Broadly Speaking

My Grandfather used to bring a brown paper bag of broad beans to the nursery when I first started working here.  "Uncle Dave" had long since retired from active nursery work but he came in weekly, as long as he wasn't warming himself at Broadbeach and tidied around the office.  This included a little mowing and gardening.  I never quite understood his passion for his 'Beefsteaks' but I have come to realize that broad beans are a real marker of genuine vegie gardeners.

My Grandfather "Uncle Dave" Wood with my daughter Emma.  Emma is in year 11 now, she won't thank me for using this pic.

And while I still can't get excited over a plate of boiled beans (and let's not even think about baked beans from a can) I have learned that broad beans are an extraordinarily versatile vegetable.  Kerry mushes them up with Mediterranean spices to make magnificent falafels and I once had a fava bean paste as a butter substitute at a fancy restaurant, I can't remember how they made it but I guess it wasn't much more than beans, olive oil and seasoning.... to die for!  I think the name fava bean is more common in the US than broad bean (Hannibal Lecter liked then with liver, but we won't go there), broad bean is seriously uninspiring as names go but at least it's better than horse bean.  All of these are the same thing.


From a gardeners perspective the great thing about broad beans is you can plant them now!  Timing is ideal, the plants will develop through the winter and set their fruit (the pod is the fruit, the bean is a seed) while they do all that manic growing in spring.  This is important if you want to produce tender beans in that odd period where we are busy planting but not much else is ready to harvest.


The other great thing about broad beans is that they are very quick and easy to grow.  There is very little that Melbourne weather can do to upset them unless it gets very wet and miserable which can encourage fungal diseases.  The recommendation is to space them at least 15cm apart and a good 40cm between rows to allow air to circulate and prevent the disease getting established.  Watch our for Aphids in spring they just love succulent growing tips.  Of course soil needs to be thoroughly prepared or they can be grown in large containers with premium potting mix.  We grow a variety called Cole's Dwarf which grows to about 1m tall making it easy to harvest and great for containers.

Harvesting?  Beans should be ready in about 10 weeks from planting.  Picked very young (little finger sized or smaller) they can be cooked and eaten pod and all. More commonly they are shelled and eaten fresh or they can be dried.  A good tip is to pick your beans while the membrane attaching them to the pod is still green, once it starts to change colour the beans will be too mature and they start to get hard and chalky.

Either way, it's time for planting.

A nasty stain

Hi Peter

I have some more problems in my vegie garden my beetroot is all leaves there is nothing growing or developing below the ground.

I have sooty mould on my bean leaves & little white insects as well, it is also starting to effect our basil.

I hope you can help

Regards

Maureen

 

My mum has a passion for Beetroot.  She actively tried to pass it on but only partially successfully.  I like Beetroot but I don't get that excited.  As usual though, home grown or at least home prepared is extra special.  Tinned beetroot is perfectly flavoursome but Beetroot is such a fantastic raw material for pickling, flavouring and cooking it is really worth having a go. Besides that, Beetroot is generally pest free and easy to grow.

These are beetroot we harvested this week from the Magic Square Display Garden we prepared for the flower and garden show. No additional fertilizer added, that's the value of a large volume of potting media for containerized vegies.

So what could prevent Maureen's Beetroot from developing a nice fat root? Generally the explanation is too much nitrogen encourages leaf development at the expense of root growth.  Of course this is one of my favourite topics, ensure your plants get abalanced diet.  Many commercial preparations over emphasize nitrogen because it makes plants look shiny and healthy easily but really it is junk food.  Chicken manure and chook pellets are also heavily weighted towards a quick shot of nitrogen.

My other mantra is "prepare soil thoroughly and if you are growing in containers use a premium potting mix".  The structure of the growing medium (soil or potting mix) is really important when growing root  crops such as beetroot because the root needs to expand and grow into the medium.  Poorly drained, soggy soil and hard compacted old dirt just don't cut it with root vegies.

At Scotsburn we have traditionally sold Beetroot seedlings year round in Melbourne although the text books generally recommend against sowing through the winter.  Experience says they will plant out quite happily, they just grow more slowly adding a few weeks to the standard 10-11.  There is an argument for direct seeding all root vegies as it prevents root damage during transplanting, of course from my perspective starting with seedlings takes away the problems of germinating seed.  Careful transplanting of seedlings also removes the need to thin out direct seeded plantings that have been over sown.  We sow Beetroot 'seed pods' directly into punnets and pots so each of these clusters can be thinned as you plant them.

OK so a little bigger than my recommendation, but they grew faster than we expected.  These were planted from advanced Funky Fresh Kitchen pots a couple of weeks prior to the Flower Show so that's about 9 weeks in the beds. Where did these beetroot go you ask?  So did I.  I believe Debra schanffled them.

Don't be afraid to pick small sweet leaves for salad mixes this should encourage more growth and ensure that the shoulder of the bulbous root is covered with soil as it matures to protect it from cracking when exposed to the weather.  And please pick your Beetroot before the bulbs reach cricket ball size.... taste sweet!

By the way.  Basil season is ending, getting too cold for Basil now.  Little white insects?  White fly.  White fly love beans and tomatoes.  They are sucking insects so treat them the same way as Aphids.  White fly doesn't generally create a lot of damage itself but it can carry viral diseases.

Who Powdered my Pansies?

We have the most beautiful batch of Violas in 200mm pots.  Three separate colours including white and  Deep Marina.

Oh, yes they are this beautiful.
Except for one thing.... the foliage is full of powdery mildew.  Our sales people have been driven mad with desire.  They can see these beautiful plants but the production team won't let them be touched.

Powdery Mildew is not a fungal disease that we deal with all that regularly.  We often get plenty delivered to us on hanging baskets that we are sending to the flower & Garden show.  The fungus just loves the Autumn weather; cool nights, high humidity and still days.  The other factor that has affected our Violas is they were returned from the Flower & Garden Show display and cut back to re-grow.  Under normal circumstances this wouldn't be an issue but cutting the plants back stressed them enough to allow the Powdery Mildew fungus to attack.


That's a really nasty infestation of Powdery in Zinnia.  From my experience Powdery can really destroy a plant but usually it just hangs around making the plant miserable and it is very contagious if the conditions are right.

What to do?  First and foremost prevent infestation! Remove any infected plants.  Ensure hight light levels, yes that's right if possible get your plants out from under the shade.  There are very few plants that will need or like shade cover between now and December.  The other thing we do in the green houses is turn the fans on.  Quite simple, we have fans that stir the air around to prevent that close humid environment developing that fungi like.  The other thing I have seen (but never used myself) greenhouse growers use is Sulfur Burners, sulphur is very effective in controlling the Powdery fungi. I'm sure these are available for enthusiasts from Sage Horticulture, but they are of no value out of doors.


OK so sometimes we still get infected.  Commercially there are some very specific fungicides for controlling Powdery mildew, BayletonTM  comes to mind but I'm not aware of it being available on consumer packages. A Lime Sulphur  spray should be available from most good garden centres.  I have made the mistake of spraying Powdery with a general fungicide assuming that if it was effective on Botrytis (Grey mould) it would be effective on Powdery... wrong! So don't do that. I have found two interesting organic sprays: baking soda and milk.  The baking soda idea matches one sent to me this week by Marina who suggested this basic recipe to control aphids and sooty mould.  Marina's spray didn't include baking soda and she replaced the water with dish water, I think that might just frighten the Aphids away. Thank's Marina.

Last resort?  Dilute Quarternary Ammonia, some household disinfectants contain ammonia in this (quarternary) form.  It works, but it needs care not to burn the plants and you must use the quarternary form.  If the foliage is especially dense (think our Viola crop) it is very difficult to get the ammonia solution in contact with the fungus so we might have to cut them back again.... Oh I'm getting dizzy.

A Mould for all Seasons

Thank for the news and advice!
I have a fairly large Kaffir Lime in a tub, never had a problem over many years, suddenly developed BLACK MOULD in/on/under the leaves. Also ants LOVE it and run all over it.
It looks very healthy apart from this.
What to do?
Many thanks, Lena

I love this one because I can talk about Aphid poo and snigger like a school boy.

I'm pretty sure that Lena's Lime has Sooty Mould.

That's a pretty disastrous infestation on oranges.  Click here to see the original and get some detailed information on the source of the mould, Mealy Bugs.

This mould is quite common on Citrus, Gardenias, Crepe Myrtle, Azaleas and I remember Oleander from childhood. Fortunately for me it is not a common problem with annual flower or vegetable seedlings.  The interesting thing is that the mould fungi does not actually grow on the plant but in the sugary Honeydew secreted by sap sucking insects: Aphids, Mealy Bugs, Scale, White Fly, etc.  Honeydew?  That's the polite term for bug poo, hence my juvenile merriment.

Of course it's unsightly and it is a clear sign that something will have to be done about the sap suckers.  I have written about sap suckers previously, just follow this link if you want all the details.

The short and honey sweet version is spray with Confidor if you are happy with chemicals.  Very effective and apparently safe Confidor is a 'systemic' insecticide so it gets into the plants system and is sucked up by the insect.
Not into chemicals? White oil is very effective and drowns the bugs on the plant's surface.  I have always been a fan of Clensel, a soap formulation that knocks down insects.  Keep an eye out for Neem preparations, I don't know any brand names but have a look at this link if you are interested.

Oh, and the ants that Lena noticed?  I think that's nature managing the aphid population.

Enough for now.  Di wants me to look at Powdery Mildew next week.  Timely of course.