Tomato yeild 2008/2009

This is the first year that I've had tomatoes before Christmas, around 600g. Pruning was a bit severe but may have helped bring on some earlier fruit. In future only remove those leaves near the ground, about 20-30cm to improve air circulation. Will leave them alone for now to leaf up. My beefsteak tomato is producing good fruit but still green and small.
We tasted our first tomato last night (19 Dec) (variety unknown, roma style) and found them quite nice, low acid. I made my favourite bean and tomato salad and squeezed some extra tomato juice over the top. Its a traditional Italian recipe which I discovered when I was also growing my own beans, (Purple King, great taste, no storage capacity but highly productive) a few years ago.

Dipel

My geraniums in the window box under my bedroom window have been eaten by caterpillars. I've been picking them off one by one but decided to see how Dipel works. It's been available for about 30 years!

Dipel is an insecticide containing Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria, caterpillars apparently stop eating immediately once they have ingested it, taking about three days for them to die. Confidor is an alternative but too toxic for home gardener use however, it is usually the only product available at hardware stores.

Dipel spores are killed off by sunlight so it should be applied every 7 days when infestations are high.

Although it is safer to use, always wear eye protection, gloves and dust mask especially when opening sachets as spores break loose into the air. The same protection should be worn when spraying pyrethrum, dusts or organic pesticides. Packaging never provides enough information on personal protection equipment.

I now would never buy premixed trigger/spray packs for any product. I purchased PestOil (Yates) only a few days ago, I could not adjust the droplet size and it ran down my hand. More of a problem was a pyrethrum spray pack that I purchased a few years ago. The pack leaked badly, despite it being organic is too toxic for this to be acceptable.

Recipe for control of fungus

In 2 litres of water add a drop of vegetable oil, a drop of detergent, 4 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda and spray plants every 7 days for the entire growing season. It's perfect for most fungal problems and I'm using this on my roses and tomatoes.

This a remedy from Gardening Australia.

Tomatoes - Potash

I added some Potash (Potassium) to my tomatoes (10g to a watering can) as it assists fruit development and ripening. I have lots of large unripe tomatoes which are taking their time to ripen. Hopefully this will help. Noticed that this year they have been attacked by caterpillars, whiteflys, mildew (now under control). I will water in some Charlie Carp next weekend. Everything else appears normal, uneven watering was a problem a few weeks ago.

2008 Sydney to Gong - 2 November 2008

The day before the ride I was at Tafe getting my chemical application licence. I got home late and fixed a flat tire on my road bike at 10pm (which I only discovered when I got home) I knew I was too tired to do this ride and deal with the normal problems, flats, bad riding and hills. After fixing a flat after only 5km I gave up and went home. My pump destroyed the valve so I couldn't pump the tire up. So no spares, no working pump I wouldn't ride do a ride of half the distance without being able to look after myself.

Try next year but I have to admit that I'm looking for other challenges, three Sydney to Gongs might be enough.

Stop press

Both tubes were Bontrager which are produced for Trek. I couldn't find a hole in the orginal tube, probably bad valve. Crappy quality for a premium price tag $12 (Clarence St Cycles, Sydney). When I got home I replaced the bent valve, pumped up the tire. It went flat again over night! I pulled out the tube and found that that it had folded over itself by 10cm, which explains why it was difficult to pump up. I expect the bent valve was due to the soft nature of the brass used.

I always use a basic Chinese brand which sell for about $9.00 and with one exception never had a problem.

2008/2009 Tomatoes Leaf Spot

I have Early blight which is a fungus disease on my Red Russian and Beefsteak tomatoes. It's left pin holes in the leaves and caused flowers to drop

I hope that a remedy from Gardening Australia will work, http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s1484689.htm.

In 2 litres of water add a drop of vegetable oil, a drop of detergent, 4 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda. It's perfect for tomatoes.

There is another recipe among Gardening Australia's factsheets which is a bit different, it includes Pestoil, however this recipe should work well. Sydney Botanic Gardens use a similar solution.

2008/2009 Tomatoes

For the last two years we have grown our own tomatoes in pots and I couldn't wait to get them started this year. Last year's crop was a bit disappointing, the cherry tomatoes were good but the Beefsteak and Green Zebra just didn't produce anything. The fruit was very slow to mature and was attacked by pests before they had time to mature. Fruit set was small, they dropped lots of flowers. I think the main problem was lack of potassium, phosphorous and water which led to a fungus or nematode attack.

This year I am growing cherry tomatoes again, two plants appeared in near my roses bushes and when we got home from Japan I put them in separate pots. I am also growing Red Russians and Beefsteak, seedlings from a local nursery. The cherries should almost look after themselves but my basic plan this year is to water in some seaweed extract to provide potassium and worm wee alternatively each weekend. Water everyday in hot weather, my Yates gardening book suggested watering to field capacity which seems a bit too much.

Pruning is important for all tomatoes especially as bushes can get very leafy at the expense of fruit. I'm going to prune the Red Russian to two dominant leaders and Beefsteak back to one. Last weekend I added dolomite for calcium to the pots however it will raise pH (Gypsum is a good source also without changing pH).

There is fruit forming on the cherry tomato, so looks like for the first time I'll have tomatoes for Christmas.

Europe and Japan Tour

Left, Prado courtyard, Madrid

In mid September myself, Brett and his friend Greg left Australia for five weeks to visit Spain, Romania and Japan. A friend in Romania announced he was going to get married in early October this year, Brett also wanted to catch up with friends in Japan and we wanted to also see another part of Europe. We left Greg in Romania as he wanted to check out the birds of the Danube delta, he had an extra two weeks in Romania before leaving to work in the UK. As a horticulture student I wanted to see the gardens. Within Spain we went to Madrid, Granada and Barcelona.

Madrid is a very livable, beautiful and dynamic city. Plenty of buses and good train system and easy to cycle. Madrid Botanic Gardens looked a bit tired but had some fabulous hedges
Left El Retiro, Monument to Alfonso XII
Left 'Cloud' pruning, Plaza del Parterre
The Jardines del Buen Retiro is a very special garden which we visited late in the afternoon. We didn't have nearly enough time to properly see this garden, we started at the main entrance near the Plaza de le Independencia and followed Av de Mejico to the lake and monument to Alfonso XII turned right at Paseo del Paraguay past the Plaza del Parterre.
El Retiro, fountain detail

Grevillea juniperina ‘Pink Lady’

This grevillea is still flowering and looking great. I've been removing the spent flowers and it is starting to thicken up.

Kennedia

My Kennedia rubicunda is currently in flower and growing in a hanging pot, it would prefer a trellis or pergola with more space to spread out. Another native from the South East coast of Australia and a member of the Fabaceae family.

Kennedia is a vigorous twining climber so it needs something to hang on to, also drought tolerant and easy to propagate from soft wood cuttings and seed.

I’ve not found any helpful cultivation notes as it is not very well known by Australian gardeners. Some leaves have been skeletonised in small sections but no culprit found. I'm not too worried it grows so well that these leaves are quickly replaced.

Acacias

Acacias are another favourite fast growing tree and I love those cute yellow flowers and very different forms. Sadly in Sydney they tend to be short lived.

I have two Acacias at the moment, Acacia longifolia/Sydney Golden Wattle and Acacia terminalis or Sunshine Wattle (below). Both are very young and have not flowered. A. terminalis is still very small and should flower from February to October. A. longifolia should have flowered between June and October.

I love these guys so much I would like to propagate some from seed when I have space, apparently cuttings are not very successful. Soak the seed in boiling water overnight or rub with a piece of sandpaper before placing in seed raising trays.

They do not like phosphorous, use a special native fertilizer.