Happy Christmas

Gardening at Wandong PS, August 2009.
I suppose we look back on every year and say “wasn’t that amazing? Where did it go?” but it has been amazing and I’ve no idea where it has all gone. As a nurseryman the whole year feels like it hinged on February. After a mild January we had that extraordinary burst of 3-4 days above 40C followed shortly afterwards by Black Saturday. The whole community appeared to be quite numbed by the experience.
At the nursery we certainly thought the world would end. No one wanted to buy plants and we really lost the incentive to keep producing. And here’s the thing I have learnt from the experience. We all got back up, dusted ourselves off and got back on with it. We are saddened by the loss, inspired by the bravery and heartened by the generosity.
The gardening community reflected this perfectly. The RHSV quickly set up a Disaster Relief Fund (Bravo Don, Jennifer and your committee) and gardeners quickly got back into their gardens. Unfortunately Scotsburn was left behind, having almost stopped producing we were not prepared when gardeners decided it was time to refresh their heat ravaged gardens.
Well, live and learn. While “traditional” punnet seedling sales continue to struggle gardeners are obviously adapting to changing conditions and growing a different range of plants. So remarkably enough after a challenging year I’m more confident heading into 2010 than I have been in many years and inspired at the thought of growing new and interesting plants.
Thank you for opening and reading my emails. The comments and replies that I get are a great motivation.
Best wishes for a safe and happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year to you and your loved ones.

Garlic Rust

Click image for link to source.

“There has been an outbreak of Garlic Rust in Victoria. I can not give you much further information to supply you at this stage but either way I think this is bad news. If you are growing any alliums – vegetable or ornamental – the you will need to have them inspected through the growing season.” (Email) from Robert Chin Nursery Industry Development officer NGIV, 18 November 2009.
I don’t know any more about Garlic Rust than you do, but I do know that an intensive inspection program will have an impact on the availability of garlic and onion plants at least in the short term. Not because there will be widespread rust infections but because the cost and logistics of DPI inspection will prevent producers growing and distributing plants.
I don’t know where this will lead yet but I’ll do my best to keep you up to date. Here is a good technical summary of the disease and controls and an interesting gardeners’ forum. (By the way, is Google trying to tell me something with all the fat fighting ads that come up on garden related sites?)
If you are growing onions or garlic the standard cultural practices for preventing fungal diseases apply: grow in a full sun position, water only as required and ensure your plants are well fed to minimise stress – balance the availability of Nitrogen and Potassium and go easy on the Phosphorus.

Ornamental Capsicum and Chilli

Ornamental Chilli and Capsicum. These have become remarkably popular. I guess this is due to the fact that they are damn near indestructible, just watch out for Possums and grubs. Possums don’t appear to be troubled by pungency.
These plants will come into their own after Christmas as the fruit really starts to colour up. We are trying a few new varieties this season including Sangria (translation from Spanish: Bloody), Black Pearl and Calico. The Sangria hybrid has a somewhat spreading habit so we are growing it in hanging baskets. Follow the links for information on the others.
I am always asked why we differentiate ‘ornamental’ chillies. To my knowledge the only reason they are ornamental is the fruit has no flavour. Don’t confuse flavour with heat, some of the ornamental varieties are insanely hot. They just don’t have an enjoyable flavour. The varieties Sangria and Medusa are both non-pungent so they are considered safe around children.
Chilli and Capsicum (all the same thing botanically) thrive in hot, dry, well drained conditions. We usually grow them in a poly house with no shade cover. They have the stamina to handle the intense heat and direct sunlight and this environment helps keep them compact in their pots. This season we have put some larger (200mm pots) outside in the full sun and they have performed just as well. They can dry to wilting point and bounce back as if nothing has happened.

Tomato tips from the professionals

Tomatoes again! I delivered a fresh batch of Tomato seedlings to Tony Lanza at Coldstream. Tony is a commercial grower that I have been supplying young plants to for about 3 years now. Interestingly he was a Scotsburn customer before I started here, that’s over 20 years ago. Shows how things have changed, Tony and his son Frank tell me that they were told back then that Scotsburn had decided not to grow for commercial growers any longer. These days we’re just happy for the business. I actually like growing contract orders it’s very demanding but instils excellent discipline.
This was the first time I had visited the Lanza’s farm. It was a beautiful morning and the view is stunning but I bet it gets cold in the winter.
I was struck by the staking. At first I thought there was one stake per plant but look closely, there are 3-4 plants between each stake. If your vision is good enough you will also see a blue string running each side of the stakes. The plants will grow up through this string support. I guess Tony will add strings as the plants grow taller.
The other thing I noticed was that now the plants in the photo have established, Tony allows the weeds between the rows to establish too. He just starts mowing them before they flower & set seed.
I also met Mrs. Lanza. I think I know who does most of the work. All this reminds me that Kerry’s Toms at home have started to struggle a bit. If you remember they are in 250-300mm pots and it is getting difficult to get enough water into them on hot days. I also imagine that they have gobbled most of the nutrient out of the potting mix, these plants are now taller than me. Kerry has top dressed with a small amount of fresh chicken manure and some worm wee. I’ll keep you posted.

The Classic Tomato problems

I worry that I spend too much time talking about Tomatoes, but I’ve received two classic Tomato questions this week.
Why do my Tomato plant flowers drop off and not set fruit?
Why have my Tomato fruit gone black at the base? Lisa brought the fruit pictured into work.
Well follow this link for the answers to both these questions. It turns out that I answered them both in February and it’s interesting to see how this newsletter has developed over that period.
The pic is new, Lisa brought this Tomato into work and photographed it for me.