How to Control Grey Aphids on your Brassicas.

Grey Aphids if left uncontrolled will suck the life out of your brassicas and leave them for dead.
Luckily for us, it's an easy pest to control.

Broccolini and Brasscias

I was reading an article or it might have been a gardening tip somewhere that suggested removing the seed leaves or the first set of leaves and planting your brasscias into the soil up to the base of the first set of true leaves, so here goes.




Cheers

Stewart.

26, 26 and 28mls

Since Christmas I've tiped out 26, 26 and 28mls from the rain gauge. I have powdery mildew on everything it can possibly grow on and then some. When it does fine up enough to work in the garden again I'll nearly have to start from scratch. But lovin the rain.

It's supposed to fine up this week so all the squash and zucchinis at the community garden will have to be pulled out. I have to see if I can rescue the rock melons and cucumbers. The rest of the potatoes will have to be dug up as well. I'll probably put in a quick summer green manure crop where they were and use the space for onions and brassicas. It looks like a rat or something is eating the corn before it is anywhere near ripe so it looks like I'll have to spring for some fine chicken wire and surround the corn with it and see if I can keep whatever it is out that way. Does it ever end? I suppose if it's good enough for something else to eat my food I must be doing something right.

And if I can ever remember to but the bloody lid back on the chook food when I finished feeding them I'll be a lot happier with myself too!
I hate it when you got no one to blame but yourself.

Cheers

Stewart

But wait there's more

Hang on a minuite, it must be Wednesday somewhere in the world.

Some more of the Wednesday walk through.

First up is the white Italian garlic bed with the purple podded peas at the back.

Very happy with the progress here.

Click on the photos if you want to see a bigger photo.



Some people think they are cute but, as you can see in the photos below, the trouble I have to go to to grow a few lettuce, (not to mention having all my carrot tops eaten off) I hate them.











These are the drunken women lettuce I've been growing for a while now.

The aforementioned possum has had more enjoyment from them than I have. Bloody, bloody bloody........bloody possums.








These are my Red Iceberg lettuce which I am especially proud of.

The possum got a few munches on them but I've had the rest and it's a great little lettuce for sandwiches.








Beetroot and some more lettuce which the possum hasn't found yet for some reason.













Climbing snow peas in flower.

I'm growing about 6 plants in 3 week intervals so I can hopefully have a continuous supply of snow peas until it gets too hot for them.

So far so good.







An eclectic collection of brassicas which includes red cabbage, kohlrabi, Cauliflower, 'Violet Sicilian' and Broccoli, 'Romanesco'. I think there is a normal drumhead cabbage in there as well as a normal Broccoli.

Cheers and happy veggie gardening,

Stewart

Thanks Shallot

Hi all,
Well it's cold here in Toowoomba as it probably is every in Oz at the moment.

I finished work this morning at 4am and had to wait 5 minutes for the car to warm up enough so I could melt the ice on the windscreen.

I also had 4 large eggplants that now look like they have had the life sucked out of them.

Some good things about the cold is that it will sweeten up all my brasscias that I have planted as well as being a good time to plant my shallots and onion seeds.

I planted my shallots on Monday along with preparing a garden bed for my Spanish red onion seeds which I'll be planting on Monday coming.

I haven't over done the preparation of this bed as I don't want to much fertility.


The bed has been fallow for the last three months and I added about 50 liters of cow manure to a 3x2 mtr bed.

Too much fertility can cause excessive soft leafy growth to the detriment of storage and increasing their susceptibility to disease.



Cheers and happy veggie gardening,
Stewart.

What is Dolomite

What is Dolomite and clubroot?

Peggy from Organic Growing Pains left me a comment on my last post asking about Dolomite and it's relation to Club root in Brassicas.

So I thought I'd make a post about it and do the best I can to answer.

I might try point form and see how that works.

Dolomite

• Dolomite is not a fertilizer.
• Dolomite is a form of lime
  
• Dolomite is Calcium magnesium carbonate.
• It raises pH and supplies calcium and magnesium
  
• Dolomite is a soil unlocker and will even help improve clay soils.
• Use Dolomite only if you have acid and you need to sweeten it.
• It is slow acting and won't react with any old manures or organic matter.

Clubroot

• Clubroot affects Brassicas, including radish, seakale, swede and turnip.
• Clubroot is a fungal disease
  
• Clubroot is a soil borne slime mould, Plasmodiophora brassicae
• Clubroot is usually introduced to the garden in soil that adheres to boots, tools, and wheelbarrows, in garden compost or manure, and directly on infected plants.
• It is most common in soil that is acid and waterlogged.

Clubroot Symptoms

• Swollen roots and a distorted root system not to be confused with symptons of root knot nematode attack, which are smaller lumps more evenly distributed along the roots
• Plants affected grow very slowly and wilt quickly on hot days.
• They may eventually collapse altogether

Controlling Clubroot

• Improve drainage and add lime/dolomite at recommended rates.
  
• Raise your own plants or use resistant plant varieties.
  
• Maintain good weed control as some weeds can carry clubroot
• Practice good crop rotation.

Hope that helps Peggy.

This is by no means a definitive work, if anyone has anything to add then please leave a comment.