February Produce Swappers Gardening Tips

IN THE GARDEN:
Another La Nina year has meant that we have had a slow-moving summer season with many summer veggies only starting to truly kick in now after some hot weeks. You might be worried that you’ll be left with gazillions of green tomatoes to process this year but actually we have a while still before frosts will finally knock off tomato plants, and also some strategies we can use to get ripe tomatoes once the growing season has officially finished (which we will cover in future newsletters) so, for now, patience is a virtue in relation to our Solanaceae friends. In fact, in Malmsbury and surrounds, the larger tomato varieties, especially, always have their main crop in autumn.

Autumn/Winter brassicas: Late summer is, somewhat surprisingly, a great time to establish brassicas (the mustard family – including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, etc) in Malmsbury and other cool-climate areas as they establish very well in the warmth. Once they have bulked up they are then able to produce their heads slowly during the cooler weather which means that they are less likely to sulk during our coldest months and then bolt in early spring than later plantings. However, if you are starting them now beware that cabbage moths are prolific at this time of year (This year especially! They are everywhere!) so you will need to net them with fine insect netting, or spray regularly with a caterpillar spray such as Dipel (Dipel contains the naturally occurring bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis and is approved for organic systems).

If you are netting your brassica seedlings then do a thorough check on the back of all the leaves to check for small cabbage moth eggs first and remove them by gently scraping them off with your finger. They are tiny elongated cream-coloured eggs that are laid individually on the underside of the leaves (see photo).

A note on ‘territorial’ Cabbage Moths: For many years it has been believed that cabbage moths are territorial and won’t lay their eggs near other moths and so gardeners have used eggshells or made or bought decoy moths to put amongst their brassica crop to deter cabbage whites from laying their eggs. However, unfortunately, this method has been debunked as a myth in recent years with extensive field trials showing that the decoy moths had no impact on caterpillar numbers. *Not casting shade on any organic gardeners who have been trying this – I had also tried this in the past but had been disappointed with the results so it was a relief to find that it had been ultimately disproven as a control method.

Powdery Mildew: Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that is common to veggies (and some herbs such as mint) later in the summer and autumn, especially cucurbits like zucchinis and pumpkins. It appears as a white, patchy dusting on leaves and stems, usually starting on older foliage. Mostly I find that my healthy veggies are only affected towards the end of their fruitful period and so I tend to remove badly affected leaves but otherwise live with it until it is time to pull them out, but if you have a particularly bad outbreak this season then preventative treatment for the next growing season is a good idea. Milk (applied 10:1 water to milk) is actually a highly effective treatment for powdery mildew but only when applied before the fungus appears (preventatively), or very soon after. You will need to make a mental note (or one in a calendar or reminder app) to take action early in the growing season next year to prevent this cycle from getting worse, but for this year you can probably just manage it rather than try to eliminate Powdery Mildew altogether.

If you are wanting to treat an active infection then Neem oil can be applied, although, in Australia, Neem is not specifically approved for use on food crops even though it may be certified organic. This is because trials have not been conducted in Australia to establish it as a safe input– in fact one particular Australian company refused to do so on ethical grounds as they didn’t want to engage in testing on animals. Overseas it is approved for use on edible plants with no withholding period e.g. in New Zealand, Europe, UK, Japan and USA.

Sowing Root Crops: Hopefully, if you followed our spring planting guides, you are harvesting fat, delicious carrots right about now. However, it’s already time to sow them again for your autumn/winter supply. Beetroot, carrots and parsnips can all be sown direct. It’s important to use fresh seed when sowing parsnips and it is beneficial to soak the seed overnight – I have found this to be a great way to guarantee germination. We have some fresh seed that has been donated to our seedy suitcase this month so we’ll bring it along to the produce swap on Sunday.

SOW NOW (direct): Beetroot, broadbeans (early, but can be sown from now on), carrots, lettuce, bush peas, Asian greens, rocket, spinach, parsnips, radishes including daikon, turnips, swedes. Sow brassicas into punnets to transplant.

PLANT NOW (As seedlings): Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, celery, silverbeet and rainbow chard, perpetual spinach, Asian greens including pak choi, tatsoi, mustard greens and mizuna, leek, red onions, spring onions

EDIBLE COMPANION FLOWERS FOR THE WINTER/SPRING GARDEN: Borage, Calendula (French marigold), Cornflowers, Snapdragons, Pansies and Violas, Nasturtiums (these are frost tender though so only in polytunnels or very protected spots)

If you’d like us to cover a specific gardening topic or have a question to ask then email us and we’ll try to answer it in future newsletters.

Thanks and happy gardening!

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