Tips and Facts
Compost Blends
Organic material decays most quickly if blended with approximately equal parts of the following:
Nitrogen-Rich Soft and Green Material
* Manure from chickens, cows, horses, rabbits, pigs, guinea pigs, and other herbivores
* Fruit and vegetable peels
* Grass clippings
* Green leaves
* Strips of turf
* Alfalfa
Carbon-Rich Brown and Hard Material
* Wood chips
* Ground-up twigs
* Sawdust
* Pruning scraps
* Autumn leaves
* Straw
Tips, Facts and Downloads
Compost Blends Organic material decays most quickly if blended with approximately equal parts of the following: Nitrogen-Rich Soft and Green Material * Manure from chickens, cows, horses, rabbits, pigs, guinea pigs, and other herbivores * Fruit and vegetable peels * Grass clippings * Green leaves * Strips of turf * Alfalfa Carbon-Rich Brown and Hard Material * Wood chips * Ground-up twigs * Sawdust * Pruning scraps * Autumn leaves * Straw •Soak seeds to get a jump on the season. Before germinating, seeds need to drink up moisture, just as if drenched by spring rains. Once they become plump and swollen, the little embryo inside will begin to grow. Seeds such as broccoli, cabbage, and arugula use moisture efficiently and germinate promptly without presoaking. But slower-starting parsley and parsnip seeds benefit from presoaking. Dunk them in room-temperature water for several hours or even overnight, but don't forget them and leave them in too long. Drain and plant the seeds immediately. •Pinch back annual herbs, such as basil, to keep them from blooming. If allowed to channel energy into seed production, the foliage will grow skimpy and so will your harvest. Pinching off the shoot tips from time to time provides sprigs for herbal vinegars and pestos and inspires the plant to grow back bushier than ever. •Plant leggy vegetable seedlings deeper to provide a stronger start outdoors. Seedlings started indoors or in crowded greenhouses, places without enough light, may develop lanky, barren stems that topple over in the garden. As long as they grow from a single stem (rather than a rosette of leaves) and go into well-drained soil, leggy seedlings can be submerged slightly deep for extra support. • Cold frames, heated by the sun, make it possible to grow lettuce early in spring and later in autumn or winter. Cold frames are translucent rectangular boxes, about 2 feet wide, 4 feet long, and 18 inches high. The top is hinged to open so you can tend plants inside or cool the cold frame on mild, sunny days. Plant seeds or seedlings of lettuce in the frame and shut the lid to hold in the heat. •Harvest perennial herbs as they develop flower buds. This is the time when the fragrant and flavourful oils in the plants are at their peak of intensity, providing a gourmet experience. •Damping off is a term used for seedling death by any of a handful of fungal diseases, including several root rots (Pythium, Phytophthora) and molds (Sclerotinia or white mold, Botrytis or gray mold). It can affect seedlings under and above ground. Seedlings may start to grow and whither, break off or collapse while they still have their cotyledons. You may see some gradual discoloring or it may happen very suddenly. Often it appears the seedling has been pinched off at the soil line. Seedlings with root rot can appear to be wilting, even when kept watered. Even poor germination may be attributable to damping off. There are many techniques that can help prevent damping off. One is to make your own Organic Fungicide. Here are 3 different recipes o A strong brew of chamomile or cinnamon tea. Use it to water and/or mist your seedlings. o A splash (1 T.) of 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide/ qt. water as a seedling mist. o A dusting of cinnamon on the soil surface. •Remove a few bricks in a garden path to make places for low-growing thyme or oregano. Either herb will thrive in this warm, well-drained location and will give a charming natural look and wonderful fragrance to the walkway. •Keep cutworms away from seedlings with the cardboard centers of toilet paper rolls -- recycling at its best! Cutworms, which are moth caterpillars, creep near the soil surface, eating tender stem bases of young seedlings and cutting sprouts off the roots. But it doesn't take barbed wire or an electric-shock fence to get cutworms to detour away from your seedlings. After planting, just set a 3-inch-long cardboard tube around the seedling. Push the tube down so half is submerged, thus preventing underground attacks. Then once the seedling has grown into a plant, you can remove the cardboard collar. •Solarising uses the power of the sun. Spread a large piece of clear plastic onto the area and weigh down the edges to keep out as much air as possible. Although the sunlight and condensation still allows the weeds to grow, the heat and the fact that they have nowhere to grow means they rot and die quite quickly. •Blossom end rot - BER (black, rotting spots on the end of tomato) indicates that the plant is not taking up sufficient calcium. If calcium levels are adequate the problem may be due to lack of soil moisture.Inconsistent watering is simply flooding the growing area and then letting it dry out, a fairly common practice. Tomatoes need an even moisture supply because in the absence of soil moisture nutrients cannot move from the soil to the plant and if there is not sufficient moisture in the plant nutrients cannot flow through the plants system. Too much soil moisture does something similar not allowing the roots to move nutrients, or air-soil bacteria to function and provide nutrients to the plants. Lack of even watering is #1 cause of BER. If a soil test however shows that you have a lack of calcium, ground limestone, dolomitic lime, Calcium Nitrate, egg shells, comfrey and ground sea shells are good sources of calcium. •To help germinate carrot seed cover newly seeded carrot rows with wet newspaper, boards or black plastic, then remove (after 1-3 weeks). This will preserve soil moisture and prevent sprouting of weeds. Twisted carrot roots indicate inadequate thinning; forked or deformed roots usually means the seed bed was not fine enough (remove stones, break up clods and don't step on the carrot bed); hairy roots indicates excessive fertility; splitting can occur when heavy rain follows a long dry period. Do not use high-nitrogen fertiliser or fresh manure on carrot beds. •If you are having problems growing lettuce in the heat cover the crop with white 'shade/growing' cloth (not regular shade cloth). It lets sufficient light through for healthy growth but prevents burning and lowers water evaporation. Use plenty of mulch to keep the roots cool. Make sure that when you plant in the mulch, to fill the hole to the top of the mulch with growing medium (to stop the seedlings from rotting). •January sees the onslaught of caterpillars, the arch enemy of cabbages and cauliflowers. Dipel a biological control (bacillus thuringiensis) is safe and effective for controlling caterpillars. It needs to be eaten (by the caterpillar) to be effective and reapplied weekly. •Diatomaceous earth (finely ground skeletons of marine organisms) is very useful against insects such as snails, thrips, aphids, termites, snails, hard-shelled bugs. It can be used as in the dust bath to control lice on chooks, in bee hives to control bugs and to make a spray (200g DE : 1 litre soapy water).DE can be purchased from Green Harvest 1800 681014 or www.greenharvest.com.au •Human urine is very effective against apple and pear scab and a range of mildews. Always use fresh urine (no more than 2-3 hours old) •Comfrey is rich in potash. Take as many of the following as possible comfrey, nettle, chamomile, seaweed, casaurina, lucerne, yarrow and cover with water. Spray on foliage whtn the water is a weak tea colour. This makes an all-purpose spray whcih is very useful against fungal and bacterial conditions •If the oldest leaves are yellowing but the young ones aren't, the plant probably has nitrogen deficiency. If the young leaves are yellowing the plant may have phosphorous (potash) deficiency. •A cheap and easy green manure that can be used in Summer is sunflower seed. Bird seed can also be used if nothing else is available as well as soybeans. •Organic repellents. Bordeaux keeps away cabbage white butterflies, slugs and snails; garlic spray keeps away aphids and cabbage white butterflies and cabbage moth. •Support your pumpkins and melons that are climbing a frame with pantyhose. Sit the vegetable in the pant part of the hose and tie the legs to the frame to bear the weight of the pumpkin. Old bird netting can also be cut to form a sling to hold the weight.Cheap and easy. •When sowing green manure use an inoculant. An inoculant is a beneficial bacterium which helps a plant obtain nitrogen from the air (soil). | Workshop Notes available for downloadGarlic Workshop Notes
Seed Saving Notes
Links to detailed informationFacts Acid Tolerance/pH Vegetables vary in their tolerance to acid conditions Slightly tolerant (pH 6.0-6.8) asparagus, beetroot, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, Chinese cabbage, cress, leek, lettuce, okra, onion, parsnip, silverbeet, soybean, spinach, watercress. Moderately Tolerant (pH 5.5-6.8) brussels sprouts, capsicum, carrot, corn, cucumber, eggplant, garlic, horseradish, kohlrabi, mustard, pea, pumpkin, radish, squash, swede, tomato, turnip. Very Tolerant (pH 5.0-6.8) chicory, dandelion, endive, fennel, potato, shallot, sorrel, sweet potato. •In general the following vegetables are considered cool-weather crops - beetroot,broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, chicory, chinese cabbage, collard, endive, kohlrabi, lettuce, mustard, onion, pea, radish, ricket, spinach, turnip •In general the following vegetables are considered warm-weather crops - capsicum, carrot, corn, cucumber, eggplant, parsnip, potato, pumpkin, rockmelon, silverbeet, beans, summer squash, sweet potato, tomato, watermelon, winter squash, zucchini •The following vegetables prefer full sun - artichoke, asparagus, beans, beetroot, broccoli, capsicum, carrot, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, corn, cucumber, eggplant, leek, melons, onion, parsnip, potato, pumpkin, radish, rockmelon, shallot, silverbeet, summer squash, sunflower, sweet potato, tomato, watermelon, winter squash, zucchini •Water requirements for vegetables: Apply enough water to penetrate the soil to a depth of at least 15cm (6 inches). For best production, most gardens require a moisture supply equivalent to 25ml (1inch) of rain a week during the growing season. Light sandy soils generally require more frequent watering than heavier dark soils. If sprinklers are used, water in the morning to allow plant foliage to dry before night. This practice helps prevent foliage diseases, since humidity and cool temperatures encourage disease development on most vegetable crops. The use of drip irrigation to supply water is also beneficial in this regard. Additionally, this system of irrigation is the most water-use efficient available and is ideally suited for use with mulches. •Mulching will increase yields, conserve moisture, prevent weed growth, regulate soil temperature, and lessen losses caused by ground rot of many vegetable crops. Organic mulches can be made of straw, leaves, grass, bark, compost, sawdust, or cocopeat. Organic mulches incorporated into the soil will improve the soil tilth, aeration, and drainage. The amount of organic mulch to use depends upon the type, but 2 to 5cm (1 to 2 inches) of organic material applied to the garden surface around growing plants is just adequate (15-30cm is preferable in summer conditions). In turning organic mulches under for subsequent crops, add additional fertilizer at the rate of about 0.5 kg to 9m2 (1pound per 100 square feet) to help soil organisms break down the additional organic matter. Green manure is a crop grown for the purpose of improving the soil. You turn the crop under or chop it down to soil level before it matures. It adds organic matter and nutrients to the soil as it breaks down. Cover crops are similar to green manures but are mainly used to cover the soil and protect it from erosion. Growing green manures Buckwheat: sow between autumn and spring crops. Annual; frost sensitive; tolerates low fertility; rate: 1-1.5kg/100sq m Rye: sow in late summer or autumn, between autumn and spring crops. It survives cold winters and resumes growth in spring. Winter annual; tolerates low fertility; rate: 1-1.5kg/100sq m Lupins: sow from mid-spring to mid-summer. Annual;will grow in all soil types, especially sandy soil Red clover: sow in spring and summer, then allow to grow for 2 years. Biennial legume; tolerates acid soils with poor drainage; rate: 100-200g/100sq m | ||||||||||||
