Firstly those reading this during Easter; I wish you all a happy Easter and travel safely.
If not traveling then enjoy your garden and get it ready for the winter ahead.
Now this is very important, winter brings rain and cold and many of our garden plants do not like ‘wet feet’ and can die needlessly during wet cold conditions.
Any mulches that you used around plants in the summer to retain moisture were great for that purpose but in wet cold weather they are deadly.
Rake off all mulches so the soil can breathe and excess water can evaporate which will safeguard your plants.
Weedmat can be a problem but it is a nuisance to lift and later replace and weedmat does allow a certain amount of evaporation to occur.
So you can leave it in place but remove the bark or stones that you used to hide the mat.
If the weedmat is in areas that have only well established trees growing or is used for weed suppression only then leave it and any bark/stones in place.
If you have any plants which you know they hate wet feet then spray them with Wallys Perfection at the 7 mil rate per litre of water and each month spray at 4 mil rate through winter.
Perkfection is great to help prevent wet weather diseases and prevent roots from rotting.
Frosts are another harm on more tender plants and depending where in NZ you are depends, how much protection you need to give.
The first line of defense is to use ‘Spray on Frost Protection, Vaporgard’
Very simple to use mixing 15 mls per litre of warm water and then sprayed over plants for a good coverage.
In cold weather place your bottle of VaporGard into a jug of hot water for about 5 minutes to assist in making the fluid easier to pour.
VaporGard is natural and it provides a long lasting (2-3 months) 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.
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 you have 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 a heap of protection.
VaporGard has as mentioned a multitude of uses, it can be used to advantage on transplanting seedlings and established plants as it reduces moisture loss though the foliage and thus reduces transplant stress or shock.
This factor can be used to great advantage in summer on your container plants when they start to suffer through drying out.
Just spray the plants and they will require far less watering.
Now is the time to spray Vaporgard before you have the first or in some cases another frost.
The best time to spray is on a sunny day over the foliage of the plants you want to protect; the reason being is so the film will dry in sunlight and not stay tacky for a few days.
Another interesting aspect is, VaporGard develops a polymerised skin over each spray-droplet which filters out UVA and UVB.
This provides a sunscreen for chlorophyll which is normally under attack by UV radiation.
This results in a darker green colour of the foliage within a few days of application.
The chlorophyll build-up makes the leaf a more efficient food factory producing more carbohydrates and especially glycols giving stress protection from moisture loss and extra fuel for better growth and faster maturity.
The film also offers some protection against some fungus diseases.
Sprayed on fruit trees it will give your fruit better colour, reduce splitting problems, increases sugar content and earlier maturity.
The picked fruit will store for longer also. This aspect also applies to vegetables, potatoes and pumpkins, sprayed before or after harvest they will keep longer.
Vaporgard works a treat for the occasional frost but if you have two or more frosts’ night after night you need to use frost cloth or other protection for the second or third frost in a row as the plants do not have enough time to recover before they are hit again and then damage will be seen.
If it is a frost every few days then Vaporgard should be about all you need.
It also means you do not get caught out, so that on a cloudy night or windy night when there is not much likelihood of a frost, you go to bed but during the night the sky clears or the wind drops and then a frost can settle in.
Even plants in a glasshouse such as tomatoes you are growing through winter can benefit from a spray of Vaporgard.
Container plants in glasshouses or indoor pot plants you must be careful now to not over water them.
They need a drink to just moisten up the growing medium but far less than needed during summer.
Too much and also water sitting in the saucer underneath can be deadly to plants when it is cold.
New soft plant growths happen during summer with the good growing conditions and applications of nitrogen.
This soft sappy growth is prone to cold, frost and wind damage during winter.
Also cold weather tends to lock out magnesium if there is inadequate amount in the soil which causes the winter yellow on some plants like citrus trees.
Yellow leaves are not producing energy from the sunlight as do green leaves so we need to take care of these two aspects by applying Wallys Fruit and Flower Power to our preferred garden plants.
The potash in Fruit and Flower Power will firm up sappy growth and make our plants more tolerant to cold wet conditions.
The magnesium in Fruit and Flower Power will help keep the foliage green.
A small application once a month will certainly help your plants through winter.
Ok that just about it for this week and I am off to stack the wood I purchased for winter fires.
Before I go a reader sent me a link that shows the hundreds of satellites up above beaming radiation down on us. Its interactive so click on, rotate, zoom in etc.
No wonder many insects are disappearing.
Image credit: Ioana Kortis
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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
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