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Showing 151 - 180 of 13732 comments

Beans - climbing (also Pole beans, Runner beans, Scarlet Runners) 22 Sep, Faith Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 5a Temperate Warm Summer climate): From a publication (University of Mass) CORRECTIVE ACTION IS: 1. Rotate bean with non-host crops. 2.Plow under infected crop residues. 3.Eliminate volunteer bean plants. 4.Select planting dates and schedule irrigation to avoid long periods of leaf wetness when temperatures are warm. 5.Disinfect poles in production of pole beans. 5.Avoid over application of nitrogen and ensure adequate potassium fertilization. 6.Plant resistant cultivars. ==> your issue is the rust sort of creates these pustules that allow the rust to survive over winter, or during crop rotations. You need to ensure you dig the old plants deep into the soil, clean your equipment (poles, garden gloves etc.). I would be inclined to use SULPHUR -- "Sulphur Dust Fungicide and Miticide" is usually what it is called. This dust can be sprinkled all over, on the plants etc. or can be mixed with water and sprayed. Also avoid planting beans in areas of "stagnant air" the plants need to be able to dry out -- in other words water on the plants (moist leaves and stems) are great breeding grounds for your rust. It's actually not a difficult problem to resolve, once you know what needs to be done -- remove and bury infected leaves, and/or sprinkle with sulphur dust, mitigate moisture retention (get the air flow going -- maybe you change up the arrangement of planting so the air flows through the plants and whisks away the moisture.
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Beans - climbing (also Pole beans, Runner beans, Scarlet Runners) 06 Sep, Anonymous (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Try googling about the rust problem.
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Onion 20 Aug, Michael (Australia - temperate climate): Can you please tell me the best varieties of onion to plant now. Live at Canowindra NSW Thanking you
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Onion 06 Sep, Anonymous (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Which ever variety you prefer.
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NZ Spinach (also Warrigal greens) 17 Aug, Jamie (Australia - temperate climate): I live on the coast and rather than bothering with Warrigal greens I munch the indigenous Bower Spinach (Tetragonia implexicoma). Very similar plant except that it climbs and drapes curtains of succulent greenery off long trailing stems from the lower branches of the local tea trees. It is good tucker and being by the sea it is naturally salty.
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Jerusalem Artichokes (also Sunchoke) 17 Aug, Jamie (Australia - temperate climate): It took a while but I have learned to love Sunchokes. Undoubtedly the easiest and most prolific vegetable of them all. But what to do with them ? Boil them, roast them, grate them into salads, slice them into stir fry. I use them mainly as a filler. They thicken soups and stews and I mash them up with my spuds. Very economical. they don’t have a long shelf life (which is why they are ridiculously expensive) so I tend to leave them in the ground until I use them. If you have a lot of sunchokes - and you will - you can be brutal when you peel them. But keep the peelings out of the compost or you’ll end up with sunchokes everywhere ! Warning : They can be ‘noisy’. Not recommended for date night or before attending the cinema.
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Artichokes (Globe) 15 Aug, Roz McWilliam (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I would like to grow globe artichokes in Townsville (dry tropics). Is this possible please and if yes what’s the best way? Cheers
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Artichokes (Globe) 06 Sep, Anonymous (Australia - tropical climate): Set your climate zone to Tropical and read the notes about growing it.
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Eggplant (also Aubergine) 11 Aug, Jock Macdonald (Australia - sub-tropical climate): How to hand pollinate egg plant
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Eggplant (also Aubergine) 06 Sep, Anonymous (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Give the bush a light shake about 9-10am.
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Cucumber 11 Aug, Ingrid (Australia - temperate climate): Some websites suggest planting cucumber seeds directly into garden bed, other sites say start in trays. Which is correct ? Thank you.
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Cucumber 20 Aug, Anonymous (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Can do it both ways.
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Dill 04 Aug, Karl Schaller (Australia - tropical climate): Can I grow dill in this place ? Even in winter it hardly gets below 20 celsius . Forget summertime !
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Dill 20 Aug, Anonymous (Australia - tropical climate): Plant May June.
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Tomato 28 Jul, SilverShine (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate): Does anyone know where I can source some seeds for the Alboran variety. It is a winter variety for very low temps.
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Broad Beans (also Fava bean) 20 Jul, Joseph (Australia - sub-tropical climate): 1. Our Broad beans are having plenty of flowers for one month, however, not forming the pods. 2. Plants are having branches and too many leaves, whether it requires pruning? 3. Is the leaves edible? raw or by cooking?
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Broad Beans (also Fava bean) 21 Jul, Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 5a Temperate Warm Summer climate): A few things : 1. Do not DEAD HEAD the flowers - the flowers will turn black and wither, and will look ugly, BUT the bean STARTS forming at the base of the dead flower - if you remove the dead flower you might pull off the start of the bean. 2. Everywhere you have a flower, you should get a bean (or two), the beans usually start coming in from the bottom of the plant upward. 3. All parts of the fava bean plant (from the ground up) are edible - flowers, stalk, leaves -- I use the leaves and stalk as my greens in scrambled eggs (once the eggs are pretty much done, just add the fava bean greens in the last 10 seconds, incorporating/folding in and removing from the heat). The first time you try this, it may not be that great, but after 3 times it is rather nice and you might miss them if you don't add them to your eggs. The greens also make a great pesto and can garnish a soup. I have never pruned my fava beans.... but since I do take branches for use in cooking... perhaps I have never let my plants get out of control enough to need to prune them ?????
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Endive 18 Jul, Flourez dominique (Australia - temperate climate): Bonjour les amis , je suis retraité , né à Camphin en pevèle en France .Un habitant de mon village aécrit un livre du notre village ! Les villageois cutivaient cette plante , je peux vous transmettre , cet écrit ,avec de nombreuses photos ancienne ! J'étais aussi agriculteur , j'ai aussi produit les endives 4 ou 5 ans ! C'est très simple , " mais " sous le mot ENDIVE ou CHICOREE , il y a différentes variétés , ! Celles qui subissent un forçage ( depuis la racine , cultivée en terre dans la plaine , celle-ci est récoltée après au minimum 4 mois - maximum 8 mois ) pui , les racines sont stockées , les feuilles coupées en laissant un collet de 1 à 2 cm , reposée 15 jours à 3 semaines , pour etre disposée dans des silos de forçage ou couhe , ces endives reprennent des radicelles , recouverte de 2 à 4 cm de terre ! (c'est en fait une protection du froid , de la lumière .Le forçage peut à toutinstant commencer , des tuyauteries sont posée , depuis une chaudière à charbon qui elvoie l'eau chaude par les tuyauteries latérales , et retourne à la chaudière par un retour cental , L' endiviers posaient de la paille et des fims plastique pour garder la chaleur et l'humidité constante ! ..."Dans le village , pendant les hivers , il y avait 20 , 40 petites chadières au charbon qui forçaient les endives " Attetion , les endives forcées dans la terre sont bie meilleures que celles forcées en hydroponie...Rien à voir , les premières conservent en salade dans votre cave , couverte de parpier ' bleu foncé ' pendant 1 mois '...Toutes mes amicales pensées à Richard Collins , de " ENDIVES CALIFORNIA " venu chez nous pour une période de formation à la ferme de luchin je suis trop bavard , l'amitié , c'est la Vie Bientot , j'entre dans un jardin partagé , 40 personnes pour une vie nouvelle à réussir ensemble Amitiés Domionique
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Gourd (also summer squash) 18 Jul, Jyothi (Australia - temperate climate): When can I sow bottle gourd,ridge gourd ,snake gourd and bitter gourd in melbourne.
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Garlic 12 Jul, Judy (Australia - temperate climate): Hi I live just west of Toowoomba. I found a head of garlic in my fridge that is shooting all over the place! Is it ok to plant the cloves now?
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Garlic 17 Jul, (Australia - sub-tropical climate): yes
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Rhubarb 10 Jul, Barbara (Australia - temperate climate): I live in Sorrento- WA , soil is very sandy .I built up with good potting mix & it's in a semi ,parts of the year spot.I have used good fertiliser but I can't seem to get it to grow wider than my little finger , I keep chopping it back as well ,thinking it will get thicker . It was cut from a friend's crop. Need your help .
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Rhubarb 13 Jul, (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Try adding manures and compost. Potting mix doesn't have a lot of nutrients in it.
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Rhubarb 14 Jul, Brett (Australia - temperate climate): I agree !
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Sage (also Common Sage) 05 Jul, (Australia - sub-tropical climate): My sage has developed a white spot on the leaves. What is it? Should I be concerned? Am I watering the plants too often.? John
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Sage (also Common Sage) 06 Jul, Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 5a Temperate Warm Summer climate): I tend to like using POWDERED Sulphur for powdery mildew. It is safe to use right up to the day of harvest ( EXCEPT ON GRAPES THAT ARE intended for wine - then 21 days before harvest). It can be sprinkled on dry -- but my preferred method is to dilute in water and spray. Ultimately you need to increase the air circulation around your plant. You might be over wetting the plant at times when it has difficulty drying -- if you have good air circulation this should not be an issue. Try watering BEFORE sun up -- then when the sun shines on your plant it will dry the plant. Mildews tend to stick better to damp leaves... so dry leaves in a windy area are less prone to powdery mildew. Additionally SAGE is considered a Mediterranean herb - and does tend to like dry conditions -- so the ground should dry out between watering -- watering well once every two weeks should be fine for an ESTABLISHED SAGE PLANT (seedlings need to be watered more frequently)... this might not be possible, because you may have plants that need more water nearby.
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Sage (also Common Sage) 05 Jul, (Australia - sub-tropical climate): It sounds like it is a case of powdery mildew, which is a fungal disease, which are wind-borne spores. Best to remove the affected leaves. Treating the plant with an organic fungicide that contains potassium bicarbonate could be beneficial.
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Broad Beans (also Fava bean) 02 Jul, Simone (Australia - cool/mountain climate): I planted seeds a couple of weeks ago but no sign of germination. We are getting frosts most mornings in the upper Blue Mountains NSW. Am I too late? I heard they grow better from seed or should I try to germinate inside first?
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Broad Beans (also Fava bean) 03 Jul, Celeste Archer (Canada - Zone 5a Temperate Warm Summer climate): Let's start with the germination temperature: 7c to 18c is the ideal germination temperature for FB, further the temperature needs to be sustained (over 5 or more days). So it needs to be warmish for the seeds to germinate. They will however happily reside in the soil until those temperatures are met (within reason- excess moisture causing rot etc.). The growing temperature for fava beans is between 4c and 24c. The kill temperature is -4c to -10c depending on the variety. What happens between the kill temperature and the grow temperature is a "waiting/holding" time (the plant is alive, but is sort of in limbo until the temperature is good enough again to grow). Above 24c the plant is starting to experience heat related symptoms and again is just holding on (unless the temps get to hot and kill the plant). You need to think about temperatures - what temps do you expect over the next month ? Based on the temperatures, do you think you seeds will germinate ? Then think about the grow temperatures -- if the seeds sprout will they be able to grow ? Generally if you want to grow fava beans in winter you plant them in late summer - so they germinate and grow enough BEFORE the cold weather -- during the cold weather (provided your are does not get too cold) the beans will be able to stay alive and grow a slight bit -- so you can harvest greens during winter and some beans -- then spring comes and the fava plants put forth LOTS of beans and then die. That is to say, the fava bean plant does not grow very much in cold weather and I find that typical of most plants that I want to over winter. They need to have a head start in decent weather and then they kind of SLOWLY inch their way to the finish line. Over wintering is a means of keeping the produce fresh - think of it this way - if you had produce in the fridge it is no longer growing, in fact it is in the process of dying, losing valuable nutrients daily. If you have a plant in the winter ground (that can handle overwintering), it is alive, GROWING REALLY REALLY slow, but it is alive and NOT losing nutrients. I guess what I'm trying to say is, super performance is generally not required, or expected, we are just looking to hold nutrients when we over winter. Clearly some plants are better for overwinter than others - in my area FAVA BEANS are a good choice.
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Yacon (also Sunroot) 01 Jul, Barney Clarke (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Hi my name is Barney, I live just out of Perth WA . The temperature ranges between - 5 to 40 + and the soil is sandy. My question is can I grow Pineapple here ? I have a 90 litre pot, to grow them in thank you
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