Hello readers, some of you may have tuned in this week to the webinar on RCR with me and Rodney Hide discussing gardening matters.
There was over 900 people that registered to watch us chat away about all bits with the theme on planting crops for winter.
As always the session is recorded and if you want to you can listen or watch it here.
During the session listeners were able to send in gardening questions which due to lack of time very few were answered on air.
I was supplied a print out of all the questions which are three A4 pages so there is a lot of people gardening that have various problems.
I will endeavor here to answer some of them.
Q. Any hints on growing tomatoes in winter on a porch?
A. Yes if you get started now and in a good size container you can grow some varieties such as Russian Red, Patio Hybrid and Tumbling Tom Red.
The seeds of these are available from Egmont seeds and ideally you germinate a few on a heat pad this time of the year. Transplant in to 20cm pots or larger, a bucket size is good.
Use a friable compost and Wallys Secret Tomato Food with Neem Granules and some of our Real Blood & Bone in the growing medium.
The secret in the cold weather is to keep the plants a little on the dry side only giving small drinks of warm water as needed.
Over water them and you will freeze the plants in the cold times and they will die.
Have in a protected position getting as much sunlight as possible and increase the sun factor by spraying the plant every few days with Liquid Sunshine.
(Tablespoon of molasses into a litre of hot water to dissolve and add 10 mils of Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL)
On a sunny day when in flower tap plant to make it vibrate to set the fruit.
Ensure that the plant has adequate moisture without over watering.
Give the plant a drink in the morning and by the time night comes it should be fairly dry and not affected then by the cold.
Your sprays of Liquid Sunshine will also help with the plant having sufficient moisture.
Q. What is MBL? Answer…A full description can be found on my garden Web site which is one of the very oldest NZ web sites see here.
Basically it is Humate and Fulvic acid from NZ fossilised coal which is as good as if not better than the best known in the world.
It does real wonders in the garden changing a so-so garden into a show garden from regular sprays.
Add the molasses to it and be amazed as many gardeners have reported to me.
Q. Is baking soda a fungicide? Answer yes it has fungicide potentials for control as it is alkaline.
Disease spores land on the plants foliage and to break the tough skin of the leaf they shoot out a little acid, if baking soda is present it neutralises the acid and the disease cant establish.
Very good this time of the year to prevent powdery mildews and if used with Raingard it will protect for up to 14 days.
Also about a table spoon of Baking soda into a litre of water sprayed on foliage of Oxalis will shrivel the foliage.
It wont kill the bulbs in the soil but you can use it with Raingard to keep your gardens clear of oxalis foliage by spraying the leaves as soon as they appear.
Even better still; use Calcium Hydroxide as it is more alkaline and has also a burning action as well. If you have hens you can use Calcium Hydroxide for preserving eggs.
I havent tried it buy if you dump about a couple of tablespoons of Calcium Hydroxide over the oxalis plants where it will wash down into the soil; there is a fair chance as oxalis it is an acid loving plant you may destroy the bulbs in the soil.
While it is active in the soil the bulbs will have problems sending up foliage. Let me know if successful. Same can be used to kill twitch. Calcium Hydroxide, food grade is not so easy to find these days but we have it here.
This also answers another Q how to get rid of Oxalis?
Another way is using Ammonium Sulphamate where you dissolve 200 grams of ammonium sulphamate into 1 litre of water and pour over the foliage and down into the soil about 250mils of the mix.
This not only will clear the foliage but will help compost the bulbs in the soil.
Treat similarly with either method when ever foliage appears.
As long as you do not disturb the soil you should be fairly free of the pest weed in area treated.
Spread compost over the soil to plant in so no soil disturbance.
Q. Can you apply blood & bone on top of the soil? Answer: yes but not very effective as likely to bake in sun when moist, Real Blood & Bone should be place in planting hole of seedlings or mixed into soil or growing medium.
See here.
Q. How do you get rid of ants in the garden? Answer make up a bait solution using Granny mins Ant Bait and place some inside small jars laying on their side on the soil by any trails or activity.
The value of Granny mins Any Bait is that it is a very old recipe that ants never become bait shy from my experience. Also it is not expensive at only $9.00 a jar which makes up about a litre of full strength bait.
See here.
Also if you make up Wallys Super Pyrethrum at one mil to two litres of water in a trigger sprayer and spray the ants directly on plants or where ever you see them you will certainly upset their population levels.
Q. What is the best natural way to kill a tree stump? The stump on many types of trees will be inactive unless the stump has the ability to produce suckers (Small sprouts from trunk and even more likely from root system.)
This is most important if you dont want a problem for the rest of your life…
The first thing to do if you wish to remove a tree is to ring bark it and allow it to die in which Ring barking removes a complete band of bark and cambium all the way around the trunk or a major stem.
This severs the phloem, which is the tissue that moves sugars (photosynthate) from the leaves down to the roots, while the xylem (water up from roots) often remains functional for a time.
The canopy can initially keep growing because water still moves up, but the roots are now starved of new sugars and some hormones.
Because the roots no longer receive sugars, they gradually deplete stored reserves and start dying back over months to years, depending on species, tree size, health, and site conditions.
As root function declines, water uptake drops, the crown begins to thin and die back, and eventually the whole tree (including the root system) dies.
If you just cut down the tree and with some types like poplars, the roots are still alive and they will send up little trees which will obtain sugars from the sun and replenish the roots
and unless you remove all the trees/suckers as they appear you will spent the rest of you life doing so or have a forest growing in the area the trees roots extend to.
Once the tree has died after ring barking then you can cut it down and treat the stump with Wallys Stump Rotter to speed up the break down of the dead wood.
More Q. and Answers another time….
Image credit: Olivie Strauss
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