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Showing 8041 - 8070 of 20174 comments

Capsicum (also Bell peppers, Sweet peppers) 16 Dec, Frankly (Australia - arid climate): Can you give me material about the process of growing Capsicum capsicum, I want to plant in Vietnam Dalat And planted do not need greenhouse, thank you!
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Pumpkin 02 Oct, sunshine (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate): When is the time to grow pumpkin, cauliflower, mandarin. Thank you.
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Pumpkin 21 Oct, Margaret Symons (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate): In HB, pumpkin planting of seeds you've stored from last year gets underway in early October. They're easy to grow, plant deeper than 3 cm if birds may dig them out. They will ramble everywhere in your garden! ....Plant mandarins before November. Mandarins do fine semi rural in HB with no frost protection. But once a year, you need to spray them with oil as they can get sooty mould. The sooner you spray the better if the leaves start showing this black mould as it spreads. I hate spraying if there are bees around so check this out first. I underplant citrus with allysium as this little flower is meant to discourage bugs.
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Cabbage 02 Oct, rhonda (Australia - cool/mountain climate): Hello, I live in Nerriga near Braidwood, New South Wales and have had a failure with my cabbage and cauliflower crops. I grew them in a large igloo covered with cloth (with holes) and our temperature here goes to -7 Centigrade. My cabbages and cauliflowers grew lovely for a while then no hearts in the cabbages and no cauli in the cauliflowers. Only leaves. I gave them sea sol often and watered regularly. Not sure how much water they wanted. They did freeze a few times but went back to normal as the day progressed. Can you help for next time? Thankyou. Kind Regards, Rhonda Richards
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Cabbage 31 Dec, Kevin Anderson (Australia - temperate climate): Hello Rhonda. I have some suggestions: (i) patience (haha), (ii) think about the varieties of cabbages and caulies that might be suitable for your area (meaning choose quick growing varieties), (iii) plan your autumn planting and growing around your first frost and your spring planting around your last frost, (iv) buy a max/min thermometer for use in the poly tunnel, and (v) think about the effectiveness of a "double skin" poly tunnel. By suggestion (iii) above, I mean try to calculate how many weeks/months into autumn and winter you would like to keep growing your brassicas. Ditto for spring plantings. Hope that this helps. Kevin Tasmania
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Cabbage 04 Oct, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I live in a totally different climate to you. I'm having trouble growing savoy cabbage - probably planting too late and probably too rich a soil and too much water. I have savoy now, been growing for about 10 weeks or more and lots of leaves and little head. Same happened last year. The year before I had great Savoy. We have had very warm winters - in the last month temps have gone from 6-9 at night and mid 20's in the day to 14-18 at night and high 20's and even records of 34 last week in the day. I would suggest prepare your soil well - compost and fert or whatever you use and then plant the plants - don't fert again. Little plants need regular watering but when they become larger cut the watering back to each second or third day - I will have to remember to take my own advice next year.
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Sweet corn (also corn,maize) 01 Oct, Erik smith (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Hi when I grow sweetcorn the corn seems to not mature properly very skinny narrow small cobs that stay white without many kernels which are very pale.i an in Brisbane Qld
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Sweet corn (also corn,maize) 02 Oct, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Your corn is not being pollinated. Plant several rows - helps pollination. When the tassel (top part) and ears (cob) have come out, run your hand up (close the fingers in) the tassel to release the pollen and it falls down on the ears. It will collect the pollen as you run your hand up and then drop it on the ears, Plenty of water.
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Sweet corn (also corn,maize) 04 Oct, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I usually give my corn a hit up with fertiliser when I hill the plants up when they are about 15-18" high. You could use de-composted manure or compost. The wind usually helps with the pollination process but sometime no wind or it is too strong.
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Sweet corn (also corn,maize) 01 Oct, Darren (Australia - temperate climate): Sweetcorn needs a lot of compost and aged manure dug into the soil beforehand; it is a very hungry crop. Also loves water.
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Potato 01 Oct, Denise (Australia - temperate climate): I would like to grow potatoes from store bought sprouting potatoes in a foam tomato box Can you tell me if potting mix is ok to use alone Do i cut potatoes and which way up do I plant them Thanks
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Potato 02 Oct, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): If I understand what you mean by tomato box, you may need something deeper than this. If potatoes are large cut in half and leave in the sun for a couple of days to dry the cut section. Then plant with the flat part down. The shoots will come out the top part.
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Tomatillo 30 Sep, Paul (Australia - temperate climate): I live in Western Victoria, and would like to try some Tomatillo. Can you advise where to buy seed or seedlings in Hamilton or Mt Gambier (nearest main centres). I do grow Cape Gooseberries which grow extremely well here, despite frosts in winter months but have never tried ixocarpa.
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Tomatillo 02 Oct, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Try "Australian Seeds" website. 30 seeds $3.60 + postage. Or look for Cape Gooseberries - very similar. Look around the internet to find sellers and best price.
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Tomatillo 30 Sep, Lawry (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I get my seeds fro fairdinkum seeds. They are a farth north qld family who sell all sorts of fascinating seeds by mail order. Fairdinkumseeds.com.au or on Facebook.
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Horseradish 30 Sep, Shelley Johnson (New Zealand - temperate climate): Just thought I'd mention I found horsradish plants at Mitre 10 today in Westport. I've been looking for it for a very long time so was very happy. Other Mitre 10 store may have it now.
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Potato 29 Sep, Heather (Australia - temperate climate): I'm growing just a few purple potatoes in a cage following the instructions above. I've never grown potatoes before at all so need some help please. When they sprouted the little plants are not what I imagined. I thought it would be a tallish, narrow shoot but it is a little clump of leaves about 10 cm round (the clump, not each leaf). Do I just bury this whole thing in the next layer of mulch etc? I can't imagine how it will grow through. Perhaps I should have watched more closely and mounded up before the leaves opened, but I didn't notice until they were like this (the leaves are almost the same colour as the compost mix). So, is it OK to bury them now, or should I have done it sooner? I only planted four bits and the first two are as described but the other two are just coming up now, so not too late for those perhaps but they are all together.
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Potato 02 Oct, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I have never tried this. As the plant grows just add more mulch/soil around the plant but don't completely cover all leaves. Leave the top leaves out.
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Rutabaga (also Swedes) 29 Sep, Daryl Pungitore (Australia - temperate climate): How are swedes preserved? I dont really want to freeze them. Any ideas?
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Rutabaga (also Swedes) 02 Oct, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I found this on the web. I also store carrots, beetroot and swedes in my ‘cushion’ boxes. It is easy to store them and very convenient to pop outside to get something to prepare for dinner. I lift the vegetables and twist off the tops and then put them into a wooden box on top of a layer of compost (you can use sand for this too). I make sure the vegetables aren’t touching and then I cover them with compost. This way they store beautifully over the winter. Done in a very cold place though.
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Rutabaga (also Swedes) 02 Oct, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Probably best to just keep in the fridge.
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Pumpkin 28 Sep, Jenni (Australia - temperate climate): My 9 year old has been eager to grow something she can eat so I gave her some pumpkin seeds from a store brought pumpkin. She dried them out and buried them. Leaves are starting to grow to my surprise. She tenderly waters them each day but wants to know, what she can "feed" them to make sure they are nice and tasty. Also, is it even the right time to grow pumpkin? We are on the south coast of South Australia and the weather is...well odd at the moment. Any tips to pass on to a very enthused and dedicated 9 year old girl? Thanks!
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Pumpkin 02 Oct, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Great to hear of someone so young who wants to grow things. If this attempt fails, tell her to try next year. Plant around April/May and grow into the winter. If you have or can make a garden bed, tell her to try growing some radishes - nearly the easiest thing to grow. Go to Bunnings or a nursery and buy some punnets of lettuce or other things she likes and plant them. When starting out it is a lot easier to plant seedlings. The hard work has been done to germinate them. Also buy a little container of fertiliser (about 2kg or so) from nursery or Bunnings etc. I use a watering can (9 liters) and add a small tupperware cup of fertiliser to the water. Give it a good stir. Scale this down to say 1/2 to 3/4 of a tablespoon in 1-2 liters of water. Wait until the plants have grown to 3-4-5 inches. Little plants little fertiliser and more as they get bigger. Good luck.
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Pumpkin 30 Sep, Darren (Australia - temperate climate): Spread some compost around the seedlings, and then add plenty of mulch, to save on water in summer. As they get bigger, cut the watering back to a couple of times a week.
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Yacon (also Sunroot) 28 Sep, Linda B (Australia - temperate climate): Apologies for not checking my post...autocorrect put 'compacted' soil. I thought I typed 'composted' soil. I would imagine that compacting the soil would not be that great for a tuber! Sorry folks!
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Potato 28 Sep, violet (South Africa - Summer rainfall climate): hi im in soshanguve north of pretoria,am strugling to.get tubers. can I produce my own from the potato then plant on my one hector in november?
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Garlic 27 Sep, tammy pillay (South Africa - Semi-arid climate): can i grow garlic in albert fall pietermaritzburg kwazulu natal area
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Tomato 27 Sep, Daisy Brown (Australia - temperate climate): Hi guys, do we need to do plant successive crop for tomato?
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Tomato 28 Sep, Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Bush varieties (determinates - like Roma) of tomatoes will produce a crop all at the same time basically. Where as indeterminates (cherry) will produce over several weeks/months. Yes you need to plant successive crops if you want to be picking all year.
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Asparagus 26 Sep, Ross McLaren (South Africa - Summer rainfall climate): hi there what is the best possible way to grow asparagus in KZN. Tunnel, with raised beds? What Fert do I need, how many times do I water them? Want to start a small bunch to see if it will work :)
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