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Showing 4741 - 4770 of 20105 comments

Silverbeet (also Swiss Chard or Mangold) 07 Dec, anon (Australia - sub-tropical climate): A plants purpose is to grow and set seed so that it can reproduce it's self in the future. If there is a lack of nutrient (fertiliser) and or water then it won't grow much and will go to seed. A local farmer has just redesigned his farm (moved soil and laser levelled etc). He planted a cover crop to put some fibre back into the soil. He is watering the hell out of it but it just won't grow much - reason - there is no nutrient in the soil.
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Silverbeet (also Swiss Chard or Mangold) 05 Dec, Anon (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Probably one or both of two reasons. They lacked fertiliser/watering or the season, coming into hot summer weather. More a cool weather crop I think.
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Rhubarb 03 Dec, Spike Petersen (Australia - temperate climate): I have been wondering if a raised garden bed would be ok to grow rhubarb as a horticulturist this is one plant that has been a difficult one to grow as well as strawberries nothing much else is a problem. Its been said that I can get a broom handles to grow yet rhubarb eludes me. Thanks in advance
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Rhubarb 14 Dec, Craig chapman (Australia - temperate climate): Gday spike yes this is my first year growing rhubarb in raised garden beds, my harvest is unbelievable,our temperature where I am gets very hot 46 is not uncommon, however this year I covered my entire veg I patch with fruit fly netting (we get the here) the netting is only 2-3% shade so on the roof I staggered 70% shade cloth that is 1.8 wide the missed 1.8 and so on so every thing gets sun but not all the time, my beds consisted Of we’ll rotten cow manure with a sandy top about 4-5 inches then sugar cane mulch to keep moisture in, hope this helps..
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Strawberry Plants 04 Dec, anon (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I have tried to grow strawberries the last two years. Come to the conclusion that it is not worth all the effort. Not enough quality and quantity of strawberries. I had 18 plants. I put in weed mat ground cover and a drip irrigation system.
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Rhubarb 04 Dec, anon (Australia - temperate climate): I have never grown it although my mother grew it in the 1960's. I think it grew a bit wild. Read all the notes here about climate to grow in, soil type, good draining soil, not heavy wet soil. Research on the net
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Yam/Oca (also Oka) 02 Dec, MaryJane (Australia - temperate climate): I'd love to grow yams . I never ever see them here in NSW or Qld. In nZ they have the red orange and yellow. I'd be happy for any!!
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Yam/Oca (also Oka) 02 Dec, anon (Australia - temperate climate): Look up some seed selling websites to find some to buy. The guide here says to plant by Nov so you need to hurry.
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Tomato 01 Dec, Tom (Australia - temperate climate): What is the best fertilizer for tomatoes?
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Tomato 16 Dec, Barbara (Australia - temperate climate): My tomato bushes are great and promise a bumper crop again this year. As my mother before me, I dig cow manure (from the shop) into the bed six weeks before planting the seedlings. My mother added liquid manure to hers as well.
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Tomato 03 Dec, anon (Australia - temperate climate): A general all round fertiliser grows most things.
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Capsicum (also Bell peppers, Sweet peppers) 01 Dec, Dale (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I have a very healthy capsicum plant with many flowers and a half a dozen fruit coming along.Just spotted 3 capsicum with brown softish marks on them.(I picked them and cut the brown out) I almost cried when I saw them.They looked so healthy from a distance. We have had extremely hot conditions exceeding 35 degrees. and no rain.I have been watering them,but the ground around the property is starting to 'crack open'.Maybe the water isn't fully getting to the roots..I don't know.Any advice would be appreciated.Thanks
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Capsicum (also Bell peppers, Sweet peppers) 02 Dec, Another gardener (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I have the same thing happening with my caps. I had a few develop nice and big but now that the weather is so hot the skin is being burnt by the sun. I think with this near extreme hot weather it is near impossible to grow certain crops, caps being one of them. I live near Bundy and we have just had Nov aver max temp of 30.9, 2.5 above average. Today is 35 and the rest of the week is 34-36. These kind of temps are normally the hottest of days in mid summer not the start. You need to be watering a lot and even trying to shade the plants some how. I don't normally grow things this time of the year and I'm quickly winding down my crops - too hot to work.
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Capsicum (also Bell peppers, Sweet peppers) 03 Dec, Jason (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I had the same thing last year (on the coast south of Sydney), particularly getting burned on the west-facing side, from the hot afternoon sun. The UV seemed to be particularly strong last summer. My cucumber vines all got fried before producing any fruit, unlike the year before which had a good crop. Shade cloth might be the way to go
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Capsicum (also Bell peppers, Sweet peppers) 19 Dec, Anon (Australia - sub-tropical climate): You can buy 30% shade cloth.
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Tomato 29 Nov, Allan Fraser (Australia - temperate climate): my tomatoes are being bored into with some sort of caterpillars also some with black spots any ideas on how cure this organiclly or failing that anything to stop it ???
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Tomato 17 Feb, Elizabeth (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I found the same thing happening a few months ago with our tomatoes (Black Russian and Moneymaker). I found out it is Cotton bollworm: a nocturnal moth which lays it's eggs on the flowers, which then hatch and enter the baby tomatoes when they are tiny. I have my tomatoes string-trained on a 'cage' structure made from sticks/branches, so I used a Vege Net from Green Harvest over the entire structure, pegging and tucking the edges in (placing plastic flower pots over the tops of the sticks/branches, to prevent holes in the net). There was a period of finding spots developing, and caterpillars inside the tomatoes for a few weeks after, however no fresh infestations. I'll be doing the same this year right from the start.
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Tomato 02 Dec, Another gardener (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Look up natural sprays for caterpillars and Qld fruit fly on the internet. The holes caused by pillars and black dots are probably qld fruit fly. Chemical for QFF is LEPIDEX.
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Strawberry Plants 28 Nov, Veronica (South Africa - Summer rainfall climate): I need to plant strawberries I'm in upper tongaat Where can I start
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Strawberry Plants 29 Nov, anon (South Africa - Summer rainfall climate): By the planting calendar here it is nearly too late for you. Read your post again
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Rockmelon (also Canteloupe) 28 Nov, Peter Blakey (Australia - sub-tropical climate): how do you care for the rockmelon plant the one we have have grown from scraps and have many flowers and one has a small fruit
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Rockmelon (also Canteloupe) 29 Nov, anon (Australia - sub-tropical climate): It is becoming late in the season to be growing rockies with the hot weather we are having and coming The plant will have lots of flowers, male and female (the one with the fruit on it), bees need to do their pollinating work. Only a small % of the female will develop into fruit. They need plenty of water while the fruit is growing (only takes a week or two). It takes approx. 45 days from pollination to the fruit ripening. Back off the water a bit after the fruit has grown to full size. Too much water and they will split in the hot weather.
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Cucumber 28 Nov, Judy Chisholm (New Zealand - temperate climate): Why do my cucumber plants have some yellow leaves. I have given them general Fertilizer and also Worm team. Do I need to do anything more as I may have planted them a bit early. Also how do I tell the difference between a female and male flower.
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Cucumber 02 Dec, Anon (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate): If you put a lot of N on, the leaves would be dark green. If too little N then the leaves would be light green yellow. If too much N then it would burn and kill the plant. Worm tea is only a soil enhancer, gets the bugs etc going. It could be a deficiency of some trace elements in the soil.
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Cucumber 04 Dec, Anon (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate): If your soil is sandy and you do a lot of watering, then you would leach out the nutrients. Have to apply more fert.
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Cucumber 29 Nov, anon (New Zealand - temperate climate): Depends how old the plants are, if 8-10+ weeks then leaves yellowing off would only be natural.
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Cucumber 28 Nov, Liz (New Zealand - temperate climate): The yellow leaves might be due to too much fertilizer. Try just using one type. They should grow if you are giving them enough water and protecting from very cold nights. The female flowers have a tiny, cucumber shape just behind the flower.
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Chinese cabbage (also Wong bok, wong nga pak, napa cabbage) 27 Nov, Sera Taole (Australia - temperate climate): Iam a home gadener in Fiji.Been tryin g to get my napa cabbage to have a head .The leaves seem to be taller and wider.l have not given up hope yet... would be grateful for advice to get my plant looking like the one on pictures.
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Chinese cabbage (also Wong bok, wong nga pak, napa cabbage) 24 Dec, colleen (USA - Zone 10b climate): You're not alone! I have *never* been able to get mine to naturally head like it's supposed to, and I've tried several different seed varieties of Napa cabbage. An older gardener told me to tie them loosely with twine once the plants started to get fairly big (he said to do the same with cauliflower) and also to make sure I'm planting in the coolest months possible, amending my soil to make it more acidic (mine is very alkaline), adding phosphorus but not too much nitrogen, and making sure the plant is getting enough water. The twine trick worked fairly well, but it seems like
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Strawberry Plants 26 Nov, Geoff (Australia - temperate climate): I planted some strawberry plants in large pots. They were growing well for a couple of weeks when one night something has eaten all the leaves of the plants. What may have caused this?
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