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Wally Richards
Wally Richardshttp://www.gardenews.co.nz
Wally Richards has been a gardening columnist for over 30 years. Check his websites - for gardening news and tips visit www.gardenews.co.nz. For mail order products visit www.0800466464.co.nz. Wally also has a gardening problem help line on 0800 466 464.

Gardening with Wally Richards: Questions

Gardening questions

Many of my weekly readers will know that I do gardening programs on Reality Check Radio with Rodney Hide and from what I understand many readers visit the web site and register to see me live or look at the recorded sessions.

The latest one you can listen to is here.

The programme invites people to ask me gardening questions and problems that they may have and for this week’s article I thought I would share with you some of these questions and provide my reply to them… So here we go….

Q. What is the value of crushed egg shells or baking soda for the soil?

A. Makes the soil sweeter which is then more alkaline thats is ideal for most vegetable plants.

Q. How do I get microbes back into the soil?

A. using products that already have beneficial microbes in them such as BioPhos, Terracin and Wallys Fish Fertiliser. After which do not use chlorinated water or harmful chemicals including man made fertilisers and sprays like of Roundup.

Q. How can I garden without worms?

A. Though worms and healthy soil life will aid plants to grow better and healthier; plants will still grow ok without worms. If you stop using harmful chemicals and chlorinated water then worms will naturally return over time.

Q. Is it too late to grow Snow Peas in Auckland?

A. No as long are the pea seeds germinate (spray with Magic Botanic Liquid) they will grow ok and they are frost hardy.

Q. Can I grow Ginger in NZ? If so when and how?

A. yes no problem sunny sheltered spot, best started in spring when soil warms up and just plant a bit of ginger root that shows a green sprout. Can be grown as a container plant also.

Q. What do bumble bees do for the garden?

A. Pollination of flowers is what they do as they forage for nectar. They appear to be less affected by cell tower, cell phone, wifi and blue tooth radiation than many other insects.

Q. Should I cut the leaves off tomato plants to help make the fruit grow faster?

A. No the leaves collect energy from the sun which makes the fruit grow. However it is good practice to progressively remove lower leaves as the plants grow taller to reduce insect pests and open the plant up to more light to ripen fruit. You can also spray plants regularly with liquid molasses which will help fruit growth.

Q. How do I store potatoes once they are out of the ground?

A. It is the change of temperature that causes them to shoot. If kept in a cool situation they take longer to shoot. If you leave them in the ground that will slow down shooting.

Q. When is the best time to plant Celery?

A. Best in spring when soil warms up. They are a hungry plant and love water, so feed and water well..Harvest outside stalks rather than whole plant and they will keep producing till they go to seed.

Q. How do I deal with snails on my cabbages?

A. two ways I know of.. Soak onion peelings in water and add a little salt and spray over foliage. Otherwise spray cabbages with Wallys Liquid copper, snails and slugs cant stand copper.

Q. How can I stop possums eating my apples and pears?

A. Try spraying the fruit with Wallys Super Neem Tree Oil, it tastes horrible and they relate then to the smell/taste. After they have had a taste, scatter Wally Neem Tree Granules around or hang little gauge bags of them in tree to create smell with out having to spray all the time. Also lanolin from sheep’s wool apparently they don’t like also.

Q. What is the best way to use molasses in the garden?

A. Dissolve a tablespoon in hot water and spray over the foliage of plants you want to grow bigger and faster, repeat as often as you like. You can also add Magic Botanic Liquid to the spray for even better results.

Q. Can I use apple cider as a spray for plants?

A. Yes 250 mils apple cider to 5 litres of non chlorinated water.

Q. Why was this years fruit tree harvest so poor?

A. That may depend where you are but generally speaking the reasons are: insufficient strength of direct sunlight caused by pollution in atmosphere due to weather control and also now reduced levels of CO2 which plants need lots of to do well.

Q. Why are my passion fruit dropping off before ripening?

A. The plant is in stress likely due to the insect pest called, passion vine hoppers. Spray a combination of Wallys super Pyrethrum and Super Neem Tree Oil just before sunset under and over foliage. Repeat a few days later until problem stops.

Q. Why does my cauliflower turn yellow and mushy?

A. Yellow and mushy cauliflower can indicate a few issues, including nutrient deficiencies, diseases, over watering, or over-maturity. If the leaves are yellowing, it could be a sign of magnesium deficiency, while mushiness can be due to bacterial rot or over watering.

Q. Why do my apricot trees not produce fruit, even though they are big and healthy?

A. Likely the wrong variety for your climate. Most varieties do best in Canterbury where a cold hard winter followed by nice warm spring and summer. There are other apricot types that will do ok in other climates.

Q. My Lime fruit is smaller and has rough skin? Could it be due to aerial spraying?

A. Aluminum from aerial spraying is having an departmental affect on soil and plants, but in your case most likely lack of potash. Use Wallys Fruit and Flower power once a month and that should help a lot.

Q. How do I get rid of black mould on citrus trees?

A. Spray the foliage that has the sooty mould on, with Karbyon and two days later wash off with a jet of water. The black mould is caused by insects feeding on the tree so sprinkle Wallys Neem Tree Granules under the tree which will fix them.

Q. Does Wally think geo-engineering is affecting summer weather and sky conditions.

A. It is fairly obvious that the knowledge to control weather has been known since second world war (documented) It was used in the Vietnam war by America.

My concerns are that in Nature weather events are natural and that they have a ripple effect to affect; to some degree, the weather patterns elsewhere.

If weather is manipulated by unnatural means there will be adverse consequences else where. Droughts and flooding you may note are more often than not affecting major food growing areas. Polluting the atmosphere intentionally to reduce sunlight as the UK Govt recently announced it was going to do on the pretense of reducing Global Warming!

This will have the opposite effect by trapping heat and adversely reducing plant/food crop growth though reduced sunlight..

Same applies in winter if its a cloudy night sky then no frost as heat from day is trapped.

Some of man kind ‘has got too big for their boots’ as my mum used to say.

Image credit: Leigh Skomal

Products mentioned are from Wallys Range of products and can be found in some garden shops or by Mail Order on www.0800466464.co.nz

Problems ring me at: Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

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