitter that regulates mood, appetite and sleep. Serotonin impairment has been linked to depression.) Diabetes: Heart disease: Obesity: Reproductive problems: Respiratory illnesses. Reference and to see more goto;
https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/monsanto%E2%80%99s-roundup-enough-make-you-sick

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Summer time normally means hot sunny days, cloudless blue skies and if you are lucky a good patch of rain every so often.
This year what we are getting is certainly a lot of hot days, not much in the blue sky department, instead cloudy to hazy blue skies and a sad lack of rain for many parts of the country.
Every now and then we get some chilly winds to add to the mixed pot of weather in my part of New Zealand.
I have also noticed some of my deciduous fruit trees already changing colour in their leaves as if its autumn already. Maybe the hazy and cloudy skies reducing the direct sunlight is bringing about the conditions of autumn out of season?
I have a conservatory that is used as a glasshouse and over it I have Quarantine cloth to prevent psyllids getting into the tomatoes. Last year I also grew snake beans in this house and harvested a good crop.
This year the beans have grown well but not produced flowers or beans.
I can see where the flower should develop but does not because the light is not strong enough to make it happen. No flowers no fruit. The quarantine cloth gives 25% shade factor and last summer it was still plenty of light level to produce flowers. This year not so, why? I can only assume its the blasted haze instead of clear blue skies. (Some say it causes a 20% reduction of sunlight. This means at 45% shade not flowers)
Also here we are in February, normally the best summer month of the year and what is happening with my pumpkins? Lots of male flowers and hardly a female flower. This is normal at the beginning of the season when the pumpkins run they produce male flowers and hardly any females.
As the light hours increase along with the strength of sunlight the reverse applies lots of females and not many males. They are all growing out of raised gardens as described last week and they have ample water so once again its lack of strong direct sunlight.
I dont know about what its like in your gardens and as far as I can tell the commercial growers are also having a hard time. Just look at the price of tomatoes over $3.00 a kg when at this time of the year they should be about a $1.00 a kg. It means that the home gardeners whose plants should be producing lots of tomatoes right now, they are not getting what was normal.
Price of produce is likely to be high in the coming months so it would pay to start planting up seedlings for autumn/winter. Having a good vegetable garden is like having savings for a rainy day. You never know when you might need your home grown food in the event of emergencies or for plain savings and better health.
Drought times, what can you do?
Firstly when soil dries out it creates a surface tension that water cannot easily penetrate.
This is easy to see in lawns which are watered every now and then during a drought.
Patches dry out and the grasses brown off because the water does not enter the soil in that spot instead it either sits there to evaporate or it runs off to where it will sink in.
The commonly seen result is a dead patch with nice green grass around the edges, we call it dry spot.
Some gardeners think its insect pests causing the problem and generally waste their money treating for them. Birds maybe digging holes to get dormant porina but other grubs are likely to be deep and out of reach of birds or poisons.
Dry patch can be in gardens also causing water stress in plants, dropping leaves and fruit.
Sometimes you may have one side of a bush die while the other side remains fairly healthy.
Two possible reasons, one side is drier than the other so that side dies off; or its the side with the prevailing wind which saps the moisture out of the leaves on that side.
For soil areas that do not accept water fill your watering can with warm water and a good squirt of dish washing liquid. Lather up with your hand and apply the soapy water to the dry area. It breaks surface tension and allows water to enter. Can be used on container plants and hanging baskets as well.
Now when you water it will go down into the root zone where its needed.
After giving a good watering conserve the moisture by placing a mulch over the bare soil. Sawdust, grass clippings, mulching cloth (which I see is available from some garden shops.)
During a hot day you may see larger plants such as tomatoes or pumpkins wilting even though the soil in the root zone is nice and moist.
The reason for this is the plant cant move water to the outer leafs fast enough to reduce the transpiration loss from the foliage. Later in the day towards dusk the leaves return to normal.
To overcome this and for any preferred plants you wish to protect against drought, spray the foliage under and over with Vaporgard. It will reduce the moisture loss by about 30%.
Excellent also on container plants that dry out faster than open ground.
The black patch under tomatoes is caused by insufficient moisture at fruit set time to move the calcium.
If you are wanting to plant out seedlings of vegetables only buy seedlings on the smaller size as larger ones could also have become stressed if they had dried out in punnets. This could mean that they go to seed after you plant them which is a waste of time and money.
With flowers its ok for the bigger plants as you want them to flower.
Grow the vegetables seedlings on to a bigger size keeping mix moist and spray them all over with Vaporgard which will reduce any stress when transplanted. Soak the container well before disturbing then plant out. Brassicas should have Neem granules in the planting hole and on the soil surface and for further protection crop cover over hoops to prevent white butterflies landing and laying eggs.
Further drought proof your existing plants by giving them a good sprinkling of Fruit & Flower Power as the potash in the product hardens up growth giving protection against droughts.
A spray over your preferred plants, vegetables and fruit trees of Magic Botanic Liquid every couple of weeks will certainly help their health and stamina. If you have spray the plants with Vaporgard then add Raingard to the MBL so the two films emerge allowing the plant to absorb the MBL.
I would like to thank Mike Campbell of Lower Hutt for taking the interest in reading my articles and writing into the Editor of the Tribune. Its good to see a member of the NWO is on the ball. Mike didnt like my comments about aluminium found in hail and rainwater and used the standard reply that 30 to 40% of arable land on the earth is less fertile because of it.
Mike states 'super-secret plans to kill us all from Geo-engineering and fluoride' ? I have re-read my past articles and no where can I find where I wrote that? Maybe Mike knows something most people are not aware of, maybe you should come clean and share, Mike?
Aluminum (Al) is a very abundant element making up on average 7% of the weight of the earth crust as alumino-silicate minerals
What we do not need is aluminium raining down out of the sky and hazy skies (how ever they got to be that way..) that interfere with crops in the home garden or commercially grown.
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This week we are going to talk about making and growing vegetables in a raise garden that I designed some years ago. But before that how about a couple of tips.
A number of people have contacted me recently in regards to zucchini and pumpkins rotting while still small. The reason is; the female fruits did not get pollinated therefore they will rot off even though they grow a bit. Sometimes they go yellow and stay like that for sometime before rotting.
The reason they are not pollinated is lack of bumblebees, the lack of bees is because they have died as a result of chemical sprays, neonicotinoids (a class of pesticides directly linked to the mass die-off of honeybees, bumblebees and native bees) Sold into the home garden market as Confidor.
A lot of gardeners including myself are very annoyed that these neonicotinoids are so ready available and the harm they cause to our bees.
You need to hand pollinate; so each morning look at your pumpkin/zucchini plants for female flowers, these have the embryo fruit behind the petals and the centre of the flower looks a bit like a small brain called a stigma. This is connected to the ovary.
If there are females then find a male flower which has a stamen in the centre of the flower covered in pollen.
Carefully remove the flower and then take the petals off exposing the stamen. Next wipe that across the centre of the female flower (Stigma) Job is done, fruit sets.
Here is an interesting one if you burn yourself cover the burn as soon as possible with common flour.
Flour has a heat absorbent property and also has a strong antioxidant property, thus it helps in burn patients if applied within 15 minutes.
I am told it is very soothing and can prevent scaring, leave on for 10 minutes.
Many pest insects are rapidly breeding with the hot dry conditions.
Leaf hoppers, whitefly, scale, mites, mealy bugs etc. Where you have a number of pests spray late in the day with Neem Tree oil and Key Pyrethrum combined and place Neem Tree granules in the root zone area of the affected plants.
Even if there is no major out break a preventive spray once a week will help greatly to maintain control.
Now about Raised Gardens; some years ago I built a raised garden using sheets of galvanised roofing iron with 100 x 100 posts. The sheets I used were 1.8 metres long. The standard width of these are 85cm. To build you need 3 of the 1.8 sheets of roofing iron; one of which you cut in half for the two ends. Two 100 x 100 fence posts 1.8m these are cut in half. Plus a packet of roofing screws.
Once the posts are cut into half you paint them all over with acrylic paint, allow to dry and then apply a second coat. The wood will have being tanalised and the paint helps seal the chemicals in.
The posts are only a few centimeters longer than the width of the roofing iron.
Lay a 1.8 sheet of iron onto one of the posts so that the iron's end is at the edge of the post covering the post.
The bottom of the iron should also line up with the bottom of the post. Now in place; drill holes through the iron and then screw your roofing screws though the iron into the post.
Now line up another post at the other end of the iron sheet and repeat. Move this to the place where you are going to have your raised garden. Repeat with the other sheet of 1.8 iron and the remaining 2 painted posts.
Once in place have someone hold the first sheet and posts upright so you can drill and screw one of half sheets to the post.
The 1.8 sheet and the 90cm will be butted to each other on the post at right angles. Then the other 1.8 and post to complete one end.
The final half sheet is screwed onto the other end. Making a oblong raised garden 1.8 metres long by 90 cm wide with posts a little higher than the iron.
The posts are not dug in and the whole structure can be easily unscrewed and removed.
Where to place your raised garden? It can be on any surface, lawn, existing vegetable garden or concrete. The main aspect on placement is to try and get one long side facing due north where it will get full sun. One important aspect is the raised garden should be at least 2 metres away from the drip line of any trees or shrubs.
Much further if possible because the roots of the plants will find their way to your raised garden and then create a mass of fibrous feeder roots, which will fill the whole of the garden over a couple of years.
If through lack of space you have to place it near a tree/shrub then pour a concrete base to sit your raised garden on.
Filling your raised garden starts off by placing all your organic waste into it such as lawn clippings, hedge trimmings, branches and pruning bits along with any spent potting mix or compost from old containers. Other materials such as leaves, sawdust, food scraps etc can be used.
Next if you have your own home made compost place that across the previous.
Now compress what you have done by standing on it and tramping down. The height when completed should be about up to half the height of the raised garden. (40 to 45 cm)
Next place a few layers of cardboard over the material.
Over this place a few bags of purchased compost that should take the height of the fill to about 50cm.
Then we place animal manures such as chicken manure over the compost. If using other than chicken manure they may contain weed seeds so then place a few layers of newspaper over the manure layer.
For the minerals sprinkle Rok Solid and Ocean Solids. Also dolomite and gypsum and if you are not going to grow either potatoes or tomatoes give a good dusting of garden lime.
Sheep manure pellets, Neem tree granules, vermicasts, BioPhos, OrganiBor (For Boron) before covering with about another 10cm of purchased compost. The total fill height will now be about 60cm.
This allows for a wind break and a man made micro-climate.
You can now plant seeds or seedlings directly into this top layer.
The first time I made this type of raised garden I planted some seedlings of silverbeet and some dwarf bean seeds (in January) it was only about 3 weeks later I was harvesting big silverbeet leaves and another couple of weeks later beans.
The sun from the north heats the iron which warms the growing medium and the air gap inside the raised garden.
Wind passes over so seedlings are not buffered around.
To prevent birds or cats getting into the garden you can lay either netting or plastic bird netting over the top with a nail into each post to keep tight.
If you want to extend your raised garden simply obtain two more sheets of iron and 2 more posts (1 cut in half) remove one end off and screw the two new sheets to the existing post and move the end sheet and two new posts at the new end.
A brace should then be placed across the two middle posts.
You can work around the raised garden from all sides, its age-proofed so there is no bending. When a crop is harvested simply add more goodies and compost and plant up again.
Enjoy your own home grown, healthy produce.
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Its been a busy time with lots of interesting emails and phone calls from readers that have noticed unusual things in their gardens and skies. (let me know if you come across anything)
For now let us continue with the theme of growing some healthy food in containers.
Last week we talked about growing wheat grass with all the known minerals and elements so that maximum goodness for your health can be obtained by juicing the young grass or making green smoothies.
All fruit and vegetables have different benefits so if we grow a range of edible produce naturally (without man made fertilisers and chemicals) incorporated into the growing medium, all the known minerals and elements, we will have some very tasty produce which will help you and your family maintain very good health.
When growing in containers you have to consider root room so the depth of the container should be about 15 to 20 cm deep or more.
Any large plastic pots will do as well as using 20 litre plastic Jerry cans with the top cut off.
My favorite is polystyrene boxes which are used in the fish industry for transporting fish.
Once used they cannot be used again for that purpose so are either sold cheaply or given away by wholesale fish suppliers or supermarkets.
These boxes come with lids and can vary in size but there are two more common sizes that have good depth and ideal for planting a few plants in each one.
For instance you can have half a dozen lettuce or silver beet, 2 or 3 brassicas, a dozen dwarf bean plants, about 18 onions, 20 or more carrots, a pile of spring onions. Also about 8 strawberry plants.
For plants like Zucchini I prefer to use a 20 litre container which is also ideal for pumpkins, dwarf tomatoes, cucumbers, egg plant, capsicum and peppers.
The first thing to do with the polystyrene box is to drill a few drainage holes in the bottom.
For the growing medium use purchased compost that is not from re-cycled green waste (you do not want herbicide residuals in your food) Use either Daltons or Oderings compost as both are good value.
(There are likely others but I am not familiar with their brands and there are ones that can be a waste of money and be expensive as well)
Fill the box or your container two thirds full with the compost and then you can add the additional foods and minerals.
If you have chook manure then place a layer of that across the compost, an alternative would be Sheep Manure Pellets or Yates Dynamic Lifter Plant food, add a sprinkling of blood & bone..
For minerals you add Rok Solid and Ocean Solids, a little BioPhos, Garden Lime, gypsum and dolomite. If you have a worm farm add some vermicasts and worms.
Then cover these with more compost up to about 15mm from rim.
This allows an area for watering.
You can now plant your seedlings or seeds.
Place the tray in a sunny situation and water (ideally with non chlorinated water)
If you do not have a filter on your hose tap to remove chlorine then fill a watering can with water and stand for 24 hours in a sunny position to aid in the removal of chlorine.
It is now a matter of keeping the medium moist while the plants are growing and about every two weeks spraying the foliage with Magic Botanic Liquid.
For those that have more room you can grow any fruit trees in containers ranging from about 50 litres to 100 litres. This means using plastic rubbish bins or plastic 200 litre drums cut in half.
Once again the same process for filling the container after drainage holes have been drilled.
Citrus are ideal for this; from limes to oranges you choose your favorites.
I have about a dozen different citrus growing in containers very nicely.
Feijoa self fertile types such as Unique are good value, in fact any fruit tree will do well enough as long as you root prune every 3 years.
Next week we will look at Raised Gardens.
Earth Soil Year is attracting attention and I received the following form the Internet this week.
'Generating three centimeters of top soil takes 1,000 years, and if current rates of degradation continue all of the world's top soil could be gone within 60 years, a senior UN official said on Friday.
About a third of the world's soil has already been degraded, Maria-Helena Semedo of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told a forum marking World Soil Day.
The causes of soil destruction include chemical-heavy farming techniques, deforestation which increases erosion, and global warming. The earth under our feet is too often ignored by policymakers, experts said.
"Soils are the basis of life," said Semedo, FAO's deputy director general of natural resources. "Ninety five percent of our food comes from the soil."
Unless new approaches are adopted, the global amount of arable and productive land per person in 2050 will be only a quarter of the level in 1960, the FAO reported, due to growing populations and soil degradation.
Soils play a key role in absorbing carbon and filtering water, the FAO reported. Soil destruction creates a vicious cycle, in which less carbon is stored, the world gets hotter, and the land is further degraded.'
I wonder at the mentality of those people that tote 'Best Practice' as the excuse for farming and horticulture.
I remember some years ago a 'Soil Scientist' visited a friend of mine's Certified Organic Farm.
He was shown around fields of lush grass and saw healthy stock that never had a visit from a Vet unless they broke a leg.
After the 'Soil Scientist' found that no superphoshate or other chemicals were used on the farm his opinion was that within a couple of years there would be no more farm-able land as all nutrients (in his narrow view) would be used up. His reasoning was that left over fertilisers pre-organic was all that was left and would quickly run out.
Well here we are over 5 years later, has the farm become a desert waste as our 'Soil Scientist' predicted?
No in fact it is doing even better than ever much to the dismay of 'Best Practice, Soil Scientists' and their heavily funded fertiliser companies.
I believe that there are some good scientists that can see beyond the hype of the fertiliser companies just as there is some good Doctors that can see beyond that of pharmaceutical companies.
Here is a non gardening thought for the week, A sales person is employed by a pharmaceutical company given a few weeks sales training and then will go out and tell a fully qualified Doctor who has had many years of experience how to look after his patents? That came from a retired Doctor.
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Last week I suggested that anyone can grow some food crops for their health without having to be a active gardener, in fact anyone can grow a range of vegetables as long as they spend a little time in their care.
To start off with; I firmly believe there is a extremely important link between your gardening and your health.
The reasons for this are very obvious if you do a little research into what our current food chain contains and does not contain.
Conventionally grown food which uses chemical Fertilisers grows plants that sadly lack needed nutritional values; according to scientists only 20% of goodness when compared to the same crops 60 odd years ago.
This means we have lost 80% of the vital minerals, elements etc that our bodies need to maintain good health.
Because the conventional chemical crops are grown UN-naturally, they are weak causing the plants to attract diseases and insect pests. (The cleaners of Nature)
To keep the produce looking good for sale a number of chemical sprays are used which include fungicides and insecticides, these sprays are poisons in most instances (that is why they have with holding periods) When the plants are harvested they may contain residues of up to 30 different chemicals with a likely average of 10 to 15 chemicals that your body does not need.
When you buy your vegetables at the local supermarket you are purchasing something that is low in goodness and containing a cocktail of chemicals. Not only that they lack flavour to boot when compared to your own naturally home grown vegetables.
Buying organically grown produce is better than conventionally grown but in my opinion you can grow better yourself and save yourself money in your food bills and health bills.
Many years ago I heard about wheat grass juice and at that time I thought it was some new health fad and dismissed it for that reason.
It was a few years later that while I was researching minerals and elements I learnt that wheat and barley were two plants that will take up every mineral and element (114) if made available to them in the growing medium. (Tomato plants uses 56 elements out of the 114)
The logic of this would be that if you place all the 114 minerals and elements into the growing medium of either wheat or barley, then the foliage would contain those elements and then when consumed your body would receive all their benefits.
I realised that growing wheat grass with mineral rich products namely Ocean Solids (all the minerals from the blue waters of the ocean) Rok Solid (minerals from ground up rocks) and Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL, minerals from prehistoric times) could make a difference to my health.
I was in my 50's at that time, I was feeling my age plus a heavy smoker as I had been since an early age. Even though I tended to look after my heath to a point it was more to balance out what I was doing that was departmental.
I purchased a manual juicer as I knew that the common juicers would reduce the goodness of the wheat grass by 40% and a expensive Oscar type juicer was beyond my means.
I could have grown the wheat in a raised garden or normal garden but I wanted better control over it so I obtained a few polystyrene boxes from a local wholesale fish supplier to grow in.
The trays have a good depth of about 18cm and this is important for good root development as you are sowing the wheat seed very thickly.
A few holes in the bottom of the tray for drainage and filled two thirds full with Daltons or Oderings Compost. (No possible green waste herbicides which are just more poisons)
Then a sprinkling of Ocean solids and Rok solid over the compost followed by another 20-30mm of compost. Next the organic wheat grass seeds sprinkled so they are about touching each other but not so thick that they are sitting on top of each other.
Then a good spray drench of MBL at 20ml at per litre to soak the seeds and compost.
Next the seeds are covered either with more compost or sand then lightly watered with non chlorinated water.
A sheet of glass over the tray will keep birds and mice from eating the seeds as well as keeping moisture in. (Leave the glass with a little gap to allow excess moisture to get out)
Place the tray in a good light situation but not in direct sunlight unless its winter time.
Lift glass off daily and give the contents a good watering with non-chlorinated water.
It is a bit hard having good drainage, to over water but be sensible.
If your watering is not sufficient you will find that the seeds around the edges of the tray will germinate in a good number but less in centre of the tray.
When the early grass reaches the glass, remove it and then place some curtain netting over the tray to keep birds off. This is the right time to start off a second tray also.
You can water once a week with MBL added otherwise just non chlorinated water daily.
Once a good show of grass remove the curtain cover and allow the grass to have either morning sun or late afternoon sun in summer or full sun in winter.
When the grass gets up to about 12 to 16 cm tall you can start harvesting. With sharp scissors cut the grass just above the growing medium, the amount you cut will depend on how many people you are going to juice for. One person about a couple of handfuls. Squeeze the juice out through your manual juicer to obtain about 30mils. Drink straight away on an empty stomach, best time is first thing in the morning.
If you have serious health issues or on chemo then 3 or more shots a day leaving 20 minuets before having food or other drinks but if taking MSM then that can be taken at the same time.
The green juice should be very sweet which indicates its high in goodness. Wheat grass that you sometimes can buy the is bitter and not mineral rich. Dried wheat grass which is sometimes sold is also a poor substitute for the real thing.
The alternative to juicing is to use a very high speed blender (40,000 rpm) along with other green plant material to make a green smoothie. The wheat grass can be cut fresh and added to salads also.
I read about a mother and daughter in second World War that hid out and at night would venture out to eat ordinary grass, they survived for months on the grass.
Once I started having my wheat grass shot every morning my health took a good change for the better, I felt a new man even though I was still smoking. It was some years later that I finally kicked the habit and now have been smoke free for about 4-5 years.
I have over the years promoted a number of people to grow and juice wheat grass and the reports back from them with health improvements are very notable.
Even very fit people have far greater stamina.
Some kidney dialyses people have increased the period of time between treatments.
Some have reported new vigor in their lives in and out of bed.
The key is regular (daily) shots of juice to reclaim your bodies health by providing the minerals and elements it needs to be healthy.
Growing mineral rich wheat grass could be the most important gardening you do health wise.
Let Food be thy Medicine and Medicine be thy Food.

Products mentioned including wheat grass juicing kits are at www.0800466464.co.nz

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Welcome back to another year of gardening.
It is not the beginning of a new gardening year in fact we are now just over halfway through the current gardening year.
The gardening year ended at the winter solstice 21st June 2014 with the new gardening year started on 22nd June 2014 (the day after the shortest day)
Sunlight is one of the most important aspects of plant growth, the more day light hours the more growth.
The more hours of direct sunlight the better the growth. Cloud, and haze reduces the amount of direct sunlight that our plants receive and slows their growth. Too shaded from direct sunlight causes plants to stretch towards the light source which can lead to weakness and diseases.
Our spring and beginning of summer was a disaster weather wise, too little direct sunlight and a wide range of temperature variations.
It is the first time ever that it took me three attempts to establish cucumbers in a glasshouse.
Many gardeners complained of seeds not germinating and very poor growth from heat loving plants.
Take corn for instance it needs about 960 hours of direct sunlight which equates to about 8 hours a day for 120 days. It also needs higher temperatures with an average daily temperature of 23 degrees or higher.
Looking at the maize crops planted in the Manawatu many have only grown between half a metre to a metre at this time. (1st January) when they should have been up to 1.6 to 1.8metres tall.
The reason is two fold, during spring the temperatures were too low with cold winds and murky, cloudy skies.
The weather controllers did a poor job for crops and gardening.
The previous season my sweetcorn suffered the same only growing about a metre tall before maturing making for a poor harvest.
This year I did not even think about planting corn till just after Christmas day so that the crop should do very well with a late harvest.
Strawberries have not fared as well as they should have but now the weather has settled and temperatures are higher they are responding and producing better.
You may not be aware that on December 20, 2013, the 68th UN General Assembly recognized December 5th, 2014 as World Soil Day and 2015 as the International Year of Soils. The official recognition of these events will emphasize the importance of soils beyond the soil science community.
This is a very important because the arable soils of the planet are quickly disappearing as a result of the stupid science of chemical fertilisers, chemical recovery sprays and herbicides especially glyphosate. (Roundup etc)
These methods referred to as 'conventional' have killed the soil food web and turned fertile soils into inert material that is prone to erosion through water and dust when dry and the wind blows.
This inert 'soil' will only produce crops or grass when feed massive amounts of fertilisers a bit like hydroponics without water. The produce and grass grown in this manner lack nutritional value and provide little or no health benefits to the animals and humans that feed on them.
I received a snippet from the Internet which I would like to share with you; I do not know how accurate it is but I think its close to the truth.
Entitled 'The Risk of Being Diagnosed with Cancer'
in 1900 it was 1 in 30 by 1980 it was up to 1 in 5. In 1990 you had 1 in 4 chances and five years later in 1995 chances up to 1 in 3.
In 2000 they say the chances are 1 in 2 or in other words a 50% chance of being diagnosed with cancer in your life time.
It was then stated 'We are doing something fundamentally wrong! Lets start with your plate'
I would add to that your food garden and your soil.
(Latest news is 'Cancer is just bad luck'; rubbish! If that was the case then bad luck has increased over the years. Ridiculous; a supposed scientific analysis such as this just keeps the money takers getting your dollars by keeping you in the dark and hiding the real causes.)
Let food be thy Medicine and Medicine be thy Food.
Just by the way, I have been asked to pose for a calendar (in my garden, I am not a Fireman!) and the inscription for that month is the quote, Let Food be try Medicine.
If you treat your soil right by using natural things such as; garden lime, animal manures especially chicken manure, sheep pellets, gypsum, Rok Solid, compost (not made from green waste) dolomite, BioPhos, OrganiBor, Fruit and Flower Power, Neem Granules, Mycorrcin, MBL etc you will build up the humus in the soil along with the soil life and the earth worm populations and the crops you grow will be brimming with healthy nutritional value.
Supplements such as Wheat Grass Juice, Virgin Coconut Oil, MSM, turmeric, cayenne pepper sprinkled on your food or placed into gelatine capsules are all natural, and greatly beneficial to your well being.
I have recently turned 69 and I dont think I have ever been as healthy (since I was very much younger) as I am now. ( I am totally medication free, sorry pharmaceutical companies)
I have talked to other gardeners of a similar age and many much older who have made a conscious effort to protect their well being; they grow whatever they are able to grow in the naturally way and their health benefits from their efforts.
What has changed since 1900 when you had a 1 in 30 chance of getting the Big C?
Lots of things have changed, a number of which do not make for good health but in my view number one is the loss over the years of real nutritional food, in fact if we are to believe scientists who report a whopping great big 80% loss.
Realise that the food you buy in the supermarket has only about 20% of goodness that your body needs to be healthy. Plus it will contain a whole range of chemicals that you do not need. If processed overseas there is a good chance it will possibly contain GMO's.
When we add to the conventional food chain all the hundreds (I am not joking) of different chemicals used in growing and processing food we have food that is certainly not improving health statics but making some companies a lot of money.
Its a New Year and a great time to take more attention to your health, the health of your children and your grand children. Get some real goodness into your body and beat the system that appears to be wanting you sick and dead before your natural time.
Your life, your dollar, your health, your garden.
I do not want anyone to say they cannot grow a bit of good food as I can easily show you how, even if you live in a 40 storey apartment with only a small balcony.
Watch this weekly column and I will over the next few weeks give you the benefit of 69 years of growing healthy stuff.
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The year is quickly drawing to a close with Christmas closer than ever, making it a very busy festive time for many people. Without further ado I would like to wish all my readers a Very Happy Festive Season and a better gardening year for the New Year.
This will be my last weekly article till just after the New Year so you can have a rest without me bending your ear.
Saying that I will be available on the 0800 466464 number if you have any gardening problems or things of interest to share. Alternatively you can email me on wallyjr@gardenews.co.nz
It has been an interesting year for gardening, milder than normal winter, poor spring and not a great start to summer. Likely in the New Year we will get some better growing conditions.
During the year I think the highlights were reports from gardeners who placed Neem Tree Granules under their citrus trees to clean up insect problems in the trees. So simple and easy to do without out all that spraying. (No harm on the environment other that the pests)
Then there was the event of Cosio Industries who brought into New Zealand the products, Crop Cover and Quarantine Cloth to simply protect plants from insect pests. They are in my Highly Recommend list.
Karbyon was another new product introduced to help remove black sooty mould off plants.
The only comment I have received is that on thick layers of sooty mould more than one application maybe needed.
During the year a number of dangerous chemicals used in the home garden market were either removed or are in the process of being removed. These include Basamid and Shield, others are likely to follow as EPA work through the lists. Hopefully Confidor will be removed sooner than later so our honey bees and bumble bees have a better chance of survival.
I wrote earlier in the year about using my Secret Strawberry Food in conjunction with Mycorrcin to obtain some super big strawberries with good flavor.
Several gardeners have reported excellent result from using the two products and getting a good number of extra big strawberries.
The poor spring weather this season has meant that many plants have not preformed as expected.
The article I wrote two weeks ago about strange weather and hail stones with 25 times the allowed limit of aluminium in drinking water.
(The concentration of aluminium in Ray’s hail sample was 2.5 grams/m³, which is equivalent to 2.5 milligrams/liter!
The Guideline Value for aluminium in the Drinking Water Standards New Zealand 2005 (DWSNZ) (Revised 2008) is < 0.1 g/m³, which Ray’s hail sample exceeds by 25 times.)
That is a very high level of aluminium which obviously gets into our drinking water.
The article has resulted in a number of people contacting me about their concerns and evidence that not all is as it should be. (Others have had rain water tested and found abnormally high levels)
This has caused me to do a little research on the matter and some interesting coincidences have resulted.
Those that are on the Internet can, with a few key words into Google, discover the same or more than what I have seen. Here is some of what I saw.
Aluminum at high levels is toxic to you and all living things. Aluminum is the most common metal in our planets crust.
For our health: If you have any of these symptoms, do not assume it is because of aluminum toxicity.
These symptoms may be caused by other, less serious health conditions.
If you experience any one of them, see your physician, especially if you have kidney disease or are on dialysis .
Confusion, Muscle weakness, Bone pain, Seizures, Speech problems, Slow growth­in children.
Complications may include: Lung problems, Nervous system problems causing difficulty with voluntary and involuntary actions, Bone diseases, Brain diseases and disorders, Anemia and Impaired iron absorption.
Alzheimer's is connected to aluminium poisoning and interestingly fluoride in water creates a far greater problem.
"In January 1987, experiments performed at the Medical Research Endocrinology Dept., Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and the Physics Dept of the Univ. of Ruhana, Sri Lanka, showed that fluoridated water at 1 ppm, when used in cooking in aluminum cookware, concentrated the aluminum up to 600 ppm, whereas water without fluoride did not. (Science news 131:73)
If there is aluminum in the atmosphere at levels not normal, because it has been put there, and that aluminium gets into our fluoridated water supply we have a major health problem in the making.
Last week the New Zealand government announced that they are asking for public submissions on a pending application to exempt fluoride (HFA and SSF) from the New Zealand Medicine's Act, with a closing date of 9th January 2015. http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/consultations/medicine-regulations-fluoride-in-drinking-water.asp (In case you want to submit).
More info and be quick as sunmissions close on 9th January 2015. http://www.sportsground.co.nz/files/site/219/10/Email/141207180314/
This would allow drinking water to be fluoridated without any right of appeal.
This also apples to our gardens as plants are greatly affected by aluminum toxicity as it inhibits root growth and thus the plants growth is slowed or stopped.
(I have had recent reports of this happening in pasture and food crops)
Combine that with low levels of direct sunlight caused by either clouds or haze preventing the suns rays from directly reaching plants. This causes a darker leaf colour than normal and stretching of plants making greater distance between leaves. This is not normal and I would like to know what is going on.
Plants ideally require 6 or more hours of direct sunlight at this time of the year each day.
Maybe questions should be asked and if there are chemicals being used in the atmosphere to reduce the effects of global warming and what is that doing to our health and food chain?
Here is the clincher that is really strange, Our friendly 'lets control the Worlds Food Supply' Monsanto has developed seeds that are Aluminum Resistant!
Reason given is that they will help farmers in poor countries grow crops. This is very doubtful as how can poor farmers afford expensive GMO seeds?
If pasture and food growing land become toxic because of aluminium poisoning then aluminum resistant seeds would be worth their weight in gold.
I think next year is going to be very interesting and its worth your time to do a little research to try and find out what is happening and for what reason?
Have a happy Christmas and New Year, drive carefully, think about what is happening around you and stay healthy.
Wally Richards
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Most plants start from seeds unless they are cutting grown, layered or cloned from tissue culture.
There are not many plants that do not start from seed, one that comes to mind is our eating bananas which are grown from suckers.
I heard a story that in ancient times bananas were breed to be seedless, so we now find in the common eating banana the line down the centre where seeds would have been, but no more.
This is not completely true as there are lots of different types of bananas which do produce seeds and a search of the internet will likely amaze you on the seed varieties available.
A plant which has become totally dependent on man taking the seeds and planting them, so the species will survive, is corn or maize.
Once again a plant which mankind has developed from crosses hundreds of years ago to form the plant with the cobs that are common today.
If a mature cob falls onto the ground and the seeds germinate, because of their closeness they choke off each other and do not prosper.
When the kernels are remove by man and planted individually they grow well dependent on conditions.
The recent article I wrote on Dragon Fruit has resulted in a lot of phone calls and emails from gardeners showing an interest in growing this cacti.
The shipment several weeks ago came from Vietnam and my inquiries as to further shipments have not been answered.
However a week ago we spotted a few Dragon Fruit in a smaller Countdown in Palmerston North which were obviously old fruit left over from the earlier shipment.
The staff were not familiar with the product as they were going off which did not concern me as I wanted more seed.
My idea is to grow a good number of plants and sometime next year make them available to any one that would like to grow this interesting cacti.
I am surprised that the fruit actually had viable seeds in them as MAF usually has imported food stuffs irradiated for all the reasons that they believe is better for us and the environment.
Either the Dragon Fruit was not blasted with radiation or maybe the seeds were able to survive.
One of the annoying aspects of this irradiation process is that imported split peas are treated which is absurd as they would never germinate once split. It means they stay as hard as rocks when cooking soup instead of becoming mushy as they should do.
One of the concerning aspects with seeds is that multinational companies are endeavoring to take control of food seeds for their own personal gains.
A phase that is sometimes seen is along the lines of 'He who controls the seeds, controls the food supply and controls the world.'
Far fetched? When you hear of companies that control water supplies in poor or richer countries (Detroit America) and they shut off the water from those that cant afford it you start to realise what ends some companies will go to for money.
Monsanto is one such company that through their GMO seeds and purchase of traditional seed companies have acquired greater control over seeds both GE and conventional.
Not all have worked in their favour as we see from Canada. I quote:

“Thirteen years ago when GM soya and rapeseed was introduced in Canada (and in the US) the Corporations and Government told farmers that GM would increase yields, be more nutritious, use less chemicals, and feed a hungry world.
Now we will always have a sustainable agriculture, they claimed.
The Canadian Department of Agriculture figures states: Canola yields have decreased at least ten percent and soya at least fifteen percent, but worst of all, farmers are using three to five times more chemicals because of the GM superweeds that have developed.
The reality is that the nutritional content of all crops are down fifty percent of what they were before GMOs were introduced and now we have less yields and more chemicals used, exactly the opposite of what Monsanto promised.”
There is some speculation that legislation and TTP could have fish hooks whereby you are not allowed to collect your own seed of food crops from mature plants and even worse share them with your gardening friends. Beware Gardener's rights are possibly being eroded as are other human rights.
Sometimes gardeners are their own worst enemy when it comes to seeds.
Plants; both vegetable and flowers produce seeds when they reach maturity and will dispatch their seed as nature determines.
Flower plants are a very good example of this, when they set seed that seed will fall where they were growing or be carried by wind or water to a more distant space.
On the soil in the right conditions they germinate and produce numerous seedlings. These are what we call self sown seedlings and are free.
Where some gardeners make a mistake is that these young plants are confused with weeds and so they kill them off. When you can determine the difference between a weed seedling and a flower seedling you will save yourself a lot of money buying new plants.
On the road frontage where I live, I made a flowering garden about 3 years ago with a range of flowering plants, some annuals some perennials. They are allowed to preform as nature dictates which means they flower, seed and in the case of the annuals die.
Taking out the dead plants I always shake them over bare soil areas. The frontage will look bare and not so nice for a time until the seedlings develop into flowering plants at which time the area looks really great with a lovely show. (All at no further cost)
There are annual straw flowers (Helichrysum), Russel Lupins and Gazania along with perennials; geranium, gladioli, Jerusalem artichokes and climbing roses.
Pansy and violas are two very good self seeding plants which will pop up all over the place when allowed to.
If you have ever grown nicotiana rustica and allowed to mature you will have young tobacco plants popping up all over the place. My original came with some succulent plants that was given as a gift.
An awesome plant that catches hundreds of small pest insects on its sticky leaves, better than any man made trap. Petunias are related being part of the Solanaceae family along with tomatoes and nightshade.
Next time you are weeding your gardens try and distinguish what are weeds and what are flower seedlings and see if you can get some displays for free.
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December is upon us making now our official summer for the next three months.
The weather is a gardeners biggest problem to date, with too great a variation in temperatures, too windy, not sufficient sunny days and dependent where you are either a bit too wet or far too dry.
Last spring was about the same; though I think this one has been worse (or is that because its fresher to the mind?) Whether it is caused by global warming, global cooling or other factors its hard to say, other than we certainly do not get a good spring anymore. Here is an interesting aspect I received this week from a reader:

Earlier in November a severe hail storm destroyed apple and kiwifruit crops in the Tasman district of the South Island, causing extensive damage to orchards, destroying both fruit and netting.
A report I read said a chap called Ray noticed next day that the hail stones were not melting as they should so he collected a sample of hail and sent it to R J Hill Laboratories Ltd of Christchurch. (a trusted lab which is accredited by International Accreditation New Zealand)
Ray asked them to test for aluminium, barium and strontium, which are the principal components of aerosols. He received the results on November the 24th and the lab confirmed the presence of all three heavy metals and found that the level of aluminium was particularly high.
The concentration of aluminium in Ray’s hail sample was 2.5 grams/m³, which is equivalent to 2.5 milligrams/liter!
The Guideline Value for aluminium in the Drinking Water Standards New Zealand 2005 (DWSNZ) (Revised 2008) is < 0.1 g/m³, which Ray’s hail sample exceeds by 25 times.
The chemicals in the report apparently are used for weather control such as seeding clouds to make rain.
One thing that I have noticed in recent times in Palmerston North that when I take the dogs outside late at night for their comfort stop, that even on a cloud less night there are only a few of the brightest stars visible.
This would indicate that there is a layer of something (not clouds) between my eyes and the weaker light stars. Strange but whether it is a aspect of our weather or not which is effecting gardening I dont know.
What I do know is that even in my glasshouses things are not growing as well as they should at this time of the year even though we are quickly reaching the maximum amount of day light hours (December 21st.)
Reason could be a lot of cloudy days reducing the amount of direct sun that plants receive or some haze in the atmosphere deflecting sunlight.
I have also noticed that much of the foliage of many plants are a much darker richer green than I would expect at this time of the year.
Energy from sun light is absorbed by proteins called reaction centres that contain green chlorophyll pigments, when UV levels reduce the chlorophyll darkens to a rich green. Spraying a film over the foliage that acts as a sun screen will cause this effect. (EG Spray foliage with Vaporgard)
So if there happens to be particles higher up in the atmosphere (say aluminium, barium and strontium)
reflecting sunlight away from the earth surface during the day and obscuring the fainter stars at night, then we have something happening that is not normal and very likely man made.
If there is aluminium in the atmosphere then it can be assumed it will get into our drinking water which is a health risk.
Next problem is Curly Leaf in stone fruit; the time of this disease is fairly much passed and damage already done is what will make a difference to what fruit will be harvested. Lots of damaged leaves will likely mean no fruit, some damaged leaves will likely reduce harvest numbers.
The tree will produce more new leaves and the damaged ones will fall off.
You could spray with Copper and Raingard to help ensure the undamaged leaves remain undamaged.
A more pressing problem likely about at this time is grass grub beetles.
After emerging as a beetle they have about 6-8 weeks of mating, laying eggs and eating.
Damage can occur to a number of plants such as beans, cucumbers, roses, citrus, blue berries and many other plants. Holes in the leaves but no sign of the culprits as they only come out during the early hours of evening. Next day they are hiding away where you are unlikely to find them.
If you have plants that are being eaten then take a torch out after dark and check for the brown or bronze beetles, if there are a number of them then spray with Key Pyrethrum at that time to hit them with the spray. Repeat each night till the time of them is past.
Another method to catch and control the pest is a light trap.
In a window facing out where they are doing damage place a strong light and directly underneath the window pane place a trough two thirds full of water with a little kerosene floating on top of the water.
The beetles are attracted to the light, hit their head on the glass, fall into the trough, the kerosene prevents them climbing out. Next day flush them down the toilet or feed them to the chooks.
Codlin Moth is another pest that is around at the moment and will attack your apples by having the grubs eat into the apple where they grow, mature, then leave to pupate.
A spray of Neem oil over the apples will prevent entry. Use with Raingard and repeat about every 10 days till the new year. If you have not taken some action already you will likely have a number of damaged apples.
The Guava moth is a similar pest but one that has a very large range of fruit they damage.
Because the many different types of fruit damaged means they can operate all year round attacking each type of fruit as they come into season. As far as I am aware the pest is mostly in the North Island so far and particularly further north you go the more of a problem.
I would suggest that Neem being an anti-feedent and that by having a coating of the oil over any fruit when the grub takes a bite will stop it from entering and doing damage. Use with Raingard and repeat every 7 to 10 days.
Porina caterpillars also come from a moth and are active all year round in lawns and other areas.
The caterpillar comes up out of the soil to feed at night causing bare patches.
Cut the lawn and then spray the grass with Neem Oil seeking to get the spray to the base of the grass where they feed.
Repeat about every 3 months in areas where they are a ongoing problem.
Shield beetles, leaf hoppers, whitefly and psyllids are best controlled by a mixture of Neem Tree Oil, Key Pyrethrum sprayed late in the day when the sun is off the plants and the pests have settled for the evening. Not only will you need to repeat spray target plants but also check all plants in the area for signs of them as they will just re-infest.
Maybe over the fence next door is a big problem of pests which will keep you out spraying all season unless something is done about them where they are.
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Each week a good number of gardeners phone me with questions about their gardening. A good percentage of these callers are retired and have thus lived for a good number of years.
One of the advantages of living the years is remembering what things used to be like compared to how things are today.
When comparing the now time to the eras of the 50's, 60's and 70's its like we are on a different dimension and certainly not for the better.
Back in the 50's for instance if there was a murder in your locality it would be front page headlines in the local papers for weeks. Now days there is likely a murder every day and only mentions in passing unless it is an unusual case.
People were healthier, there was no waiting lists for medical attention, people were happier, there was no such thing as ADHS (which is Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, I had to look it up)
If you had a health issue you went to the doctor got diagnosed, given a prescription for a week or two and 99 times out of a 100 that was it, cured.
Now days the medicine cant be as good as often it has to be taken for ever and then other meds to overcome the side effects on what you are prescribed. Some people are taking 30 odd pills a day and they never seem to improve health wise.
The father of Western Medicine is Hippocrates and his most famous saying is;

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
Likely the food back in 460BC to 377BC was different to the food we have today in regards to nutritional values.
Two other says from Hippocrates are;

“The natural healing force within each of us is the greatest force in getting well.”
“Everything in excess Is opposed by nature.”
I dont know and likely no one else can tell me what the nutritional value of the food was like in the years that Hippocrates lived but I can tell you how good it was 50 odd years ago.
Scientists tell us that it had 80% more nutritional value than conventional food these days.
Nutrition is the amount of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants or healthy goodness in what you eat.
Vegetables grown from open pollinated seeds and heritage seeds only need a healthy soil food web to grow extremely well.
They do not grow quickly as it takes time for the plant to absorb the nutrients it needs to be healthy and resist pests and diseases. These plants tend to mature at different times which is ideal as not all will be ready at once.
The soil should be rich in humus, compost, minerals and elements. In soil like this there will be lots of earthworms along with beneficial microbes & fungi while the soil is kept moist .
Watering only with non-chlorinated water most important.
Gardeners can easily create these growing conditions by using raised gardens about 60cm tall
When you eat your vegetables grown in this manner, your body will be receiving the best medicine in the world. Strange as it may seem, they will taste very good having delicious flavors and your body will crave for repeated servings.
Now if we look at conventionally grown produce and the land that they grow in we are likely to find a vast difference.
Modern hybrid seeds which are fast growing and designed so that all will mature on the same day!
These seeds are so sophisticated that a commercial grower who wants to harvest say every two weeks a acre of cabbages would consult the seed merchant's chart then need to plant a different hybrid
seed each time. This is so the maximum growth is obtained allowing for seasonal change and day light hours for his location.
The soil that they are planted into will either be void of soil life or near enough to it. No worms just fragile dirt that is prone to blowing away if allowed to dry or washing away when it rains.
The plants grow because of chemical fertilisers are applied in heavy doses to force growth.
(Its very much like growing hydroponically but in dirt instead of water)
These forced unnatural plants have little or no defense against insect attack so they must be protected till harvest by regular applications of chemical insecticides and fungicides.
(We cant have any holes or blemishes can we otherwise it would not sell)
When you apply chemicals to plants and soil, the plants will take up those chemicals along with the chemicals to make them grow.
So when the crop is harvested what do we have? A perfect looking product that has very little nutritional value and is hiding a range of chemicals in it foliage or even worse in its roots.
It is likely to have between 10 to near 30 chemicals for you to chew upon and digest.
What about taste? Oops sorry we bred and grew that out so its going to be fairly bland to our taste buds.
But never fear we can fix that with various sauces laden with sugars and fats.
This is why us oldies who know better, encourage people to grow as much of their own food as possible using natural foods and minerals.
This means using good purchased compost such as Daltons or Oderings (no herbicides as those brands are not using green waste) Use animal or chicken manures, sheep pellets, BioPhos, blood & bone, garden lime, gypsum, dolomite, Rok Solid, Ocean Solids and Magic Botanic Liquid.
The easiest vegetables to grow are silverbeet and lettuces. Followed by spring onions, multiplying onions, parsley, cabbages and other brassicas.
These can all be easily grown in reasonable size containers or one of my favorites is polystyrene boxes which can be obtained from wholesale fish places and sometimes supermarkets, where they often give them away to get rid of them.
Adding some of your own home grown food to your food chain will make a big difference to your health. You can grow wheat grass with the minerals Rok Solid and Ocean Solids to obtain 114 minerals for your body when you either juice or use it in a green smoothie.
So easy to do and so good for you. If you are able and have the space build a raise garden or two using sheets of roofing iron.
A chicken house with a small number of good laying hens will give you more better tasting eggs than you can buy.
Just give them plenty of greens and cook up some pet mince with rice along with poultry laying pellets and wheat. They will also supply you with excellent chicken manure for your gardens.
You will taste the difference in your home grown and be far healthier for it.
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A few weeks ago while at our local green grocer we spied a new fruit call Dragon Fruit which looked very different and interesting.
We purchased one of the fruits to try it out and find out more about where it comes from and what benefits it may have health wise.
My partner who is from the Philippines did a bit of research on her Face Book and found that several people back in the Philippines were cultivating the fruit for health and income.
The ones that we saw were imported from Thailand (I think) and selling for between $5 to $8.00 each.
Since then we have seen Dragon Fruit in Supermarkets so they must be fairly readily available over most of New Zealand.
Dragon fruit are the seed pods of a cacti family which there are 3 species:

Hylocereus undatus (Pitaya blanca or White-fleshed Pitaya) has red-skinned fruit with white flesh. This is the most commonly seen "dragon fruit".
Hylocereus costaricensis (Pitaya roja or Red-fleshed Pitaya, also known as Hylocereus polyrhizus) has red-skinned fruit with red flesh.
Hylocereus megalanthus (Pitaya amarilla or Yellow Pitaya, also known as Selenicereus megalanthus) has yellow-skinned fruit with white flesh.
The fruit can weigh from 150 to 600 grams; some may reach one kilogram.
Dragon fruit is a hemi-epiphytic cactus which makes it very suitable to grow in a hanging pot.
Similar to what we know as the Christmas Cacti (botanically known as Schlumbergera or Zygocactus)
Once I realised it was the fruit of a cacti which when cut open reveals hundreds of tiny seeds.
I knew it would be no problem growing them.
My early days of having a nursery was specialising in growing cacti and succulents from either seed or offsets so I know how easy it is to germinate and grow many types of cacti from seed.
A search on the internet showed amazingly beautiful flowers of the Dragon Fruit Cacti which makes another very good reason to grow them.
If you would like to grow some of this healthy fruit then firstly purchase a Dragon Fruit and scoop out some of the many seeds and pulp. Place on a paper towel or similar and leave to dry.
A few weeks later place purchased compost into a seedling punnet and lay the paper towel over the compost. Spray the seeds and towel with MBL diluted to 20mls per litre then cover with sand.
Place on a shelf in a glasshouse or on a sunny window sill and moisten the sand by misting regularly.
It should only take a week or two to see that some of the seeds have germinated. Then if on a window sill you will need to move the punnet outside to prevent stretching and dampening off.
Placed in a light situation inside a deeper tray with a sheet of glass over would be suitable.
When the baby cacti get a few inches long they can be pricked out and placed into small pots to grow on. Use compost and and either Matrix or my Secret Tomato Food for growth.
During summer they can grow quickly into a nice size for potting into a big hanging basket.
Hang in a glasshouse or on a sunny sheltered porch where with food and sun they will flower and later produce the Dragon Fruit which has a bland to sweet tasting pulp..
The amount of vitamin C in dragon fruit is high, and because it is a natural fruit it provides you with a rich balance of nutrients coming along with the vitamin C.
Dragon fruit is a good natural source of anti-oxidants which help to prevent the dangers of free radicals that can cause cancer and other health problems.
Dragon fruit has lots of dietary fiber with almost 1g of fiber per 100g of the fresh dragon fruit.
My partner tells me that in the Philippines people eat the fruit to prevent cancer and also to assist in recovery. The other aspects they consider the fruit good for include:
Heart; this fruit has an amazing superpower that helps decrease bad cholesterol levels and replenish good levels. Dragon fruit is an excellent source of monounsaturated fats, helping the heart stay in great condition.
Fiber; They have a high fiber content, which can assist with poor digestion and constipation. Eating the flesh and seeds, which contain good protein, will keep your body fortified and satisfied.
Antioxidants; To rid the body of free radicals and cancer-producing properties, you can eat foods that contain antioxidants.
Diabetes; The high amount of fiber in dragon fruit can ultimately help regulate diabetes, as it can stabilize blood sugar levels by suppressing sugar spikes.
Reduces Signs of Aging; Eating a dragon fruit with its rich antioxidants can keep the skin tight and young. You can even make a face mask using the fruit combined with honey as a natural alternative to anti-aging masks.
Suppresses Arthritis; Arthritis directly affects the joints and causes severe irritation and immobility. Adding dragon fruit to your diet can help you fight these ailments. Dragon fruit’s benefits for people suffering from arthritis are so great that it’s commonly referred to as the “anti-inflammatory fruit.” Avoiding Acne; This treatment is not just for teenagers.
Rich in vitamin C, this fruit becomes a great topical ointment. Turn a slice of dragon fruit into a paste and apply it to your reddened areas on your face or skin, then rinse with water. For best results, use twice daily.
Great flowers, healthy fruit all for the small price of a fruit to get started and growing.
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MPI was informed on Thursday 6 November 2014 that an observant home gardener in Temuka had found an unusual stink bug in his garden.
He provided a photograph and the bug was tentatively identified by MPI as a yellow spotted stink bug (YSSB). The specimen was collected on Saturday 8 November 2014 and the identification confirmed as an unmated female YSSB (Erthesina fullo).

We are taking this find seriously.
A key aim of the response is to determine presence/absence of a population.
We are really pleased that the householder did the right thing and notified that he had found the bug.
The householder has also carried out repeated inspections of his property and found no other similar bugs.

As a precaution we are stepping up awareness about this bug.
We will be asking the local community to help out by keeping an eye out for any more of these bugs and to call our Exotic Pest and Disease Hotline (0800 80 99 66) if they spot anything.

A communications plan is being implemented.
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A couple of weeks ago I was wondering why my strawberries were not preforming as well as they should be for the time of the year.
I suspected the weather because of too many days of cloudy skies and chilly winds with lack of warm direct sunlight to ripen and sweeten the berries.
I had broken up the beds in June and replanted a lot of the runners coming off my best parent plants.
I left a few of the parent plants to preform another season with lots of fresh young plants.
The older plants were doing better than the young plants which is logical as they have better established root systems.
Then I noticed while spraying the plants with Mycorrcin, small white flakes on some leaves.
By turning over a few leaves I found the main reason for lack of vigor, lots of very small aphids which obviously were sucking the goodness out of the plants.
The white flakes are the spent shells from their molts.
To get a sense of what this is like to plants you have to imagine that you have lots of fleas, lice and leeches on your body feeding. Not nice and very energy sapping.
So not only is the poor weather a problem but also thousands of sap suckers.
Its a good time to check all your plants and take particular attention to any not doing so well.
I made up a spray of Neem Tree Oil with Key Pyrethrum and Raingard in a pump up sprayer which was employed to eradicate the pests.
I love using this spray mix as it is totally safe (unless you have an allergy to any of the components) I can fold back the leaves with one hand and spray under the leaves where the pest are without any health concerns to my well being. I cant say that about all the chemical insecticides available.
Neem Oil is not a poison as it does not kill anything directly, instead its an anti-feedent and growth regulator.
Not harmful to beneficial insects or bees as it will only have a direct effect on the pest insects feeding on foliage.
A few years back the following statement appeared on NZ Food Safety Web site; 'Neem has been determined to be of very low toxicity.
Extracts of Neem have been used historically in parts of Asia for skin and dental treatments for what has claimed to be over 2000 years.
Parts of the Neem tree are consumed in certain Indian and Southeast Asian dishes. Neem is used in human medicine for skin and acne treatment and for the control of scabies and head lice.
The active component azadirachtin has also been demonstrated to be of very low toxicity.
Neem and azadirachtin do not represent a dietary intake risk from consumption of residues on treated food commodities.
Toxicological / Public Health Assessment : It has been determined that the use of Neem as an insecticide for use on all food producing plant species is very unlikely to pose any health risks from consumption of the harvested commodity'.
Key Pyrethrum on the other hand is also a natural insecticide which effects the nervous system of insects and fish causing death. It will affect all insects that come into contact with it, pest or beneficial.
Pyrethrum is very quickly broken down by UV so within about a couple of hours of sunlight it is no longer active.
New Zealand Bee Keepers are running a public awareness campaign to educate gardeners not to spray chemical insecticides over flowering plants because of the danger to honey bees and bumble bees.
This especially applies to chemicals from the neonicotinoid group which includes Confidor.
This is a systemic chemical (means it spreads through the whole plant) and stays inside the plants for considerable periods of time.
For the periods of withholding time from web site http://www.agtech.com.au/label/bcsnz/CONFIDOR_12104540.pdf it says:
Onions… 7 days; Vegetable brassicas (cell transplants) - 70 days; Lettuce(cell transplants)….. 35 days; Grapes…fruit from treated vines must be destroyed, with no fruit harvested for human or animal consumption until the next season.
Remember that is the recommendations for human consumption which means that the toxicity of the chemical has fallen to the level that is presumed safe for us to eat. Not that the chemical is gone but still in the plant and in the flowers where bees will enter weeks or even months later and die as a result.
In parts of Europe where these chemicals have been banned it has been found that bees populations are recovering which is good anecdotal evidence that it does contribute to bee hive colony collapse.
Bayer the manufacture of Confidor is in the process of suing the EU because of their restrictions on using chemicals from the neonicotinoid group.
A few weeks back I wrote about the disappearance of what we used to call water tables a good few years back. In winter time you would dig a hole and it would fill with water and stay as a small pond for a long time unless you were in a very free draining area.
Back then you would only have to water in very dry times as there would be ample moisture rising up from deep down to keep plants happy.
That is all changed and this week I had confirmation of this by the following;
'An alarming satellite-based analysis from NASA finds that the world is depleting groundwater - the water stored underground in soil and aquifers - at an unprecedented rate.
A new Nature Climate Change piece, "The global groundwater crisis," by James Famiglietti, a leading hydrologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, warns that "most of the major aquifers in the world's arid and semi-arid zones, that is, in the dry parts of the world that rely most heavily on groundwater, are experiencing rapid rates of groundwater depletion."
Where is the water going? It is been piped up for irrigation systems in agriculture at phenomenal amounts.
The draw-off is greater than the aquifers ability to re-fill.
Logic tells me that we now have to irrigate more during the growing season than we did say 40 years ago. When the same is applied to agriculture; more and more water is needed to maintain grass and crops, the more water drawn up through wells, the less water available. Commonly called a death spiral.
Maybe something the EPA should look at before its too late for agriculture and us gardeners alike..
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Christmas is getting very near with only about 6 weeks till Xmas week.
Many of you will have already started putting a lot of thought into what gifts they would like to give and some will have completed most of their Christmas shopping already.
Others like myself are still thinking what to give to someone that is so hard to buy for.
A gift that is perfect is one that brings pleasure to the receiver as well as the giver.
This means giving a gift that has really been thought about and often will have some personal input from the giver.
For example young children making something, or drawing a picture, to give to their grandparents are treasures to be carefully stored and enjoyed for years.
Perennial plants are like that, they keep giving for years making them excellent gift choices for loved ones and friends.
I know this because people will phone me asking about a plant that they were given in the past that is not faring so well and they need to revive it because it was a special gift.
Think about this; a young couple with a family are given an apple tree to plant on their section for Xmas. Within a few years that tree is producing a great harvest of fresh, healthy apples for the family to enjoy. As long as that tree is providing an annual harvest the giver will be remembered, even from beyond the grave.
I know of roses that were gifts 30 to 40 years ago still producing an abundance of blooms each year given by a mother or grandparents, long passed but cherished in memory through the annual flowering.
Fruit trees, roses or a specimen plant gift can make the giver, in a sense, immortal for a long time.
This Christmas think gardening and the pleasure plus health benefits it can have for the receiver.
Besides you can contribute not only with your money but also with your labour in making the gift more personal.
Here are a few ideas starting with a glasshouse either A-frame or lean-to they come as kits and you can help put it together for the receiver. I recommend a glass, glasshouse as they will last for a life time and only need panes replaced if broken.
I have 3 glasshouses, one a lean to, one a 2 x 3 metres and the last a old Eden Conservatory, all of which are over 40 years old and going strong.
A glasshouse for a person or family that loves to garden creates a new dimension to their gardening.
It allows growing out of season tomatoes and capsicum, perfect for germinating seeds and striking cuttings, ideal for growing those more tropical plants that wont do well outdoors in your climate.
There is nothing better on a miserable winters day than to be pottering around in your nice warm glasshouse.
More information about glasshouses can be found in my recent book Wallys Glasshouse Growing for New Zealand.
How about a raised garden for a elderly parent or a young family to grow vegetables in?
You can construct an ideal one on site using roofing iron and 100 x 100mm posts (painted to keep the chemicals sealed)
The structure just sits on the ground (can even be on concrete) it makes an excellent place to grow vegetables, once it has been filled to two thirds with organic waste and compost.
(My book Gardening & Health explains the process.)
Next to consider is a compost maker and by far the best are the tumbler ones as they will convert organic waste to compost in the quickest time.
I purchased one some time ago as I wanted a way of making some use out of my dogs toilets.
Having just about all concrete outside the warehouse (where we live above) means a daily poo collection.
The tumbler I purchased has their droppings along with green waste, kitchen scraps and spent compost mixed together, garden lime is added along with tiger worms that I have in abundance.
The end result is an interesting compost which I recently placed in one of my raised gardens and have let the weeds grow to further make use of the dog manure.
Its funny that any manure from chickens, horses etc I happily put into a vegetable garden but with dog/cat manure I hesitate to go direct. Even though I know under established trees and shrubs it certainly feeds the plants very well. (Maybe its the meaty thing)
A worm farm is also another excellent gardening gift producing worm casts and worm pee to the benefit of your gardens as well as recycling all kitchen green wastes.
A rose in a container makes a lovely gift and now is the time to purchase and pot up.
You need, one bush or standard rose, one container that is about 20 litres or more, a bag of compost, a punnet of trailing lobelia or alyssum.
Make sure the container selected is either straight up and down or that the top is wider than the base with no middle bit wider that the top. (The rose has to be removed and root pruned every 2-3 years and if the top is more narrow than any other part you have to smash the container to remove.)
Fill the container with purchased compost to about half full and place some Sheep Manure pellets, blood & bone, Rok Solid and Neem Granules before adding the rose removed from its bag or pot.
The final height should be about 2-3cm from the rim to allow for food and watering.
Plant the lobelia or alyssum around the edge so they will trail over. Not only does it make it more decorative but the foliage helps reduce moisture loss from mix and they certainly let you know when the mix is drying out. Place the rose in a good light shelter spot outside till you are ready to wrap and give.
A final touch can be spaying the leaves with Vaporgard to make them really green and shiny.
Similar can be done with a fruit tree but then the container wants to be about 50 litres or more and instead of planting flowers around the rim go for either a herb such as parsley, thyme or basil.
The fruit tree can be any variety you would like to give from citrus, feijoa, to pip or stone fruit.
Dwarf types are good but not necessary as they all need root pruning in the future.
Annual flowers or herbs can be potted into nice containers using compost as the growing medium.
Pot up now with colour spots or herb plants then they should be putting on a really good show about Xmas time. Children can help potting up for grandparents and then can proudly say they did it.
Inexpensive and very much appreciated.
Garden shops these days have lots of interesting nick knacks and gift ideas besides their normal lines of plants and things. Soaps, cosmetics, bird feeders, crockery, fountains, statues and in some cases even water beads & artificial snow for decoration.
It is surprising the variety of products and ideas one can find in your local garden centre that you will not find in main stream retail. Makes Christmas shopping easy.
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After many years of gardening and as a nurseryman, there are two things which never fail to thrill me.
The first show of seeds germinating, bringing new plant life into the world is number one in my book. When I had nurseries in the past this would often be a daily event with trays of seeds sprouting out of the growing medium seeking light to sustain their growth.
The other event is when a crop reaches maturity to be harvested and the pride one has from seeing the results of your care from germination to harvest.
This not only applies to food crops it can apply to annuals, ornamentals and trees.
When plants are a bit more difficult to grow and reach maturity then the reward of seeing the final result is even better.
I remember how I used to germinate hundreds of cyclamen in a hot water cupboard during winter for growing on later in the nursery..
Cyclamen germinate best in warm dark situations and once they sprout, they produce a round bulb about 2mm in diameter with one baby leaf protruding from the top.
As soon as this happens the seedling tray is taken out of the dark and placed in a shaded area of a glasshouse to prevent stretching of the foliage.
Its the middle of winter and the day light hours are short so very little growth is seen till the spring.
With increased light hours the bulb expands to 3 or 4 mm and more tiny leaves join the one.
More leaves means more energy from the sun and its not long before each tray with say about 300 baby cyclamen become a bit crowded.
Time to prick out and place each baby plant into a 'grow' tube. In its individual small pot the cyclamen bulb will grow on to about 10mm diameter with a nice number of leaves, progressively getting bigger.
Cyclamen do not like heat and full sun; they need to be moistened down but not over watered which would cause rots and loses. About the beginning of summer they are ready to pot up into a 8 cm pot where they will grow to the size of a miniature cyclamen.
The danger of over watering in the heat of summer is a problem and there is the chance the crop with be attacked by grass grubs (who love eating the bulbs from underneath) along with possible attacks from aphids and mealybugs. The plants are kept in a shaded, cooler area and given sufficient water to prevent drying out.
As summer days start to shorten about February to March the cyclamen are repotted into their final pot size of 20cm. Its a big pot which allows ample root room for development making for a mass of foliage.
The cooling temperatures and the shortening day light hours trigger the plant's need to reproduce so flower buds are produced.
The need for shade is not longer applicable so the full autumn sun can bath the plants in a well ventilated glasshouse. The first flowers open and the sight of a few thousand cyclamen ready to be sold is a real thrill. There often has been losses along the way and that is just part of the game and is expected, but hoped that most of the crop would reach maturity.
The final pleasure would come from customers that would phone to proudly say that their cyclamen now has over a hundred flowers and is also a pride and joy to them.
All from a little seed about 1mm in diameter and one year in the making.
If the plant is placed in a breezy situation many of the flowers will set seed and the large seed pods can be harvested later on to start the cycle all over again.
Successful germination depends on a number of factors which can vary greatly from species to species.
Some species must have stratification prior to germination.
This means in nature that these plants will flower in summer/autumn, drop their seeds onto the soil where wind and rain will help cover them. There they sit through winter in a cold to very cold soil which is their prompt to prepare to germinate.
When the soil temperature warms to 10 degrees or more then germination will happen.
For us to achieve the same results we need to store the seeds for a number of weeks in the fridge. The length of time will depend on species and information of the time needed can be found in propagation tables.
I prefer to place all my seeds into a fridge inside sealed glass jars to store. They always germinate better after their artificial winter. I even have tomato seeds over 30 years old stored in this way and when taken out they still have a 25 to 50 % strike rate.
When you come to germinate seeds the first rule is; They will grow a better plant if germinated in the soil where they will mature.
The reason for this is that the initial germination sends out a tap root (in many plants) which is very fine and will penetrate deep into friable soil.
If germinated in a seedling tray that root does not go very far and the resulting plants will never be quite as good as they could be.
When grown in the garden the initial root/s will attract beneficial fungi which greatly improves their development.
If we take an extreme example of say a carrot or parsnip seed and germinate in a container to transplant later we would end up at maturity with a short stubby carrot if we are lucky.
Beans, peas, pumpkins, zucchini, carrots, parsnips are all best germinated where they will mature and it is amusing for experienced gardeners to see seedlings of these for sale.
Buy a packet of seed as its a lot better and cheaper or collect your own seed when able to.
If you allow plants to mature and seed then collect the seeds to grow the following season. This can be repeated again and again, year after year then you will produce a strain of plants they have adapted completely to your growing conditions and will produce better plants every year. Choose only the best plant to allow to go to seed.
All vegetable plants should be direct sown from seed for best results.
If you compare a self sown tomato plant to a seedling purchased and transplanted into the garden you will notice a marked difference in most cases.
If you want to germinate seeds in a seed tray then your success will be increased if you have a propagation heat pad to sit the seed tray on. The underneath heat with ample moisture are a must for good strike rates. Spray any seeds you wish to germinate in the garden or in a seed tray with Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) it can help reduce the germination time by half obtaining a better strike.
As soon as the seeds send up a shoot get the tray out into good over head natural light otherwise the plant will stretch and fail.
Use only non chlorinated water (filtered water) and talking about chemicals in water “A recently-published Harvard University meta-analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has concluded that children who live in areas with highly fluoridated water have "significantly lower" IQ scores than those who live in low fluoride areas.” The poison contributes to behavior problems as they grow also.
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Labour Weekend is our big gardening event of the year and seeing the weather has been favorable recently with rain and sun, let us hope it continues for Labour Weekend.
Gardening over the weekend is historically recommended from past weather conditions showing that there is only a small likelihood of frosts between now and Xmas.
Frost tender plants such as tomatoes, pumpkins, capsicums, impatiens etc can be planted out and with any luck will not be harmed by a late frost.
How much gardening you achieve over Labour Weekend will depend largely on the weather and your desire to garden.
Let us assume that we wake up on Saturday the 25th to blue skies and light breezes; then taking a look outside we can see a lot of things need doing which automatically puts a damper on our mood.
So the best thing to do after your morning ritual is to start up the lawn mower with the catcher on and mow the lawns. Once this is completed have another look around and if by magic everything looks ten times better than our orginal look.
A freshly mowed lawn transforms the outdoors from shabby to promising and gives you a lift to tackle the gardens.
You should also have a nice pile of lawn clippings that you can use later on as a mulch if you have not applied a lawn herbicide to your lawns in the last 18 months.
L:awn weed killers that kill weeds but not the grasses dont just disappear over night.
A common one such as Turfix can have residues for about 6 months, Yates Hydrocotyle Killer which has the chemical Triclopyr and sold under brands such as Grazon,Brush Off, Scrubcutter and Victory has; I was told recently, that it can be active in areas sprayed for up to 14 months!
You would not want to put compost made from herbicide affected lawn clippings around your roses and tomatoes!
I prefer to be completely chemical free so when it comes to weeds you may choose to use the same methods as I do.
A Weed Eater fitted with a disk attachment called Pivotrim Pro which eliminates those dreadful spools of trimming line which makes the use of a weed eater a frustrating chore.
The Pivotrim Pro are available from Mitre10 Mega stores and maybe Mitre 10 as well.
There are 4 slots which you easily tread the Premium Replacement Lines making 8 cutting lines about 12cm long on their swivels. Because the lines fold away when they encounter a solid object they do far less damage to trunks of shrubs and trees and last much longer than the frustrating trimming lines.
Weeds in gardens where it is not advisable to use a weed eater without damaging preferred plants can be weeded by hand.
Small weeds recently germinated and up to a few centimeters in height can be cut off just below ground level with a sharp carving knife or by scrapping the knife across the soil surface.
Larger weeds can also be treated the same by cutting through the root system a couple of centimeters below the soil surface.
Leave the cut weeds on the soil surface where in sunlight and with microbial action they will break down quickly feeding the soil life.
When I am hand watering with a wand, I often wet down the soil, pull out weeds growing between plants and because of the wet soil they come away easy. Then I wash the soil off the roots and lay them onto the soil to break down.
Watering daily keeps raised gardens and container moist and progressively weed free.
In areas where there are cobbles, cracks or waste areas where you do not want any thing to grow, use salt.
Obtain a 25kg bag of salt from a stock and station agent and liberally apply.
Salt can be used to kill Wandering Jew in areas with established trees and shrubs. Also I am told that sprays of Baking Soda (likely at rates of 3 tablespoons per litre water) will also kill Wandering Jew.
Gorse can be killed over time with heavy applications of garden Lime.
Vinegar and cooking oil are two cheap products that can also be used to spray weeds safely but not preferred plants.
Here is a suggestion for those that have recently purchased triple grafted fruit trees.
It is difficult in the early days of establishment to have all three grafts grow with the same vigor. Often one of two will leap ahead to the demise of the other which may remain stunted or even die.
The secret is to keep all three (or two) growing at the same rate till they are well developed.
Now if you were to cut back the dominate branches they will just re-branch and become more vigorous.
The key is to increase the growth of the inferior branch and a simple way to achieve this would be to spray its foliage with Vaporgard.
This will allow the leaves to gather more energy from the sun and become stronger. Do not spray the dominate branches with Vaporgard which would defeat the purpose.
A further method could be applied by removing some leaves off the dominate branches reducing their energy collect from sunlight.
Talking about gardening and sunlight this is your chance to obtain your bodies vitamin D requirements while working in your garden. The thing is to be sensible, starting with short periods of exposure while protecting your exposed skin with Virgin Coconut oil. After showering apply the same oil to nourish your skin.
Sun Screens are good except they block the ability of your body to create Vitamin D and as we are told people with cancers have low levels of Vitamin D and worst cases down to no Vitamin D.
Lastly, many of you will be purchasing punnets, cell packs and pots of plants for planting out.
If you want to give them a great start to establish then spray the foliage all over with Vaporgard. This reduces moisture loss out of the foliage and takes the stress out of the transplanting. Then leave for a few hours to dry in a shaded spot.
Next soak the container by plunging into a bucket of non-chlorinated water till it stops bubbling.
This prevent damage to root system when removing from the container.
Place into the bottom of the planting hole some Rok Solid, Neem Granules and a few sheep manure pellets. This will help root development and protect roots from soil insect pests as well as feed the plant..
Have a great Gardening Labour Weekend.
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A question that is often asked by gardeners, 'how can I improve my gardens?'
There is a list of things that can be done to improve the soil, plants and gardens.
If you can tick all the boxes you are well on the way to improvements.
Firstly Chlorine in tap water designed to kill bacteria will kill beneficial bacteria in the soil and on your plants which is the last thing in the world you want to have happen.
The simple answer to this is a housing with a 10 micron carbon bonded filter placed between your tap and hose to remove the chlorine (and other chemicals) making the water healthy to drink for you and your plants.
Out lay about $140 with replacement filters at $40 each. Filters are good for about 16000 litres in sediment free tap water.
Mainly only use natural foods for your soil and garden which include animal manures, blood & bone, garden lime, gypsum, dolomite, Bio Boost, Rok Solid, compost etc.
Avoid man made fertilisers and chemical sprays including herbicides.
Small amounts of man made fertilisers can be used sparingly.
What we are looking to achieve is a very healthy soil teeming with soil life and earth worms.
We need to supply calcium with chemical free organic matter and special food for the beneficial fungi; use Mycorrcin as a spray and occasional soil drench.
Keep the soil from drying out by using natural herbicide free mulches and watering with non-chlorinated water builds humus and great gardens.
What if you are doing most of these things and still not achieving the results you want?
A few years ago an Auckland gardener contacted me in February to tell me about his roses.
Auckland is a difficult place to have good roses because of the humidity and climate.
Roses start off great in spring have a nice flowering period and as summer approaches they fade with leaf diseases appearing such as rust and black spot.
The gardener had heard about Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) which is Humate and Fulvic acid.
He had obtained some in the spring and every two weeks sprayed his roses with it.
This according to him, made the world of difference to his roses, in February still flowering beautifully, lots of buds coming and very little sign of disease.
Where his neighbors roses had finished flowering for the season and were covered in rust and black spot.
The gardener was so thrilled with the results from using MBL he had to phone me.
Another interesting aspect I was told, was some roses he had, which had never displayed a scent before now had lovely scents.
A year later the same gardener phoned to say he had won the gardening competition for the street all thanks to MBL and his other gardening practices.
The following year another phone call from him telling me of his disappointment about being banned from the gardening competition because his gardens were too good.
What a difference Humate and Fulvic acid can make not only to your roses but also to all your preferred plants including vegetables and fruit.
How does this relate to you and your garden? There are many applications that MBL can be used for, some of the most interesting include; Unlocking chemicals in the soil. (If you have been using fertilisers in your garden for sometime you will have a lot of fertiliser locked up in the soil.)
Drench the soil with MBL and these the become available to the plants. You could have a lot of dollars locked up in your gardens and lawns.
I t will also clean up many undesirable chemicals in the soil and in one trial I heard about, contaminated land was transformed into certifiable organic within 12 months.
A lady gardener phoned me during the week in desperation as plants in her garden would not grow, they just sat and sulked. The cause, continued use of nitrophoska blue which harms the soil life and locks up elements in the soil. MBL can unlock the damage done.
MBL is a growth booster for plants, it makes for much bigger root systems, stronger and healthier plants.
Another email I received this week reads; My Dad, a commercial flower grower for 45 plus years, has had some amazing results with MBL. He says he would have preferred to remain cynical and put it with all the other wonder product discards, but it very much has his attention ….
MBL benefits can include; Aids and speeds up germination of seeds. (That is a fact amazing germination times when compared to controls)
Helps to release locked up fertilisers from past applications especially phosphates.
Helps increase availability of chemical fertilisers and organic foods for plants.
Helps reduce many common plant disease problems.
Cleans up many toxic compounds, chemicals and oil spills in soil.
Helps to establish plants in areas where they cant or struggle to establish.
Stimulates growth of soil micro organisms.
Increases root respiration and formation.
Increases availability of micro nutrients.
Can increase permeability of plant membranes, which will enhance nutrient uptake.
Increases vitamin content of plants. Stimulates plant enzymes.
Contains a number of trace elements such as Si, Mg, S, Mn and more.
Increases ability of photosynthesis.
Contains silica which strengthens cell walls, helps block disease and regulates cell temperature which increases drought and frost tolerance.
Increase pH buffering properties of soil. Retains and releases water soluble fertilisers for plants when needed.
Increases soil aeration. Improves soil structure. Makes soil more friable.
Has a capacity to detoxify chemical residues and heavy metals. A powerful, natural chelating agent. Improves taste and shelf-life. Fulvic acid can promote prolonged production, as it tends to delay the aging process. Fulvic acid increases the metabolism of proteins.
Used at the rates of 20ml per litre as a soil drench as required and 10ml per litre as a foliage spray once or twice a month.
A must for roses, tomatoes and all vegetable and fruit crops. Green keepers are using it for better turf so onto the lawn for better healthier lawns. If you have brown patches on the lawn where dogs have urinated use MBL to help restore or re-establish grass.
Use on your flowering annuals for bigger displays and you will need less plants to fill beds. (with balanced NPK or organic mulches etc)
MBL is available from leading garden centres and some Mitre 10.
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When we buy plant foods or fertilisers for our gardens we see on the products the letters N:P:K followed by numbers which indicate the amounts of each of these elements. The NPK stands for Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium.
Nitrogen provides growing power and helps make plant leaves and stems green.
Nitrogen is used to form basic proteins, chlorophyll, and enzymes for the plant cells. In short, a plant can't grow without it.
Phosphorus stimulates budding and blooming. Plants need phosphorus to produce fruits, flowers, and seeds. It also helps make your plants more resistant to disease. Phosphorus doesn't dissolve like nitrogen. The soil will hang onto phosphorus, not releasing it into water.
Potassium promotes strong vigorous roots and resistance to disease.
Potassium is a nutrient your plants need for good internal chemistry. Plants use potassium to produce the sugars, starches, proteins and enzymes they need to grow and thrive. Potassium also helps your plants regulate their water usage, and better withstand the cold.
I believe of the three elements its the phosphorus that is least understood by some gardeners.
In the distant past phosphorus was obtain from manures especially bird or bat droppings called guano. Phosphorus was also obtained from Reactive Rock Phosphate which is a hard phosphatic rock. In most soils it dissolves very slowly.
To make the rock phosphate more readily available to plants it was discovered that a process using sulfuric acid, early in the 1900’s, would breakdown the reactive rock phosphate so a new agricultural fertiliser was created called Super or Super Phosphate. It became a boon to agriculture and farming with tons of Super been spread to cause fast growth in fields and crops.
Unfortunately like a number of discoveries such as DDT and Asbestos, there was a hidden price to pay. Super phosphate kills soil life and with their demise leads to unhealthy plants/grasses.
Not only that, it is now known that Super laden plants and grasses can cause health problems in stock including cancers.
(Chlorine and acidic products also destroy soil life including earth worms. Overt time through continued use soil becomes inert or lifeless)
I read a very interesting book some years ago called ‘Cancer, Cause and Cure’ written by an Australian farmer, Percy Weston.
Percy observed the results of the introduction of Super on his farm and the changes that occurred.
If you are interested the book can be obtained by mail order. The book made me reconsider the use of Super phosphate in garden fertilisers.
Interestingly I have never been an advocate of Super phoshate and to the best of my knowledge have never purchased it as a stand alone fertiliser for my gardens. Though I have on odd occasions in the past used General Garden Fertilisers.
Fortunately I have always preferred sheep manure pellets, animal manures and natural products as my general plant food.
Now days I avoid using chemical fertilisers or chemical sprays including any herbicides anywhere on my property.
But I have noticed, that even though I have obtained good healthy crops and plants, there is some factor that appears to be missing and the crops are not as lush as I feel they could be.
I have often thought that I am not getting sufficient phosphorus in my composts and mulches.
This caused me to do a bit of research on the Internet and found to my delight a company in New Zealand who make a product called BioPhos. They take the rock phosphate and break it down naturally with micro organisms making it as readily available to plants as Super phosphate is.
The company sent me a email booklet and it showed trials that proved that not only did BioPhos work as well as Super, but actually better as it did not have a ‘peak’ growth on application and gave a much longer sustained release of phosphorus to plants.
Instead of killing soil life it actually supplies new micro organisms to the soil which carry on breaking the natural phosphorus down, meaning that only one application is needed per year unless you are cropping during the winter as well.
Some rose growers and rose societies recommend using BioPhos for better, healthier roses. BioPhos contains phosphate, potassium, sulphur and calcium at the rates of P10:K8:S7:Ca28.
It is pH neutral and used at the following rates; New beds work in 100 grams per square metre, the same with lawns but water in to settle.
Side dressing plants; seedlings 8 grams (a teaspoon full) around base of the plant or in the planting hole. Same for potatoes (which do well with phosphorus) Sowing beans peas etc sprinkle down row with seeds. Roses and similar sized plants 18 grams or a tablespoon full around plant or in planting hole.
Established fruit trees etc, spread at the rate of 100 grams per square metre around drip line or where feeder roots are. Apply to vegetable gardens in spring and a further application in autumn if growing winter crops. Can be applied to container plants also.
Percy’s Book, showed in a practical and logical manner a obvious connection between arthritis, cancers plus other health problems and Super Phosphate, in animals, and later in his own health. He was able to cure problems by stopping the use of Super, using other minerals to flush excess phosphates out, and to go onto diets that were low in phosphate.
He cure himself and his wife of cancers, (twice each) along with others that sort his advise. He lived to be over 100 years old and write this interesting book of his personal experiences.
Manufacturer’s of Super Phosphate also create a incredible pollution problem for the environment see http://www.fluoridealert.org/phosphate/overview.htm

Very interesting if you have concerns about fluoride in your tap water.
A 5 or 10 micron carbon bonded filter will filter out chlorine, fluoride and other chemical residues from your tap water making for healthier gardens, for your pets and you.
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October is here along with the approach of Labour weekend, which is New Zealand's traditional planting time for vegetable gardens.
In the past gardeners could be fairly confident that there would be less likelihood of late frosts after Labour Weekend plus they had a long weekend to spend gardening.
Tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkins,. Capsicums, lettuce and lots of other vegetables would be planted.
In the flower gardens Mum would plant out her favorites such as inpatients and petunias.
Much of this has changed because of different weather patterns and new pest problems.
The weather is much milder than in the past, less frosts even though we can have a cold snap every so often to let us know what winter used to be like.
Not only are our winters milder but in areas such as Palmerston North the summers are also milder.
Winds with a chill does not make for happy times gardening or for plants to grow well.
In areas where the potato psyllid is a problem such as here in Palmerston North, I advise very early plantings of potatoes so they miss the build up of the psyllid populations and can be harvested early without damage to the tubers.
Late plantings, October onwards, should use both Neem Tree Granules and Quarantine Cloth over hoops to prevent damage from the pests.
Note; the normal crop cover which comes in 4 metre wide rolls will stop most insects but not the psyllids. It is perfect for white butterfly control.
Tomatoes and Tamarillos will also suffer badly from the psyllid, with tamarillos dying before they crop.
One aspect with unsettled weather it helps prevent pest insects becoming a problem till the weather settles.
It is very frustrating now we have daylight savings and more time in the evening to spend in the gardens to see our plants struggle because of the weather conditions.
There are two answers to this, the first is to have raised gardens using roofing iron sheets making their width the height of the garden. Filled up to about 20cm from the top makes for a excellent wind break on a garden that is about a metre wide.
The heat from the sun on the galvanized steel will warm the bed and increase the soil temperature promoting better growth. Protection and warmth are the two critical requirements for good growth after supplying nature foods and minerals into the growing medium.
The first raised garden I ever put up using roofing iron, amazed me because young seedlings of silverbeet were big enough to start harvesting within 4 weeks of planting with dwarf bean seeds sown at the same time produced the first young beans about 2 weeks later.
By that time the silverbeet were massive in size. In an open garden it would take twice as long.
The second answer is to buy or build a glasshouse, new or secondhand.
A quick look on Trade Me I found both secondhand and new available, one a new polycarbonate double skin 12 foot by 6 foot under $800. (I prefer a A-frame glasshouse to a tunnel house after having grown in both.)
It would need a concrete floor with a wooden base bolted to the concrete so the frame's base can be secured to it. (Your glasshouse needs to be secured against high winds)
Some of the small units advertised would need to be placed in a very sheltered spot as they have little strength to with stand gales.
Shelter and warmth are important for growing good tomato plants and other more heat loving plants such as cucumbers, okra, chilies and sweet capsicums.
A glasshouse will give you the ideal growing conditions if you regulate the temperature on sunny days.
It can be kept relatively free of insect pests if you place Quarantine cloth over the vents and doorway to prevent insects getting in.
This allows for the door and vents to be open to allow airflow and help reduce the temperature on sunny days.
You need to be careful that the plants you bring into the glasshouse are not carrying pest insects or their eggs. Spray the plants all over with Neem Tree Oil before bringing them into the glasshouse and repeat about a week later to kill any grubs that may have hatched out.
When I wrote my last book called Wallys Glasshouse Gardening for New Zealand, I talked about various methods of cooling the glasshouse down to under 30 degrees in summer such as wetting the concrete pad. (Evaporation cools the air)
One method I have only just realised recently is to use 12 volt extractor fans connected to a 12 volt solar panel.
This makes perfect sense as when the sun hits the panel it produces electricity and runs the fan.
A panel and fan could be obtained new for under $200.
Totally automatic, no sun no fan, full sun, fan at max. You dont even have to turn it off at night.
Solar Power is free after set up costs and becoming an interesting possibility to save a lot of money in the long term by going off grid.
Having a glasshouse you must ensure that any insect pests that get into it must be controlled quickly.
I use Neem Tree Granules in the growing medium and on top of it which helps a lot.
At any sign of insects a spray of Neem Tree Oil with Key Pyrethrum sprayed just before sunset over all plants in the house, including any weeds.
You should have a small bench in the glasshouse so you can pot up, germinate seeds and raise seedlings.
This work place is a great boon on a winters day when your green fingers are itching.
Diseases can be a problem if the humidity becomes too high so good ventilation and an extractor fan will help greatly. Spays of Liquid Copper, Liquid Sulphur or Condy's crystals can also be used.
Water your plant's containers with a hand held soft wand on your hose.
The water should be though a 10 micron bonded carbon filter to remove the chloride and fluoride poisons from the water.
No matter what the weather, a glasshouse makes gardening more enjoyable while increasing the range of plants you can grow to obtain better results.
You will discover things such as snake beans can do well in a glasshouse because they are self fertile not like most other climbing beans.
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Lawns are an integral part of your gardens and no matter how wonderful your gardens look, a poor lawn is going to spoil the overall appearance. From my experience when judging gardens, I have found that a really good looking lawn will make, ‘a not so great’ garden, look far better than they are.
It’s a bit like putting a really great picture frame around a so-so picture.
Your attention is drawn to the frame and the picture’s value is lifted. On the other hand, I have seen many really great gardens that have lost lots of points with the judges, because the lawns were so poor in appearance.
It is not too hard to achieve a really great lawn, its more a matter of knowing how to go about it.
The first problem to contend with is the thatch that builds up in the root zone of the lawn’s grass.
This is the debris accumulated over time, compressed through traffic, reducing drainage, aiding in moss establishment and poor aeration. It makes the lawn feel spongy to walk on.
This can be one of the main reasons why lawns don’t improve even though they are feed, watered and weeded.
Thatch causes the roots of the grasses to grow up into the thatch area instead of penetrating down into the lower soil areas. As long as the thatch holds food and moisture the lawn appears to be growing well.
When the thatch dries out, things take a dramatic turn for the worse. Not having deep roots into the soil the lawn dies of thirst in a short period of time. The thatch can damage your lawn making ideal conditions for diseases and moss development.
To solve the problem you need to run a Scarifier (sometimes called a Thatcher or Verticutter) over your lawn. The blades will rip the thatch up, open up the soil and allow the grasses to root down for the coming summer.
Some hire centres may have machines for this function, or you could buy a Scarifier Rake.
The Scarifier rake effectively clears thatch and moss that has previously been treated with Moss and Liverwort control spray. The head swings back as it slides forward when pushed to dig its teeth in when pulled back. Best used after mowing your lawn.
The much easier way is to apply the product called Thatch Busta to your lawn this feeds the microbes, increasing their population which breakdown the thatch converting it to food for the lawn.
Given average conditions a Thatch Busta application can clean up an inch of thatch in a month.
If you have “Scarified” the lawn areas in the two directions, North-South and East-West you then should over-sow with a good lawn seed such as Super Strike.
This over-sowing is designed to thicken up the lawn making it difficult for weeds to establish.
If you have a weed problem in your lawns then you need to either hand weed or kill the weeds by using a lawn weed killer which can be applied with a Lawnboy. Most garden centres have Lawnboys available for hire.
Fill the tank half full with water, add the weed killer as to the instructions on the bottle for 10 litres of spray, then add 10 mls of Raingard (which increases the effectiveness of the spray)
If you have moss in the lawn then you need to spray with Moss and Liverwort Control separately.
Don't use sulphate of iron as it only burns the moss and does not kill it.
Remember when mowing your lawn raise your mowers height so you are not cutting the grasses too low and scalping your lawn.
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Container grown plants need not only be decorative but can also be very productive, supplying you with fruit for the family. There are special dwarf stone fruit trees which when mature, will only grow to just under 2 metres, yet produce good crops of normal size fruit.
These dwarf trees are ideal, because these days, not so many people bother to bottle fruit to make use of heavy crops from full size trees..
The larger the container you select for your dwarf tree will determine to a degree the ultimate size of the tree. Do not use a container where the top tapers back on itself, as in years to come you need to take the tree out of the container for root pruning and replacement of the compost mix.
Some of the trees available are, Nectarine, Nectarina which has medium sized, golden fleshed fruit.
Nectarine, Garden Delight which has red skinned, yellow fleshed fruit.
Peach, Garden Lady with yellow flesh, red over yellow skin and freestone.
Not only are these trees a delight to see in containers, they are easy to care for and at harvest time it is easy to protect the ripened fruit from birds but difficult to protect from little hands.
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Each year our plants are subjected to attacks from pests and diseases and how the plants fair is dependant on several factors such as weather, heat, moisture and human intervention.
There is little we can do weather-wise outside of creating micro-climates through our plantings of shelter, wind breaks or using extra protection such as glasshouses or shade houses.
We can however protect our plants by providing a good healthy diet, adequate moisture and preventive spray programs. I think we would all agree that a healthy plant is less likely to be attacked by pests and diseases as the weakest plants are attacked first.
Natural plant foods are better than chemical fertilisers and you have a great selection available including; Blood & Bone (dry or liquid) compost, sheep manure pellets, Bio Boost, Gypsum, mulches, garden lime, Rok Solid, Dolomite and chicken manure to name a few.
Early Spring spray programs can keep pest and disease problems at a minimum and if the sprays are natural and safe to use then one is inclined to maintain the program.
Safe sprays include, Liquid Copper, Liquid Sulphur, PerKfection, Neem Tree Oil, Key Pyrethrum and Raingard.
I am surprised at the number of gardeners like myself who used to use chemical sprays and now give them a big miss because of heath reasons and also to protect bees and bumble bees from the likes of Confidor.
For your roses you can spray with Neem Tree oil and Raingard for insects especially aphids and early fungus diseases such as mildews. For your fruit trees; Liquid Copper and Raingard and the same on your stone fruit for Curly leaf disease. Citrus trees will benefit from a spray of Liquid Copper and a sprinkling of Fruit & Flower Power.
On strawberries sprinkle Wallys Secret Strawberry Food and spray the foliage with Mycorrcin Stopping diseases and pests getting a foot in the door at this time of the year, will make for a more enjoyable gardening season..
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As usual its Saturday morning and I am at the computer writing the weekly article.
The date is the 13th of September and here in Palmerston North we have finally had some rain with a reasonable likelihood of some more over the next few days.
For New Zealand in general its a very dry spring with even normally wet places like the West Coast being exceptionally dry.
Farmers after a mild winter are very worried about getting grass growth before summer along with every possibility of drought conditions to make matters worse later on.
I can remember years back when the expression 'Water Table' was often used.
The meaning from Encyclopedia Britannica is; 'Water table, also called Groundwater Table, upper level of an underground surface in which the soil or rocks are permanently saturated with water.
The water table separates the groundwater zone that lies below it from the capillary fringe, or zone of aeration, that lies above it.
The water table fluctuates both with the seasons and from year to year because it is affected by climatic variations and by the amount of precipitation used by vegetation.
It also is affected by withdrawing excessive amounts of water from wells or by recharging them artificially.'
I can recall for years that in winter you could dig a hole and it would immediately be filled with water from the water table. Later you could dig a hole to find the soil one or two spade depths down, to be damp, even if you did not see any actual water. This does not happen any more!
Now days when it rains for a couple of days and gives the soil a nice soak there is only another one or two days afterwards when the gardens need watering again. (spring, summer or autumn)
The reason is that there is no water table to retain moderate to moist soil for a reasonable period before you need to water.
Lets read again the last bit from my online Encyclopedia, It also is affected by withdrawing excessive amounts of water from wells or by recharging them artificially.'
Obviously the underground water has gone and one can only assume that is caused by wells and irrigation of agriculture land.
Climate change is greatly contributing to this problem such as an unheard of dry West Coast.
Our problem as gardeners, is to able to have sufficient water for our gardens during dry times especially when water restrictions are implemented. The extension to that is having sufficient water for our own needs if our taps run dry.
Country living folk collect rain water off their roofs and store it in tanks for their day to day use but in dry times their tanks also run dry. The answer would to store more water by putting in more tanks.
Some older houses in towns and cities may still have a tank along the side of their house and in my opinion that is a very wise thing to have for dry times.
If we collect rain water when its raining and store it for future use in the garden or in a worst case for our own use, then that makes sense to me.
I note than there are two types of plastic tanks that are available, one that can be connected to a down pipe with a tap near the base. Raised off the ground on a steady structure holding 500 or 1000 litres would certainly help keeping plants alive when you need to.
Another more expensive one is balloon like bags that are placed under your house between the piles where the rainwater is stored and then pumped up for use.
Not everyone has suitable homes to have any tanks connected to down pipes but a few plastic containers of say 20 litres can likely be stacked up somewhere as a back up.
My business has for instance lots of 20 litre containers that would be ideal for storing water in. I give them away free to anyone that picks them up from the warehouse in Palmerston North.
(Phone 3570606) Ideal to hold worm pee and other liquid feeds also.
The next step in gardening is conserving/storing water in the gardens by building up your humus in the soil which can hold 80 to 90% of its weight in water.
Here are some facts: 'Wheeler and Ward (1998) estimate a 25mm rainfall event over one hectare contains 250,000 litres of water. Their studies suggest that soils with only 1% humus would be able to store less than half of the water in a 25mm rainfall event. A 2% increase in humus would store all the 250,000 litres and have a capacity for a further 70,000 litres.'
You can increase the humus percentage in your gardens by using natural products such as composts, animal manures, blood & bone garden lime, dolomite, gypsum, mulches and drenching the soils with a combination of Mycorrcin and Magic Botanic Liquid every 3 months.
You need to avoid chemicals including man made fertilisers such as superphoshate , herbicides and the chlorine in tap water as they kill the soil life you need to promote.
Mulches of organic material such as herbicide free grass clippings, newspaper and compost will assist in water retention. Spaying the foliage of plants with Vaporgard will reduce the plants need for water by about 30% and also give the plant more energy.
Monthly sprinklings of potash also helps plants to handle drought conditions better.
Mulches will help prevent surface soil from drying out causing surface tension where water cannot penetrate. Water crystals (coloured) can be used on the bare mix of container plants, very decoratively, as a mulch.
A very big benefit of building up humus percentages in your soil is carbon-sequestering which meas, the plants collecting carbon and then stored in the humus.
According to a recent study by the Rodale Institute, if regenerative agriculture were practiced globally, 100 percent of current, annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions would be sequestered. That’s a compelling statistic, backed up by Rodale’s Farming Systems Trial (FST), the longest-running test comparing organic and conventional cropping systems.
Conventional cropping and farming has removed the humus from soils through their use of chemical fertilisers and sprays, making for inert soils, devoid of soil life with grass and crops force grown by chemical fertilisers.
Agriculture/farming in the last 60 odd years has contributed greatly to the carbon problem through the way the industry has used the land in NZ and else where in the world releasing trillions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Here is a statement from the Rodale Institute;

'Total global emissions of greenhouse gases in 2012 were about 52 GtCO2e.2 Annual emissions must drop to ~41 GtCO2e by 2020 if we are to have a feasible chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C.2
Regenerative organic agriculture can get us there.
Simply put, recent data from farming systems and pasture trials show that we could sequester more than 100% of current annual CO2 emissions with a switch to widely available and inexpensive management practices.'

I dont think the fertiliser companies would like that and I will likely have 'expert' agriculture consultants saying that their 'Best Practice' is right.
As Tui would say 'Yeah Right'
Wrong science in favour of big money is outdated and should be replaced for better practices.
See: http://rodaleinstitute.org/assets/RegenOrgAgricultureAndClimateChange_20140418.pdf for common sense information by scientists that care about the planet and for all creatures well being.

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This week I thought it would be a good idea to pass on a number of gardening tips which are topical at this time of the year.
Growing potatoes; Firstly it depends on the soil you are growing in..Generally you should deep cultivate and incorporate a good amount of compost into the soil making a friable loam. Make a trench about 20cm deep and ensuring the soil underneath is friable and mixed with the compost (Daltons or Oderings Compost is good and free from herbicides to the best of my knowledge as not made from green waste)
Place about a handful of Sheep manure pellets, a tablespoon of gypsum, and a level teaspoon of BioPhos and some Neem Tree Granules, cover lightly with a little soil and sit the potato on it with the eyes pointing upwards. Cover with soil/compost mix about 3 cm over seed and water in with Magic Botanic Liquid.
As the shoots come through the soil, lightly cover with more mix. Keep doing this until you have a mound about 12cm tall then allow the tops to grow. Spray the tops two weekly with Magic Botanic Liquid and Mycorrcin. Sprinkle a few of the Neem & Sheep manure Pellets or Neem Granules on the mound, by the shoots, in case of soil insects eating into the tubers. The soil should be kept moist at all times but not wet.
If you know that the potato psyllid is a problem in your garden then you should have already planted your seed potatoes or even better, use Quarantine cloth over the crop to protect.
Later plantings should always be protected with Quarantine Cloth.
Here is a tip a gardener told me to reduce codlin moth damage in apples, he reckoned he is able to greatly reduce damage by sprinkling Neem Tree Granules under the apple trees at this time of the year and watering it in. Later set up a pheromone trap (You can use Treacle in a container inside a onion bag hanging in the tree) First sign of the male moths start spraying the apples (not the tree) with Neem Oil., repeat about every 7 days till no more moths are trapped.
Oxalis is a problem for many and the easy way to knock it back is with Baking Soda. Mix a heaped table spoon of baking soda into one litre of warm water, stir to dissolve and add one mil of Raingard.
Spray the foliage of the oxalis on a sunny day when the ground is a bit on the dry side. It dehydrates the oxalis foliage without harming any other plants. New foliage will appear and this should be also treated in the same manner as soon as it shows. If you stop the bulbs from having leaves they will run out of energy and die. DO NOT work the soil as this only brings fresh bulbs to the surface and extends the problem. Instead cover the soil with fresh compost and plant into this.
I am told baking soda spray at about 3 tablespoons per litre of water is a good control of wandering willie or wandering jew.
The same solution of baking soda (one tablespoon only) and Raingard is the best spray to prevent and control powdery mildew and black spot on any plants affected with these diseases.
The Raingard spreads and sticks the baking soda and prevents it from washing off in the rain for up to 14 days. This also applies to all contact type sprays such as copper.
If you add Raingard to any chemical weed killers your kill effective rate will be increased by 50% according to trials I have read.
About this time every year I have gardeners complaining about their broad beans flowering but no fruit setting. (Beans are fruit technically as they have seeds inside which we eat) The reason for no beans forming, after the flowers fall is due to no pollination, which is due to there not being any bumble bees around early in the season to do the job. Bumble bees have to emerge as queens out of their winter Hibernation and start forming a colony, till this happens and numbers increase not many beans set. Later on the plants produce well.
Another thing that you can do to encourage any native bees or bumble bees to pollinate the broad beans is to spray them with sugar and water. Dissolve a couple of table spoons of raw sugar into a litre of warm water and spray the plants. The same can be applied to any fruiting plant or tree that requires pollination. Why raw sugar? Because it is natural and more appealing to the insects, it is also far better for you to take than white, refined sugar.
A lot of us will be germinating and growing seedlings for pots and gardens and every time we transplant, the young plants suffer. This can be simply overcome by spraying the plants a couple of days beforehand with Vaporgard which greatly reduces transplant shock and is ideal to spray onto foliage you are going to cut for cuttings. (For cuttings dip the end in a bit of honey or spit on them, either helps)
If planting out in a windy area or near the sea you can give the plants a far better start by spraying them with the Vaporgard.
Increase the yield, size of the fruit and flavour, of strawberries by spraying them every 2 weeks with Mycorrcin. Trials showed an increase of 200 to 400% and that is a fact. For extra big strawberries you may like to try my 'Wally's Secret Strawberry Food'. Strawberries bigger than apricots are possible.
For best overall results in the garden apply sheep manure pellets or Bio Boost (both are good) instead of any chemical fertilisers. Spray the preferred plants (roses etc) and vegetables with Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) every two weeks. Spray the soil around the plants at the same time. Gardeners that have been using this natural spray have reported that they have never had such great gardens and crops before.
MBL makes a really big difference to the health of the plants and soil and you will be impressed.
Many gardeners will be spraying with copper sprays at this time and here is a big one, DO NOT mix any spraying oils with the copper. Sure you have been told in the past to mix the two together and many do so through force of habit. The fact is the oil greatly reduces the effectiveness of the copper and helps wash the copper particles off faster in rain when compared to not having the oil.
Then ask yourself why is the oil used? The simple answer is, it is used to smoother scale or thrip insects. If you have no scale or thrips present, why waste your money? If the pests appear at anytime you can use an oil then, to control them.
Liquid Coppers are more user friendly than powdered ones as they do not block your jets like the powders do.
Soon aphids will appear on the new shoots of roses and other plants; if you have any of those old yellow cakes of Sunlight soap, simply lather some up in warm water and spray the aphids.
Best done when the sun is off the plants, later in the day. The fatty acids from the soap break down the aphid’s bodies.
If you do not have any of those yellow cakes then use Neem Tree Oil with Key Pyrethrum added.
Whitefly on tomatoes is a great problem for many gardeners and by simply placing some Neem Tree Granules around near the base of the plants, will help prevent their populations from building up without the need to spray much if at all. The granules need to be repeated about every 6-8 weeks.
If you have worms in your lawn causing worm casts that you do not like, then dissolve some Cold Water Surf in water and throw that over the lawn. The worms will come to the surface where you should then pick them up and bury these valuable creatures back into your gardens. Someone said recently that it will also bring grass grubs to the surface where the birds will eat them. Not sure if this is correct or not but worth a shot. Do it early in the morning as that is when the sparrows etc are looking for breakfast.
There are hundreds of gardening tips but space has run out again, more can be found in my books, Wally’s Down to Earth Gardening Guide and Wallys Green Tips for Gardeners.. Happy New Season Gardening.
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Well its September already and a very busy time for us gardeners planting seeds, seedlings and all the other bits that go to make our gardens great while keeping us happy.
First a massive tip that was given to me by a fellow gardener at a talk I gave about a month or so ago.
The tip is about controlling a plant which is sometimes sold as a container plant in the variegated form and in the non-variegated green leaf form is a really pest of a weed.
Tradescantia fluminensis is the botanical name but commonly referred to as Wandering Jew (oops that might be a naughty word) or Wandering Willy (Much naughtier word according to Billy Connolly who often refers to his 'Willy')
This is a real naughty weed as once established, it forms mat-like layers and spraying simply kills the top layer while a new layer springs to life underneath. Pulling it out is a problem too, as every tiny piece
left in the soil will root. It also is the cause of allergic dermatitis in dogs and other animals.
I actually have two solutions for control; one I have talked about previously and that is throwing lots of salt at it and after the first layer has died back spot treating fresh outbreaks with salt.
Salt in larger quantities is a very good weed killer and prevents fresh re-emergence of new weeds for a period of time. (Great on cobbles)
The new tip is to make up a spray using about 3 tablespoons of baking soda to a litre of water with a ml of Raingard added and spraying the foliage.
According to my 'tipper' it works a treat (Now I am sounding a bit like that whale fellow)
It would likely require further sprays until no new growth is forthcoming.
The same spray will also dehydrate the foliage of oxalis and assist in its control also.
Best time to spray is during a sunny day when the soil is on the dry side.
Baking Soda can harm some other plants at the strength suggested but at one tablespoon per litre is a control for powdery mildew and black spot.
Simple and cheap without having to use harmful herbicides.
I find one of the aspects of having lived for over 60 years and retaining a good memory of what things were like years ago along with untold experiences, so that one can use Common Sense and Logic in regard to problems and situations.
I sometimes have some academic pop up and say where is your scientific evidence?
My answer is Science is not like maths; maths is finite and and exact science. All other science is evolving and what is right today maybe very wrong tomorrow. So scientific evidence is a will-o-the-wisp
and these days with corporations controlling what scientific evidence it wants published and how they ostrichsize independent research when the research interferes with their bottom line. Hopefully common sense will prevail in the end which leads me to my next subject, chickens.
The plight of chickens in cages unable to preform their natural functions is a total money making disgrace. The answer is to have a few chickens in your back yard. I know its not practical in some cases
but I would think there must be about 70 to 80% of homes with a back yard suitable for a small hen house and run.
They are the best recycling operators that you could ever wish for. They will take in kitchen wastes, weeds and organic material and pop out manure that has a good NPK rating and is weed free.
Not only that, they will produce you eggs that are superior in every way over and above any eggs you can buy in a supermarket. (I sell my surplus for only $2.00 a dozen which pays for pellets and wheat for 6 chickens)
Dark rich yokes with a wonderful favor what I would call real eggs. That is if you have your own chickens and feed them ample greens such as grass and silverbeet along with some wheat and poultry layers pellets.
Add a bit of garden lime to their food for calcium every now and then keeping firm shells.
I see in some chain stores and pet shops small hen houses with runs for sale which would allow you to keep two or three chickens.
Better still if you are handy with a hammer and saw you can soon knock up a hen house that is about a sqM in floor area, 2 metres tall along with a nesting box which can be accessed from the outside. A
corrugated iron roof and a run attached that stands about a half metre tall with netting. A trap door on the run to enable you to place food into the run and fill their water bowl.
Part of the run should be covered to protect against the elements.
A concrete floor should be laid inside the hen house to keep it dry and then covered with non-tantalized wood shavings or sawdust. Every few weeks you clean out the wood shavings and manure to use in your gardens. Best free fertiliser you could wish for.
The perches should be placed higher up inside the house using branches of varying diameters so that they do not have their feet wrapped around the same size night after night which can result in harm to their feet.
Also no sharp edges such as in timber 50 x 50. If using timber then plane off the sharp edges so the chickens down lose claws overtime.
I find that even though chickens can fly they prefer not to unless they need to so; so supply some further branches on an angle so that they can climb up to their perches at night is a good practice.
The house is simply made out of 50 x 50 wood for frame with treated ply board for the walls.
Place straw in their nesting box which should have a lid that you can access from the outside.
You can obtain a few hens from a poultry farm in two types, point of lay which are young hens just about ready to start laying or what are called spent layer being chickens about a year or so old that have done a hard life of laying and their laying potential is reducing because of their environment.
These are cheap to buy and I have found that given the proper environment to live in with freedom of movement, soil to have dirt baths in, sunlight to sun bathe in and real food they will produce many more eggs. You may allow them to have a wander around your back yard as long as they are protected from dogs or cats. (Cats are not normally a problem unless they are feral)
If you obtain baby chickens you will likely have some roosters in the batch and that you dont want in town.
Give your chickens some meat such as dog roll every few days and you will get more eggs for longer periods. (They love the protein)
The down side is having to eat all the great eggs or give them away when there are too many.
You need to have a friend or neighbour come in daily to feed and water the chickens if you go away.
(Their reward is free wholesome eggs)
When you are weeding or trimming up vegetables then into the chicken run with the foliage.
Slugs and Snails can be collected and fed to the chickens. (One man's pest is another chickens delight)
Get your children or grand children involved, the young ones will love having chickens to care for.
I know, as I still have very fond memories as a young boy with my own pet chook called blackie.
Think about it, if sufficient people kept a few chickens then a number of poultry cages would disappear, you would have better gardens, better health from eating real eggs and if you do baking (say no more)
Picture attached is my own chicken house at the back of the warehouse.

TO THE LIST OF ARTICLES

Practical advise is worth its weight in gold. Every problem has a solution and if you have a better understanding of the problem and how a solution will solve the issue, then you will have a satisfactory outcome.
For instance if you ask someone advise and they tell you to do such n such, you have not really learnt anything but if you do verbatim what was told you likely solve the issue. (Still none the wiser)
If instead; its explained the reason for taking certain actions and why they work, then you have a greater understanding and your knowledge base is increased.
Experience is the greatest teacher, learning by mistakes, using a combination of logic and common sense are all attributes to obtain and use in your gardening endeavors.
When we read about the experiences of other gardeners and how they found answers to their problems we can use their knowledge to fast track our own endeavors.
A few weeks ago I was send a private publication of a book entitled 'Planting for Birds, Bees and Farm Stock' by Jan Wagtendonk and asked to comment on it.
Originally published in 2001, Jan decided to update and re-print this valuable book. (2014 publication)
It all started on 60 acres of land north of Tauranga which was considered 'A rundown wilderness' that had allowed wildlife to flourish.
Instead of cutting down native bush and running stock Jan looked at enhancing what was already there.
Planting food sources for birds and bees thereby creating a paradise to not only live within, but to share with other people seeking peace.
This 136 page book is not only ideal for life-styles and gardeners with larger sections but also any gardener that wants a bit of heaven around their home.
It should be compulsory reading for farmers as it would improve their bottom line by providing a better environment for their stock.
The chapter on bees gives great advise on how to protect and feed our vital pollinators which is applicable to the home gardener with fruiting plants as well as the orchard owner.
Planting for Birds, Bees and Farm Stock is a very good read with lots of valuable information which would appeal to most gardeners.
The book is only available directly from Jan Wagtendonk at enquiries@warmearthcottage.co.nz, or phone (07) 5490 962. (r.r.p $30.00) You may like to look at their web site at http://warmearthcottage.co.nz/ where they have accommodation for getting back to Nature stays. A great book and an inspiration for many I am sure.
A reader this week sent an email with a problem I had not heard of previously:
We have uninvited clover mites taking up residence in our house. I googled the lovely little things and found out they are clover mites. It started in summer at the bedroom (east ) end of our 3yr old house.
In the mornings there would be, hundreds of the little critters on the wall behind the bed head, if I squashed them they left a green mess so I had to carefully get rid of them with wet paper towels
I got the bug man in, he never knew what they were but sprayed the windows that were affected and 5min and $70.00 later he left. I must add that we always get the outside of the house sprayed for spiders and that was done in January by the same man I got back later.
That spray only lasted a few days until the mites put gumboots on and carried on walking over the stuff.
We purchased a spray bottle of 'No Bugs Super' professional strength for indoor and out door. Again the clever little critters found out how to get over this as well. We had not as many in the cold but now they are back. In the winter I think they were shifting house and we now have them from the front of the house to the back. Not every window is affected yet.
At the front of the house the dear little things can be seen right up to the roof on the outside. Two of the double glazed windows also have hundreds of eggs in between the glass. I will give the builders a call about that to get the windows cleaned out.
What can I do to stop these little critters putting on gum boots and breading like wildfire.
We have gardens next to the house except for under the east end of the house and that is what passes for lawn in Kapiti. I look forward to your reply and advice. Joy W.
My first response was to Google them and yes Clover Mites they are as; described above.
I phoned Jan and had a talk about possible solutions to the problem.
Indoors it would appear that a vacuum cleaner with a vacuum bag would be the answer to suck them up and afterwards, remove the bag and either spray fly into the bag or sprinkle in Sulphur powder.
Then place the bag in a sealed container till next time you want to vacuum up more of the critters.
The sealed container is to stop them getting out if the Sulphur or fly spray didn’t kill them all.
The main thing is to kill the critters outside and seeing they are voracious feeders of plant tissue that means they are on garden plants. Sulphur is a well known and effective killer of mites so a spray of all the garden plants with Liquid sulhpur and Raingard would be practical.
That would likely need to be repeated say a couple of weeks later and until the problem is solved.
Jan told me that the neighbors did not have a problem only her home which means that the pests were brought into the property on either plant material or a compost/mulch.
Another device that I have found effective on keeping ants out of the kitchen or other rooms is one of those things you hang on the wall that dispatches a shot of pyrethrum out every few minutes. It may also work on the clover mites.
Hydrogen Peroxide is effective on mites that attack skin by spraying the effective skin and a second application a few minuets later.
This could be tried indoors but test any wall paper or material first to see that it does not bleach the colour.
Spring is happening early and you can start to look at controlling insect pests now so that the early ones do not get a chance to breed and cause you lots of problems later on.
Yellow Sticky White Fly Traps can be placed near plants prone to pest problems.
Sprays of Neem Tree Oil as a prevention along with Neem Tree Granules on the soil surface will help keep control. Sprinkle under citrus trees and root mealy bugs, whitefly and scale. Under apple trees for codlin moth. Under roses for aphids. Under rhododendrons for thrips.
If we have a week of warm weather it will bring out the early pests. These need to be controlled.
If the weather turns with a cold snap after a week of nice weather then Nature will knock out most of the early pests as it did in many areas last year.
TO THE LIST OF ARTICLES

Now that we are into August, it is the right time to start thinking about tomatoes for the new season.
The traditional time for planting tomatoes outdoors in many parts of New Zealand is around Labour Weekend which is about 10 odd weeks away.
That does not mean that you have to wait till then to buy a few plants for the garden.
Tomato plants planted out in Labour Weekend are unlikely to produce ripe fruit till early in the New Year except for a few quick maturing types such as the Sweet One Hundreds.
On the other hand if you were to start now with seeds you are likely to have plants with fruit on by Labour Weekend and have ripe tomatoes before Xmas.
Garden Centres are likely to have a few varieties of tomato plants about now including the first of the grafted tomatoes and that even puts you further ahead for possible ripe fruit say about November.
Gardeners that are fortunate in having a glasshouse can sow some seeds and buy a couple of plants for growing on.
For those that do not have a glasshouse there is no reason that you can not get an early start as well, it just takes a little more care.
Let us look at how to go about this without a glasshouse but similar applies to glasshouse owners.
Purchase a packet of tomato seeds from your garden centre and one that I would recommend is Russian Red.
I have grow this tomato for a couple of years and they are perfect in a 20 to 40 litre container only growing about a metre tall and very bushy with lots of medium size fruit.
It is a plant which you do not remove laterals, you just let it grow.
The first thing to do is germinate a few seeds and this can be done in a old punnet or cell pack.
Fill the punnet with a good potting mix to about two thirds full then place say 6 seeds nicely apart or one seed per cell on top of the mix.
Next spray the seeds with a solution of Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) at 20mils per litre of non chlorinated water, so that the seeds and the mix are nicely wet.
Cover the seeds lightly with either a little more mix or alternatively use sand or fine pumus.
Spray the surface to moisten. The seedling tray can now be placed onto a heat pad (if you have one) or alternatively in a warm room for germination. Every day spray the surface to keep it moist.
Dependent on the amount of warmth will determine when the first show of foliage appears.
Once a show of foliage appears the seedling tray needs to be moved to a spot outside that is sunny but sheltered from frosts.
The easy way to do this is to take an old drawer and place the tray inside it with a sheet of glass over to cover. If it looks like there maybe a frost, place a sheet of cardboard over the glass with some stones to hold it in place or alternatively place the cardboard under the glass for the night. Remember next morning to remove the cardboard.
Other punnets of vegetable seedlings can also be placed inside the drawer for early plantings.
Mist the young plants every day or two to keep the mix moist. Do not over water.
When the plants have established their true leaves (the first leaves are the embryo leaves from germination) then you can wet down the tray and carefully lift the young plants out without disturbing the roots and damaging them.
They are now ready to go into their first small pot which should be no wider than about 50mm and up to 70mm tall use a good compost as the new growing medium.
A little of my own Secret Tomato Food with Neem Tree Granules can be applied to the surface of the compost but not against the trunk of the plant. If your drawer is deep enough the small pots can be placed back inside with the glass to cover.
If there is not sufficient height then place the pots in a sunny spot and protect from frost.
You may want to move them indoors or onto a covered porch or into a shed overnight when it looks like a frost. They should also be protected against cold wind and rain during the day.
The secret is to keep the mix just a little moist and certainly not wet as it will make it colder for the plants.
When the plants get up to about 100mm tall in their pots then it is about time to re-pot them into a 120mm pot using compost once again. When you transplant them this time, you will bury the plants deeper, up to about their first set of leaves.
This then allows the plant to root up the mix covered trunk increasing the amount of roots to nourish the young plants.
Apply a little more tomato food and spray the plants every couple of weeks with MBL.
The above last part would also apply to purchased tomatoes in punnets, cell trays or grafted tomatoes which come in a smaller pot.
(With Grafted Tomatoes never plant deeper than the graft union which should be above soil level.)
When your plants reach about 200mm tall then re-pot them into 200 to 250mm pot.
At this time you will likely have the first trusses of flowers and the beginning of fruit set.
Allow the plant to grow on to about 500mm tall and then if conditions are favorable they can be planted outdoors with protection or repotted into a 20 litre container for dwarf type plants or into a 50 litre or larger container for tall growing types, as their final home.
When repotting wet the mix down first and transplant without disturbing the root system by tapping the edge of the pot on a bench to remove while supporting the plant with your other hand.
Apply more tomato food with Neem Granules at each transplant time.
A problem these days are with a pest called the potato/tomato psyllids, these insects suck on the stems and leaves of the plant and release a toxin which prevent the fruit from growing much larger than a marble in both tomatoes and potatoes. Bad infestations will kill the plants.
My possible solution for overcoming the problem is to use the Neem Tree granules around the root zone on the growing medium and to place more about every 6 weeks.
Spray the granules and the plant all over with Neem tree Oil every two weeks with MBL added and once we are into summer fully, spray with the same every week.
In the early part of the season there should not be a problem until the pests start to appear, as the weather warms up. Once their populations start to build, then regular sprays will need to be used.
The same applies to your potato crops.
A monthly spray of Perkfection will assist in preventing diseases.
When removing laterals or any leaves spray the wound immediately with a solution of Liquid Copper to prevent disease entering the plant.
Lets hopefully look to a good season and lots of fresh home grown tomatoes, they certainly taste far better than the purchased ones.
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Recently a reader sent me the following email:

Hello Wally

You may not recall but some months ago I emailed you and sent a picture of the damage to a large number of my roses.
I wondered if it was Verticillum Wilt as the pictures looked very similar.
You suggested the damage might also have been caused by herbicides.
Initially we thought that could not be the case as we had not brought in any soil for the rose beds but, after talking it over, we recalled that we had had a large load of twig mulch brought in and most of this had gone into the rose beds.
We have just had our roses pruned by someone who is an authority on roses who has confirmed that the damage was, as you suspected, caused by herbicides in the twig mulch.
In addition to losing half of my roses (about 40), many of the remainder are not looking as robust as they did last year and it will be touch and go as to whether they revive in the Spring.
I could end up losing more! Sadly I have learned my experience is not unique and that others have suffered similar destruction through no fault of their own.
My struggling survivors will receive all the organic TLC possible in the coming months and it is hoped that by continuing to build up the goodness in the soil organically the remaining roses will recover.
As gardeners we think we are doing the right thing giving our plants compost and mulch from specialist firms but neither they, nor us, know what is in the green waste they are recycling - whether someone has included garden waste sprayed with Turifx or other herbicides. You can't tell whether you are bringing in a load of goodness or destruction for your plants.
Cheers, Anne.

A sad tale but one that I have heard of frequently over the years caused through green waste recycled as compost and animal manures from stock feeding in pastures that have been sprayed with herbicides to kill thistles and other weeds. (The herbicides dont kill the grass but do effect the health of the stock.)
I have had reports from gardeners that they have placed composts from major suppliers around sensitive plants such as tomatoes, beans, potatoes and roses to have either strange new growths appearing or dead plants.
In non-sensitive plants you would not see any noticeable damage other than maybe yellowing of foliage.
Roundup when used around plants and gardens will over a period of time cause yellowing then a slow and eventual death of the plants, shrubs and trees. Roundup Does Not break down to be harmless in the soil, its there for a half soil life of about 22 years.
Lawn Weed Killers that dont kill the grass unless the grass is in stress can have a very long residue period from a few weeks to many months dependent on type and application rates.
Green Waste centres have no idea if organic material they take in are contaminated with chemical herbicides. People dumping their grass clippings are not going to say. Lawn Mowing Contractors may or may not know.
The recyclers turn the green waste into compost and sell it directly to you the home gardener or sell it to major garden companies to supply garden shops in their company's branded bags.
Another problem can be that maybe most of the bags of compost you buy are safe because they happen to be free of herbicides then the next time the same company's bags are deadly.
I only know of two brands that I have never heard of problems from and that is Daltons Composts and Oderings. I think Yates are ok but not sure.
I was told by a green waste recyclers that it takes up to 18 months of compost turning, to leach out the herbicides and make the material safe for around sensitive plants!
If you buy some compost that you are not sure of there is a simple test you can do before you spread it all around your gardens.
Take a little of the compost out of each bag and place into a seedling tray. Plant some bean seeds into the mix and germinate. If the seeds dont germinate then you need to repeat the same but also using a control medium such as soil from your garden in another tray to prove the seeds are good.
If containing herbicide, the new growths will come up stunted and distorted which means its very likely that herbicide is in the compost. Take the bags back to the seller, complain and get a refund.
Please let me know the brand so I can warn other gardeners.
Is herbicide affected compost safe to use around non-sensitive well established plants, shrubs and trees?
The short answer is no as it does affect a healthy plant even if not visible signs are noticed.
The first sign is yellowing in leaves but that may not happen for sometime.
Dont put herbicide treated lawn clippings into your own compost bin or on your gardens. If you have a waste area dump them there otherwise dont collect the clippings just leave them to bio-degrade back into your lawn where you may get more killing of weeds for your money.
All chemical herbicides can be a solution for fast weed removal but can also have drastic consequences for your gardening.
The proof is in the pudding as my mum used to say; so I would like to share this snippet from overseas with you: Two years ago conventional media used a meta-analysis by Stanford University to cast doubt on the value of an organic diet. This despite the fact that the analysis­which looked at 240 studies comparing organically and conventionally grown food­found that organic foods are less contaminated with agricultural chemicals.
In an effort to further clarify the 2012 findings, a group of European scientists recently evaluated an even greater number of studies, 343 in all, published over the last several decades.
Here’s what they found.

Not only do organic foods have more nutrients, including cancer-fighting antioxidants, but they also contain far fewer pesticide residues. This is a no-brainer given that monoculture chemical and GMO farmers kill the soil with toxic chemicals and climate-destabilizing nitrate fertilizer­while organic farmers feed the soil with compost, nurturing the soil food web.
But the key nutritional difference between conventional and organics? Anywhere from 18 to 69 percent more antioxidants.
This is a very good reason to grow more of your own fruit and vegetables naturally this spring.
Plant now brassicas and lettuce and any other hardy vegetables dependent on your own local climate
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A few weeks back moth balls were banned in New Zealand as a result of the Ministry of Health issuing the following: On the 04 June 2014
All currently available mothball products are being removed from the market as a result of concern about the risk of poisoning to children.
Three agencies are involved in the action. Trading Standards (part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) has contacted distributors and retailers and asked all retailers to remove products from the shelves.
The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has advised that the chemicals in these mothballs are not approved for use as a pesticide and the Ministry of Health is warning the public to return any mothballs they have to the retailer they bought them from or to dispose of them in the rubbish. End

One of the three possible chemicals used in moth balls is Naphthalene.
Naphthalene has for over 30 years been used as an effect cat deterrent keeping most cats off gardens, doorways and other places where they foul.
Moth balls have been used to protect clothes, carpets, books etc from the likes of moth and silverfish damage. Naphthalene was never registered for this purpose yet moth balls were sold as an insecticide, which violates the regulations..
I contacted the EPA and inquired about the product, Cat Repellent which contains Naphthalene crystals.
The reply was that they were not aware of this use (Cat Repellent) and they would have to look into the matter. After a week or so the answer came back that Cat Repellent could be sold for that purpose as it did not require registration but it could only be made available in a child resistant container with new warnings on the label.
All these matters have been completed and approved so you can still obtain Cat Repellent from most local garden centres and Mitre 10.
Young children these days can mistake a round object such as a moth ball for a lolly.
One elderly reader told me that in his day lollies were never seen in the home except maybe at Xmas time where a few might be in a Xmas Stocking.
It makes one wonder about other round objects such as marbles, though not toxic certainly not good to swallow.
It is good news for gardeners that are plagued by neighbor’s cats digging up freshly planted beds of seedlings and fouling gardens.
Over the 30 years I have been associated with the sale of Cat Repellent I have accessed that it deters about 95% of cats with a few odd ones not affected.
It is a chemical that when freshly applied can be irritating to both cats and some people.
It should not be placed on bare soil where food crops are grown instead place in lids or plastic ice cream containers so its not in direct contact with the soil.
Problem Number Two: An email recently from a reader asked: Hi Wally
Having just read your article in our Rotorua Review I believe you may be able to advise me on what to plant along my fence line (wooden).
For the past 4 years I have had bush roses planted in this area but on the other side of the fence are agapanthus!!! (I thought they were classed as noxious weeds!)
I have struggled for the last 4 years to try and stop the roots from these strangling my roses. I gave up this year and moved the roses (after pruning).
I now have a blank garden and would like to plant either shrubs or something that will resist or fight the roots taking over. Can you suggest anything hardy and strong – please dont suggest more agapanthus.
Look forward to hearing from you. Cheers Pat
My reply was: Hi Pat

You are a mind reader as I read I immediately thought of Agapanthus (Fight fire with fire)
Unfortunately you would spend a lot of time and heart ache trying to establish most things there.
That is while the roots of the ags can reach in and suck the goodness out of the soil, even if they cant produce foliage on your side. I presume that the ags are the next door neighbors and you cant kill them.
Ok plan B takes a bit of work but can allow the planting of your preferred plants there.
A trench needs to be dug down about 3 foot cutting all the roots coming under the fence till there is no more lower down.
Then sheet metal or roofing iron is placed in the trench directly under the fence to extend the fence downwards by about 3 feet. Then back fill with soil dug out and plant up.
The barrier should last many years and greatly reduce the problem. Ensure the metal over laps and no holes for the roots to penetrate.
Invasive root systems are a curse of gardeners and can be the likes of bindweed coming under a fence line or trees and shrubs on the other side sucking all the goodness from your gardens in their root zone resulting in barren areas.
Raised gardens within a metre or more of tree/shrub root zones are attractive sources of food.
The offending plant extends its feeder roots into the raised garden and then populates the area with a mass of feeder roots. Your raised garden becomes a useless ornament.
You can do one of two things, situate your raised garden at least two metres away from the drip line of any tree, shrub or climber. If that is not convenient to achieve then place a concrete pad where you wish to have your raised garden. Make the pad about 10cm larger than the area of the raised garden.
If you think that a raised garden will not work on concrete I can assure you they do as all my raised gardens are on concrete. You can get some leaching out into the surrounding area otherwise no problems that I have noted.
The best raised gardens heights are the width of a standard sheet of roofing iron.
That gives a nice height to work at without bending much.
TO THE LIST OF ARTICLES

This is the very best time of the year for planting trees, shrubs, roses, perennials also hardy vegetables and annual flowers.
This is because the daylight hours are extending, which encourages new growth and the plants will have several months to establish before summer dry spells occur.
It is also an excellent time to transplant any existing plants that you wish to move.
Container plants with ornamental plants such as roses or fruit trees that have not had their roots pruned for a couple of years should also be attended to now.
Large plants in big containers will require two or three strong people to remove them from their containers so their roots can be pruned and placed back into the same container.
A little while back a gardener asked me what gardening tool did I consider the most useful?
The answer gave the person a bit of a shock when I said my 2.5 ton forklift.
Seeing most of my gardening is done in containers and in raised gardens, because we are living above a warehouse with 90% of the outside area in concrete.
The forklift allows me to move container plants around and using protection for the trunks of the trees and a rope, makes it easy to lift them out of the containers for root pruning.
Every gardener should have one, say I smiling.
A gardener phoned me recently asking how to give the fruit trees and Natives they are going to plant a really good start in establishing.
An excellent question and an ideal topic at this time of the year.
What I am going to say is what I believe is the ultimate in establishing new plants, you need to decide whether you want to use all or some of the procedures in your own plantings.
I remember years ago when I had a garden centre we used to have a product that was a slow release over a couple of years to be used when planting shrubs and trees. (Not sure if its still around hopefully not)
The theory of the fertiliser was to feed the plant for 2 years and not have the food leached away during that period.
I dont know if that actually worked or not but obviously that was the claim by the manufacture.
The fertiliser had Nitrogen (N) 7.0% : Phosphorus (P) 17.0% : Potassium (K) 5.0% and Magnesium (Mg) 12.0%.
I dont know what the magnesium was supposed to achieve in assisting development? I would have thought calcium and sulpur far better minerals.
We have learnt that microbes, Mycorrhizal fungi, earthworms and other soil life are of utmost importance to healthy plants and that acidic compounds such as superphoshate and chlorine in tap water kills the soil life. This being so why would one place a fertiliser with 17% phosphorus (Super phosphate) in the hole where you want the best for your new plant?
For food obviously a little mild food in the form of Blood & Bone and Sheep Manure Pellets would be perfect as they will encourage growth and help the soil life to grow also.
If you have good fertile, humus rich soil, all you need to do when you plant is dig a hole add a few goodies and plant.
Many gardeners will have either clay or sandy type soils and that is where you are best not to make a normal planting hole.
Instead make a hole twice the depth and width than you need. Mix the diggings in your wheelbarrow with a good purchased compost about half and half.
You line the bottom of the hole with this mix to about the right level to plant. Now here is the next consideration to make, dependent on the plant and whether the area is prone to drought or flooding.
If the plant hates wet feet then to compensate you need to plant it higher than the surrounding soil in fact on a mound.
If the area is prone to drought then plant deeper than the surrounding soil so its in a hollow that will easily catch water when you water or it rains.
Besides the foods mentioned, I would highly recommend that you place some Rok Solid in the planting hole along with some Gypsum and a little bit of BioPhos. The BioPhos is natural phosphorus broken down by microbes instead of acid.
Thus you are adding more soil life to the new plants root zone.
If you are wanting to give the plants an extra good start then drench the soil after planting with Mycorrcin and Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL)
The Mycorrcin is a food for Mycorrhizal fungi which attach to the roots of plants and extends the effective root system by about 800%.
The microscopic threads of the fungi gather nutrients and moisture for the plant in exchange for carbohydrates. The fungi also aids the production of humus which is what we need for the ultimate in soils.
The MBL supplies minerals to the soil, releases locked up minerals and cleans up chemical residues from the past.
Doing what I have described would give your plants the best start in the soil that I am aware of but only part of the plant is in the soil, the foliage is going to be effected by wind, sun and climate; so for one final big help in establishing, it would be to spray all the foliage, under and over with Vaporgard.
Vaporgard puts a film over the leaves sprayed that lasts for about 3 months. The film not only protects the leaves from the likes of wind damage it also protects the chlorophyl from UV allowing the plant to generate more energy from sunlight. The plant benefits with frost protection down to minus 3, plus the film reduces the transpiration by about 30 to 40% reducing its water needs.
I have heard cases where plantings in more adverse conditions using a number of the procedures described have achieved a 3 to 5 years head start on the new plants when compared to ones that were just planted without. These plants struggle for years to establish before they can preform.
Whether its seedlings you are planting or specimen trees, the more care you take in the planting will determine how soon you will achieve the results desired.
TO THE LIST OF ARTICLES

Many years ago I read a science fiction story about a couple who invented a time machine and traveled back to prehistoric time. While in the past a large beautiful butterfly fluttered by and they caught it as a specimen.
When they traveled back to their own time, the world had changed greatly, different Government, different weather conditions, different species etc. How much difference would one butterfly make if prevented from living and dying as it originally did?
Man kind is the problem messing with nature and the natural order of things for either greed or their own ego.
For instance the early settlers in New Zealand introduced a whole range of plants, insects and animals from England because they wanted to make New Zealand more like England.
Rabbits, hares, gorse, hedgehogs, numerous birds, deer etc.
Some have adapted to our conditions and not caused too many problems where other introductions have become a curse. Rabbits for instance have no natural predictors in NZ and our pastures and crops suit their ability to breed massive populations destroying farms.
Even when the settlers cut and burned native bush to create paddocks the grass planted became a massive food source for the native grass grub and porina caterpillar making real problems for gardeners and farmers ever since.
Likely the natural enemy of the two natives would have included moa and kiwi along with other native birds. The scales of balance disappeared with fewer native birds for control and massive numbers of the pests.
If we take a plant out of its natural habitat where it is controlled by climate and predators and plant it in an environment which it can thrive with no natural controls, we are creating a noxious weed.
Ecological systems have evolved over thousands of years, all with their balance and counter balances but we as a species can in no time at all disrupt the natural order of things and cause immense problems for hundreds of years to come.
This is why we now have far stricter controls at our borders with Bio-security.
If a predator insect or a bacteria is going to be introduced to control an introduced pest problem, a lot of research is done to find out if beneficial life forms will be unduly affected as well.
We can determine this to a reasonable degree but have no idea what the long term affects will be because nature is not constant, it is always changing and that is how it survives.
Simply speaking the logic is that man kind cannot control Nature, Nature controls itself.
A few years back a pest insect from Australia was able to establish in New Zealand commonly called the potato psyllid, MAF researched the pest and found in Australia it was not a major problem commercially or for the home gardener and because of lack of funding decided not to do anything about it.
Sure the psyllid is not a problem in Australia because it is controlled by their climate in which the higher temperatures regulate their breeding.
Place the pest in New Zealand where the temperatures are congenial to their breeding and we now have a massive problem commercially and in our gardens, dependent on climate season to season.
We are told by our scientists that the use of antibiotics in animals, plants and people has reached the point where bacteria are becoming resistant to the antibiotics.
We now get a small dose of antibiotics in our daily food chain. Bacteria that become resistant to antibiotics pass this resistance to the genes of their prodigy who improve on the resistance.
Bear in mind a lot of bacteria have a life cycle of about 8 hours and during that time reproduce like mad in favorable conditions.
Could a thorn prick when pruning your roses mean a death sentence? Our scientists tell us in the near future, likely yes.
Here is another folly of Monsanto recently uncovered by gmwatch.org I quote;
'GMO soy, corn, and cotton crops in Brazil, along with non-GMO crops such as tomatoes, beans, and sorghum, are being devoured by voracious caterpillars that were not a problem prior to the use of genetically modified seeds.
Brazilian farmers are facing huge losses (now totaling ten billion REAL’s, the national currency) as a plague of the caterpillar pests­called Helicoverpa armigera or the “corn ear worm”­ are devastating fields. The insect’s natural predator, another variety of caterpillar with cannibalistic tendencies called Spodoptera, was intentionally eliminated as a result of the cultivation of transgenic maize engineered with Bt toxin, designed to kill off the primary species.
Unfortunately, 90% of the secondary caterpillar species proved immune to the pesticide, allowing it to multiply unchecked and to eat to its heart’s content in the absence of natural enemies.
At a recent conference specifically dedicated to Helicoverpa armigera, conducted by Brazil’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, scientists, farmers, students, and government officials gathered to discuss the problem and propose control measures. Declaring the infestation a “phytosanitary emergency to cotton and soybean crops,” a working group was formed to sketch out a disaster plan in an effort to reverse the caterpillar’s impact.
A method of attacking its reproductive cycle is being considered…and so mankind’s tampering with nature continues, no doubt with even more unpredictable consequences on the horizon. End.
I have yet to see anything positive from mankind tampering with Nature through Genetic Engineering. All that I have heard of is disasters and adverse health effects on humans, animals and the environment.
When will we ever learn?
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Its this time of the year that fruit trees are readily available from garden centres and it is the best time to plant them, as they have the rest of winter and all of spring to establish before they hit their first summer. I love fruit trees and other fruiting plants, having gathered a nice collection of various types, over a period of time.
When choosing what fruiting plants you are going to grow it is important to select the types of fruit that you and your family most enjoy and then to pick the cultivator that is most suitable and productive for your locality. It is a waste of time buying say an apricot that needs a cold winter followed by a warm spring if these climatic conditions don't exist in your region.
It is better to buy one that bears well without a real winter chilling. A number of fruiting trees require a suitable pollinator to obtain good crops, which means you need to buy two different cultivators to ensure that you have a good fruit set.
Now days we can find plums for instance that have a double graft, meaning that two varieties of plums will be produced on the same root stock. The varieties chosen for the grafting will often be the pollinators, so only one tree is needed but two types of plums will be harvested.
For a time some nurseries were producing triple or more varieties onto the same root stock. These were more difficult to produce and often one graft would fail in preference of the other two. Even if the 3 did take nicely it would mean some complicated pruning to ensure that the 3 parts preformed equally and in many cases one would ultimately fail.
I not sure if these multi-grafted trees are still available and in many ways they can be a waste of time and effort. Even with a twin graft one has to monitor the two aspects to ensure both are growing equally well without one superseding the other.
In the likes of apples and some other grafted fruit you may have the choice of the type of root stock such as MM106 etc. The root stock type will help determine the ultimate size of the tree and thus the amount of fruit it can bear. These are MM106, 4-5metres MM793, 3.5-4metres and EM9 2.5-3m The later is also referred to dwarfing root stock. This can be a great advantage for people with smaller sections.
Some types maybe labeled ‘Self Fertile’ which means you have no need for another tree as a pollinator. Others may have their name on the label along with recommended pollinators. These are important aspects to consider when you are buying any fruiting tree.
Self fertile will produce good crops but better again if there is a second suitable cultivator or the same species planted nearby. Another tip, because of the lack of feral bees in parts of New Zealand, if you plant your fruit tree down wind (prevailing wind) of your pollinator, you will likely have a better fruit set due to pollen been breeze carried.
Having little open ground, I now grow most new fruit trees as container plants.
There is many advantages to this, you can grow many more trees in containers than you could ever grow in open ground. The containers restrict the root system making for smaller trees, no matter what root stock they are on. Smaller trees are easier to manage, spray, and been in a container, less loss of nutrients from leaching away.
Crops are smaller but minimal wastage, as you tend to eat all the fruit produced.
They are easier to protect from birds as the fruit ripens. If you move house you can take your fruit trees with you without too much of a hassle.
For those that are interested in this method here is how I do it. Firstly choose the largest plastic rubbish tin you can find. (About 76 litres) Avoid black plastic ones, as they can cook the roots if in strong direct sunlight.
Drill about 40-50mm wide holes in the sides of the bin about 100 mm up from the bottom for drainage. This leaves an area at the base, for surplus water in the summer.
You can partially dig into the soil and if you want the roots to enter into the soil, place about 4 holes 40-50mm wide in the bottom as well as 4 at the cardinal points on the sides. (If you move you can easily wrench the tree and container from the ground) I have used this part buried method in the past, for my citrus trees and passion fruit vines to avoid root rots in winter.
Now for a growing medium to fill the containers, don't waste your money on potting mixes as they lack the long term goodness that a tree needs. Instead use a manure based compost. There are organic mulches and composts available from most garden centres, that are made of bark fines, composted with animal manures. Add to this a few handfuls of clean top soil, mixed or layered through. I also add in worm-casts and worms from my worm farm.
The worms help keep the heavier composts open and also supply a continuous source of nutrients. You add in sheep manure pellets and Rok Solid.
Plant up your tree so that the soil level is about 100mm below the rim of the container. This allows for easy watering and feeding. I mulch the top of the mix in spring with old chook manure and apply Fruit and Flower Power (Magnesium and potassium) once a month during the fruiting period.
Other foods can be applied as needed. If the roots are not allowed into the surrounding soil, you will need to lift the tree out of the container every 2-3 years and root prune by cutting off the bottom one third of the roots with a saw. New compost and a bit of soil is placed in this area vacated and the tree put back in the container. This is best done in winter when the tree is dormant.
Another interesting thing to try is making a grape vine into a column or weeping vine.
I saw these a few years back, where grape vines had been grown in containers and pruned so that they were just a upwards growing pole-like plant (when cut back in winter) These grapes stood about 2 metres out of the containers and had trunks up to 100mm in diameter. The new laterals would appear off the trunk in the spring and with the weight of the grapes made a nice looking weeper covered in grapes.
To achieve this, simply obtain a grape vine that has a reasonably tallish trunk and leader. Secure these to a suitable stake and remove all other laterals while its dormant.
The following winter prune side laterals to two or three buds and repeat every winter.
As mentioned before, garden centres now have their range of fruit trees in. If you cant find a particular specimen there, have look for nurseries on the internet.
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During the week I had a phone call from a reader who was looking for some potassium permanganate or its more commonly known as, Condy's Crystals.
I often have suggested the use of the crystals dissolved in water to control fungus problems on plants or skin such as athletics foot because its an oxidizing agent.
The Lady whom phoned told me she had another use for it and that was keeping lettuce nice and crisp in the fridge for up to 3 weeks!
I was told that you take about a quarter of tea spoon or so of Condys crystals and add to water in the kitchen sink filled to a depth that allows you to completely submerge the lettuce.
Beware that the Condys Crystals may stain your sink and hands so maybe it would be best to use a bucket and wear latex gloves. In a bucket you will have less water so use less of the crystals. (Likely a few grains will colour up the water nicely. Soak the lettuce in the solution turning it around , back and forth to get the liquid right through the lettuce.
Lift and once again turn it around, back and forth to drain the liquid out of the lettuce.
Once you have drained it then place a paper towel into the bottom of a plastic bag, sit the lettuce on the paper towel in the bag, seal and then into the fridge.
When you bring out the lettuce to use, remove the leaves that you require and rinse them under a running cold tap. According to our reader lovely fresh lettuce leaves for up to 21 days.
I don’t know how well it will work on purchased lettuce from a supermarket (as its already several days old when you buy it) but fresh lettuce from your own garden should work very well.
Likely the reason it works is that it kills bacteria which cause the aging and decay process.
While on the subject of chemicals you will likely be aware of the banning of all moth balls including those made from naphthalene. This also effected the Cat Repellent which is naphthalene crystals.
The product Cat Repellent is a very effective way of keep cats away from where you don’t want them to go and foul. It has about a 95% success rate (Does not work on all cats) and its use was a tip given to me by a gardener about 30 years ago.
Anyway the concern with naphthalene was that some children had put moth balls into their mouths and required medical attention. Also naphthalene is not registered as an insecticide and moth balls were used to control moths.
The question was raised with the Environment Protection Agency about whether naphthalene could be used in its crystal form as a cat repellent? After some debate it was approved but had to be placed into a child resistant container for safety and a lot more information needed to be placed on the label for the safety of users. Cat Repellent will be available again for the new season of gardening.
One of the label aspects is 'Suspected of causing cancer' which puts it into the same category as a number of commonly found chemicals including Glyphosate (such as Round up) as well as a number of gardening & household chemicals.
With the numerous chemicals in our food chain these days it is no wonder cancer cases are rapidly increasing every year. My advise is grow some good wholesome vegetables and fruit naturally to offset the poisons in our water and food chain.
I see that new season potatoes are available in some garden shops now and even though its only July it is a good time to purchase and sprout them ready for planting.
So far we are having a mild winter and in areas where the risk of late frosts is small and where the psyllid damage is making the growing of potatoes areal problem then a very early start is a good tip.
I am looking to plant my early and only crop in a week or twos time.
I have raised gardens so I will be planting the sprouted tubers into holes about 180mm deep.
In the bottom of the hole I will place a few Sheep Manure Pellets, about a table spoon of Neem Granules, a pinch of BioPhos (Natural Phosphate) a teaspoon of Rok Solid and a dusting of Gypsum.
A little compost to cover and then sit the potato onto the compost, cover with more compost till the sprouts are hidden.
Its just a matter of checking every few days and if sprouts appear then cover again with compost.
If it looks like a frost then check to make sure any sprouts are covered.
Once the hole has been filled in then you can start mounding to keep the tops covered.
This process should, if all goes well, not only protect the potatoes from any frost damage but also encourage the new potatoes to form all the way up the sprouts.
Once the mounds reach a height where its not practical to mound any more then give the mound a good sprinkling of Neem Granules, Rok Solid a little more sheep manure pellets along with a light sprinkling of BioPhos. Have frost cloth or crop cover ready to put over the foliage if it looks like a frost.
Plastic Pipes made into hoops over the crop spaced about a metre a part will make a good support for either cloth.
Getting the crop in early with faster maturing varieties (90 days) with planting July/August and harvest in October not only allows you to obtain a good crop without damage from the psyllid but frees up the garden for planting up other summer vegetables around Labour Weekend.
If you want to plant your potatoes later in the season and you know psyllids are a problem then you will need to obtain Quarantine cloth which is available in 3.3 metre wide lengths (crop cover is 4 metres wide) and has a much finer mesh than crop cover.
I used Quarantine cloth 2 seasons ago on a late crop planted in January when the psyllid number were at their highest and harvested a great crop undamaged in May.
Where there is a will there is away.
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The shortest day is past, slowly the day light hours are extending and with it a new season begins.
There are many tasks that should be completed over the next month or so before its too late.
These involve such things as root pruning container plants, treating deciduous plants (rose & fruit trees)
for diseases and pests harboring over from last season, sorting out strawberry beds, pruning, mulching green crops and so the list goes on.
This week we are going to look at winter clean up and one of the main aspects of this is with deciduous trees and roses using an old control called Lime Sulphur.
Many years ago I penned an article for several newspapers that I write for, one of which was the Timaru Herald. A couple of weeks after the article was published one of the garden centre owners phoned me about the article.
He told me that he was annoyed about my article and I asked him why?
I was told that he had about half a dozen bottles of Lime Sulphur on his shelves which had been there for some years then all of a sudden they all sold and because of the dammed demand, he had to buy several more cartons in. That is the power of the word and press for you.
Deciduous plants such as roses and a number of fruit trees, have either lost their leaves or in the process of doing so, this can be greatly assisted with a spray of Lime Sulphur.
Lime Sulphur does several things which are an advantage to both gardener and plants.
It burns and should not be applied to evergreen plants as it will damage the foliage.
It should not be applied to apricot trees, some pear varieties (I dont have a list of sensitive ones so best not any) and any other Sulphur sensitive plants.
The burning action assists in the final removal of foliage, burns disease spores and insect pests that maybe harboring over in nooks and crannies wanting for better conditions in the spring to emerge.
If you can greatly reduce both disease and pest problems now, then you will have better results in the spring/summer period with less spraying to do.
With bush and standard roses I suggest that you cut back all the growths to half.
This means if the bush roses that are about a metre tall cut them back to half a metre.
At the same time remove any dead or diseased wood along with spindly stems.
Pick up all the bits and debris on the ground and then spray what is left with the Lime Sulphur.
This does two important things, it reduces the amount of plant that you are going to spray and it makes the rose ready for final pruning later in July.
If there are not plants growing under the roses then also spray the soil with the Lime Sulphur also.
If you have roses by a wall the Lime Sulphur will likely stain the wall so a sheet to protect the wall is a good idea.
If you have had problems last season with diseases then you could, in the beginning of July, make up a solution of Condys Crystals (about quarter a level teaspoon to a litre of water) and spray the plants and soil underneath with this.(It stains also)
With climbing roses just firstly tidy up the plants then do your spraying.
For gardeners that have peaches and nectarines that suffer from curly leaf each season then according to an article I have read from England, the Lime Sulphur spray is a must to assist in reducing the number of spores that cause the problem later on. I tried that last winter and it made a big difference.
I would also follow up with the Condys Crystals as well.
With other Deciduous fruit trees (not apricots) spray the Lime Sulphur as best you can (if they are big trees) and do any pruning you want to do next month.
Remember that Silver Leaf disease is about in winter when its cool and damp so any cutting back and pruning should be done only on sunny days when the soil is on the drier side.
Wet times brings about a number of unwanted growths such as moss, molds, slimes, liverworts and lichens. These growths are unsightly and can in some cases be dangerous where one walks such as paths and steps. ACC might look after you but its not worth the pain and discomfort you have to endure especially seeing a simple spray or two will remove the problems.
Moss in lawns does cause problems for the grasses and should be controlled if you want a nice lawn.
Don't waste your money on treatments of Sulphate of Iron as it only burns the top of the moss which soon reappears again.
There are sprays that can be used such as Moss and Liverwort Control that will assist in control of these growths without damaging your garden plants.
Just follow the instructions on the bottle for best control and use.
Containers with perennial plants (roses, shrubs and trees) need to have their roots pruned about every 2-3 years.
This time of the year is the best time to do it. Remove the plant from the container and with a crosscut saw, saw off the bottom third of the roots and mix. If you notice white whispery bits in the mix or on the side of the container you will have root mealy bugs which will need to be treated.
Place fresh purchased compost in the bottom of the container up to the level of the removed root system.
Sprinkle Neem Tree Granules, Sheep Manure pellets and Rok Solid onto the compost then place your plant/tree back into the container. Ensure that the top of the mix is about 20mm below the rim of the container making for easier watering. Sprinkle Neem Tree Granules and Rok Solid over the top of the mix and a thin layer of compost to cover. Any weeds on the top should have been scrapped off to clear the top before applying fresh compost etc.
If you have noticed mealy bugs on the container and in the mix wash the container to clean those ones before reusing.
After completing the above take 25mls of Neem tree oil into a litre of water and water this into the container. (More for large containers a bit less for smaller.
If you have containers that curve back on themselves at the top and have planted perennials in them then there is no way you are going to remove the plant to root prune without smashing the container.
Those containers are ok for annuals which will die at the end of each season anyway.
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I am amazed at the price of New Zealand grown garlic is at about $2.00 a bulb of cloves.
I think what has happened is a couple of years back the market in NZ became flooded with cheap garlic from China.
The NZ growers could not obtain a reasonable price for their produce and as a result a number of growers changed to more profitable crops.
In the meantime we found the cheap garlic from China was of poor quality and suspect of unhealthy aspects.
So the tide turned and we looked for NZ grown high quality garlic but alas fewer growers makes for less supply and up goes the price.
We used to see the same thing happening years ago with potatoes, not from overseas competition but from seasons of glut followed by a season of low production resulting in high prices.
This would encourage growers and farmers to plant for the following season causing a glut and low prices.
It would seem the potato industry has got its act together better these days.
Back to the topic which is garlic and the traditional planting on the shortest day.
There is a very good reason for the shortest day planting as the day light hours are increasing and that promotes the crop to grow and later for the bulbs to form prior to harvesting on the longest day.
If there is just one vegetable that anyone can grow it has to be garlic, as one plant needs only 4 inches (100mm) of room to grow in fertile, free draining soil.
The end result of what you obtain, be it a lovely big bulb with lots of cloves or a dismal excuse for a bulb depends on a few factors.
Garlic is a member of the onion family and so it likes similar conditions. They prefer a good amount of natural nitrogen in their initial development, so the use of animal manure especially chicken manure is important.
Garlic requires ample moisture but hates wet feet which leads to root rots and failures. They relish a friable soil with a harder clay pan underneath. Best grown also in a sunny exposed situation where they can be chilled in winter.
Choose a site for planting that is free draining and will not be water logged in winter.
Work chicken manure and Rok Solid into the area to be planted and also apply BioPhos (the Organic form of super) Ensure the top 75 to 100 mm of the soil is worked well to make the area friable.
Gypsum and sheep manure pellets can also be applied to the planting area.
Place the cloves about an inch deep into the soil in spacings of 4 inches apart with the point just poking out of the ground.
Water in MBL (Magic Botanic Liquid) which acts as a catalyst aiding the uptake of goodness you have applied to the soil. An occasional spray or drink of the same product will be to benefit, over the growing period.
What happens is firstly the clove will produce a massive root system of white tender roots and a small green sprout. As the chills of winter occur this will initiate the side buds which later, with the lengthening day light hours and warmer temperatures, will fill out to become cloves. When the tops die back the new bulbs will be ready to harvest.
They should then be stored dry, in a cool airy situation and checked regularly for rots.
To prevent bulbs re-sprouting lightly burn the remaining roots with a candle flame. If you want to keep your own cloves for the following seasons crop, then select the best cloves and don't burn their base roots. Now is a good time to plant.
There are many reasons to grow your own garlic besides saving you the cost of buying what someone else has grown. You will know that your garlic is free of chemical sprays and has all the goodness in it that nature and your soil can provide.
You will have ample garlic for cooking with and for health aspects that this wonderful plant provides.
We know that garlic is wonderful for your health and in particular it is excellent for preventing abnormal blood clotting, angina attacks and strokes.
Also for stimulating the immune system so is beneficial to all cancer patients.
It seems to act by suppressing, preventing or inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, and can even cause the death of some cancer cells due to the allicin content of the garlic.
If you are like myself and don't wish to have a cancer condition then a regular intake of natural garlic is worthwhile. Garlic is more effective than vitamin C to prevent the conversion of dietary nitrates and nitrites into carcinogenic nitrosamines.
Garlic has the ability to rid the body of many harmful bacteria such as e.coli, salmonella and shigella, and to destroy viruses, is well researched, as is its ability to lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar in diabetes and lower LDL cholesterol.
Try this for babies, children or yourself to relieve a nasty cold, peel and crush a clove of garlic and steep it in enough olive oil to cover. Leave for at least an hour then smear the oil on the soles of the feet. Put socks on and retire to bed.
It is said that home made garlic oil transverses the body extremely fast and within about 10 minutes of applying to the soles of the feet it can be smelt on the breath of the patient.
Spots on teenagers can be stopped by rubbing the area with a bit of cut garlic.
You can often stop a cold by carefully peeling a clove and placing it between the gum and the cheek in the mouth and leaving it there.
Ideally you should eat some garlic every day and grow sufficient to cater for your requirements and your family. If you cant peel a clove and chew it to shallow then make the garlic oil and place into a salad or meal.
If you are worried about the smell of garlic on your breath then chew a sprig of parsley.
Parsley is another herb that you should always have a plentiful supply of in the garden. Its a must for poor blood circulation and for people that have chilblains in winter.
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Garden Centres in most areas will have the new seasons strawberry plants available for gardeners. You may find a range of types but likely the most common variety found these days is Pajaro.
Pajaro; An excellent all round variety, large fruit with a lighter flesh. Firm with excellent flavour. Early to mid-season cropper. A very popular variety grown by many commercial growers in the North Island.
Chandler; A variety with medium red fruit with light red flesh. More resistant to wet weather. Suggested as the most suitable variety for home gardeners in the North Island.
Camerosa; Medium red flesh with large, firm berries. Good flavour. Wet weather resistant.
Sundae; Large red fruit, oval in shape. Firm red flesh with excellent flavour. Suitable for northern and central regions.
Supreme; Very large bright red fruit. Very firm red flesh with excellent flavour. Suitable for northern and central regions. Yield is very good.
Seascape; A variety producing medium dark berries of moderate size. Good flavour, firm and conical in shape. A good late season variety, suitable for most parts of New Zealand. Harvest late season. Best grown in drier areas.
Temptation; Medium bright red shiny fruit. Pale, firm flesh with excellent flavour. Tough and resilient in relation to pest and diseases. Ideal to grow nationwide. Consistently high yields of berries ripening over a long period from October to March.
Albion; If you are lucky enough to find some plants it would be the best strawberry going and often the berries seen for sale in fruit shops. Excellent flavour and large juicy berries.
Alpine (white strawberries) which I find are delicious when fully ripe even though the berries are a bit small. The alpine produce just about all year long.
South Island readers are likely to have Aptos which are; Day neutral, UC variety. Bright, dark red. Goes very dark as it becomes over-ripe. Size medium - large. Plants shows Potassium deficiency symptoms, especially late season, showing up as purple margins on leaves.
Large fruit number per truss with last fruit tending to be very small. Flavour is good but can be slightly astringent in some conditions. Slightly soft. Excellent yield.
Ensure good plant size before allowing flowers to form fruit to minimise small size tendency. Maintain good potassium levels late in the season. (Fruit and Flower Power) Difficult to produce quality fruit on second year plants. Sensitive to mite attack.
You also find some older varieties such as Red Gauntlet and Tioga.
The Alpine strawberries are likely to be found in with herb displays. You only need one or two plants to start with as they self seed easily and pop up all over. A nice ornamental plant also for under trees and shrubs.
One of the problems with buying strawberries from your green grocer is that commercial strawberries are often grown with excessive nitrogen which means if you place them in the fridge they go mushy in a few days. Home grown strawberries, grown correctly, do not go mushy they dehydrate in a fridge. (Interesting bit I learnt a while ago)
You can either grow strawberry plants in the garden or in containers especially in troughs about 16cm deep.
In the garden you can work in animal manure based compost, mixed half and half with untreated sawdust. (Native timber is preferred but pine will do. Strawberries are a woodland plant and you are providing the right micro-organisms with the sawdust mix.) For containers use the above compost and sawdust mix with a little top soil added. (about 10%)
The sooner you get your new plants in the better. I find that first year plants produce reasonably if in early (about now) where they preform better the second year onwards to about years 3 to 4.
They need then to be divided and fresher plants re-planted. I like to place a few sheep manure/Neem pellets and some Gypsum in each planting hole. Water in with a mix of Mycorrcin and MBL (Magic Botanic Liquid) Mycorrcin which is an organic feed for soil life can make a big difference to your crop size as trials have shown a 200 to 400% increase in berries and size of berries.
Then a 2 to 4 weekly spray of the two products will ensure greater returns and healthy plants. By using these products I am able to keep plants producing well for about 4 years. Side dressings of Fruit and Flower Power and either sheep manure/Neem pellets or Bio Boost gives the extra food for replacing the original compost goodness.
Last season a reader told me that she also used my Secret Tomato Food as a side dressing and the result was enormous berries with excellent flavour. Some much bigger than apricots.
I tried it towards the end of the season and had a great crop of extra large berries to finish the season.
Each winter place fresh saw dust around the plants. If mites or aphids attack the plants spray with Neem Tree Oil on both sides of the foliage, late in the day after the sun has gone off the plants. (Alternative is Liquid Sulphur for mites)
If conditions are damp and botrytis is noticed spray the plants once a month with Perkfection.
If you have any dry berries (Downy mildew) then also spray with Perkfection.
My favorite method of growing is in a widow box type trough on the top rail of an iron fence. If its a location which gets a reasonable amount of sun the plants will do well. I find that the plants tend to cascade over the open side of the trough with many of the strawberries growing over the edge. This makes it difficult for birds to get the hanging berries. To solve the bird problems use wire hoops with bird netting over the crop/trough.
The main points to remember are the use of sawdust or fine bark chips, regular sprays of Mycorrcin. Use no chemical fertilisers or sprays as these harm the natural healthy environment you are trying to maintain. Your feeding should only be natural products that will ensure healthy plants and great berries.
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Grapes is a gardening topic that I have never written about previously, other than ay times various mentions in relation to other subjects.
An email recently from a reader asked:
Hello Wally, Now that the end of the grape season is over. I wondered if you might consider writing an article about pruning, disease, and general care of the vines; getting ready for next year.
My grapes are 20 years old and normally they are a beautiful black grape with a delicious flavour.
In the past few years they have formed lovely branches but as they develop, some fruit that matures well while the others turn into raisins spoiling a perfect bunch.
I've sprayed with Neem oil, copper and even one dose of condies crystals. This year has been a disaster - the fully matured grapes have not turned black and have not got their usual nice flavour, while the undeveloped tiny grapes [all on the one bunch] have turned black and have their delicious flavour.
The vine is against a garage wall, plenty of sun and well drained soil. there is no wet feet problem. What is going on ???? This year is supposed to be a bumper year for Grapes at Ohau vineyards, so I’ve been told.
l live at Manakau quite close to Ohau so the climate or area should not be an issue.
l have considered cutting the vine right back to the original trunk, but l am not sure this is a good idea or not.
I've found over the years that very little is written about table grapes, l feel sure l cannot be the only one with problems.
Hope you can assist me with this problem. Thanks.........................Frances.
Hmm, likely that is the reason that many of us do not write about growing grapes.
I always envy those gardens that have a large rambling grape vine, years old producing an abundance of juicy grapes every year with little or no problems.
I have yet to achieve that goal and know that the reasons is wrong growing conditions and even when in the past the conditions were right I would move house and leave a nice vine for the next owners.
I have over the years purchased vines, taken cuttings from vines I would die for and even grown seedless grapes from seeds.
I even relocated one vine several times over a number of years to different spots in the garden and ended up in a container and the end result after about 10 years and only the odd grape to eat it finally died likely from confusion.
Grapes need a cool winter while they are dormant and a warm/hot summer when in foliage and producing fruit.
Different types of grape have different temperature needs so one should try and find a vine type that is suitable for their climate.
Early autumn frosts can wipe out a crop and late spring frosts can damage new shoots.
A mild summer will effect a crop by not ripening properly and lack the sugars to sweeten the fruit.
Humid summers will effect the fruit causing diseases to attack and thus loss of the crop.
With our changing climate a vine that was once a great producer having a cold winter followed by a hot, dry summer, becomes a poor producer with disease problems because of the climate.
This can also be part of the reason of our reader's problem with humid conditions or a milder summer and needing a better spray program to overcome the diseases.
Commercial growers are much more on the ball to compensate for possible problems as their livelihoods are at risk plus they likely have commercial experts to guide them in disease prevention etc.
Grapes are best grown on free draining soils of low fertility. Feed your grape and you are likely to have a great canopy of foliage at the expense of the fruit.
Grapes will grow on most soil types as we see in New Zealand.
If grapes are not pruned each year, they develop many unproductive shoots and soon become a tangled mess of leaves and stems. At least 90% of the previous season’s growth is removed each winter.
Vines are either spur pruned; this is where one or two branches are permanently trained along a trellis or wire and the side branches are cut back to two or three buds. This is often what you see when you travel past a vineyard.
Otherwise they are cane pruned, where one or two new branches are selected each winter and trained along the wires, and the rest are removed.
There are two main pests of grapes a small aphid that feeds on the roots and mealy bugs.
Using Neem Tree granules in the root zone and Neem Oil sprays in the foliage will help control these pests.
Diseases include powdery mildew which you can use baking soda and Raingard to prevent and control.
Downy Mildew; a month spray of Perkfection Supa will help control and can be added to the baking soda spray.
Botrytis is a grey mould that is prevalent in warm, damp conditions, and rots bunches of grapes. Growers reduce the risk of botrytis by plucking leaves around the berries, allowing air to circulate. Very occasionally a condition known as noble rot develops in botrytis-infected grapes. The berries shrivel, then dry out and do not rot.
They produce a sweet, full-flavoured wine. (Another aspect of our reader's problems)
Liquid Sulphur is the best control of botrytis-infected grapes but should not be used if Neem Oil was used recently. Regular sprays of Condys Crystals can also help.
One thing is that grape vines can not handle herbicides such as Roundup as they are very sensitive like tomatoes.
Talking about Roundup or glyphosate, Monsanto is getting a hard time with hundreds of thousands people in 420 cities in 50 countries protesting against Monsanto's chemicals and seed controls on May the 24th last.
Also two activist groups; Moms Across America and Thinking Moms Revolution, want the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to recall Monsanto’s Roundup, the most widely used herbicide/pesticide in the world. Now's the time to do it, they say, because the EPA is conducting a registration review of glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup.
Representatives of the two groups contacted the EPA to request a meeting. When the EPA ignored them, they rallied supporters. Over a period of three days, about 10,000 moms from all over the country rang the phones off the hook at the EPA.
A week later, five Moms Across America leaders were sitting around a boardroom table with nine EPA employees who have the power to recall Roundup. What was supposed to be a one-hour meeting turned into two.
The EPA employees stayed glued to their seats as one mother after another shared heart-wrenching stories of their experiences parenting children with life-threatening allergies, severe gastrointestinal problems, mysterious autism-spectrum disorders, and major nutritional deficiencies.
The common thread in those stories? Exposure to glyphosate.
You would not want to be a share holder in Monsanto and if the truth comes out on what they have being hiding from us for many years they will have their pants sued off them..
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A question that I am often asked is about the need to sterilize soil in areas where a crop is grown each year, such as tomatoes or potatoes.
The reason that a number of gardeners wish to sterilize the soil in a given area is because they believe that the process will clean up pathogens (diseases) that have occurred while growing the previous season’s crop.
Some gardeners go to great lengths to remove all the top soil from a plot or glasshouse and replace it with fresh top soil.(that is a lot of work and expense)
There are also other gardeners that have reported to me that they have grown their tomato plants in the same area, year after year (one said 30 odd years) with no problems.
Some gardeners will remove their tomato plants before they start to go off, at the end of the season and send all the material to a landfill to be safe.
Others let the plants die in place and even dig the decaying material into the soil where they are going to grow again next season. These gardeners feel that the dead material contains the elements that the next crop needs and the recycling of the material is of benefit. In most cases they have healthy plants year after year outside of seasonal problems.
Another set of gardeners doing this, will find that they have diseases attacking the new establishing crop and will have many failures. Some gardeners do not want to take any risks and practice high hygiene standards.
If we take a situation of a tomato plant growing in the wild from a seed dropped in a bit of bird poo, that plant matures and produces fruit. The fruit rots on the ground and when conditions are right a bunch of seedlings will appear all in competition with each other. Many of the plants will grow to maturity and repeat the cycle, year after year.
Maybe some years a disease will strike and wipe out the plants, but likely new seedlings will appear the following season and do well.
The question must be asked, how can some gardeners grow in the same area every year without problems where others must adhere to rotation cropping over a three year cycle to avoid losses?
I believe that two aspects come into play one of which is very interesting and is likely not to be considered a possibility by many. It is the power of the mind and influence your thoughts have over plants. If we have a gardener that is worried about planting his tomatoes in the same spot as last seasons crop he somehow conveys these thoughts to the new crop and maybe creates them to fail.
Another gardener may only think of the positive aspects and sees in his mind’s eye the seedlings growing strong and true and the delicious tomatoes that he will enjoy in days to come.
Do the plants pick up these thoughts at some level we do not understand and then grow to for-fill them?
Is this the same power that we acknowledge when we say ‘that gardener has green thumbs’?
Do these green thumb gardeners have a very positive attitude about their gardening thoughts and have formed a link with their plants to the benefit of both?
I feel that there is some truth in this and the closer one feels to nature the better the results.
On the more practical side of things, that can be measured scientifically, we can see two types of gardeners in their different methods.
One gardener will use chemical herbicides, fertilisers (without thought), chemical sprays and water with chlorine in it..
The damage done by these chemicals to the soil life is great, then pathogens run rife having no beneficial soil life to balance them out, or control them.
Common weed killers such as glyphosate (Roundup) linger in the soil for 22 years (half life) and plants growing in those treated areas will not be as good as plants of the same type grown in non treated areas.
A fact of nature is if the soil life is diminished in an area then any ensuing crops are more likely to have more health problems.
Now take the gardener who avoids the use of chemicals and may only use very small amounts of man made fertilisers as a boost for a crop at the right time. The same gardener will be building up their populations of beneficial microbes in the soil by applying natural products of animal manures, calcium, composts and other minerals. Their soil teems with life, including good worm populations and the plants growing there will be strong and more able to overcome any diseases that may be floating around.
Many gardeners over the years have used a product called Jeyes Fluid or in more recent times the same but called Natures Mate. 80 mils of this product would be added to 10 litres of water to saturate the soil in one square metre. Many gardeners swear by this but a problem has arisen that the product is not so readily available.
Many years ago a gardener from Invercargill gave me a solution to control the root disease of brassicas (Club Root) It is a simple recipe where you take a quarter teaspoon of potassium permanganate (Condy’s Crystals) and 3 desert spoons of table salt into one litre of warm water to dissolve, then added to a further 9 litres of water. One litre of this solution is placed in each planting hole to reduce the damage of club root. It works well for this problem.
Potassium permanganate is a strong oxidizing agent of which the sodium chloride (table salt) complements its action in soil.
Taking the aspect of how well it helps to control club root disease (which most other chemicals do not) then it is a logical assumption that it can clean up other diseases or reduce their number in the soil.
I have suggested in the past to gardeners that wish to clean up areas in their glasshouse or soil where a crop of tomatoes is to be grown, to use the above recipe at double the rate (half teaspoon of potassium permanganate with 6 desert spoons of salt to drench 5-10 square metres of area. Leave for a couple of weeks then flood the area with water.
Once the soil has dried to moist then apply Rok Solid, Dolomite & Ocean Solids (for the minerals and calcium) Cover with a layer of animal manure based compost. Use Mycorrcin and Magic Botanic Liquid as a soil drench to feed and promote the beneficial soil life, after which you can plant up. A number of garden centres have 150 grams of Potassium Permanganate available.
If you feel the need and peace of mind to sterilize a garden area and are unable to obtain Jeyes Fluid then this would be a good alternative.
On the other hand if you have the right frame of mind, looking after your soil and the soil food web then nature will work for you controlling the diseases giving you healthy plants with crops of nutritional density.
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Winter can be a tough time for plants that grow in containers either outside or indoors, unless you take some special care of them.
Before we look at the problems these plants face, let us consider the difference between plants growing in the garden and the ones in containers.
Garden plants have nature to look after them, sunlight, rain and the soil provide for their basic needs.
It is only during times of low rainfall that you need to assist in keeping them alive with regular watering.
There are other functions that you provide such as preventing them from choking out each other with a bit of pruning, removal of competing plants (weeds), staking against damage from wind and providing extra nourishment as need be.
By in large most of the time plants in the garden can fend for themselves with what nature and the weather provides.
When we take a plant and place it into a container, we become very responsible for its well being.
Outdoor container mixes can dry out quickly during the summer and daily or even twice daily watering maybe needed.
During wet times we need to ensure that the outdoor container plants have free drainage if they are rained on. This means removing any saucers and raising the containers off the ground with a couple of slats of wood.
Over the next few months, without rain, you are likely to be only giving those containers an occasional light watering, maybe once or twice a week.
Indoor plants are much more dependent on your care as they have a harder life because many of them are living in a space where there is no natural overhead light.
In most homes, light comes only through windows and dependent on which direction a window faces will determine the amount of light the plant receives. Windows facing north obtain the most direct light where east and west facing windows are likely to receive only half as much direct light in a day.
South facing windows receive little if any direct light from the sun. These same rooms will be the coolest or coldest rooms in the house dependent on the time of the year.
A plant sitting in front of a window facing either west, north or east will receive very good light in summer and only a fraction of that in winter. If you have a sun screen curtain across the window, you have reduced the amount of light the plant receives by half. Move a plant a metre or more away from a window then the amount of direct light drops off considerably.
The further away the less light which then becomes reflected light off other surfaces.
You likely have seen plants that are stretching towards the window to gain more light, becoming ungainly and weak.
There are many different types of house plants, each type having different requirement for the amount of light they receive.
A general rule of thumb is that plants with the largest leaves will survive better in lessor light situations compared to smaller leaf plants.
Most flowering plants require plenty of direct light to be able to produce buds and have those buds open.
If you have an indoor flowering plant and it either does not produce flower buds or the buds fail to open, falling off after forming, then the plant is telling you it needs more light.
In winter the light situation becomes even worse for indoor plants. The hours of natural light are shorter as the sun is at a lower position in relation to the horizon. Plants need light to grow and as the amount of light decreases so their growth slows or stops.
Indoor plants do receive a bit of extra light from us when we turn the light switch on after dusk.
If we are using the power saving lights, then the type of light the plants receive is a little better suited to their requirements when compared to the incandescent lights.
When indoor plants are receiving less light their needs for moisture greatly reduces.
This is a key point at this time of the year and one of the main causes of plants dying.
Wet potting mix in cool weather means root rots, which cause leaves to fall and likely a loss eventually of that plant.
So in winter you must be very careful with your watering of indoor plants.
You need to check every plant every few days and basically only give them a little drink when the foliage starts to droop through lack of moisture. (Beware also that plants that are too wet will also have drooping foliage and to give them more water is likely to be fatal.)
Plant food is not needed for house plants at this time of the year unless they are flowering or still actively growing. Wait till the plants start showing signs of new growth in the spring before you start to feed again.
Avoid re potting into larger containers in winter as this also can cause wet feet till the roots once again fill the container.
You are the care giver of your container plants both indoors and outside so be aware of their needs and look after them accordingly.
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Bryophytes and Embryophytes are the botanical names given to mosses, lichen, liverworts, hornworts, molds, algae and slimes. These are what one could label primate plant-like forms which were the first land type plants on the planet, millions of years ago.
It was as a result of these primitive plant forms that began the process of building soils from rocks split and powdered by the action of water and ice.
Members of this diverse plant family are found all over the world, many growing in places where no other types of plants could grow, so in a sense they are still creating growing conditions for higher plant forms to grow.
Many bryophytes are very attractive with feather or fern like structures where others look more like something from a alien landscape.
When bryophytes grow in places we do not want them to grow they become a nuisance just like weeds.
Lichen and liverworts appear to be able to grow on most surfaces including glass, public footpaths, fences and roof tiles which are favorite spots for them. Vertical glass is difficult for them but glass roofs of glasshouses are not.
Algae and mosses growing on paths make for a slippery condition when wet and dangerous to those that can occur serious injury if they slip and fall.
Lichens that colonise on the trunks and branches of plants and trees look unsightly and can lead to rots and losses.
Mosses growing in lawns are another annoyance, not only making the lawn unsightly but also suffocating our preferred grasses.
More often than not, wherever bryophytes appear, it means a war to eradicate and control. When action is not taken they prolificate, spreading out to cause more harm.
Bryophytes cannot be controlled easily by scrapping off, as residues will be left that allow them to re-establish.
In lawns so gardeners resort to sulphate of iron to burn off mosses, which is only a very temporary fix as the acidity of the iron only burns off the top of the moss, allowing it to re-establish again fairly quickly.
There are various products advertised to clean up bryophytes such as ones that are sprayed on, then left for weathering to remove. Many of these are fairly expensive and bryophytes are like ants, you can never eradicate them as they will always come back .
Bryophytes multiply by spores of which they create vast numbers, carried by water and air they will always return.
Some years back a chemical called benzalkonium chloride, which was used in the medical industry for sterilizing instruments, was discovered to be a boon in the control of bryophytes without harming other plants.
Benzalkonium chloride is an interesting chemical been an aqueous solution and used as a detergent, fungicide, bactericide, and spermicide. It is still widely used in mild solutions for eye-washes, hand and face washes, mouthwashes, spermicidal creams, and in various other cleaners, sanitizers, and disinfectants, though there are some concerns on its safety as it can be a irritant, even in mild doses and very much so in stronger solutions.
The first product to use benzalkonium for the control of mosses etc was Surrender and the writer picked up on this many years ago and introduced its use to gardeners in Palmerston North though the garden centre I was operating at that time. It became very popular but was only available in the commercial pack of one litre.
I convinced Yates NZ to market the product for New Zealand gardeners, at which time it became available in 200 ml bottles. A ‘me-two’ product emerged with the same formulation called Yield and McGregors came out with McGregors Yield Moss Control also in a 200 ml bottle at a more competitive price.
These proved very popular and effective resulting in other chemical controls on the market, for the home garden to disappear.
Over the following years these brands of the chemical benzalkonium have become fairly expensive leading to complaints from gardeners as to their cost effectiveness.
The products are formulated at 500g / litre benzalkonium chloride in the form of a soluble concentrate and used at the rates of 25 to 50 mls per litres of water making the 200 ml bottle only able to produce between 4 to 8 litres of spray.
Not a lot if you have a big area to cover and the need to re-apply when the problems reappear.
Many mosses and liverworts need the 50 mls per litre dosage to have effective control where some other bryophytes such as lichen and algae can be controlled successfully at rates of 10 to 20 mls per litre.
Unfortunately the strength of only 10 to 20 mls for lichen and algae information is not always made available and gardeners can waste product using unnecessarily at the higher rates on these easier to control bryophytes.
Another brand is available from some garden centres using the same formulation and called Moss and Liverwort Control. Available in both 200 ml and 500 ml containers making it more affordable in comparison to the previous brands.
Another interesting aspect is that the chemical benzalkonium chloride is a track able chemical by ERMA which does not affect the home garden market in quantities of up to 1 litre.
But if a gardener has in storage over 1 litre of the concentrate then they must by law have a handler’s licence.
This is obtained by sitting a one day agrichemical course and passing.
I congratulate ERMA in taking tighter controls on agricultural chemicals which is in the interest of us all and the environment.
The new regulations also means that more safety information must be on the labels of many chemicals, which should help users to be more careful while handling and using.
Moss and Liverwort Control’s labels has all the new requirements for safety which at first glance may give the user concerns about using the product. This is good in actual fact as more care is likely to be taken and a great advantage to the user as you would certainly not want to get a splash of the concentrate (or the diluted product) in your eyes.
By wearing rubber or latex gloves, gum boots, protective waterproof clothing, eye protection and a spraying mask while mixing with water and spraying should keep you nicely safe. One of the great advantages of this product is that you can safely spray it over other plants without harming them but to be sure of this, it is advised that you should water the preferred plant’s foliage with the hose, 30 minutes after spraying. It only takes 30 minutes for Moss and Liverwort Control to get into the target bryophyte and do its job. If it rains or you water after that time the product will not be deactivated.
When using the product adjust your spray nozzle away from a mist to more of a jet as it needs a bit of force to get into the bryophyte. The product is systemic as it goes right through the bryophyte killing it completely and often making the target area difficult for re-establishment for sometime.
The product must not be mixed with other sprays to avoid chemical reactions but other sprays can be applied to the target area later. For instance if you have moss in a lawn; firstly spray with Moss and Liverwort Control and next day a lawn herbicide and Thatch Busta could be applied, mixed together. The Thatch Busta will also help clean up the material left behind by the dead moss.
Once sprayed and the area lightly watered 30 plus minutes later the re-entry of children, pets or wild life can be allowed. The product can be used indoors in the weaker solutions to control molds in showers, on the backs of curtains etc.
With the right knowledge and precautions applied, makes this product very efficient and safe to use.
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So often, grass grubs are blamed when patches of grass turn brown which could be the case.
The grass could be browning up for several reasons, including dry spot and porina. It doesn’t make economic sense to go out and buy a treatment for a specific problem until it has been positively identified.
You can make an intelligent guess on your brown patches by knowing a little about the life cycle of the grass grub.
Those grass grubs which hatch from their eggs 200mm or so deep in the soil in January will start feeding on roots at that level. If this happens during a dry period, the hatchlings will stop eating and will head into summer dormancy until such time as the soil becomes moist again – which is sometimes not until autumn. So brown patches appearing at this time are more likely to be dry spot. Once the soil becomes moist again, the grubs will start eating the roots of the grasses at those lower levels within the soil, and will continue eating their way to the surface.
It might be that they only get to eat most of the grass’s roots in the period from May to July, by which time the weather is cool to cold, and there is plenty of moisture around, both in the soil and in the foliage. This means that the grass, which may have little of their root systems left, will still look reasonable. A practiced eye, however, would be able to tell that the lawn was in a state of partial stress.
Having passed through their 3rd instar (development stage of the larva), the grubs then burrow down into the soil to enter what’s called their prepupal stage (when they empty their gut and become flaccid) before pupating about 100-250mm under the surface of the soil. Later in the year, they’ll emerge as beetles.
The problem of dead patches will arise when the grasses battle to grow again in the spring because their roots are long gone. The new foliage doesn’t receive sufficient food or moisture from the reduced root system - so the grasses fail and turn brown. And yes, while it was certainly grass grub which caused the problem; but as they are pupating well beneath the surface and there’s no way in the world you are going to kill them then without digging over the lawn and letting the birds eat the cocoons.
So you see how easy it is for gardeners to be sucked into spending their money on treatment for grass grub when it is very possible it won’t work as there is no grubs to kill.
My recommendation to those who believe they have a grass grub problem is this.
First, lift some turf at various parts of the lawn and see if you can see any white grubs. They look a little like small, whitish caterpillars and they curl up when exposed.
To lift the turf, simply take a sharp-bladed spade and cut a square in the lawn, about 4 to 6cm deep, with the sides being the width of the spade’s blade. Under the final cut, slide the spade into a horizontal position and lift the square of grass. Examine the area you have uncovered, and the earth on the underside of the square you have removed. Don’t worry unduly if you find the odd grass grub, and if that’s the case, don’t bother to treat the lawn.
If, however, you find a number of grubs, then put the square of lawn back and launch into a treatment programme. By lifting a number of squares over a lawn, spacing these apart in a grid formation, you’ll find out what areas are worst infested.
This process won’t harm your lawn, and the squares can easily be stamped back into place to make them level with the rest of the lawn. It is important, however, to make sure the soil is moist (but not too wet) and not dry when you lift the squares. If the soil is very dry, the grubs will be too deep down to spot.
It’s worth paying particular attention to areas of your lawn where there has historically been a problem with grass grubs, and areas which are exposed to light at night. You will need to decide on a suitable treatment in the event of finding areas of lawn with real grub problems.
Grass grubs can also be dealt to using natural controls. Birds and hedgehogs will work the lawn where they find grass grubs near the surface. Flocks of birds ripping your lawn to bits is a very good indication that they are after some protein. (grubs)
It is possible to control the pests in pasture and on playing fields by using heavy rollers in areas where the grubs are near the surface and the soil is moist. In those conditions, the rollers will crush the pests. Some farmers use their cattle in a similar manner, by over-stocking the paddock and using the animals’ weight to crush the grubs.
A safe to use spray is Professor Mac's 3 in 1 for Lawns. You attach your hose to the 2 litre container and spray the lawn with the water and contents. The active ingredients are Eucalyptus oil and Tea Tree oil along with natural plant foods in the form of manures and seaweed/fish extracts plus a wetting agent.
Safe for children, pets and wild life. The 2 litre container will treat 100 square Metres.
There is another product on the market for lawn pests that also snaps on the hose using the chemical, Imidacloprid (Confidor).
This product is extremely harmful to bees and lasts for a long time in the soil and plants and can effect bees visiting any weeds that flower in the lawn for weeks later..
Gardeners who don’t mind using a chemical, and who don’t have children or pets using the lawn, are able to do what many green keepers do, and that is to use Pyrifos G or called Lawn Pest Control. These are prills which are spread at the rate of 2 grams per square metre, using a lawn spreader for even coverage. The product should be applied either just before rain, or it should be well watered in to increase its efficacy. The 500 gram pack covers 250 Square Metres and gives control for about 6 weeks without harming bees.
One of the best ways to control grass grub problems is to get at the beetles when they are in flight in early summer using a light trap
It’s not worth treating the grubs themselves with any of the methods mentioned unless you have found them in larger numbers. And always remember to take particular care if using a chemical control method.
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We are now just about 7 weeks from the shortest day and very nearly half way through the calender year. This is the time to tidy up outside, remove spent plants to the compost; or if you have no compost bin then lay them on the soil and nature will do the rest.
A few months ago I purchased a tumbler compost device which has this barrel shaped container on a pivot so that you can turn it 180 degrees every day or two.
There are lids at either end that you remove to place material into it.
My main intention was to use it to decompose my dog's droppings.
To facilitate this I also add spent compost, kitchen scrapes and plants that have finished for the season.
Having ample tiger worms I have also thrown them in to help with the breakdown.
It works a treat and a great way to re-cycle animal droppings which later on I will add to raised gardens or use as a mulch over my gardens.
Leaf fall is starting to happen about now and recently I was asked to supply a reader the information about converting autumn leaves to leaf mold.
There are two processes you can use with one being faster than the other.
Collect fallen leaves and stuff them into a black plastic rubbish bag after spraying them with either Thatch Busta or Mycorrcin. When the bag is full tie it off and then punch small holes all over the bag using a very small screwdriver or nail.
Toss the bag somewhere out of sight but in a place where it will be heated by the sun for part of the day.
Every month or so pick up the bag and shake it and lay it down again with the previously underside facing upwards.
In about a year or sooner you will have a nice pile of leaf mold.
The alternative is to lay the fallen leaves on the lawn, where it does not matter and run over them with a rotary mower collecting the cut up leaves in the catcher.
Spray them as described above before stuffing them into the bag. They will break down faster and likely have good leaf mold next summer.
May is also the month to sort out your strawberries.
If you have allowed the runners to root into the soil you will have a crop of new plants which you can either use to replace old plants or replace plants that did not produce well this last season.
Any spares left over can be given to family or friends.
I have my strawberries in troughs suspended on a fence and they have grown well with lots of runners dependent on variety. (I have about 7 varieties including one new one, Albion which produced very large sweet berries and another old variety called Red Gauntlet which did very poorly)
I think it will be out with the old and in with the new. I also learnt from a reader that using my Secret Tomato Food for the strawberries along with regular sprays of Mycorrcin produces extra large juicy strawberries and according to the reader bigger than apricots.
I took the advise and gave a feed of the tomato food towards the end of the season and was surprised at the size of some of the fruit which were just about too big to put in your mouth.
If you have strawberries in containers or troughs then lift them out and place fresh compost and manures under them. The same can be done on open ground ones making fresh mounds to plant back in either existing plants or the new runners.
Don’t forget to use the Mycorrcin as a spray 2 weekly it does increase your crop potential by 200 to 400%.
There are some interesting things currently happening overseas which will have positive effects in New Zealand in time to come.
Monsanto the worlds biggest GMO company is pulling out all its new applications to grow GE crops in Europe as consumers do not want 'Frankenstein' foods.
Instead they are going to concentrate back into the USA where even there there are changes in the wind.
It the USA there is no mandatory labeling of food stuffs which contain GMO's and Monsanto and the Grocery Manufactures Association have been spending millions on advertising to prevent Americans from knowing what is in their food.
Referendums in California and in Washington states have been narrowly defeated by 70 million dollars worth of advertising.
Vermont is the first state to pass their H 112 bill for compulsory labeling of GMO's in food sold in that state.. Several other states are also in the process of passing similar bills.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which is a multi-billion lobbying group representing more than 300 food, pesticide and drug makers, are trying to pass their “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2014,” introduced recently by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), intended to strip Vermont, and all other states, of their right to pass GMO labeling laws.
It is expected that Congress will not pass this law, dubbed the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, which seeks to deny consumers the right to know if their food has been genetically engineered, and deny states the right to enact laws designed to protect public health.
How bad is that?
It only takes a couple of States to pass legislation in regards to labeling then manufactures will have to label all their products for all states about the GM content or change to non GE ingredients.
GE farmers will not likely be able to sell their products as a result and a great reason to keep our own country completely free of Ge and GMO products.
The other bad news for Monsanto is the peer reviewed studies that link Roundup to numerous health problems some studies saying that Roundup is a far worse chemical than DDT.
Also pro-GMO scientists have started to have their past studies reviewed and thrown out as being inaccurate. (Companies such as Monsanto presumably pay scientists and Universities to produce results that they want)
Agricultural chemicals are progressively making their way into your body whether you are trying to avoid them or not, according to several recent studies in the US and Canada. A prime offender is glyphosate, the main toxic ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup.
Glyphosate is both an herbicide and a pesticide. Multiple scientific findings suggest that Monsanto and global regulatory bodies have been wrong about the lack of bio accumulation of glyphosate-based agricultural chemicals.
This also applies to our own food chain in New Zealand from conventional farming.
Toxic Herbicides Now Common in Pregnant Women’s Breast Milk, Placentas, and Umbilical Cords is the title of an article by a Dr. Mercola. (USA)
Is it any wonder that many babies have health issues never seen in such numbers in the past, overseas and here in New Zealand?
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Now that the rains have moistened up the soil in many areas, it is the right time to sow new lawns, patch up or over-sow existing lawns, to thicken up the grasses.
If you want a really nice lawn you must have top quality lawn seed.
Some garden centres do have excellent lawn seed mixes which they, more often than not, obtain from the same sources that supply green keepers.
If you don't want a really nice lawn preferring a green area that covers a area of bare soil that you mow short the least number of times a year as possible, then buy any cheap seed and sow it.
For those that are more discerning and do want a great looking lawn which is a lovely green carpet, then you are on a mission to get the best seed possible.
There is an alternative, and that is to buy instant lawn which comes in strips, which you lay on a prepared area. I did that some years ago where I had a small area that I wanted a really great lawn for show. I checked out the instant lawn people and selected a pure fescue type which was stunning. Seeds are certainly cheaper but if you don't end up with the lawn you prefer then the ready to lay lawns are good value.
There is less work with a instant lawn, it can be laid by the supplier or yourself and then its just a matter of ensuring adequate moisture and a bit of food.
If you going to sow a lawn or do some patching (with patching make sure you have the same seed mix as the rest of the lawn in that area) then you need to ensure that any weed seeds in the area have sprouted and been removed first.
The best value lawn seeds are uncoated simply because seeds are sold by the kilo and if you have a coating on a seed that weighs as much as the seed (or more) you are getting far less seed than uncoated.
Every seed is a prospective plant, the more grass plants in a given area makes for a better lawn, thicker and less chance of weeds establishing later.
I always note with amused interest, that both uncoated and coated lawn seeds have a recommendation of 1 kilo to do about 33 square metres. Yet with the coated seeds you have about half or less, seeds in a kilo. Why the coating? Reasons often stated are, bird repellent (doesn't work) fertiliser, fungus control, pesticide and moisture retention.
The coating may be for one or more of these aspects. Green Keepers say, ‘You treat the problem (if there is one) Not the seed’. So the coating does not serve any great purpose other than to give you less seeds for your money. Very seldom would you find a green keeper buying and using coated lawn seed and they are the experts.
Once you have found a good, suitable lawn seed, but not sure of its viability (germination percentage), take a small amount of the seed and sprinkle onto some potting mix in a seedling punnet. Sprinkle a little more potting mix to just cover and wet down the mix. Place a meat tray under the punnet and keep the unit moist. Place on a windowsill above the kitchen sink (or similar) so you can keep an eye on it.
Then sow the rest of the seed outside, where required. Now if you find that the seeds outside don't do well and your punnet does better then you have not looked after the new seeds outside right. If you get a poor strike in both punnet and outside then likely the seed is faulty and you should return the packets to the supplier and ask for a refund. If you use new potting mix in the punnet and you get weeds germinating amongst the grasses you also have a reason for complaint.
If I was going to sow a new lawn I would broadcast the seeds, then sprinkle Gypsum over the area, mixed half and half with sharp sand, (plasters sand) to cover the bare seed. Next I would drench the area with MBL (Magic Botanic Liquid) mixed with water at the rate of 20ml per litre of water. These natural products will greatly assist and speed up germination.
If birds were a problem (after sowing) I would place some Bird Repeller Ribbon over the area. The area would be lightly watered with a hose once or twice a day if it did not rain. After the grasses were established and had the first mowing then I would give the area a light feed with a slow release fertiliser such as Bio-Boost.
If you are wanting to thicken up your existing lawn then the best way to do it is to hire a scarifier and cut the grooves in the lawn (as well as lift the thatch) north/south, east/west (mow the lawn first). Then broadcast your new lawn seeds with Gypsum. Water to settle in seeds or use MBL in a watering can to do the same. Roll the lawn with a hire roller to press seeds into the soil and grooves. Keep the area moist.
For general care of existing lawns you should check the lawn for weeds, thatch and moss. If there are a number of weeds, you can either spot spray them or use a lawnboy to do the whole lawn. Use a suitable spray for the types of weeds found.
Add Thatch Busta to the spray to remove thatch at the same time or if there is thatch in the lawn just use the product on its own. Thatch is the debris that builds up in a lawn on the surface of the soil and makes for bad drainage, moss and diseases if not cleared.
Thatch Busta is a easy to use product that you just spray over the lawn at 100 mls to 10 litres of water to cover 100 sqM. It stimulates the natural micro-organisms to eat up the thatch, converting it to food for the grasses. It will eat up to an inch of thatch in a month.
The best lawns are obtained from sowing top quality lawn seed, never mowed low, fed with slow release foods, de-thatched spring and autumn, cultivated to form a dense mat of fine grasses that make it difficult for weeds to establish.
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The autumn rains have started at last, bringing much needed relief to parched gardens in much of the country.
It has been a crazy season for gardeners in many areas and due likely as a result of the changing climate.
What we once considered normal and took for granted can no longer be relied on.
Weather events that only happened occasionally such as once in a hundred years have started to happen in more regular cycles. It was only a few years ago that scientists were telling us that climate problems were emerging, which in the next 100 years, would be devastating. The speed of the problems are increasing at such a rate, that we are already experiencing global events, never before seen in such proportions during anyone’s life time.
Oceans rising, storm surges; are not familiar words from the past and obviously with a rise of a metre level in oceans along with a storm surge will leave coastal and riverside properties worthless.
The answer to reduce the problem is very simple but not in the interests of money making multinational and national companies.
Humus in soils can store large amounts of carbon, up to 50-300 tonnes per hectare, which is equivalent to 180-1100 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is called Carbon Sequestering.
Humus stores or sequesters carbon for decades, or even centuries. Imagine if farmers started cultivating their soils to create humus rather than to destroy it? What a difference it would make to their income and the health of the country?
Each week I receive a newsletter from a organic farmer namely, John who has a block of 'paradise' land in Taranaki called Avonstour Organic Heritage Farm. (Look it up on the net)
In his latest newsletter he said; 'We are real dry in the back country against new Plymouth but once I got out of Hawera toward Wanganui it was supper dry even the saved grass paddocks and the side of the roads just a few broken sticks of seeded grass standing. No wonder the price of hay has gone though the roof. The problem will get worse in winter as the grass wont have time to grow so I’m real happy we fallow farm and have grass and feed in bulk.'
Fallow Farm? I know the principal in so much as you leave one seventh of your land fallow for a year but was not sure what this did in a farming sense so I emailed John and asked.
His reply was,
We Sabbatical fallow farm .....we shut up 1/7th of the farm for 12 months usually at the shortest day when feed is short and then we use it like standing hay.
This naturally balances the soil ,,suppresses weeds ,,gives more and better topsoil, retains water in the humus layer to give better growth.
The seed formed is the best grasses for our soil and farm .
It powers fallow land to grow well for 7 years.
The biggest thing is livestock health we never have a vet here (Well only to castrate a horse or two )
Conventional farmers cant say that as they spend a fortune on Vets.
My research on the internet found:
'Farmers who defy economic logic and leave their lands fallow for the Shmita (agricultural sabbatical) year. According to the Torah (Exodus 23:10-11, Leviticus 25:1-7 and Leviticus 25:18-24), every seventh year, must remain fallow. Agricultural work is prohibited, especially sowing, pruning, plowing and harvesting.
Sabbatical fallowing is written about in the Bible, Koran, Torah and other historical documents as the main method used thousands of years ago to retain and build up fertility in soils.
Its still very popular in many parts of the world and is used in many countries changing over to organics.
The method entails each year shutting up a different 7th of your farm from Spring right through to late winter / early spring when it can be trampled and eaten off.
The paddocks grow up to an outsiders eye like an untidy, uncut, Hay paddock, then composts and decomposes, its about 11 tonne a hectare of organic compost that feeds the worms and increases microbial activity, improves soil structure, increases soil aeration, drainage & water holding capacity. The Pastures root density & depth of penetration is improved. Due to additional food supplies earthworm numbers increase which enhances the rate of nutrient cycling.
We have observed much larger numbers of earthworms high up in the soil feeding during very heavy frosts. We have found Sabbatical fallowing enhances trace elements and fertility, increases nitrogen accumulation and conservation, gives a new covering of seeds and organic matter and gives the paddocks a rest too !
"You end up with a rich, biologically active, deep humus layer over the blocks." It gives you a HUGE feed bank of standing hay for the winter. The paddocks perform much better in Droughts and drain better in wet conditions.
Another very valid point is humus can hold 90% of its weight in water.
That is a incredible reservoir of water in the soil, available for plants as they need it.
(Thousands of litres per hectare)
Farmers like John laugh during drought times as their water is stored where wind and sun cant evaporate it. This makes the storage of water in dams or open reservoirs for irrigation a joke and a waste of money.
Change the soil husbandry and solve the problem of droughts.
Coming back to your garden and section you may not have sufficient land or gardens to leave a seventh of the land fallow but you can still use many of the principals to achieve a great garden soil that is full of humus.
Mulching of organic material, straw, weeds, fodder crops will build better soils.
Supply ample calcium in the form of garden lime, gypsum and dolomite.
Drench the soil with Magic Botanic Liquid and Mycorrcin, 3 monthly to start with and 6 monthly later on.
Sprinkle Rok Solid and BioPhos over garden areas. Do not use chemical fertilisers and chlorinated water on your gardens.
When you get your soil right you too will laugh at droughts and help with global climate change.
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The first frosts are likely to strike at any time in frost prone areas. Some of you may have already had a frost or two so far.
There are a few things you can do to offset damage to frost sensitive plants and assist cropping plants to keep on going a bit longer for better returns.
First of all you can spray sensitive plants with Vaporgard which is very simple to use; mix 15 mls per litre of warm water and then spray over plants for a good coverage. Vaporgard is a natural product that provides a long lasting (2-3 months, longer in winter) film over the foliage which protects down to –3 degrees C.
New growth requires further applications but as there is very little growth through winter, this is not needed till the spring.
Note; for the full protection that Vaporgard can give against frost and chilly wind damage comes into effect in about 3 days from application.
Putting on frost cloth and taking it off is a chore and more often or not, one either forgets or you get caught out. Vaporgard overcomes these problems and becomes an all winter, first line of defense against the chills.
In areas where there are harder frosts than –3 you will still need the extra protection such as the traditional frost cloth (Good quality frost cloth protects down to –5), combine the two together and you will have increased protection. Note, several frosts in a row will result in damage still unless you use frost cloth as well as Vaporgard..
You can further harden up plants by sprinkling potash over the area where the roots of plants are.
This can be combined with magnesium to keep foliage green through the winter.
The two are found together in the product, Fruit and Flower Power.
Weeds taken care of now, before they reseed, will reduce problems in the coming spring.
Though I am not a fan of chemical weed killers sometimes they are the quick and easy way to control the more difficult weeds.
A few gardeners recently have complained about suckers coming up in their gardens after a tree has been removed.
Some trees create lots of suckers from the still alive roots which will send up saplings to keep themselves alive.
The first answer to the problem is prevention by ring barking a tree first, that you intend to fell.
This allows both the top and the roots to die and once that has happened then you can cut down the tree.
It does not always work and if suckers start to appear from the old root system then my suggestion is to mix Roundup and Woodyweed killer together with Raingard added and paint this onto every sucker that appears. It may take sometime but in the end you should win.
Oxalis is a bulb that throws up a set of leaves, gains energy from the sun and produces hundreds of bulblets or baby bulbs.
If you take a heaped tablespoon of baking soda and add it to a litre of warm water, stir to dissolve, then add one mil of Raingard, you have made a potent foliage dehydrator of oxalis.
This spray does not harm other types of plants and can help with powdery mildew and black spot prevention..
You need to spray this formula over the oxalis foliage on a sunny day when the ground is on the dry side causing the leaves of the oxalis to shrivel and die.
It will not kill the bulb which will then produce another set of leaves. As soon as these appear you either apply the same solution or cut them off at ground level.
If done quickly enough at the emergence of the new leaves the bulb has not gained energy but has been weakened. Again it will try to produce leaves which should be quickly removed.
At some point of time the bulb does not have any more energy left to produce foliage and it rots in the soil. Goodbye oxalis.
There is a further aspect to the oxalis problem and that is all the baby bulbs attached to the now dead parent, if you disturb the soil you will bring these babies nearer to the surface where they will also produce leaves to start a bigger problem. What you need to do is cover the soil with a layer of compost and plant any new seedlings into this layer. This action further buries your oxalis problem.
Do not disturb the soil and when your flowers or vegetables are finished or harvested, just cut them off at ground level and cover the area with more compost. Simple and effective.
Wandering jew. Go to a grocery wholesaler such as Toops or Bin Inn and buy a 25 kilo bag of table salt, which will cost you between $10 to $15.00. Broadcast the salt over the area where the wandering jew is growing, its cheap, so throw it on.
You will find that the weed dies off leaving bare ground. Some new emergence will then occur and you spot treat these with a handful of salt. Later rake the area to remove the stubble and then you can lime the area and apply Magic Botanic Liquid to bring the soil back for planting up in a preferred plants.
If you have other plants growing in the area they will likely die also but well established trees and shrubs should not be unduly affected. Now $15.00 worth of salt goes a long way and is cheaper than a little bottle of chemical weedkiller for $30 which does not go far. If you have pavers/cobbles and weeds growing in the cracks just sprinkle some of your salt.
Another one is sulphate of ammonia which burns out weeds. I have used this on low weeds growing in a gravel drive. Sprinkled the sulphate of ammonia over them and they brown off and die.. Ideally you should lightly water the weeds about an hour prior to applying the sulphate of ammonia so there is a little moisture to start the burning action. The advantage of sulphate of ammonia is a short residue period, unlike table salt which is much longer.
In your kitchen you already have a couple of neat, environmentally friendly weed killers, vinegar and cooking oil. These can be sprayed over the foliage of weeds on a sunny day when the ground is on the dry side to burn off the weeds. Add dish washing soap to the oil so it mixes with the water.
Dependent on the type of weed you can dilute either of the two products with water to make them go further and be more economical. You need to experiment a bit to find out what dilution rate works best for each type of weed.
Once again buying either a cheap cooking oil or vinegar in bulk, works out very economically on the purse and you are doing far less damage to the environment or your own personal health.
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I am often asked, 'how do you work out what you are going to write about each week?'
There are 3 sources that I use; if something interesting occurs while I am tending my gardens and plants sometimes this can lead to an article.
If I get stuck then its a matter of looking back over the last 30 years of articles for ones written at that time of the year, to promote a new article.
Thirdly and the most used, happens because someone contacted me during the week with a gardening problem or a gardening solution and that is the beginnings of a new article.
This last week is no exception as two very interesting conversations transpired, one of which will very likely lead to a new natural way of controlling insect pests; there will more about this in the future.
The other was from an 80 year old lady who now is unable to do much in her well established gardens so she has a chap come in to do the manual bits.
The problem is a very old rose bed with about 20 very old roses.
The bed has become a problem because of oxalis and convolvulus, these two weeds have taken over and ruined the rose garden.
The question put to me was if the roses were pulled out and the soil removed (with the weeds) and new tops soil placed in the bed could grass be sown successfully and change the area back to lawn. .
I agreed it would work but also involved a lot of work and expense which likely both are not an easy option.
The removal of the soil and replacement would not likely make the area weed free so you can forget about that.
The area could be treated with herbicides to kill the oxalis and convolvulus but once again an expense and a long term program to ensure the offending weeds were cleared out.
The easy solution would be to remove the roses, rake out the bed and sow the new grass seed.
This would mean the weeds and grass would be in competition but the lawn mower would keep them at bay.
The next question would be about the roses and what happens to them?
The lady said they would have to be dumped as they likely would be carrying weed bulbs and bits in their root systems.
My immediate thoughts were; here are 20 odd roses likely 40 years old, varieties that may be rare and they are going to the tip.
I am sure there would be gardeners out there that would love to have one or more of these old specimens and all that needs to be done is to lift them in winter, wash the root system clean, then replant in a new home.
I know of two very active rose societies within 'cooee' of her residence so I suggested that she phone the President and see if there are society members happy to come in, lift the roses and take them home.
Seeing that the roses are for free they could also prepare the area for sowing lawn seed.
I asked if she would be sad to lose all her roses and the answer was yes, so I said why not pot up the ones she liked?
I was asked if this could be done because she had two or three favorites.
My reply was no problem and if a rose society was involved they could lift the roses she would like to keep and pot them up into the containers which she supplied.
The moving of the roses would be done about June, the canes cut back and then the roses roots cut with a spade so they could be wrenched.
The root system washed clean and most importantly kept moist till replanted.
The containers to plant them in would have to be at least 45 litres or larger and potted up using purchased compost which is weed free. My recommendation is to use Oderings or Daltons Compost.
Hopefully my suggestions will work out and well within the Lady's budget.
If you are moving deciduous plants such as roses or fruit trees the best time to do this is in winter when they are dormant.
You can start preparing to move at this time by cutting to the depth of about two spades a half circle out about 30cm or more from the trunk leaving an open trench.. This will cut a lot of roots and the cut roots will start to side root, making for a whole bunch of new roots.
In winter the other half of the circle would be cut and the plant lifted.
This makes for a better transplant.
With evergreen plants this can also be applied but because the plants are always in leaf it also pays to remove some total branches to open up the plant.
Less top growth takes less stress on the damaged root system.
Both these actions can be done between now and winter when the final lifting will occur.
On evergreen plants another action should be taken and that is to spray the foliage all over with Vaporgard about a week before lifting. This reduces moisture loss and takes a lot of stress off the plant's move.
Now is also about the right time to spray your more tender plants with Vaporgard to give them winter protection.
One spray lasts for about three months giving down to minus 3 frost protection within 3 days of spraying.
Vaporgard works well to prevent damage from winter's chills and the occasional frost.
If there are two or more frosts in a row then additional protection is needed to allow the cells to heal before being hit again.
If you are going to transplant seedlings a spray over their foliage with Vaporgard a couple of days before moving will make the world of difference to the establishment.
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I love roasted parsnips and decided this season to grow a crop in one of my raised gardens.
Parsnips are difficult to germinate from seed for two reasons, the seed has to be very fresh and the older the seed (over 12 months old) may not have a good strike rate.
The seed needs plenty of moisture to germinate so you need to keep the area damp.
The purchased seed packet gave me about a 25% strike rate which was not too bad from packet seed that is likely to be a lot older than 12 months.
This week as I was watering the patch and admiring the strong foliage of the parsnips I remembered an article I wrote about 5 years ago about the danger of parsnips and a number of other plants.
Now is a good time to re-visit that article for those that may not be aware of this problem and end up suffering as a result.
The following is the tale of a keen gardener who wrote to me and promoted the article:
‘I thought you might be interested in my sorry little tale of a vegetable attack.
I Put in a couple of double rows of Parsnips this year - for a change, and for our winter needs.
Read in a gardening article once, that if their tops get too big its OK to cut them back a bit if they interfere with your other vegetables.
So about a week ago, - on a very hot day, in shorts and jandals, and with bare arms - I gave them a short back and sides with a pairs of hand shears.
Took off two barrow loads of leaf cuttings.
Two days latter I'm starting to look like the lead part in the movie "Return of the Monster from the Toxic Waste Dump".
Both legs and arms are covered with severe red burns and large blisters, some as big as ten cent coins. A trip to the doctor confirms that it's what he calls "Wild Parsnip Burn". A fairly distressing and painful business that requires medication and some time for the skin to heal. And it can take years to get rid of the nasty red and purple scars.
The problem seems to be, that contrary to inference there's really no difference between the so-called "wild" and the "garden" parsnip - i.e. pastinaca sativa - and this kind of nasty burn can happen to anyone.
Nearly all of my older gardening friends have never heard of this problem before and were quite surprised.
Must admit I've grown parsnips before without any problems, but then I've never trimmed them back quite like this before.
So thought I'd just remind you of this little known danger of parsnips, - just in case you ever feel the urge to write an article on "The Dangers of Growing Vegetables"
Best Regards, Stuart Rae.’
I had never heard of this previously but were aware of things such as stinging nettle which can be irritating when handled. Also Primula Obconica a lovely flowering plant which a number of people can have a reaction to if handled with bare hands.
The juice or sap from parsnips causes photochemical burn.
The plants are not a threat unless you cut into the green parts and get the juice on your skin.
There is no immediate effect when you get the juice on your skin. But, if the skin is exposed to the sun, the burning starts to happen about a day later, and the skin will actually blister. If you got a lot of the stuff on your skin, you could have some pretty serious and painful burns.
The scars can last up to 2 years.
To investigate the matter further I looked up ‘Photochemical Burn’ and found that the following plants and vegetables can cause the same problem.
Family Genus: Species: Common Names: Main Compounds
Umbelliferae : Amni majus: Queen Anne's lace, Bishop's weed: 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP), 5-methoxypsoralen (5-MOP), imperatorin
Heracleum sphondylium: Cow parsnip: 8-MOP, 5-MOP, imperatorin, phellopterin
Pastinaca sativa: Parsnip: 8-MOP, 5-MOP, imperatorin, isopimpinellin
Apium graveolens: Celery: Psoralens, 8-MOP, 5-MOP
Rutaceae: Citrus: bergamia: Bergamot lime: 5-MOP
Citrus: maxima: Zabon: 5-MOP
Dictamnus: albus: Gas plant: 8-MOP, 5-MOP
Moracea: Ficus: carica: Fig: Psoralens, 5-MOP
Leguminosae: Psoralea: corylifolia: Bavchi, Scurf pea: Psoralens
Now it is the juice of these plants from cut foliage that can or will cause you problems.
The best way to overcome the situation is to wear vinyl or rubber type gloves and do not allow any exposed skin to come into contact with the foliage. Long sleeves and trousers with footwear such as the good old gum boots.
Place the cut foliage into the compost or lay on the soil to breakdown.
Once the foliage has decomposed there is no further danger.
I see a potential danger if young children are playing in areas where wild parsnips or any of the other plants mentioned; they could bruise or damage foliage and get the juice on their bare skin.
As the reaction time is a day or two later you would not be aware of the cause.
Careful removal of these plants would be best when children are involved.
Live and Learn.
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This week a couple of events that occurred maybe of interest; the first was from a gardener that was concerned about their pH levels. A meter they purchased to read the pH was giving some readings which would result in many plants being either dead or very sick. I asked how are your plants looking and the reply was very healthy and growing well.
So what is the problem with your pH I asked? The gardener had read somewhere about pH levels and how some plants like Camellias like a more acidic soil where others such as cabbages love an alkaline soil, all which is very true.
So to find out what is what with the pH in their gardens they purchased a meter that you push the probe into the soil and it gives you a reading.
A reading between 6.6 and 7.3 is considered neutral.
A reading of 7.4 to 7.8 is slightly alkaline, 7.9 to 8.4 is moderately alkaline 8.5 to 9.0 strongly alkaline and 9 to 14 heavily to extreme alkaline.
On the other side we have between 6.1 and 6.5 slightly acid, 5.6 to 6 moderately acid, 5.1to 5.5 strongly acid, 4.5 to 5.00 very strong acid, 3.5 to 4.4 extreme acid and 3.5 to 0.0 ultra acid.
Most plants are either happy with or can tolerate soils with a pH of between 6.1 to 7.8.
Outside of this plants will not grow so well, or not at all, dependent on their preference for alkaline or acid conditions.
For instance brassicas love a very alkaline soil so you can dose the area well with a soft garden lime before planting. If you did the same to where gorse was growing it would not be able to feed and it would die. Best to keep garden lime away from citrus, camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas to name a few acid preferring plants.
A small dose of sulphate of iron watered into their root zone once or twice a year will keep them happy or as was done in days gone by a few old rusty nails.
There is an easy test for plants that like an alkaline soil which I like to use and that is to plant two small rows of peas about 300mm apart, on one row give a sprinkling of soft lime.
If that row grows better than the other row then the vegetable garden could do with a dose of lime.
Do not place lime where you wish to grow potatoes or tomatoes as they like a slightly acidic soil.
In New Zealand in many areas our soils tend to be slightly acid but not where there is limestone.
Overtime with rain and weather the soils do become more acidic.
Using manmade fertilisers and watering with chlorinated/floreinated water also leads to more acid.
Gardens that host alkaline plants, which is mostly your vegetables, should be given a sprinkling of soft lime about every three months. This will supply the calcium that the soil life and worms require and keep the soil alkaline.
In other areas the products to use are dolomite and gypsum. These both are pH neutral but will supply the calcium the soil needs as well as sulphur and magnesium.
These two products can also be applied to vegetable gardens for these extra elements.
If you are really serious about pH readings you need to purchase a calibrating type pH meter and use buffer solutions to calibrate, not cheap.
Alternatively the litmus paper used for testing swimming pools can be used.
Place a small sample of soil into a clean bottle along with distilled water, shake vigorously for several minutes and then place your litmus strip into the solution. Take a comparison of the colour to the chart supplied. This will give you a good indication of the pH of the sample at little cost.
To another subject; last weekend I thought it would be a good time to germinate some seeds of the special mini cucumber, Iznik Mini F1 Hybrid. Last year my summer Iznik Mini carried on in the glasshouse, giving a few fruit now and then through the winter, without any supplement heating.
How much better would new plants do? Hopefully very well dependent on how winter goes in Palmerston North this year. I had also acquired some winter lettuce seeds and Russian tomato seeds from the Silvery Tree Fern tomato plants that I have grown in the past.
The best way to germinate is on a heat pad indoors so the seeds were sown in separate punnets with the cucumber in a cell pack. After filling each punnet to two thirds full with compost the seeds were sown, then sprayed with a solution of Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) before covering with vermiculite and wetting that down with more MBL solution.
This was done on Saturday afternoon and by Sunday nite the cucumber had sprouted so that pack went to the glasshouse so they would have ample light and not stretch.
By Tuesday the first of the lettuce had spouted and on Wednesday the first show of the tomatoes.
Now is the fast or what? Its the MBL along with the under heat and regular sprays of non-chlorinated water to keep the medium moist, that does the trick.
Mind you even I was impressed with the speed of the cucumbers.
These plants will grow on in their punnets then be transplanted into larger pots before being potted up into their final pot size or planted out in a raised garden in regards to the winter lettuce.
MBL is Humate and Fulvic acid.
This natural product has numerous advantages to gardens and plants. as many gardeners have found out to their benefit over the last few years.
To start with it helps undo the damage that man-made chemicals do to the soil and plants, turning so-so gardens into healthy ones you can be proud of.
Well its March so winter vegetables and flowers must be started off this month to gain the most from the daylight hours that are slowly decreasing. Don't waste time and miss the seasons.
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Winter is a hard time for many plants when they are of a tender variety or if they do not like wet feet.
Water logged soils, chilly winds, frost and snow don't bode well for lots of plants.
There are a number of things you can do now that will help your plants get through the winter better.
Plants such as citrus trees cannot stand their roots in water for prolonged periods and if this happens they are likely to die.
You will be aware of areas on the section where water tends to pond and if there are any plants nearby such as a citrus tree, which don't like wet feet, then the best thing you can do is dig a trench just beyond the drip line.
The depth should be about a spade depth or more and left open.
The trench may go right around the tree or if near a fence at least in a half circle.
The idea is that rain water will drain into the trench and as it is exposed to sun and wind it will evaporate fairly quickly taking the moisture away from the root system.
If you have a vegetable plot it is good gardening practise to have a trench all around the plot for the same reason.
If you don't like trenches then its a matter of installing a drainage system to remove surplus water.
To assist in the prevention of wet weather diseases you can spray all susceptible plants and preferred plants with Perkfection Supa.
Perkfection is used for recovery from/or prevention of, the following problems, Black spot, Downy Mildew, Phytophthora Root rot, Canker, heart rot, damping off, crown rot, leaf blight, silver leaf, late blight, collar rot, pink rot, brown rot, Armillaria, and gummy stem rot.
This fortifies the plant’s cells, increases the plant’s immune system and makes your plants less susceptible to invading pathogens.
The recommendation is to use Perkfection at 4 ml per litre of spray once a month.
The next step is to make the plants more cold hardy and to keep the foliage green; for that we need a combination of magnesium and potash which is available through Fruit and Flower Power.
Magnesium is involved in chlorophyll production, which converts sunlight into sugars and in activating enzymes. Because of its role in chlorophyll, the first symptoms of magnesium deficiency show up as yellowing, usually between the veins of the older leaves. In severe deficiencies, the entire leaf will turn yellow or red and then brown, with symptoms progressing up the plant.
There are numerous plants that show this tendency, citrus, Daphne, rhododendrons, tomatoes, passion fruit, roses to name a few. In winter because of the cold, yellowing of foliage is more common because of low levels of magnesium.
Once the yellowing starts to appear then already the plant is having problems and even when magnesium is supplied, it takes several weeks or months before the lovely dark green colour is restored.
During this time the plant is weakened, as the chlorophyll is not working to its full potential which makes the plant more susceptible to diseases and pests.
As the weather cools and winter approaches, plants feel the chill like we do, but plants cant put on a jersey like we can. Plant’s protection from chills and frosts comes from having adequate Potassium in their diet to harden up growth.
Thus us gardening commentators always suggest to gardeners to supply potash to their plants as winter starts to approach and to avoid too much nitrogen.
Apply Fruit and Flower Power once a month from now and through winter to ensure firm growth and green foliage.
Vaporgard is a ‘spray on’ frost protection that is used at 15 mils per litre over your more tender plants.
One application will give frost protection down to minus 3 for 3 months within 3 days of application.
Even if you are in an area where frosts are not normal, the film of Vaporgard will protect the plant from winter chilly winds and rain.
Vaporgard works a treat except when there is two or more frosts in a row, the cells in the plant do not have a chance to recover before the next frost and damage will occur unless extra protection is used such as frost cloth.
The big advantage with Vaporgard is that you don't get caught out by a sneaky frost.
Vaporgard also acts as a sunscreen against UV so the foliage of the plant will become a darker rich green within a couple of days of spraying and the plant will gain more energy from the sunlight.
If you have sprayed your plants with Vaporgard and later on you want to spray Perkfection Supa again then you need to add Raingard to the Perkfection spray so the two films merge allowing the Perkfection to enter the plant.
Hardy plants such as brassicas also benefit from protection and the easy way to supply this is with crop cover. Not only will it reduce insect pest problems but it will offer protection from elements, bird and cats.
Will we have a mild winter like last year or will the winter be more along the lines of what has happened in the northern hemisphere?
Who knows but if we winter proof our gardens and plants now one thing is for sure, they will better handle what ever Nature throws at them.
TO THE LIST OF ARTICLES

It is March already, first month of autumn and only 5 weeks till daylight savings ends.
Daylight savings gives us a perception that the days are still long, with a good amount of time in the early evening to do a few jobs outside as well as water the gardens.
We run by the clock on the wall or our wrist, while plants run to the universal clock of the sun.
They (the plants) have been watching the days shorten and they know that winter is looming. Strawberries are right on the button with the seasonal change and have for a few weeks now, been producing runners which create new strawberry plants.
Strawberries have the ability to reproduce in three ways, seeds on their outer skins, runners in autumn and by clumping.
A few newer gardeners have asked me recently what to do with the runners on their strawberry plants.
It all depends on whether you would like some new young plants for your own use or to give to a friend. If this is the case then all you need to do is ensure that the runners move over the soil so the young plants formed at the nodules can root into the soil.
You leave them attached to the parent plant till about May and then you can cut the runner and lift the new plants for re-planting.
If you do not want any new plants for yourself or friends then the best thing to do is cut off the runners as they appear and keep all the energy in the parent plant.
Either way, to promote healthy plants, new or old, a 2 weekly spray of Mycorrcin should be applied to both.
Mycorrcin is magic on strawberries and with its use can increase your crop by 200 to 400% as well as assisting in keeping the plants healthy.
A healthy bed of strawberries can produce well for several years till the clumps get too big and production falls.
On some varieties of strawberries you will find a late crop of flowers and berries, on others they will be finished fruiting for the season.
March is also the last month to plant out vegetables you will require in the months of winter.
Any vegetable that takes 90 days or longer to mature should be planted as soon as possible.
Growing those vegetables from seed is now really pushing it so you are far better to purchase seedlings and plant them out.
When buying vegetable seedlings look for young plants in punnets or cell packs.
Larger plants have likely being stress and will then go to seed rather than mature later on.
Beware of club root problems if buying bundles of plants which are soil grown.
Planting seedlings next month or even later of plants that take about 90 days to mature will also likely go to seed.
Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower are good value to plant now. The only problem is the caterpillars from butterflies and moths that can quickly destroy a crop.
Place some Neem Granules in the planting hole and on the soil surface to assist in control.
Then place crop cover over the plants supported by hoops of alkathene pipes to give the plants ample growing room.
It is also a good time to plant silverbeet and winter lettuce. (Yes there are varieties of lettuce for summer and winter.) For instance Great Lakes is a summer lettuce where Cisco and Cool Season Winguard are for the winter time.
If you are fortunate to own a glasshouse now is the time to start off seedlings of frost tender but cold hardy plants for growing through winter.
In very cold areas the glasshouse can be invaluable for growing lettuce and other hardy plants that would not do well outside.
I found last winter in my glasshouse that the mini cucumbers called Iznik Mini F1 Hybrid survived and produced slowly through winter so I have just ordered some more seeds from Egmont seeds to start off some fresh plants for winter in the glasshouse.
I also have already, from self sown seedlings, a few Russian Red tomato plants which will hopefully do well in winter.
Many tomato types will grow in winter when in a glasshouse but will not fruit unless they produce flowers and pollen in the colder temperatures.
In recent articles I have spoken about how chemical companies like to fool us into believing that their toxic sprays are safe by stating ‘Sound Science’ as proof of their claims.
In this regard I came across the following which makes a good quote for the week;

'Sound science' is only a term, an ideological term, used to support a particular point of view, policy statement or a technology. 'Sound science' is little more than the opinions of so-called "experts" representing corporate interests.
Simply put, 'sound science' always supports the position of industry over people, corporate profit over food safety, the environment and public health.
TO THE LIST OF ARTICLES

I am writing this article in the last days of February; for general publication on the 1st March 2014.
That means we are now just about at the calendar start of Autumn; in real terms we have had autumn-like weather for a few months now with only a few summer days, most of which are very recent.
Maybe we are getting a late summer which would be nice rather than miss out altogether.
The advantage for gardeners in regions where the weather has been poor is low numbers of insect pests on outdoor plants. In sheltered areas and in glasshouses the conditions have been more favourable to insect pest populations growing and needing frequent spraying.
On the other hand the weather conditions have been stressful to many garden plants such as roses where we see the results in blackspot and rust. Even mildews have happened which is not normal for the months of summer.
A few years back a disease started attacking the box hedging and topiary of the very common Buxus sempervirens and several other species.
For those gardeners with specimens of the buxus you will likely be very familiar with the symptoms.
Box blight is the name of the disease effecting the leaves and stems caused by two fungi, Cylindrocladium buxicola and Volutella buxi. The two are often found together.
This is a disease specific to Buxus.

Both fungi cause leaves to go brown and fall, leading to bare patches; C. buxicola, the more damaging of the two also infects young stems causing black streaks and die back.
In wet conditions the spore masses of the fungi may be seen on the under sides of infected leaves, white for C. buxicola and pink for V. buxi.
I have written on the subject previously and recommended to ways to control.
The continual trimming of the foliage causes a dense plant which hampers air circulation and this means moisture hangs around making a perfect breeding ground for the diseases.
Rather than continual trimming of the foliage the removal of some branches to open the plant up to better air circulation is an obvious remedy.
Then to further prevent the spore of the diseases settling on leaves a 3 monthly spray of Vaporgard is used for complete coverage..
This puts a film over the leaves making it difficult for the spore to establish.
Gardeners that have used both these two methods have been successful from the feedback I have heard.
Now a gardener this week sent me an email which read:

Happy New year to start with.
My message relates to a problem buxus hedge plants which over a number of years decided to turn sickly, example;
The leaves turned a coppery colour . To try and find a cure I approached and spoke to some staff at Mitre 10 Petone. Their answer was that they had other people also asking about this problem and they had made contact with the growers who also were stumped on a solution. Now the moral of my story is that nothing ventured nothing gained so on went Perkfection Supa.
This took several months before I noticed fresh growth appearing , but rather sparsely .This was back in 2012. This year these plants have almost resumed original coverage. This may be useless info for what it is worth but some one may find it helpful. This has been on my mind for some time so I thought I would pass it on. Regards John.

The information is far from useless and will likely assist a lot of gardeners to retain the beauty of a neatly trimmed Buxus hedge
Perkfection Supa is ‘Synthetic Organic Phosphates’ so what you are doing, is placing this valuable material, onto the foliage of your plants, where it is very readily absorbed and transferred through the whole of the plant.
This fortifies the plant’s cells, increases the plant’s immune system and makes your plants less susceptible to invading pathogens.
Excellent stuff for helping to safely control many diseases on your preferred plants. Perkfection Siupa will also control silverleaf disease if used before the disease has progressed to the point of no return.
If you have a Buxus with the disease spray Perkfection Supa at 7 ml per litre of non chlorinated water.
A month later spray at 4ml per litre and repeat monthly.
If you want to use as a preventive the 4 ml rate should be fine. Repeat monthly.
Autumn and spring are the more critical times but during adverse weather conditions summer and winter you may also use or at the first sign of any problems.
You can also increase the health of the plants by sprinkling Ocean Solids at the prescribed rates once a year, Rok Solid twice a year, spring and autumn.
Placing Magic Botanic Liquid and Mycorrcin in the Perkfection spray will also greatly enhance the health of the plants and the soil.
The above can be used to benefit on food and ornamental plants as many gardeners have found out.
TO THE LIST OF ARTICLES

When we wander around garden centres we eventually arrive at the place where many controls and cures can be found in bottles or containers. These will be various herbicides (weed killers) insecticides and fungicides, some will be natural in so much as they are found in nature such as pyrethrum (extracted from the a daisy flower). Others will be chemicals made by scientists to control gardening problems. How dangerous are these substances? According to the manufactures, ‘they are safe as churches’ and they will go to great lengths to produce scientific evidence to back up these claims.
However there is a growing concern amongst gardeners (and others) that maybe many chemicals are not as safe as the manufactures would like us to believe.
Twenty years ago when I owed a garden centre and gardeners would come in and ask me about a problem they were having in their garden. I would listen and then lead them over to where all the various bottles of solutions were on the shelves and ask them a simple question; “Do you want a safe to use product or do you not care”? Definitely a loaded question and only about 1 out of 10 would reply, “I don't care just want to fix the problem”
I can only conclude that back then over 20 years ago that gardeners were concerned about their health and the environment. How much more so today as cancer and other health issues have increased greatly over the last 20 years.
To find the answer to this question we would need to go into the future and look back to see which chemicals were proved to be dangerous and eventually banned.
We cant do that and all we can do is listen to the two opposing sources of information about some of the chemicals you maybe using in your garden today.
On one hand we have the manufacture, their scientists and universities funded by chemical manufactures saying, ‘no problem they are safe’.
Then on the other side of the coin we have a collection of scientists, health practitioners and universities (not funded by the industry) saying ‘harmful and dangerous’.
We can say the manufactures have a good reason for their claims, they make money.
Then what of the scientists with the opposing views?
Is it because they care about truth or are they annoyed that they are not funded?
To find the pattern lets go back in time and look at a chemical banned in most of the world that was an excellent control of insect pests namely DDT.
DDT was first synthesized in 1874 by Othmar Zeidler.
It came into use during the first world war in controlling lice, bed bugs and other nasty bugs including mosquitoes.
After 1945 the chemical was being used in agriculture through out the world.
In New Zealand DDT was used extensively for agricultural use in the 1950s and 1960s to control grass grub and porina moth.
It was also used on lawns and for market gardens.
Some 500 tons applied annually by 1959.
By the 1970s its use was restricted and it was finally banned in 1989.
Historically; some Canterbury and Southland farms have elevated levels of DDT and a programme run by the Ministry of Agriculture ensures that exported meat and dairy produce have low levels of these residues.
(DDT has a half soil life of up to 22 years) During dry periods animals ingest soil since grass is shorter and sparser and the DDT residue on the soil is retained by the animal.
In the 1980s 40% of the lambs in Canterbury, a region with low rainfall and occasional droughts, had DDT levels that were above the European unions permitted limit but still acceptable under safe tolerance limits for New Zealanders to eat..
How silly is that?
Mind you we were one of the last counties in the world to ban DDT in 1989.
In DDT’s hay day we find the following promotion;

Commercial product (Powder box, 50 g) containing 10% DDT; called Néocide. ;
"Destroys parasites such as fleas, lice, ants, bedbugs, cockroaches, flies, etc..
Néocide Sprinkle caches of vermin and the places where there are insects and their places of passage.
Leave the powder in place as long as possible."
"Destroy the parasites of man and his dwelling".
"Death is not instantaneous, it follows inevitably sooner or later."
"French manufacturing"; "harmless to humans and warm-blooded animals" "sure and lasting effect. Odorless."
It was found that it was not harmless and it moves up the food chain affecting all and sundry on the way to your table.
Now this is interesting and it is the same game that is being played out today;
In 1967 a group of scientists and lawyers in USA, founded the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) with the specific goal of winning a ban on DDT.
EDF had witnessed bird kills or declines in bird populations and suspected that DDT was the cause. In their campaign against the chemical, EDF petitioned the government for a ban and filed a series of lawsuits.
In response to an EDF suit, the U.S. District Court of Appeals in 1971 ordered the EPA (Environment Protection Authority)to begin the de-registration procedure for DDT.
The EPA rejected an immediate suspension of DDT’s registration citing studies from EPA’s internal staff stating that DDT was not an imminent danger to human health and wildlife.
However, the findings of these staff members were criticized, as they were performed mostly by economic entomologists inherited from the United States Department of Agriculture, who many environmentalists felt were biased towards agribusiness and tended to minimise concerns about human health and wildlife.
The decision not to ban thus created public controversy.
In the summer of 1972, a cancellation of most uses of DDT an exemption allowed for public health uses under some conditions.
Immediately after the cancellation was announced, both EDF and the DDT manufacturers filed suit against the EPA, with the industry seeking to overturn the ban, and EDF seeking a comprehensive ban.
The cases were consolidated, and in 1973 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the EPA had acted properly in banning DDT.
(Information from Wikipedia used)
One thing is sure; Chemical manufactures do not like to have their products banned no matter how dangerous they are to us.
I received 3 emails this week which are on the subject:
A study published in the journal of BioMed Research International, found that Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, whose key active ingredient is glyphosate, is by far the most toxic of herbicides and insecticides tested.

AND The French parliament has adopted a law which prohibits the private or public use of pesticides from 2020 in green areas, forests or public space.
The law which is to start from 1 January 2020 for private individuals and the public excludes the use of pesticides on railways, airport runways or motorways.
From 1 January 2022, it will be prohibited to place pesticides for non-professional use on the market, to be sold, used or in the possession of someone..
Anyone using or found with banned pesticide products could be imprisoned for up to six months with a 30,000 EUR fine.
These prohibitions do not apply to the necessary measures such as the destruction and prevention of the spread of pests.
All groups in the French parliament voted for the proposal except for the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) who asked that ‘weekend gardeners’ have more time to learn about no longer using pesticides.
Maybe sanity still exists; Vive La France!
TO THE LIST OF ARTICLES

If there is one gardening tool that I have a Hate/Love relationship with it is the Weed Eater.
Over the years I have owned a number of brands of weed eaters both electric and petrol and included in this mix was a couple of bush cutters.
The history of weed eaters is:

Weed Eater was a string trimmer company founded in 1971 in Houston, Texas by George C. Ballas, Sr., the inventor of the device. The idea for the Weed Eater trimmer came to him from the spinning nylon bristles of an automatic car wash. (from Wikipedia) The interesting aspects of this is that the Name Weed Eater is a registered company by that name and we have been plagued or helped? with these devices for over 40 years.
In principal they are a great idea; you have this motorised spinning contraption that spins nylon cord at high speed capable of slicing through weeds near ground level.
When working as they are supposed to do, they will tidy up your section in a relatively short time, far quicker than on hands and knees, removing weeds.
Far better for the environment than using chemical herbicides which end up in our food chain.
A weed eater is like having a perfectly trained goat to chew out weeds and leave your plants alone.
I have never found a goat that would only eat weeds when given the opportunity to choose between weeds and cabbages.
I did however have a goat when I lived in Te Kuiti, that loved to eat the hedge in the front of the house.
Tethered on the lawn he made a great job of trimming the lower part of the hedge that he could reach.
The hedge was about 5 foot tall and bordered on a well used footpath.
To help the goat out and also to trim more of the hedge I made a ramp for the goat to climb to the higher level and a plank to walk along as he continued to do his good work.
He would be up on the plank trimming away when a person would walk by , startling the goat who would stick his head up to see who it was.
The pedestrian would suddenly be eye to eye with what appeared to be a 6 foot tall goat!
I cant remember when I purchased my first weed eater but I have memories of motors that would not start after pulling the cord untold times and if they did start to kick over by the time you started to open the throttle they would die.
Floated engines, dirty spark plugs and after so many pulls on the cord it would finally break.
When you were lucky and you got the motor going then a bigger problem would follow; the cutting cord.
Who ever invented those cord feeds should have been drowned at birth (as my Mother used to say about me at times)
I have had the types which you are supposed to hit the centre part of the cord feeder on the ground to feed out some cord and the types that is supposed to automatic feed.
Ever try to load a twin cord dispenser by yourself and actually get it working correctly?
Both systems work some of the time and to cause absolute frustration, never all of the time.
The Electric ones I have owned solve the problem of starting the motor with a pull cord, just connect to the power and turn on. Magic and nice and quiet also, but no better in the cord feed department and with dragging a 230V extension cord around can be likened to living dangerously unless an isolating device is used.
I have also owned bush cutter ones which are like the smaller weed eater but with a much longer reach and a steel cutting disc instead of nylon cord.
Heavier to use as a much bigger motor and heavier steel in the manufacture made for cutting down scrub and small bushes where using a chain saw is not practical. (Real man stuff)
Steel disc cutting blade means hours of cutting before it needs the edges sharpened.
My original one was great, excellent brand, worked a treat but really was overkill and later sold it due to a change in where I lived.
The last time I purchased a bush cutter it was a dual purpose one in so much as you could use a metal cutter or a cord cutter. It was not expensive and came from a Australian owned chain store.
After the second or third use it would not start so back to the store I purchased it from and was told to take it with the receipt to a local repair shop.
I knew the people that worked there very well and told them of my problem with my cutter.
The manager said follow me and took me out the back where there were numerous cutters, same brand and model as mine all in various states of repair. Some were already in for their second, third and forth repair under warranty.
I was told it could be fixed but only temporary unless I was lucky.
Instead I got a cant repair chit for a refund. I went back to the lawn mower place and asked what is a really good weed eater and was sold on a nice model of a Makita, not cheap but quality..
Starts on second or third pull of the cord every time and goes like the clappers.
The problem is it has a dual cord automatic feed which is difficult to load by yourself and does not work as well as it should unless loaded perfectly.
After frustrations of trying to get the automatic cord thing working I decided to buy some preloaded spools on our anniversary day recently. First stop Bunnings as they have everything but no, lots of cords to load yourself none preloaded spools for Makita.
The attendant said they used to have Makita but now other brands. So off to Mitre 10 Mega same problem only a specialised Lawn Mower shop would have what I wanted and they are sensibly closed on a Anniversary holiday.
The shop assistant asked me if I had seen a Pivotrim on TV informals? I had not so he showed me this great gadget that is a disc with 4 pivots that heavy duty cords are treaded through to give 8 cutting cords which are so simple to replace when worn out.
The disc called a Pivotrim Pro Premium (there is a cheaper version also) will fit most motorised weed eaters. I was sold and the next step was to fit it onto my Makita.
It took a bit of time to puzzle that one out but in the end after reading the instructions many times and studying the diagrams (why do they always make instructions that most people without a degree in engineering cant understand)
I used some common sense and got the disc on. It is magic the pivots move back when the cord hits a solid object so the cord does not get worn out quickly near concrete etc. I am fairly sure it is a lot safer to use around trees and shrubs without the danger of ring-barking, normal cord ones do.
You can even do edges on mowing strips very neatly and on slopes it cuts grass and weeds in half the time of the normal cord ones.
So after years of hating weed eaters I now look forward to getting out there and tidying up the place.

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Growing citrus trees for their fruit, glossy foliage and heavenly perfume is a New Zealand tradition.
In years gone by just about every garden had a lemon tree which was a handy source of lemon juice for colds and sore throats.
Many gardens would also sport an orange, grapefruit and likely a mandarin.
These were valuable specimens for vitamin C, eating and drinks.
Back in those times before manmade chemical sprays and fertilisers came along, the citrus trees would be of high health with little problem from disease and pests.
Oh how the world has changed and certainly not for the better when it comes to health of plants and people.
I had a email this week from a reader that I would like to share with you:

Hi Wally,
I've been meaning to relate my experience with your Neem granules back to you which may be of interest.
I inherited a small citrus patch when I bought my place in Auckland a few years ago.
There are about about 15 trees which were small then (but quite a lot bigger now) - and planted closer together than is ideal.
So a perfect scenario for a severe Whitefly outbreak which is what I had about last October.
Spraying with Neem Oil etc was problematic as it's very difficult to coat the back of every leaf.
Anyway, I used about 1/2 kg of Neem granules around the drip line of each tree.
I'd say it took about 6 weeks to fully activate but I have since not had a Whitefly problem at all - if a couple of small Whitefly patches appear even now, they're gone the next time I check.
No signs of borer or other sap suckers this year either.
Most satisfyingly, because I haven't sprayed, the trees are covered in Ladybugs which can keep on top of the massively reduced levels of pests.
Regards David.

I have often suggested the use of Neem Tree Granules to use around citrus trees as a mulch and to assist in getting rid of pests in or on the tree.
Citrus trees when not pruned correctly become dense and very difficult to spray so pests and diseases can have a field day.
Back in days when New Zealand was a happier place and people were a lot more healthy, we used to care for our citrus trees by feeding them with Blood & Bone, chicken or other animal manures, potash, Epsom salts, urine every so often and the tea pot leaves now and then.
About once or twice a year a spray of copper would be used to keep diseases from establishing.
We would always plant our citrus where they would be free draining as we knew they would die if they had wet feet.
We would never cut the end off a branch as we knew that would only cause the branch to sprout lots of new branches making the tree too dense.
Instead we would remove total branches right back to the trunk if the need arose.
Often the great citrus trees we would see in gardens were grown from pips by a caring gardener.
Years ago during my travels to the Hawkes Bay, as a sales Rep, I would marvel at some of the citrus trees that I came across often reaching heights of 30 feet or more.
Now days we tend to have a lot more problems with our citrus trees and I put a lot of that down to fertilisers such as Citrus Fertiliser and Fruit Tree Fertiliser.
Nasty concoctions that harm the soil life, give a quick feed and then nothing till the next application.
Feast or famine stuff.
Then there are the chemicals such as herbicides that are used around the trees to control weeds.
The manufactures say they don't harm established trees unless directly sprayed but thats rubbish they get into the soil and do effect the health of both soil and established plants.
Research has shown that Roundup has a soil residual of 22 years!
Then if chemical fungicides and insecticides such as Confidor are used you don't only effect the health of the tree but your own as well not to mention the bees honey bees and bumble bees that will die if they visit your tree. (This can still happen weeks later when the tree flowers)
Most citrus diseases can be easily controlled or prevented with sprays of Liquid Copper and Raingard.
If there is a problem spray a couple of times a month apart, or as a preventing, spray twice a year, spring and autumn.
Our gardening friend has the answer for insect pests on your citrus trees by using Neem Tree Granules which most garden centres stock otherwise can be obtained by mail order.
Sprinkling granules is much quicker and easier than spraying.
The new strain of whitefly that love citrus trees are a problem easily solved by this method along with scale and mealy bugs and the beauty of it is, no harm to lady birds or bees.
(Its the emerald green ladybird we see on citrus trees)
The black Sooty Mould that is formed by the insect pests peeing honey dew over the foliage can now be remove with the new product Karbyon.
Simply spray Karbyon onto the foliage, leave for 48 hours and hose off.
Heavy deposits may need more than one treatment.
Leaves with sooty mould on them cannot gather energy from the sun so the production from your tree will be reduced.
If your fruit lacks flavour or juice then you need to apply Fruit and flower Power every month.
(You should be doing this anyway during the tree’s time of flowering and fruiting)
Follow the old ways of care and feeding and you will be rewarded with lots of great healthy fruit for you and yours.
TO THE LIST OF ARTICLES

Fertilisers either man made or natural will usually bear the initials . Then a series of three numbers. This indicates the Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphate level and ratio to filler.
"N-P-K" ratio reflects the available nutrients by weight in that fertiliser. For example, if a 100 kilo bag of fertilizer has an N-P-K ratio of 5-7-4, it contains 5 kilo of nitrate, 7 kilo of phosphate (which contains phosphorous), 4 kilo of potash (which contains potassium) and 84 kilo of filler.
Nitrogen helps plants make the proteins they need to produce new tissues and hence grow.
Phosphorous stimulates root growth, helps the plant set buds and flowers, improves vitality and increases seed size.
Potassium improves overall vigor of the plant. It helps the plants make carbohydrates and provides disease resistance along with tolerance to growing conditions such as cold etc.
Phosphorous in the middle of the NPK has always been a bit more of a puzzle to me where I have always had a good perception of the other two and what they can do in my garden.
In early horticulture phosphorous was obtained from bird or bat droppings from various places around the world.
Reactive rock phosphate could be mined but in the garden it would sit slowly breaking down over countless years not making enough readily available to the plants that needed the mineral.
Then some smart person discovered that you could break down rock phosphate with acids to make it readily available. This is then called Super phosphate.
The problem is of course that the end product is acidic and does harm the soil life.
Used over a period of time the soil becomes inert and only able to grow plants by repeated applications of fertilisers. The plants are not healthy and attract all manner of diseases and pests which are Natures cleaners to get rid of sickly plants to make way for healthy ones.
To ensure that a crop is ok to sell, growers then use various chemicals to prevent the diseases and pests from destroying the crops. What you end up with is produce with low nutritional values laced with a concoction of chemicals. If you consume regularly a food chain lacking in goodness that your body needs, to be healthy and if that same food chain is supplying your body with a number of chemical poisons as well; you may start to develop various health complaints especially the ones we see today such as cancer, diabetes, Parkinsons, heart disease etc.
This is so fundamentally obvious and so simple that most people cant understand it. These people believe that the Government would not allow this to happen so the food chain that is common to most people is the best that money can buy. It was good about 60 odd years ago but not now as health figures show.
Phosphorous is an important element in your garden and outside of getting a sailing ship and visiting an island where birds have being dropping manure for untold time we are back to using reactive rock phosphate.
In New Zealand we have some very clever people and one of these found a way to break down rock phosphate by using microbes. The product is called BioPhos and is readily available to the home gardener from most good garden shops or by mail order.
Not only does this natural product supply your garden plants and lawns with their phosphorous requirements without damage to the soil life it has its own microbes that are used in breaking down the phosphate. These added microbes to your garden soils makes for far better soil. A win, win situation no damage and soil enhancement.
BioPhos works as well as Super, but actually better as it does not not have a ‘peak’ growth on application and gives a much longer sustained release of phosphorus to plants. Instead of killing soil life it actually supplies new micro organisms to the soil which carry on breaking the natural phosphorus down, meaning that only one application is needed per year unless you are cropping during the winter as well.
Some rose growers and rose societies recommend using BioPhos for better, healthier roses.
BioPhos contains phosphate, potassium, sulphur and calcium at the rates of P10:K8:S7:Ca28.
BioPhos is Bio Certified for organic growing.
It is pH neutral and used at the following rates; New beds work in 100 grams per square metre, the same with lawns but water in to settle.
Side dressing plants; seedlings 8 grams (a teaspoon full) around base of the plant or in the planting hole. Same for potatoes (which do well with phosphorus) Sowing beans peas etc sprinkle down row with seeds. Roses and similar sized plants 18 grams or a tablespoon full around plant or in planting hole.
Established fruit trees etc, spread at the rate of 100 grams per square metre around drip line or where feeder roots are. Apply to vegetable gardens in spring and a further application in autumn if growing winter crops. Can be applied to container plants also. Apply to tomatoes when planting or side dress existing plants.
When you obtain your BioPhos you will notice it consists of fine powder to granules with sawdust.
The lumps of granules actually contain 4,888,000 fungal colonies to aid the breakdown and enhance your garden soils.
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New Zealand has 11 known native ants yet there are many more that have found their way here to set up populations. We have an additional 29 ant imports most of which have arrived from Australia.
The World Conservation Union lists the Argentine ant as one of the world's worst invasive species.
The Argentine ant originally established in Auckland in 1990, and is now a problem in an increasing number of towns and cities throughout New Zealand. From one urban area to another, Argentine ants hitches rides in freight, potted plants, rubbish, vehicles and other such goods.
I have not come across this ant myself and from what I have heard from some gardeners I am very lucky.
Each of you reading this will know whether you have an ant problem or whether you have some ants that go about their business outside without concerning yourself.
The first problem is ants invading your home, especially in the kitchen where they are seeking food.
I remember visiting my brother in Napier some years ago and being up early in the morning I made myself a cup of coffee.
The taste of the coffee was really horrible and I found that ants had got into the sugar container (even though it had a lid on) and left their pheromone trails through the sugar.
(Some species of ants secrete pheromones to mark their trails for other ants of the colony to follow to food sources, bit like a GPS.)
The taste of the pheromone is not pleasant and its a memory I can easily recall.
Over the years I have heard some incredible stories of home invasions by ants.
People opening their wardrobe and moving the hanging clothes to find thousands of ants falling out.
Light switches on the wall bursting into fire caused by electricity arcing across the dead bodies of ants.
Piles of dead ants in heaps several inches high on the ground from the ceiling where dead ants are tossed out of a nest in the eaves.
Benches in the kitchen black with thousands of ants.
Even outdoors there have being cases where some one walking across the lawn is suddenly in a hole up to their knees when a ant nest under ground has collapsed with the persons weight.
One ant problem gardeners often ask me about is ants climbing up into their plants such as citrus trees etc. If you see ants on plants then the reason is that there are sweet substances that attract them such as honeydew or nectar.
Honey dew is the more common one and this is caused by pest insects such as aphids, scale, mealy bugs or thrips sucking/rasping on the plants foliage and then peeing out honeydew which turns to black sooty mould. Ants collect this sweet substance and take it back to their nests.
To stop the ants in the tree you need to firstly get rid of the insect pests causing the problem.
A spray late in the day with Neem Tree Oil and Key Pyrethrum will knock back the pests. The spray should be for total coverage under and over the foliage followed up about a week later with another good spray of the same.
The black sooty mold is not nice and it does effect the health of the tree as those leaves do not get energy from the sun because of the mould.
There is a new product called Karbyon which comes in a 500 gram container.
You simply take 50 grams and dissolve in 5 litres of water then spray the mix to run off over the foliage with sooty mould on. You leave it for 48 hours then hose off.
This should wash off the mould unless its a very heavy layer and a further application maybe need to break down what is left.
You can do either kill the pest insects first and then attack the mould or do the mould first and insects second. Do not mix Neem Oil etc with Karbyon.
Karbyon is available from a number of on the ball garden centres or otherwise by mail order.
I have recommended over the years a number of solutions for ant problems and here they are again.
Ants coming into the kitchen simply set up one of those can things that hang on the wall and sprays every so many minutes a dose of pyrethrum.
Ants sense the natural product and stop visiting as long as the can is working. When the can runs out of pyrethrum then about a week or two later ants will start to appear.
If ants are in cupboards/pantries where the pyrethrum spray is not reaching then remove all the food and containers and spray the walls and shelves with X-it Ant.
The product lasts for months affecting any ant/cock roach etc that may come into contact with it.
If you wash the cupboard after about 2-3 months you will need to reapply.
Do not food on the bare shelves, its low toxicity but not good in your diet.
X-it Ant is not cheap at about $50 a container but still less cost than to have an exterminator come and use it.
Also you should treat the ants outside and the cheap way to do this is to use either Borax to make up a powder bait or to use Granny Mins ant Bait for a liquid one.
For Borax you measure an equal amount of Borax with icing sugar, mix the two together and place the bait outside where there is ant activity. If concerned about pets place the bait in a small glass jar and lay on its side, with a little sprinkling of bait from trail to jar. This is a good method to use anyway as rain will not wash your bait away.
Granny Mins Ant Bait comes a jar that contains Borax and Boric Acid in equal amounts. You follow the recipe to add water, sugar and honey to the contents to make up just under a litre of liquid bait which can be used in bait stations as above. If your ants prefer protein then add either of the above to sloppy cat food and place safely in a bait station. These products are available in many garden centres and some Mitre 10 stores or by mail order.
Outdoor areas of concrete, walls etc can be sprayed with X-it Ant and will effect ants and other pest insects that come in contact with it for a good period of time.
On soil areas or container plants where ants are use Biforce granules which is the same pyrethrin as X-it Ant.
These two are mainly available in stock and station agents or by Mail order. If you cant find just ask me.
Finally if there are ant nests in your lawn then sprinkle some Lawn Pest Control over the entrance and lightly water. This also is excellent for wasp nests. Available once again from a number of garden shops and by mail order.
see www.0800466464.co.nz

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It may sound a bit unusual but now is the time to get organised with your winter gardens.
With both vegetables and flowers its over the next couple of months you need to plant up seeds or seedlings so that you will have crops to harvest and displays of flowering plants, in the middle of winter.
If you plant late; say April through to June then there will be not much growth till the spring and then the vegetables will go to seed and be a waste of time. For flowers plants it is not a problem.
Planting vegetables such as brassicas at this time of the year can be a problem because of white butterflies and their caterpillars devouring your young plants.
The best solution I have found for this is the following;

If growing winter cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli from plants then check the plants you buy for the little yellow eggs of the white butterflies and rub them off the leaves so the plants are clean.
Also don't buy seedlings that are big as they are likely to have been stressed and may go to seed prematurely.
Instead look for nice young plants and if a bit too small to transplant don't worry they are good value for you to grow on till they are big enough to transplant.
I like to spray the seedlings a few days before transplanting with Vaporgard as this reduces the transplant shock and the plants stand up without laying down as you often see with transplanting seedlings. They get away to a quicker start.
Also remember to plunge the punnet into a bucket of water to throughly wet the mix before removing the seedlings. This reduces root damage.
When you make the planting hole, place some Neem Tree Granules into the base of the hole alone with some Rok Solid. Also sprinkle the same onto the soil around the seedlings.
The Neem Granules help to protect the plant from insect pests and the Rok Solid assists in root development and supplies about 80 odd minerals and elements for a healthier plant and more nutritional value for you.
Doing this only will help with caterpillar control but the next step will make sure you don't have the pests on the plants and in amongst the curds of cauliflowers and broccoli when you harvest.
The total protection is by using hoops of alkathene pipe and crop cover mesh.
You place lengths of the pipe into the soil making a hoop thats about 1 metre tall over the row of plants.
The pipes are spaced about 50 to 70 cm apart.
Then take your crop cover which is 4 metres wide and place it over the hoops and on the windward side cover it with soil to hold secure. On the ends and the other side place lengths of old 100 x 50 (4 x 2) wood to hold in place. This allows you to open up and weed as needed.
The rest of the time the plants are protected from insects, birds, cats and strong winds.
The cover gives at 15% shade factor which in a sunny situation is also good value.
It allows rain or overhead watering with a soft wand to wet the soil still.
Winter vegetables such as leeks should be planted as soon as and followed up with your brassicas over the next month or two. Remember to add natural products such as animal manures, blood & bone and Garden Lime. If you don't feed the soil you don't get the results.
Palmerston North has had unusual weather patterns since August.
August was a brilliant month after a mild no frost winter here; since then its been very piece meal.
Ample rain but chilly winds and not many hot summer like days.
What I have noticed as a result is very little damage by psyllids on tomato plants outside and I have not seen any white butterflies except the odd ones.
Last season I could not grow a tomato plant out in the open so this year I am using a Quarantine house and insect proof glasshouses to grow tomatoes and other crops.
Aphids and whitefly are in the glasshouses; weekly I need to spray for control, but no psyllids.
The weather here has been such, that populations of psyllids have not grown and thus outdoor tomatoes are doing well so far.
The glasshouses are a real asset and I highly recommend you keen gardeners to invest in one before winter so you can extend your growing season.
In some areas like here in Palmerston North it is the only way to grow some heat loving plants such as okra, luffa, cucumber, chilli and capsicums with a good degree of success even at this time of the year.
For instance outside in the open dwarf beans and normal type climbing beans are doing well but snake beans are struggling. Not enough heat.
If you are going to buy a glasshouse type unit then the best is definitely glass as opposed to plastic or other materials. Glass may break if you play cricket on the lawn but it will out last as many years as you can garden, otherwise.
Its easy to clean and maintain and unlike plastic film or similar materials it is not effected by UV so does not have to be replaced every few years.
By placing quarantine cloth over the vents and doorway you can make your glasshouse fairly insect proof. (You can take insects into the house on plant material or even in soil/compost mixes.)
If you need some information on glasshouse growing you can grab a copy of my book; Wallys Glasshouse Growing for New Zealand.
With the world’s weather patterns changing it could mean a glasshouse is the only way to have a reasonable control over the environment and be able to grow the plants you want.
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Welcome back to a new year of gardening columns and hopefully your Xmas and New Year was good and relaxing.
Relaxing in the garden is an excellent way to relieve day to day stress.
Pottering around, mowing the lawns, watering the plants are great activities to take your mind off problems, letting it flow with Nature.
While outside you can also get your body’s much needed dose of Vitamin D if you use Virgin Coconut Oil to protect your skin instead of sun screens.
Sun screens prevent the body gaining Vitamin D and lack of this vitamin leads to cancer as research has found. People with cancers have low levels of vitamin D and in worst cancer cases, nil.
You have to be sensible about it and apply the Virgin Coconut Oil before going out into the sun and not staying too long initially, building up to longer periods as your tan develops.
When returning indoors wash and apply more Virgin Coconut Oil. It repairs and protects your skin and reduces wrinkles and blemishes.
Its getting out into sunlight after winter that helps give us that come alive feeling in spring.
During the holidays one of the many phone calls I received was from a retired farmer who told me that if it was not for his gardens he would go mad. (I feel the same way)
He also told me of a neighbour with a young family that was struggling so he offered them one of his 5 gardens to grow some vegetables for themselves. They never took up the offer.
I have since wondered if it was because they have never gardened and did not want to look silly in front of him.(Obviously an expert gardener)
Digging over land and making a garden is a daunting task and what results are achieved maybe poor unless a lot of preparation goes into making a good vegetable garden.
The simple and easy way is to grow in containers using purchased compost as the growing medium.
Then raised gardens, using roofing iron are excellent for growing lots of vegetables.
You may think what is the point when you can buy produce fairly cheaply dependent on the time of the year. Unless that produce has being grown organically you are really buying a pot pori of chemicals all of which can accumulate in your body making way for cancer and many of the other health problems we see today.
The produce not only contains numerous chemicals and more often than not it lacks flavour as well.
Scientists tell us that this chemically grown produce has only about 20% of the goodness that your produce you can grow has.
No wonder there has been a major increase in health problems over the last 40 years and getting worse year by year.
If you want good health then get a few containers and start growing some really healthy vegetables.
Use only natural products such as animal manures (sheep Manure pellets) blood & bone, Bio Boost, garden Lime, gypsum and dolomite. For the minerals and elements your vegetables need; use Ocean Solids, Rok Solid and Magic Botanic Liquid.
Grow your own lettuces, silverbeet, radishes, spinach, dwarf beans and spring onions to start with as they are easy and require little effort to obtain good results.
Avoid chemical sprays including herbicides.
During the holidays I received an email from a reader which I would like to share with you.
The America Author, Jeffrey Smith apparently was in New Zealand at sometime and recorded a short video clip about glyphosate weed killer.
The email read:

Monsanto have been convicted for misrepresenting glyphosate as biodegradable In fact, it has been recorded still active more than 20 years after application....
Glyphosate does not biodegrade when applied in waterways....... it is toxic!
Please take time to watch this (just under six minutes) on glyphosate (Roundup and others) and what it does to our environment, all living beings and our country. End

The link is http://vimeo.com/82810923

I have written similar in the past to try make gardeners aware of the health issues this chemical causes.
Grow as much as you can naturally and your health and the health of your children will be far better for it.
I recently turned 68 (just a baby as one 86 year old lady said to me on the phone today) and by taking care of my health and well being I can say for a fact that I feel and are a lot healthier than I was 8 odd years ago. I get up in the morning and feel really good, no niggly aches or pains or health issues.
I put this down to being more careful about what I eat, preferring food from my container gardens.
Taking a few natural health giving foods such as Virgin Coconut oil, MSM and capsulated herbs that we capsule ourselves such as turmeric, cayenne pepper and ginger.
Did you know that cayenne pepper with ginger is great for your heart and circulation?
If you want to look after your heart health then do some research on Heart Food.
I have a friend that loves hot chilli peppers and has done so all his life. He grows the hottest ones possible and eats them like candy. Now he is 86 years of age (looks more like 50) and has never had any heart disease. Unfortunately I cant eat hot peppers but in capsules its not a problem as long as taken with other food.
Your health is your greatest asset and as Hippocrates said, Let Food be thy Medicine and let Medicine be thy Food. (Best out of your own home garden)
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