| Have you noticed ants moving up into your
fruit trees and citrus in particular last week? They are chasing Scale and Aphids that
they milk for a sweet secretion. Time to spray Pest Oil™, which will control the
scale and send the Aphids packing. Resulting in no ant traffic. You may have a lovely crop of lettuce at present, well plant some
more quickly. Managing the succession is vital and mulch this crop with Lucerne or Pea
straw, to cut down the evaporation and moisture loss from the soil. As for the loose leaf
varieties, like 'Great Lakes' and 'Mignonette', it also helps to support the floppy
leaves.
Annie's begging me to over-pick the 'Rainbow Chard' or
colourful Silver Beet, since it's so tasty at present, that the leaves have been flopping
outward and snapping off. Last weekend I mulched them with a deep, but sparse layer of Pea
Straw and now that supports the leaves and provides a cool root-run.
It's amazing how a few hot days make the annual flowers
look rather... 'how's your Mother?' This is the transitional or seasonal stress that can
be controlled by applying some Seaweed extract with half dose of water soluble fertiliser.
I use two cap fulls of 'Multicrop™ Shrub and Flower' with Aquasol™ at half a
teaspoonful to six litres of luke warm water and spray it, but you could use any
comparable product and a watering can.
If you planted rhubarb this year, they could do with some
superphosphate or complete 'D' now. If you have an old rhubarb clump, this is the time to
feed with nitrogen fertilisers, either organic (poultry is best) or water soluble, but
mulch them afterwards and keep them moist.
We are rapidly warming to tomato planting time. You may
have already bought some and have them growing in your tiny pots as I suggested last week.
Good. Remember historically last frost day for Adelaide is October 14th and frost kills
tomatoes. Maybe we don't get a frost every year in this week, but we did get a ripper in
1984! |
