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Post by spinifex on Feb 26, 2019 19:08:36 GMT 10
3m row of snow peas now up and running. Seedlings about 6cm high. A row of Blue Bantam peas also going well and about the same size. Globe radishes and daikon sown in same bead as the Bantam peas are powering along. Daikon in a planter box doing really well - they had a severe wilt last saturday so I think they will bolt to seed early. 1 of the 3 rows of summer spinach I planted in a big plastic tub has been bowled over by Damping Off. Long as it doesn't spread to the other two rows it'll be ok. Need to get some more rows of Blue Bantam sown but currently don't have enough bird net to protect them from birds.
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Post by SA Hunter on Feb 26, 2019 21:45:57 GMT 10
My peanuts are raging, as well as a tub of coriander I planted a few weeks ago.
Ginger and Tumeric are doing well - I nearly gave up on the tumeric, but now have 4 healthy shoots in the pot.
Have prepared my bed for broad beans and peas - they'll go in later this week when I get a chance.
My first mango seed has sent up a healthy shoot, so pretty happy. The others ( 3 ) haven't done much yet.
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Post by spinifex on Mar 8, 2019 18:01:01 GMT 10
Harvested my first bunch of globe radishes from my triple-sown bed today. 4 weeks after seeding. Autumn is great for gardening.
pH tested and limed a few beds for the next round of pea crops due to be sown in 2 weeks time.
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bce1
Ausprep Staff 
Posts: 819 
Likes: 1,581
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Post by bce1 on Mar 11, 2019 8:52:31 GMT 10
Im a little sick of Apples and tomatoes - weekend of canning
Tomato sauce, Piston soup and whole tomatoes.
Dried apples, apple sauce, apple pieces
Plus did several litres of pure lemon juice.
I think we have enough tomatoes and apples to survive a year !!! Although would be insane at the end of the it !!
Had to buy another 2 dozen canning jars - that hurt. Usually get second hand.
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Post by spinifex on Mar 11, 2019 12:03:39 GMT 10
Sometimes weeds are our gardening friends. Today I found a row of pea seedlings I forgot I had sown that was not under any bird net. The weeds took a lot of damage from the birds looking for fresh green pick ... the pea seedlings would have been destroyed without them. As it was they were just lightly pecked.
I like nice surprises in the vegetable plot.
Unlike the complete bust my summer spinach turned out to be. It all came up looking great and has steadily died off for reasons I can't clearly identify. I think the drift soil in the planter box (collected from a roadside) might be contaminated with pre-emergent herbicide. It's been so dry the chemical has not had a chance to break down.
I think the initial flood watering I gave the tub leached any herbicide down an inch or two from the surface and when the seedling roots got down that far they took it up and died.
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hd1340
Senior Member
Posts: 334
Likes: 426
Location: WA
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Post by hd1340 on Mar 21, 2019 18:20:18 GMT 10
spirulinagrowco.com.auJust stumbled across this may be worth a visit for the WA guys, wish I'd known about this shop when I was living up the road. Considering ordering a kit and putting the old fish tank to use.
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Post by spinifex on Mar 22, 2019 20:20:25 GMT 10
If that's what I think it is ... it grows in sheep water troughs really, really well.
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Tim Horton
Senior Member
Posts: 1,947
Likes: 1,996
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Post by Tim Horton on Mar 24, 2019 4:42:34 GMT 10
The snow just came off the chicken barn roof and one side dumped into the garden. Blocks about 2m x 1.5m x 1m thick... Hope it didn't break anything. Will take a while to melt to be able to see the carnage.
I ordered a whole bunch of seed, nursery catalogs last fall and early winter. Now getting bombarded with emails to buy seed and such on sale. Sweetie is working on a spread sheet of catalogs, items, prices, and such getting ready to do orders as they coordinate with discounts, free shipping and such. She is a real bull dog when it comes to squeezing a discount coupon for all it will stand.
I just keep the tractor full of fuel, and the hand tools sharp, waiting for directions of what needs done.
A friend in Alaska US has most of his bedding plants in his green houses, says he is working his butt off to haul fire wood and such to keep the houses warm. He runs a small local road side plant stand. He says as hobbies go it is a pain in the a$$ at times, but keeps him out of bigger trouble. What ever works....
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Post by milspec on Mar 24, 2019 4:57:19 GMT 10
The veggie garden is growing pretty well at the moment (aside from a cucumber plant that got ravaged by what looks like black aphids). My first attempt at raising seedlings in those little brown pellets that swell up when watered has been pretty much a failure. I'm wondering if its because they got too warm.
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Post by spinifex on Mar 24, 2019 9:45:26 GMT 10
The veggie garden is growing pretty well at the moment (aside from a cucumber plant that got ravaged by what looks like black aphids). My first attempt at raising seedlings in those little brown pellets that swell up when watered has been pretty much a failure. I'm wondering if its because they got too warm. Milspec what time of year are your last frosts there? If you aren't getting frosts into October you should have enough growing season to be able to direct seed for better results. I used to do commercial veg production and the reasons we used transplanted seedlings for some crops was to ensure an even crop establishment, start the growing season a couple of weeks earlier, shorten the 'in-ground' growing season and gain efficiency of harvest of a particular crop sowing (by having it mature all at same time for a 1 pass harvest by the work crew). Even then, we grew a lot of crops direct seeded. At home I generally avoid trying to raise/transplant seedlings and get better results by direct sowing under cloches made from square plastic juice bottles because I don't need to be concerned with any of the issues listed above. The exceptions are a couple of varieties that tend to have a poor germination rate or when I get behind in preparing my greenhouse soil for summer planting. |
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Post by milspec on Mar 24, 2019 12:44:04 GMT 10
The veggie garden is growing pretty well at the moment (aside from a cucumber plant that got ravaged by what looks like black aphids). My first attempt at raising seedlings in those little brown pellets that swell up when watered has been pretty much a failure. I'm wondering if its because they got too warm. Milspec what time of year are your last frosts there? If you aren't getting frosts into October you should have enough growing season to be able to direct seed for better results. I used to do commercial veg production and the reasons we used transplanted seedlings for some crops was to ensure an even crop establishment, start the growing season a couple of weeks earlier, shorten the 'in-ground' growing season and gain efficiency of harvest of a particular crop sowing (by having it mature all at same time for a 1 pass harvest by the work crew). Even then, we grew a lot of crops direct seeded. At home I generally avoid trying to raise/transplant seedlings and get better results by direct sowing under cloches made from square plastic juice bottles because I don't need to be concerned with any of the issues listed above. The exceptions are a couple of varieties that tend to have a poor germination rate or when I get behind in preparing my greenhouse soil for summer planting.
We haven't really been here long enough to see the full frost season, but thanks for the advice, I think I will try direct seeding this time. We will get a greenhouse too in the not too distant future.
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Post by milspec on Mar 29, 2019 9:10:45 GMT 10
Most of our veggies are growing great and we've already run out of room but these bugs are growing in numbers too. What are they and what is the best method to kill them off ?
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Post by spinifex on Mar 29, 2019 17:20:08 GMT 10
Most of our veggies are growing great and we've already run out of room but these bugs are growing in numbers too. What are they and what is the best method to kill them off ?
Is that a pumpkin leaf? The pests look like aphids but cant see the detail to say what type. Its an advanced infestation. Ladybugs, lacewings and hoverfly like eating them. Or you could get some aphicide from rural suppliers. Ordinary garden chemicals don't do a good job controlling them, Confidor is the best pick but it is systemic so check the withholding period so it doesn't end up in the pumpkins you may be harvesting in the near future. Cold winter conditions will naturally reduce aphid numbers too. They can be disrupted by using high pressure water spray and if you can add a bit of detergent into it that helps even more. If that is a pumpkin, it is late in the season, the vine will be shutting down now anyway and the aphids will be causing little economic damage to the plant now. I would just leave it. If you grow brocolli, cauli etc you'll need to watch them closely as aphids love them too, may spread from the existing infestation and can cause significant damage if not managed early. |
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Post by milspec on Mar 31, 2019 7:32:45 GMT 10
Most of our veggies are growing great and we've already run out of room but these bugs are growing in numbers too. What are they and what is the best method to kill them off ?
Is that a pumpkin leaf? The pests look like aphids but cant see the detail to say what type. Its an advanced infestation. Ladybugs, lacewings and hoverfly like eating them. Or you could get some aphicide from rural suppliers. Ordinary garden chemicals don't do a good job controlling them, Confidor is the best pick but it is systemic so check the withholding period so it doesn't end up in the pumpkins you may be harvesting in the near future. Cold winter conditions will naturally reduce aphid numbers too. They can be disrupted by using high pressure water spray and if you can add a bit of detergent into it that helps even more. If that is a pumpkin, it is late in the season, the vine will be shutting down now anyway and the aphids will be causing little economic damage to the plant now. I would just leave it. If you grow brocolli, cauli etc you'll need to watch them closely as aphids love them too, may spread from the existing infestation and can cause significant damage if not managed early.
Thanks for the tps Spinifex, It is Zuchinni, Pumpkin is at the other end of the row and presently growing actively. Brocolli and Cauli is 2 rows away. Because they are on the underside of every leaf of the plant it seems impractical to try and spray them off. I'll look into the chemicals you mentioned. Cheers.
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Post by spinifex on Mar 31, 2019 9:51:03 GMT 10
The aphids in the pic are most likely green peach aphid. Going into colder conditions they should not cause too much harm to your cauli and brocolli. However the latter are very susceptible to major infestations of Cabbage aphid.
Also ... if you see white butterfies ... check your cauli and brocilli for green caterpillars regularly.
In spring time the major enemy can be diamond back moth - small, grey-brown nondescript. I get them here really bad because they survive in large numbers on one of the local weeds as well as volunteer canola plants growing along roadsides.
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Post by milspec on Apr 1, 2019 17:50:01 GMT 10
The aphids in the pic are most likely green peach aphid. Going into colder conditions they should not cause too much harm to your cauli and brocolli. However the latter are very susceptible to major infestations of Cabbage aphid. Also ... if you see white butterfies ... check your cauli and brocilli for green caterpillars regularly. In spring time the major enemy can be diamond back moth - small, grey-brown nondescript. I get them here really bad because they survive in large numbers on one of the local weeds as well as volunteer canola plants growing along roadsides. Thanks Spinifex, will do. |
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Post by spinifex on Apr 19, 2019 12:00:03 GMT 10
3m row of snow peas now up and running. Seedlings about 6cm high. A row of Blue Bantam peas also going well and about the same size. Globe radishes and daikon sown in same bead as the Bantam peas are powering along. Daikon in a planter box doing really well - they had a severe wilt last saturday so I think they will bolt to seed early. 1 of the 3 rows of summer spinach I planted in a big plastic tub has been bowled over by Damping Off. Long as it doesn't spread to the other two rows it'll be ok. Need to get some more rows of Blue Bantam sown but currently don't have enough bird net to protect them from birds. Update: Snow peas now 60cm high and we picked the first 300g of pods today. Based on 14 years experience of growing this indeterminate variety here we should be pulling about 700 grams a week off from now until september/october. The Blue Bantam peas are another story: being a determinate variety, and having had unfavorably warm weather, have only reached about 20cm high, completed their flowering cycle and have not yielded very well. They wont produce any more flowers so will be ripped out as soon as pods are harvested. Will try a re-plant of the same variety now to see how much better they do in cooler conditions. The Early Massey variety I planted a couple of weeks after the Blue Bantams are much bigger plants and showing good yield - they should finish their flowering cycle this week and harvest should be a week or two after that. I'll also try a replant of those to see what the result is. I think I'll go back to doing early sown Greenfeast next autumn as they are indeterminate and tolerate warmer weather better. Daikon in planter box ended up as chicken feed. Daikon in triple sown bed are now big and being regularly harvested. Globe radish also did really well. The blue bantam peas in the triple sown bed yielded less than hoped. |
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Post by SA Hunter on Jun 11, 2019 17:36:29 GMT 10
Broad Beans are all up, about 10-15cm high.
I planted a heap of potatoes - some in pots, some in the garden - mostly Dutch cream & Deiree.
Harvested my 1 sewwt potato I had in a pot as an experiment - got 4 tubers, and enough small ones to replant - tasted really nice.
Also harvested my peanuts as the plants were dying off from the cold - planted them too late, but i got about 30-40 pods, so I'll plant them all out when the weather warms.
The tumeric and ginger didn't set, again, probably planted them too late in the season.
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Post by spinifex on Jun 11, 2019 20:10:05 GMT 10
Well done with the peanuts! I got zilch. Pulled the plants out on the weekend to make way for other things.
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Post by spinifex on Jun 11, 2019 20:11:35 GMT 10
Hmm ... just remembered I need to sow some chickpeas somewhere too.
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