Category Archives: Gardening

Growing giants by encouraging your children to garden (Wally Richards)

November 15, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

We need to encourage our children and grandchildren to appreciate Nature by including them in some gardening activities. I believe that young children have a natural infinity with plants and insects when they are allowed to explore our gardens.

Children learn many things by mimicking their parents and are often keen at a young age to assist in various gardening activities.

I remember as a toddler spending many hours in the garden collecting caterpillars off the cabbages and feeding them to our chooks.

I was given my own little spade and wheelbarrow when I was about three and had a lot of fun moving the weeds my mum removed from gardens

to the compost bin or to feed them to the chooks.

I can still remember how good it felt to be part of Nature back then and the same feeling pertains today when I work or wander around my gardens.

It was about that time, when I was given my own little plot of ground to grow plants in.

Seeds would be planted and I would be taught which seedlings were weeds and which were plants.

My own little watering can would nurture the baby plants till maturity.

A great ado would be made when one of my cabbages, silverbeet or lettuces was harvested for the evening meal.

Even though I hated eating silverbeet back then, I had to enjoy my own grown silverbeet, because I grew it!

It was the fuss that the adults made, that gave me a feeling of importance and likely kept me gardening for the rest of my life.

Plants that move have a fascination for children and a great one for this is Mimosa pudica, the Sensitive Plant, which folds up its leaves when touched.

They are easy to grow from seed as a pot plant for a windowsill. Nice pink flowers also.

As the plant matures it has thorns on the branches which incidentally are another attraction for children.

(Available from Kings Seeds..https://www.kingsseeds.co.nz/products/sensitive-plant)

Cacti with their prickles often appeal to young boys and I had a small collection when young and still keep a few.

Two awesome plants for children to grow are the super giant sunflowers and pumpkins.

Called My Giant Sunflower these extra tall sunflowers will grow up to 5 metres tall (17 odd feet). Grown in full sun in soil that has excellent drainage.

The giant pumpkin is called My Giant Pumpkin and these monsters can weigh over 1000 pounds at maturity (half a ton).

Some garden centres run competitions for the tallest sunflower and the biggest pumpkin with various prizes for the winners. Check your garden centres.

Designed for children but may also be open to big kids like me. The seed packets contain information on growing and recording the progress of your plants.

Another interesting aspect is to encourage the children to give their giant plant a personal name after it is established.

Naming the plant makes the giant more personal and helps the children to have respect for plants and nature.

If I was going to grow either of these giants, here is what I would do: In an all-day-sunny area, I would dig a hole about a spade depth and width, chop up the bottom of the hole, so the soil is loose, then fill the hole with chook manure to about two thirds full.

(Other manure could be used if chook manure is not obtainable, but chook is best).

Fill the rest of the hole with a good compost and soil mix, 50/50 making a small mound about 12cm tall above the filled in hole.

Place one seed in the middle of the mound and wet it down with Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL), (20 ml of MBL to 1 litre of water).

Water the mount to keep moist with plain water and then every 2 weeks with the MBL.

Overseas the biggest record vegetables have been achieved with products very similar or the same as MBL.

Spraying the foliage of your Giants every 2 weeks with MBL (10 ml to a litre) will also assist in a bigger healthier plant.

After your plants are established and growing well, give them a drink using Cucumber Booster, once a week.

This is a high nitrogen product that is a combination of sulphate of ammonia and potassium nitrate, which you diluted in water.

Cucumber Booster is excellent for any plants that enjoys a boost of nitrogen after establishment.

It is used for growing cucumbers, pumpkins, zucchini and gourds.

The MBL and Cucumber Booster can be combined for watering into the soil near the base of the plant.

Because of the weather patterns we are experiencing, after you plant your seed, cut off the base of a 2 to3 litre plastic fruit juice bottle and place this over the mound with the cap removed. This will give your seed and seedling its own little glasshouse.

This is removed once the seedling starts to fill the bottle and needs more room.

With the Giant Sunflower a tall strong stake should be put in the ground at seed planting time on the edge of the mound.

This will be needed later to give extra support to the plant.

Another interesting thing to do is once the sunflower gets up about a metre tall, plant 3 or 4 climbing bean seeds at the base of the plant.

These will grow up the sunflower and also provide extra nitrogen for the sunflower.

It is a lot of fun plus a great way to get the children way from the TV and video games, showing them there is more to life than a screen.

AROUND THE GARDEN

Aphids are likely to be found on your roses at this time and they can easily be controlled with a safe spray of Wallys Super Pyrethrum

and Wallys Super Neem Tree Oil combined. Spray very late in the day just before dusk to obtain the best results.

Stone fruit trees that had the curly leaf disease will now be producing new leaves free of the problem.

The damaged leaves will fall off over time. You can if you like, spray the newer leaves a couple of times with Liquid Copper Nutrient just to be sure, but if the disease has finished for the season the sprays will help build up resistance for next season.

A few sprays of molasses at a tablespoon per litre of water will give the tree some extra carbs and help hold the crop.

Codlin Moths will start to be on the wing about now so obtain a pheromone trap from your garden centre or from our Mail Order site at www.0800466464.co.nz

so you can monitor the best time to spray. A number of gardeners have found that a spray of Wallys Neem Tree Oil with Raingard over the young apples, applied about 5-7 days after an influx of moths into the traps, has resulted in only a very small scar on the mature apple, where the grub took its first and only bite.

Repeat spray 14 days later and then wait for another influx of moths before repeating.

Tomatoes should be doing well if in a sunny, sheltered spot. Only remove laterals on a sunny day when it is not humid or moist.

Spray the wound immediately with Liquid Copper to prevent disease entering the wound resulting in the possible loss of the plant.

Ensure that the tomato plants are well supported on stakes during windy times.

If you are concerned about blight spray the plants with Perkfection as a preventative, once a month. The same applies for your potatoes.

For general health of any plants, especially roses and food crops, a two weekly spray of MBL and Mycorrcin works wonders.

Spray both the soil and the foliage.

Avoiding the use of chemical sprays and fertilisers is a must for healthy plants.

Had the case of a lady this week that used a common chemical rose spray on her roses for aphids and found that the roses shed many of their leaves a few days later.

Plants hate poisons as they kill all the beneficial things in nature.

I have a saying that if you work with Nature, you will have great gardens, if you try to work against nature, you have chemical warfare.
Happy, Healthy Gardening.

Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
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1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)

4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)

Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion.
This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief,
INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)

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Gardening, News

A gardening checklist, heading into Summer (Wally Richards)

October 30, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

Now that we are halfway through Spring and quickly heading to Summer (December) there is a fair bit to do in our gardens so lets run a check list in case some things are missed.

It will depend on what you have in your gardens as to whether any or all things aspects concern you.

Roses: generally at this time we have new foliage, buds and some flowering taking place.

If there is any sign of black spot or rust, spray the roses and soil underneath with a solution of potassium permanganate mixed at ¼ a teaspoon to a litre of non chlorinated water and spray. (It may stain walls etc temporarily).

Food for Roses ; ideal is horse manure, blood & bone otherwise sheep manure pellets with the blood & bone.

These should be applied to the soil and covered with some purchased compost.

Add to this a sprinkling of Wallys Unlocking your Soil and once a month a small sprinkling of Fruit & Flower Power.

If you want good roses avoid soil damaging fertilisers such as rose fertiliser and nitrophoska.

Bio Boost is also a good natural slow release one and very well priced. (Available from PGG Wrightson or Fruit Fed)

If you have roses that need recovery from past chemical sprays such as Shield (now banned) the chemicals will have broken down the natural immunity of your roses.

You may like to start a recovery spray program which I wrote about originally just on 10 years ago.

On the first of the month mix the following at their label rates per a litre of water, PerKfection for Roses, Magic Botanic Liquid, Mycorrcin & Wallys Neem Tree Oil.

Spray late in the day just before sunset. Then on the 15th of the month repeat spray all the above except for PerKfection.

Only water with non chlorinated water so you don’t harm the beneficial soil life including the gardeners best friend, earthworms.

In some cases the health improvement of your roses will be quickly noticed; although some may have the additional problem of inherently poor breeding and always be a sickly specimen (even if they have brilliant flowers).

Lawns; I have had a number of inquiries about lawn problems starting with moss in lawns.

Don’t waste your money on sulphate of iron as it only burns the top of the moss which then it quickly comes back.

Instead, jet spray the moss with Wallys Moss & Liverwort Control. It kills the moss completely without damaging the grasses.

If there is a spongy feeling when walking on the lawn that indicates a thatch problem.

Simply spray the lawn with Thatch Busta to clean up the thatch. (Do the moss killing first, wait about 2 weeks then the Thatch Busta.)

Bare patches in the lawn indicate the root damage caused by grass grubs in the autumn/winter period and these same grubs are now down deep, pupating to emerge shortly as beetles.

They are too deep to do anything about them at this time so don’t waste your money on treating. The horse has gone so no need to close the gate.

Another bare patch problem with holes in the lawn indicate that porina caterpillars are at work eating at the base of the grass in the evening (when they are safe from birds) to return to their tunnels before dawn.

A simple spray over the lawn with Wallys Neem Tree Oil will stop the damage and cause them to starve to death.

In areas where porina are a problem treat the lawn this way every 3 months.

Best do this late in the day on a recently mowed lawn.

When the grass grub beetles emerge they are going to eat the foliage of several plants so after you have noticed holes in the leaves go out after dark with a torch and have a look.

If you have beetles then spray them directly with a mix of Wallys Super Pyrethrum and Wallys Neem Tree Oil. Repeat nightly.

Also a bright light in a window facing the lawn with a trough two thirds full of water with a film of kerosene floating on the top; placed directly under the window pane, will trap lots of beetles (maybe a few Codlin Moths too)

They fly at the bright light hit the pane and fall into the water where the kerosene stops them from escaping.

Feed the beetles to the chickens next morning or flush down the toilet.

By the way if you do not have two or three chickens and you have room for a small hen house and run it is a great investment.

They will convert kitchen scraps and weeds into the best manure around and as a bonus supply you with a few eggs that you will find really tasty and magic for baking.

Not only that you are a bit more self-sufficient.

Check all grafted fruit tree and ornamentals for any sign of foliage appearing on the root stock below the graft union.

Any found should be rubbed or cut off otherwise they will grow and the preferred plant will die.

Rust on garlic and curly leaf on stone fruit; this season because of a lot of rain and too many cloudy skies meaning not much direct sunlight has placed plants into stress which makes them more prone to catching diseases.

To help rescue the crop mix a table spoon of molasses to a litre of hot water to dissolve and then when cool spray over the foliage.

Repeat regularly till harvest. Also you can water the same into the root zone occasionally.

Weeds; they certainly grow at this time of the year and as long as you deal to them before they set seed they are not too much of a problem.

In fact weeds are a excellent asset to your garden soils as they have taken up goodness which can be returned to great advantage.

You could pull the weeds out, shake the soil off them and lay them back down on the soil.

That is good but even better; with a sharp knife slice through the weeds just below soil surface.

This leaves the roots in the soil to rot and provide food for the soil life and it does not disrupt the beneficial fungi in the soil.

The foliage can be laid on the soil surface where it will be quickly devoured by the soil life and worms.

Your soil will build up humus quickly if you spray the dying weeds with Mycorrcin.

Doing these things (sure it takes a bit of time but it is so therapeutic and anti-stressful) will overtime make for dream gardens and plants.

Citrus; its a good time to sprinkle Wallys Neem tree Granules underneath the citrus trees from the trunk to the drip line. This will help prevent insect damage.

If you have chook manure give a good sprinkling of that otherwise any animal manure or sheep manure pellets along with blood & bone. Cover with compost.

Sprinkle Fruit and Flower Power once a month.

A spray of Wallys Liquid Copper with Raingard added in the spring and autumn will help with any citrus diseases.

If the trees are looking a bit sad add Perkfection to the copper spray.

In cases where wet feet have rotted roots treat the area with Terracin to suppress the pathogens and help save the tree.

Three weeks later spray the soil with Mycorrcin.

Note always use non-chlorinated water which is easily achieved with a special carbon bonded filter on your outside tap (available from our mail order web site).

Pear Slugs; In warmer areas and later in cooler areas the pear slugs will attack pear and plum trees, they eat small holes in the foliage and look like a black slug.

Simply spray the tree with Wallys Liquid Copper to control.

Remember be nice to your gardens by being natural.

Image by kalhh from Pixabay

Gardening

DEALING WITH CODLIN, GUAVA MOTHS and ARMY WORM IN YOUR GARDEN (Wally Richards)

October 23, 2023 Pam Vernon 3 Comments

It is that time when fruit is setting and soon to be attacked from the grubs of moths; Codlin and Guava.

Guava moth is mostly in the upper north island but there has been a few cases in other areas likely as a result of fruit been brought south from infected areas.

So share with family and friends as there is nothing worse than losing your crop to these two pests.

There are two moths in New Zealand that attack fruit namely, Codlin Moth which have apples, pears and walnuts as their host fruit. Guava Moth which has ALL fruit and nuts as their host.

The Codlin Moth is seasonal active while there is fruit on their host plants but the Guava Moth is all year around going from one host tree to another including citrus.

Both are relatively easy to control so that you can obtain a reasonable amount of your crop as long as you follow my proven advice. Firstly let us understand how these two pests operate.

Being moths they only fly at night and they find their host tree by the smell of the forming and ripening fruit. So if they cannot smell your tree/fruit they will fly on by to a tree they can smell.

This is the first step in reducing the damage to your fruit by disguising the smell of the tree/fruit.

To do this you need an overriding smell that negates the smell of the tree’s fruit.

Wallys Neem Tree Granules scattered on the ground underneath the tree from the trunk to the drip line.

Then by making some little bags out of curtain netting we hang more of Wallys Neem Tree Granules in the tree on the lower branches about head high at the four cardinal points.

So we use the Wallys Neem Tree Granules as described after flowering and when the fruit has formed to a reasonable size. One application then is all that is needed for each crop to disguise the fruit as the granules last over 2 months, slowly breaking down..

The next step in control is to prevent any grubs that hatch out near your fruit from eating their way into the fruit. Once a grub enters the fruit you have lost the battle cause even if you use a poisonous systemic insecticide to kill it?

What is the point as its going to die inside the fruit and be useless.

No you need a non toxic substance on the outside of the fruit that is going to prevent the grub from eating its way in.

Wallys Super Neem Tree oil with Raingard is the perfect answer.

You spray the fruit, not the tree so there is a coating of Wallys Neem Tree Oil on the skin of the fruit protected from washing off in rain with Wallys Raingard (lasts for 14 days before reapplying.)

The Neem Oil is an anti-feedent which means when the young grub takes its first bite it will get some Neem Oil in its gut and will never eat again starving to death fairly quickly been so young.

On your mature fruit you will have a little pin pricked scar that where it took its one and only bite.

So all you do is just spray the maturing fruit every 14 days that are relatively easy to reach and spray.

Fruit that are more difficult to spray will likely be eaten by birds later on anyway and as long as you are getting a nice amount of fruit to harvest that is all that really matters.

Then there is also another way to control moth problem by which you set up a moth lure to attract them and kill them.

Take one litre of hot water add a100 grams of sugar, one teaspoon of marmite, half a tablespoon of Cloudy Ammonia and half a tablespoon of Vanilla:

Mix well and divide the mix between two plastic milk or soft drink bottles.

Punch some holes in the side of the bottles just above the level of the mix.

Place on a stand about a couple of metres away from the tree.

At about waist height like on a small folding table.

When a number of moths are caught dispose of them and make up a new solution.

Cloudy Ammonia used to be common once upon a time from a grocery store if not so easy to find try hardware stores, there are two chains in NZ and they may have it.

If you do all three procedures for control or at least the first two then you should be able to once again enjoy your own fruit.

The Codlin Moth traps are useful as if you monitor them they trap the male codlin moths which tells you it is the time to start using the Wally Super Neem Tree Oil spray on your apples etc.

If after a month you find no new male moths in the trap you can stop spraying as it is all over for the season. (That is unless you have Guava moths in your region).

Guava moth pheromone traps are a waste of time because they are all year round so there is no time to start or stop control sprays as with the Codlin Moth………..

Army worms are the caterpillars of the Fall Army worm Moth and these hungry little pests can devastate crops of vegetables and lawns.

Some of the methods mentioned above such as disguising the smell of your vegetable by using Wally Neem Tree Granules would likely help.

The liquid trap may also help catch a few of the moths.

My thoughts are to set up a Insect Killer trap safely outside (it is powered by 230 volts) so must be sheltered from rain.

The UV light shining out over your back yard will attract night flying insects and they will be electrocuted on the high voltage static electricity on the grid.

Same thing that used to be in old butcher shops for flies, nowadays there are smaller modern ones.

Also called a Bug Zapper.

Regular sprays of your lawn and plants that the army worm is devouring using Wallys Super Neem Tree Oil with Raingard added should also help control them.

Image by NoName_13 from Pixabay

Gardening, News

Pollinating your plants (Wally Richards)

October 17, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

I wrote an article on pollination and published in February this year as a number of gardeners were concerned that fruit was not setting and in particular zucchini and pumpkins and now we have a new season in front of us it would be a good time to repeat the subject.

Besides there are a lot more new subscribers to my weekly email due I think to the gardening sessions I do with Rodney Hide on Radio Reality Check through the Internet. https://realitycheck.radio/

So here we go……..

Most plants flower to produce seeds so their line will continue through their off-spring.

When it comes to our gardening efforts we want plants such as tomatoes, zucchini and pumpkins to produce fruit which in every case contain the seeds for the next generation of those plants.

When pollination does not happen then the fruit will only develop a little and then rot.

Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma.

The goal of every living organism, including plants, is to create offspring for the next generation.

One of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds.

Every year I receive enquiries about what is wrong with my zucchini/pumpkin/melon/cucumber?

They flower and the fruit appears and then it goes yellow and rots?

The reason is that the female stigma did not receive a few grains of pollen from the male flower anther.

When it comes to the likes of pumpkins, melons and zucchini I always hand pollinate to be sure of a fruit set.

Best done in the morning where you check your plants for female flowers.

That is the flower that has the embryo fruit behind the petals.

When you find one or more then you look for a young male flower (which does not have the embryo fruit) but has anther that is covered with pollen.

I prefer to pick the male flower and remove the petals exposing the anther.

Then I rub the anther against the stigma and thus pollinating it and setting the fruit.

Bees, bumble bees and some other flying insects may do this for you as there is a little nectar that the flowers produce to encourage the flying insects to visit and move pollen from flower to flower.

Now things don’t always work as you would like them to work and sometimes a fruiting plant does not produce any flowers.

This can happen if the plant does not get enough direct sunlight, there is not sufficient energy to produce flowers.

It can also happen if the plant is well feed and well watered instead of flowering it will vegetate producing lots of new foliage minus any flowers.

I call them Fat Cats, well feed and very lazy.

It could also mean that there is a lack of potash so it pays to sprinkle some Wallys Fruit and Flower Power onto the soil at the time flowering should start.

NOTE This… any Curcubitaceae family member which is a large family that includes melons, cucumbers, zucchini and squashes you can take male pollen from say a pumpkin flower and fertilize a female zucchini flower to set the fruit.

Then we have Self-pollinating, self-fertile and self-fruitful all mean the same thing.

You can plant a self-fertile tree and expect it to pollinate itself and set fruit alone (for example, peaches, cherries, apricots).

Self-fertilization, fusion of male and female gametes (sex cells) produced by the same individual.

Self-fertilization occurs in bisexual organisms, including most flowering plants, numerous protozoans, and many invertebrates.

Tomatoes are not pollinated by bees instead it is air movement on a sunny day that will do the job.

In a glasshouse or even outdoors its a good idea in the middle of a sunny day give the plants a gentle shake to set the fruit.

To grow tomatoes in the cooler months or though winter you need types that will produce pollen in the colder times to have fruit set.

Summer growing tomatoes will survive with protection but may not produce fruit.

Winter ones are Russian Red and Sub Arctic Plenty (from Kings Seeds) World’s earliest tomato.

Bred for the U.S. Greenland military bases to endure extremely cold climates.

Producing concentrated clusters of medium, good flavored, red fruit that ripen almost simultaneously.

A very small plant with compact habit so excellent for anyone interested in growing in pots. Determinate.

Blossom end Rot on tomatoes is the dark patch under the fruit that is the result of lack of moisture to move the calcium at fruit set time.

The fruit sets but the bottom has the dark patch.

After picking the bottom part can be cut off and the rest of the tomato eaten.

If not done the whole tomato will rot on vine or in a container after picking.

Tomatoes grown in containers are prone to this problem as they dry out quickly in hot weather and need watering like two or three times a day.

A large saucer under the container that is full of water will help.

Corn is another one that depends on lots of sun and a bit of a breeze to move the pollen from the male stalks at the top down onto the ‘silks’ of the female cobs.

Planting lots of sweet corn plants in groups but not too close to each other will help.

On a still sunny day you can shake the plants to allow the pollen to drift down onto the silks.

Corn varieties will easily cross pollinate if grown near to each other so keep your pop corn, ornamental corn and maize types well away from your sweet corn.

To sum up with fruiting vegetables and fruit we want them to be pollinated and set fruit for our food chain.

But in our flower garden the reverse applies we don’t want the flowers to be pollinated because once that happens the petals fall off and a seed pod forms.

If like on lilies, you were to carefully cut off the male anthers to prevent pollination then your flowers would last a lot longer.

Once the flowers on a plant have set then if you cut them off the plant (we call it dead heading) then the plant is likely to produce more flowers as it wants to produce seeds.

We do that with roses to encourage a second flush and not only do we cut off the dead flowers and the rose hips (that’s the seed pod) we cut back the stem a little to encourage new growth which can also produce new flowers.

Some gardeners use a small soft brush to collect pollen from male flowers to fertilise the females and that is a nice way of achieving fruit set.

Fruit trees that flower but produce no mature fruit maybe because of a lack of pollinators such as honey bees or bumble bees it pays to use a brush between some of the flowers on a sunny day to set some fruit on the lower branches.

Idea of planting flowering plants to attract honey bees may bring then to your bee loving plants but not to your fruit tree as bees are selective and generally speaking will work one type of flower only at any given time.

Bumble Bees are not so selective and will work several different types of flowers as available.

Figs are very different: The crunchy little things that you notice when eating a fig are the seeds, each corresponding to one flower.

Such a unique flower requires a unique pollinator. All fig trees are pollinated by very small wasps of the family Agaonidae.

The pollinators of fig tree flowers are tiny gall wasps belonging to several genera of the hymenopteran family Agaonidae.

Gravid female gall wasps enter a developing syconium through a minute pore (the ostiole) at the end, opposite the stem.

The wasp is long gone by the time the fig crosses your lips. Figs produce a chemical called “ficin” that breaks down the wasp bodies.

Nature is so resourceful.

Gardening, News

THE PERFECT RAISED GARDEN (Wally Richards)

October 9, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

Several years ago in the place where I was living; I had given over the back yard to a flock of chickens which made it awkward to grow vegetables in that area.

Being a back section down a long driveway I decided to construct a raised garden in the end of the turning bay. A good spot facing North-West, so sunny much of the day and also near the house with a wooden fence a metre away making it nice and sheltered.

I had a cocktail kiwi fruit vine growing on the fence and did not realise that would be a problem down the track.

I wanted a raise garden that would be about waist high so easy to work without bending.

Besides a high garden was less likely to have weed seeds blown into it.

I also did not want to spend a lot of money so I decided to build it out of corrugated, galvanised roofing steel.

I purchased 3 new lengths of roofing steel 1.8 metres long and 845mm wide for about $109 at today’s prices.

I also purchased two 100×75 x1800 fence posts ($30.00) that I cut both in half making them 900mm long.

As the posts are tanalised I did not want the chemicals leaching out into the garden and poisoning the vegetables so after cutting them I gave them two coats of acrylic paint all over to seal in the chemicals.

This done and dry I laid one sheet of galvanised steel onto the painted posts at each end of the steel.

The steel was flush with the bottom of the posts and thus drilled and then screwed on using roofing screws.

I also did the same with another sheet of steel and the other two cut posts.

I now had two long sides of my new raised garden.

The third sheet of steel I cut in half so that would be the two ends of the raised garden.

Making it 900mm wide a nice width to work on from one side and easy when access to both sides.

Simply drilled and screwed the two ends in place and sat the structure on the ground which was a gravel/stone area.

Now became the task of filling the raised garden up and I did this as I would a compost heap.

Pruning bits and and cut branches at the bottom onto the shingle then lawn clippings, spent potting mix, kitchen scraps, screwed up newspaper,

saw dust untreated, weeds not in seed, compost out of compost bin in fact anything organic.

Once the level got up to about 600mm or about two thirds of the way to the top I then placed some sheets of cardboard over the fill and on top of the cardboard placed a layer of chicken manure (could be any animal manure that is available) sheep manure pellets, then a sprinkling of Wallys Ocean Solids, Wallys BioPhos and Wallys Calcium & Health.

Thats the food done for the plants and over this I placed a layer (about 8 cm deep) of my favorite purchased compost, Value Compost which is available from Bunnings and some switched on garden shops.

This left a distance from the top of the growing medium to the top of the sides of the steel of about 20 odd cm.

Now with one long side facing the sunny north and though the steel nicely warming up the growing medium and the gap of 20 cm above the growing medium which means the wind passes over and we have created a micro climate.

This was so good that seedlings of silverbeet I planted took only about 3 to 4 weeks before I had good size leaves to harvest.

In fact every thing grew so quickly and healthy.

The four posts protruding a bit above the roofing steel were great to put a nail partly into each and then place netting over the garden which kept butterflies and birds/cats out of the garden.

My first season was great but the following season when I planted up nothing grew, plants sat there like they were sulking.

It took me a while to sort out the problem which I found that when I dug down into the growing medium I came across the most dense mat of fibrous roots that I had ever seen.

The cocktail Kiwi vine had become massive, spreading out all over the place to the point the neighbor complained about all this vegetation in his area.

The vine had found that there was a massive amount of food nearby and sent its roots across and then upwards to collect all this wonderful food I had placed there.

It completely ruined my raised garden but as every thing was screwed together It was simple to unscrew and remove the posts and roofing steel which I moved to my next place of residence and assembled again but this time on concrete.

A good lesson learnt if you are going to have a raised garden of any type you must place it on concrete or a solid concrete pad.

It only needs to be 40-50mm thick to prevent invading roots from any plants/shrubs/trees within many metres of the raised garden.

There is no safe distance that I am aware of other than about 10 metres from plants and likely 50 metres or more from established trees.

So put your concrete pad down on the ground and then place the raised garden on top of that.

Maybe a double layer of Black Polythene film which is what I call builders plastic that comes in packs 2mX5m and 200um thickness might work as long as it covers the area and has no holes in it to let any roots in.

I prefer the concrete pad. At my current place I have the same original raised garden posts and roofing steel now over 15 years old and placed on an asphalt area.

There is another advantage with this construction which is you can (where there is room) take one end off and with another two new sheets of roofing steel and another post cut in half and painted extend the size on the raised garden to double.

If doing this I would place a brace across between the now two central posts to stop any bowing effect from the fill.

People that do not have the room to construct the perfect raised garden can purchase lower type steel or wooden ones from the likes of Mitre 10, Bunnings or Trade Tested (on line).

There are nice small ones 60cmx 60cm and 41cm tall for about $50.00 and larger ones about 12cmx 120cm and 41cm tall for about $90.00.

I have several of those and they work a treat for growing any vegetable plants in just be sure they are placed onto concrete to prevent root invasion.

After a crop is harvested you can put over the medium a layer of cardboard smoothing any weeds and then animal manure and other goodies covered with Value Compost ready to replant a new crop of seed or seedlings.

Photo: pixabay.com

Gardening, News

More tomato growing tips (Wally Richards)

October 2, 2023 Pam Vernon 1 Comment

I wrote a bit about tomato growing recently and since then I have realized there are more things worth knowing to be successful and have a great crop.

There hundreds of different tomato types available world wide, red fruit, black fruit, even green fruit that are green when fully ripe.

Sizes vary from the size of a marble up to fruit weighing over one kilo.

All tomatoes can be brought down to two growth types, Indeterminate which are a vine and they continue to grow and produce tomatoes till winter ends their lives.

Grown in a glasshouse hydroponically I have seen a plant about 10 meters long with the last meter or so flowering and fruiting.

Indeterminate tomatoes need support of stakes or wires to keep them upright otherwise they tend to end up growing along the ground.

Examples would be Early Girl, Big Beef, Grosse Lisse and Money Maker.

Determinate tomato varieties grow to a predetermined height which is about a meter tall.

They need less support and are often referred to as ‘Bush Tomatoes’ as they form a bush about a meter tall and wide.

Laterals can be removed or left. They are not as long lived as the Indeterminate in most types.

Examples would be Russian Red and Scoresby Dwarf.

If you do not have a glasshouse then choose a spot where it is very sunny most of the day and sheltered from wind.

Against a wall facing north is ideal.

If you only have less favorable spots then grow Russian Red or Scoresby Dwarf.

I some times hear people say that you should not grow tomatoes in the same spot every year in case of disease build up in the soil.

Yes and no; as I know of gardeners growing their tomato plants in the same spot for over 25 years and outside of seasonal conditions no problems.

I think a problem can occur when chemicals are used along with chlorinated water to water the plants which kills the soil life and leads to the build up of pathogens in the soil.

The normal problems that occur are the following:

Collar rot which is when a rot sets in some where on the trunk of the plant cutting off the roots from the foliage which progressively wilts as the disease takes hold.

Caused by removing laterals, leaves and even fruit when the air is humid.

The moisture in the air carries the disease to the wound, where it enters the plants and sets up shop somewhere on the trunk.

More likely to happen in a glasshouse where the air is moist for a while after watering.

Only remove laterals etc when its sunny and the air is drier. It is also good practice to have some copper spray made up in a trigger sprayer and spray the wound as soon as it is created.

Blossom end Rot is another problem that often occurs to tomatoes that are grown in containers.

It is seen as the fruit heads to maturity as a black patch on the base of the fruit.

It is caused by lack of moisture at the time the fruit are setting.

Sometimes it can also be a lack of calcium so if you give the plants a little Dolomite that will ensure the calcium is present.

Then its a matter of ensuring the growing medium has sufficient moisture.

That may mean in container plants watering three times on a hot sunny day.

In a glasshouse when the temperatures are high you can see that the top foliage of the tomatoes are drooping.

This can happen even when the growing medium has sufficient moisture.

The plants are perspiring more moisture out through the foliage than the roots can take up fast enough to make up the loss of moisture.

The foliage like us perspire to help cool us down in hot conditions.

You can spray the foliage over and under with Wallys Vaporgard to reduce moisture loss by about 30-40%.

In the area of the tomato where the foliage is drooping can be also where there are flowers wanting to set their fruit which also leads to Blossom End Rot.

Setting of fruit is not done by bees although Bumble Bees flying near tomato flowers on a sunny day can set fruit caused by the vibration of their wings.

If you had a tuning fork you could make it vibrate and hold it near the flowers on a sunny day to set the fruit.

Normally out doors there is a bit of air movement on a sunny day which allows the pollination to take place.

In a glasshouse there may not be the same air movement so best on a sunny day when the flowers are open you tap the plant or the stake to make the plant vibrate and thus set all the fruit.

Split fruit on plants is caused by uneven watering.

Papery brown patches on the fruit is caused by strong sun effectively cooking the fruit. Thus you need to provide some shade cloth if that is happening.

Blotchy ripening and also lack of flavour is caused by insufficient potash which means you have not applied Wallys Secret Tomato Food with Neem to the plants.

This brand of food has a good amount of potash and gardeners that use it remark on how great their tomatoes are.

White fly are a big problem with tomato plants both in a glasshouse and outside.

Using Wallys Secret Tomato food with Neem Granules mix will help not only good growth but the Neem smell helps to disguise the smell of the tomato plants.

Wallys Neem Granules also on the soil, adds to that smell disguise aspect.

This season in my glasshouse as well as having Neem Granules on top of the growing medium I am going to hang some little bags of naphthalene crystals (From Wallys Cat Repellent) in the glasshouse to create an even greater smell.

Wallys Yellow Sticky White Fly traps are also another means of catching the adult white fly that may approach the tomatoes to lay their eggs.

Hanging off the stake above the plant is ideal and lifted higher as the tomato plants grow upwards.

In a glasshouse some hanging near door and vents can catch a lot of pest insects.

The tomato psyllid we have written about in the past can be easily controlled by using Wallys Cell Strengthening products. For more information on that just email me..

Photo: pixabay.com

Gardening

Bringing the ocean to your garden (Wally Richards)

September 24, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

The first thing too realize is that plants will take up any minerals or elements that are in the growing medium along with any chemicals.

For instance you avoid growing vegetables next to an older house as there is a likelihood of lead in the soil from lead paints used in the past on the house.

This is even more so for any root crops such as potatoes or carrots because roots store more of the lead than the foliage.

I read also that in old gold fields that planting of big rooting plants such as hemp can be used to take up the minuet gold particles and then later extracted from the mature plant.

This morning I read the latest newsletter from Guy Hatchet in which he says:

As you know, public health is my major concern. Little is possible without robust health.

So the most important question is what alternatives are available to solve the public health crisis?

Our political leaders and the nation’s medical administrators have fallen short of explaining to the public what has gone down,

not so much during the pandemic but post pandemic what is happening now.

The long wait lists for surgery and the appalling response times for emergency treatment are not so much a reflection of a health service in disarray,

but primarily the result of a massive increase in illness among the general population.

Heart disease, cancers, strokes, reproductive health issues, neurological illness, mental health episodes,

immunological deficiencies, disability, and excess mortality have been increasing at rates never seen

before. We have repeatedly reported on these. For example the rate of hospitalization for heart disease has increased by 83% and strokes by 40%.

None of these frightening developments have been mentioned during the election campaign.

Guy goes on to suggest: According to scientific studies, what really can improve health outcomes?

Food

Improving diet is a powerful approach.

Many studies show that the benefits of fresh fruit and vegetables for health are not only significant but they are very large studies.

Research published in 2015, with 150,000 participants over 32 years found that vegetarians live longer. Even a tiny 3 per cent increase in protein from plants led to a huge 12 per cent drop in risk of death from cardiovascular-related disease.

A study published by the BMJ found:

“Participants with Covid-19 who reported following ‘plant-based diets’ and ‘plant-based diets with pescatarian elements’ had 73% and 59% lower odds of moderate-to-severe COVID-19 severity, respectively, compared with participants who did not follow these diets.”

I replied back to Guy with the following: Hi Guy

Yes you are right about diet being the key to better health outcomes but produce commercially grown found in supermarkets is not healthy food with good nutritional values; it is unhealthy, force grown and containing numerous chemicals from sprays and fertilizers.

For instance NZFSA in one of their past analysis of food found 23 different chemicals in cucumbers tested; these were from sprays used to protect from diseases and insect pests.

That was one of the worst cases but most others also had too many chemical poisons in the produce.

Commercially grown produce is also relatively tasteless when compared to naturally home grown vegetables, which are delicious to eat and brimming full of minerals and nutrients.

Organic grown is half the answer as it removes the chemical poisons but it does not necessary increase the nutritional values and taste.

The simple test is if the produce tastes really good then it has great health values and you do not need to eat much to feel satisfied.
Regards Wally Richards

I believe that most readers of my columns already know these aspects and hence do grow as much of their own food chain as possible and have better health outcomes as a result, for them and their families.

Putting the goodness into the soil so the plants take it up will not only increase the goodness of the food but the taste will be that much better as well.

We have two products which are from the ocean one of which is Wallys Ocean Solids containing all the known minerals and elements of which there are 114 there of.

Lightly applied to the soil or occasionally diluted and sprayed over the foliage of your plants it will increase the health and goodness of your vegetables.

Then there is our special fertilizer made from the fish of the sea: Bio Marinus™ which is manufactured by the enzymatic hydrolysis of fish offal, blended with humate, seaweed and biology including Bacillus subtilis, Trichoderma, mycorrhizae fungi etc, together with gibberellic acid which promotes growth.

Designed to provide a high quality, cost effective fertilizer.

Use at 30ml per litre of non chlorinated water for soil drench and feeding plants.

15ml per litre of non chlorinated water for foliage spray.

Biologically active soils have the ability to retain moisture and release nutrients ensuring greater production, faster rotation and more rapid recovery from stress.

To build a healthy biological soil we need products that can feed living organisms.

Soil health and soil fertility requires much more than NPK fertilizer.

Without the right biology, plants and animals cannot reach their full potential.

Biology is essential for the recycling of nutrients and the fixing of atmospheric nitrogen.

Bio Marinus™ is produced in Christchurch made with fish from our Southern Oceans and available in one litre containers for the home gardeners.

These we have had the privilege to promote for a few years.

The company has focused its products to the commercial growers and have given me the rights to decant and relabel the product.

Which soon will be labeled as Wallys Fish Fertiliser.

The cost savings of us doing the product has reduced the retail price down by $2.00 to $16.00 a litre.

We also can now supply garden shops with a wholesale price so they can offer their customers the best fish fertilizer in NZ brimming full of goodness and microbes for your gardens.

The product is suitable to add Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) to the spray but as there is life microbes in the fish fertilizer you need to use it soon after adding or otherwise do not seal the cap as the microbes can grow their populations and balloon the plastic container.

You can use this to advantage by placing the fish fertilizer into a bucket of non chlorinated water and then add some molasses to the brew and grow over night your own billions of beneficial microbes to add to the soils of your garden.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Gardening, News

GROWING POTATOES AND THE POTATO PSYLLID (Wally Richards)

September 11, 2023 Pam Vernon 1 Comment

Many gardeners will know the trick of planting a tomato plant deep into the soil right up to if not beyond the first set of leaves.

The reason is that the plant will create roots all the way up the trunk which is buried, making for a bigger root system and a better plant.

In fact later on the trunk that is above the soil level will likely produce bumps which are the beginnings of aerial roots

and like potatoes you could mound up around the base of the tomato to have those bumps become more roots.

Now with a seed potato planted it will send up a shoot or shoots; which if they are stretch, then new tubers will be produced

all the way up making for a much bigger harvest of new potatoes.

To achieve this you dig a trench about one to two spade depths putting the dug out soil next to the trench which we will use later on.

The seed potato should have produced small shoots from the eyes and if they have not done so just put them some where in the kitchen and they will soon sprout,

just like the ones you buy to eat. (Temperature change to warm initiates shoots.)

Once they have some sprouts you put them outside in a sheltered sunny spot to ‘green up’ the sprouts which hardens them up.

Done correctly the sprouts will be green and about 1 to 2 cm long.

Then the seed potatoes are placed at the bottom of the trench about 20 to 25cm apart.

Under each seed potato place a few sheep manure pellets, a level teaspoon of BioPhos, a table spoon of gypsum and

level table spoon of Wallys Neem Tree Powder. (The Neem powder helps prevent damage from soil insects like wire worm)

As many of the green shoots should be pointing upwards and then you just cover so the shoots are hidden using the soil at the side of the trench.

Check every day and as soon as you see the green leaves of the shoots poking above the soil once again with a little soil just cover them.

You keep repeating this until you get level with the surrounding soil and then you likewise keep covering forming a mound.

Continue mounding, keeping the foliage covered as they poke through till the mound is about 20 to 25 cm tall above the level of the surrounding soil.

You have then stretched the shoots so they are about 40 to 50 cm long and all the way up that distance should be your new potatoes to harvest.

If you dont cover soon enough and the foliage gets between 4 to 6 cm out of the ground then you have lost the plot and you will only get the potatoes below that;

so waste of time continuing to cover any more.

You let the foliage grow and ideally spray it with Magic Botanic Liquid once a week till harvest.

Now if you grew potatoes last season and found that when you harvested you only had potatoes about the size of marbles which were re-shooting or if you had

reasonable size tubers to harvest but they had dark rings inside when you cut them in half, then it means you have psyllid problems in your back yard.

The cell strengthening products we talked about last week for tomatoes will solve the problem for you.

What you do is this: when you do the second covering of the sprouts in the trench you give each plant a drink of the Wallys Silicon and Boron Soil Drench about 200mils per plant.

Apply again the same amount when you do the 4^th covering of the sprouts and that is it for that product.

Once you have finished mounding and you are going to let the tops grow free; then you spray weekly over the foliage with Wallys Silicon Cell Strengthening spray

with Wallys Silicon Super Spreader added (which drives the former into the plant)

If you have it, add also Magic Botanic Liquid to the spray.

The spray made up keeps well so use a trigger spray bottle and after wetting the foliage with the spray just leave it handy to use next time till all is gone,

then make up a fresh batch.

Later on when the crop is mature and you harvest one or two plants and find they are good you can harvest the whole crop if you want the ground for other vegetables

or if not you can leave the crop in the ground to harvest as required but if you do this then cut the tops off and cover the stubble so nothing is exposed

to any psyllid attack.

If you do not have garden space to grow a few potatoes then you can always grow some in buckets or plastic bags (PB24 or bigger is ideal)

To do it you place a layer of Daltons ‘Value Compost’ at the bottom of the container and then the products as mentioned above.

Once again you keep covering as the foliage comes though with more compost and treat the container and coverings just as explained above in the trench method.

The best potato variety to grow in the containers is Swift.

Once you have reached the top of the container and allow the foliage to grow you may need to support the container with bricks or similar so it does not get

blown over with the wind.

Watering is important in containers or open ground as potatoes need to be kept moist while growing but not happy if too wet.

There are some novel ways potatoes can be grow and one that comes to mind is in a barrel with some compost and goodies at the bottom of the barrel and only

covered with more compost once after the sprouts come though.

After that you use polystyrene balls (like used in Bean Bags) to keep covering the foliage till its near the top of barrel.

At that time you need to put a cover over the barrel made out of plywood with a hole for the foliage to grow through.

The cover will lift as the new potatoes displace the polystyrene balls but you should if successful end up with perfect clean potatoes and a barrel full.

Obviously if this is the case you will need to remove surplus polystyrene balls on a calm day.

If you enjoy our posts, check out our sister site truthwatchnz.is

Gardening, News

Tomato Psyllid problems in your garden (Wally Richards)

September 3, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

True to form spring started on the 1^st September across New Zealand and with it a surge in gardeners visiting gardening shops and buying up plants and stuff to get under way in their gardens.

Now at the beginning of the season is a good time to review previous articles on the Tomato/potato psyllid that has ruined many a crop in the past few years as the pests have spread across most of New Zealand from humble beginnings (from Australia) in 2006.

My first realization of a problem was about 2009 when a crop of late potatoes was harvested to find that the tubers were only as big as marbles and re-shooting.

At the time I suspected it was too much nitrogen in the growing medium as the tops were big and the crop surprisingly little.

The tomatoes growing near by showed some yellowing and up curling leaves but other than that a reasonable crop.

I then moved to another location in Palmerston North which was a good sized warehouse with accommodation above it.

The outside was mainly concrete with a high concrete block wall on the boundary of the warehouse next door.

This created a micro-climate trapping heat between the two story warehouse and the two storey concrete block wall with a tennis court size area of concrete in between. An ideal area for psyllids to thrive in.

I dont know if I brought them (Psyllids) from my previous location or they came in on seedlings I purchased but they were there and thriving.

Tomato plants started out ok but soon lower leaves were curling up and going yellow.

Later these plants would get a fungus growth up and down the trunks and die.

A Tamarillo I planted grew up to about 6 foot tall in the container I planted it in and then leaves started going yellow from the bottom up, then falling off till there were no leaves.

New sprouts appeared at the place the leaves had been then they too frizzled up and the whole plant died all in one season.

Using Neem products helped but did not eliminate the pests so I tried quarantine cloth which the mesh is to small for the adult psyllid to pass through.

That helped a lot but did not solve the problem as the pests carried on feeding on my capsicum, chili, okra and pepino plants where the damage was smaller than usual size fruit.

I see on the Internet suggestions of various chemical insecticides along with natural ones for control but as far as I can see and from feed back;

they help but do not control or eradicate.

Quarantine cloth helped but was awkward.

So I consulted my friend from the Australian company, NutriTech and he told me that by making the cells in the plant walls so tough with silica it would prevent the young nymphs from feeding after they hatch out of their eggs.

The program involved given the young plants a drink of the Wallys Silicon and Boron Soil drench done at planting time and again two weeks later.

That’s it for that product as too much boron can cause toxicity. The boron is used to ensure the uptake of the silica by the plant’s roots.

At the same time as planting the seedlings you spray them with Wallys Silicon Cell Strengthening Spray with Wallys Silicon Super Spreader added which drives the previous spray into the plant.

This I made up in a handy trigger sprayer to which I added Magic Botanic Liquid as well for the many benefits MBL provides.

The products keep well in the Trigger so you use weekly until all is used up then make a fresh lot.

Spray the plants weekly till they get to over a metre tall then you can drop back to a two weekly spray.

Once the plants are taller than you then a monthly spray is all that you need to do.

Now what happened was this; hundreds of eggs were laid by the many adult females that started off in the new season.

The eggs hatched but the nymphs could not feed on the tough walls of the leaves and branches/trunk so their lives were short and they starved to death.

The adults lived their life span but also could not feed on the tough plants so they also died early and within about a month there were no more Psyllids in my glasshouses or outside.

Completely wiped them out of my property.

I also noticed a strange thing, the leaves of the tomato plants were double if not triple the size of what they normally would be.

The reason is that silica helps the plant gather more energy from the sun and as a result of that the plant grows larger leaves and bigger, better flavored fruit.

So a double win situation no psyllids and really big tomato plants with the best crop of tomatoes that I can recall. (Of course I was also applying my, Wallys Secret Tomato Food).

It also meant once again after a period of not having many tomatoes because of the psyllids I then had tomatoes of the best type to give away again.

I used the same products on a young Tamarillo plant I purchased and it grew and produced a small crop first season.

To be sure I also treated the capsicum and chili plants with the cell strengthening products and they did splendidly also.

The following year I did not need to use the products as there was no psyllids in my neck of the woods.

One thing you have to watch out for is plants you purchase, tomatoes etc that they do not have any adult psyllids or eggs on them as that is the most likely way you will start a psyllid problem in your back yard.

They could come from next door also but as insects are lazy they dont travel far unless they have to.

It has always been white fly that is a curse on tomato plants as well as many other plants.

If you are putting Wallys Neem Tree Powder in the planting hole and Wallys Neem Tree Granules on top of the growing medium/soil that helps a lot with controlling white fly.

Also the Wally Yellow Sticky White Fly traps should be used tied to the stake above each tomato plant and raised as the plant gets taller.

It is amazing how many hundreds of insect pests get lured to the traps and come to a sticky end.

The traps are available in packs of five, double sided so you can peel the cover off one side and when that is covered in insects use the other side.

The Silicon cell strengthening spray can be used on other plants to increase leaf sizes and I would add molasses to the spray as well which also helps make for larger leaves on plants.

Like the bigger the Solar Panel the more electricity and with plants the bigger the leaves the more energy is produced so the plant grows much better.

It can help over come the dimming of the skies that prevent us from growing food crops.

Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)

4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)

Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion.
This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief,
INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)

Photo: pixabay.com

Gardening

WORM FARMING (Wally Richards)

August 28, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

Many years ago I learnt about worm farming and how to turn kitchen wastes into rich foods for the garden.

A Palmerston North firm of Plastic Moldings started producing what I think was the first NZ made available worm farm in NZ called Worm-a-Round.

I purchase one from their factory (and later on a second one; both of which are going strong years later).

I promoted the worm-a-round and many people saw the great advantage of these very strong units and purchased one to use.

The Palmerston North City Council got on the band wagon and they to encouraged people to turn their kitchen wastes into great garden foods instead of sending this valuable resource to the rubbish tip.

The original company amalgamated with a similar firm and once again not only did I help sell units but some garden shops, Mitre 10 and Bunnings also use to retail the units.

Over time cheaper inferior worm farm units appeared and like a lot of well made products the Worm-a-Round disappeared from the market.

A gardener contacted me about a month ago and asked if I knew where they could obtain a new Worm-a-Round so I did a bit of investigating and found that the moulding company still had the moulds but had not produced any for a number of years.

So I commissioned them to produce 5 units for my company to once again promote this superior worm farm unit.

The following is my original information that used to appear on my Gardenews web site:

Worms are the most efficient method of recycling household wastes into high value nutrients for the garden.

There are about 3000 types of worm species but of these there are only about a half dozen or so that are important to cultivation.

Eisenia foetida, commonly known as the Manure Worm, Red Wiggler or Tiger worm, has alternative bands of yellow and maroon down the length of its body.

You know you have one when you pick it up, it thrashes about, wriggling and squirming.

The amazing attributes of the Tiger worm include, being able to consume their own body weight in food each day.

The daily food intake of organic material results in a wonderful, organic material called vermi-cast.

They also produce 60% of their body weight in urine each day which is referred to as leachate.

This leachate is very high in nitrogen and can be diluted 10:1 for use as a highly nutritious plant food.

Tiger worms are surface feeders and they thrive in organic materials such as manure and kitchen scraps when these materials are mulched on top of the soil.

Tiger worms have another interesting aspect as they are a little like Monarch Butterfly’s caterpillars in so much as they are distasteful to predators such as birds.

Thus many birds will leave them alone and being surface eaters this is most important as they are easy prey otherwise.

These wonderful worms are the best compositors in the world, turning waste material into high value nutrients for plants to use.

Everyday you likely throw out kitchen wastes, which clog up our tips and sewer systems.

Such a waste of wastes.

Now what say you could convert your wastes to top quality plant food (leachate) plus highly nutritious soil for gardens and containers (vermicast) and be able to collect these valuable products cleanly and simply?

Well now you can with an amazing unit called WORM-A-ROUND.

Worm-a Round is a special double bin that allows you to run your own Vermicomposting unit and collect the valuable plant nutrients.

Simple to use, you start off with newspaper and kitchen wastes to which is added 250 grams of Tiger Worms.

(These are available from worm growers through out NZ).

Each day you simply add your kitchen wastes for that day and once in full operation your Worm-A-Round bin can cope with 2 kg of kitchen waste per day.

A tap is on the lower, collector bin and each week you can collect about a litre of leachate. This can be stored for use as required.

If you think about it, that’s about $20.00 worth of top quality plant food a week.

Over the following weeks and months the worm population will increase till it reaches its optimum level.

(Worms are self regulating in this aspect).

At this time you could remove some of the worms and place them in the garden under a layer of organic mulch.

Mushroom compost would be ideal for this.

You may like to add them to your own compost heap to get more action from it.

If you don’t remove any worms it does not matter as they will not over crowd their home.

It takes between 3 to 6 months to reach this point.

After a period of time vermicast will reach the top of the first tray and then the second tray should be added to the bin.

Food scraps can then be placed in this top tray, daily.

Once this top tray is three quarters full of vermicast most of the worms will have moved up into it.

At this time you can remove the bottom tray (full of vericast) for use with your potting mixes, as seed raising mix, mulch around plants, or for use under plants at planting time.

It also can be added to water as an additional liquid additive in the garden.

Vermicast, like ordinary worm casts is a beautiful crumbly material just busting with plant nutrients.

Each harvest will save you many dollars in potting mixes and other plant foods.

Except for your initial outlay for the bin, instructions and worms the whole process will not cost you a penny in the future but will return you many dollars worth of products every week for years.

Vermicomposting is an interesting aspect of gardening and of great value to your plants as well as the important principals of recycling.

An activity that even the younger members of the family can enjoy and participate in.

Giving them a better concept of nature and the world around them.

The Worm-a-Round is rat and mice proof so you wont have any problems from the vermin.

I keep a plastic container on the kitchen bench, which kitchen wastes goes into then when full I take out and put into one of my Worm-a-Rounds.

Place your worm-a-round on a table outside in a shaded situation handy to the kitchen for convenience.

Worm-a-Rounds can be obtained by Mail Order through www.0800466464.co.nz

LAST DAYS OF SPRING PROMOTION……..

Here is the original message and conditions….

WELCOME TO SPRING PROMOTION

As many of you are aware this time of the year we try to offer some specials for you to use during the coming growing season.

The following specials will start today 13th August and finish on Thursday 31st August at Midnight.

Any orders must be placed on our mail order web site at www.0800466464.co.nz

ALSO MOST IMPORTANT…PLACE THE WORD SPRING in the CUSTOMER MESSAGE BOX

This allows me to sort out the various discounts and add any shipping before I phone you to organise mode of payment for the order.

(Credit/Debit Card payment over phone which is the best and fastest way alternatively I email you the details for a bank transfer).

While on the phone I can also answer any questions you may have. (It’s called service which is not common these days)

Here are the offerings:

25% off Neem Oil, Neem Granules and Neem Powder

20% off all other items except for BULK items

Of the above: North Island if your order comes to $100 or more after discount then free shipping. (Not including Bulk items)

South Island in your order comes to $150 or more after discount then free shipping. (Not including Bulk items).

10% off Bulk Items such as 10kilo bags BioPhos, Ocean Solids and Unlocking Your Soil. These bulk products will incur shipping at cost.

No discount on Distillers or Worm-a-Rounds and shipping at cost.

These are 10kg North Island $16.00 South Island $19.00

Up to 25 kg North Island $19.00 South Island $25.00

We do not send to PO Boxes or outer Islands such as Waiheke or Stewart Islands But will send to the Ferry depot servicing those Islands

Photo: pixabay.com

Gardening, News

Seed Germination time (Wally Richards)

August 14, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

SPRING SALE (See below the article) and SEED GERMINATION TIME article

There are two basic places to germinate seeds, one is where they will ultimately grow and mature the other is in suitable containers to germinate and then to transplant out into open ground or larger containers latter on.

Firstly it is always best to plant any seed in the spot where it will grow and mature.

The reason for this is because when a seed germinates it will send down a tap root and if in open ground in a friable soil that root can be very long.

If on the other hand we germinate in a container or seedling tray that root will be limited in the depth of the tray and growing medium.

It is not practical to grow every thing at the maturity site, especially when we are getting an early start or growing out of season.

There are some seed types which should only be grown in their maturity site and only planted when conditions are favorable.

I often see seedlings for sale in punnets of plants which should never be offered this way because novice gardeners, that know no better, may purchase and have poor results..

The worst example of this is root crops such as carrots and parsnips which should only be direct sown as in any other form they will not produce a normal root. An exception to this is a newer carrot that is round in shape and does not produce a long edible root.

Beetroot and onions are seedlings that will transplant but are better to direct sow. (Direct sow means planting seed where they will mature) Spring onion is an exception.

Corn, beans and peas should all be direct sown and you will get far better crops if you do so.

Larger seeds are easy to handle and can be placed where you want them to grow without having to thin out later on. Silverbeet is another one that would be best direct sown.

If you want to start off seeds early in open ground try this method.

Make a trench about 100mm deep and the same wide, mow your lawn and collect the clippings which you then pack fresh into the bottom of your trench.

(Note if the grasses are in seed in the lawn it maybe best not to use the clippings to prevent moving grass weeds to your garden)

Pack firmly to about 80mm then sprinkle a little compost over the clippings to cover.

Next sprinkle Wallys Calcium & Health and Unlocking your Soil along the trench along with foods such as chook manure, sheep manure pellets, blood & bone, Bio Boost and Neem Tree Granules.

Once again cover lightly with weed free compost (Purchased)

Next sow your seeds such as peas, beans, sweet corn etc.

Once the seeds are spaced out along the row then spray them with Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) at 20 mls per litre. This really speeds up germination. Then cover the seeds with more compost and water down using a fine rose watering can with MBL added.

For those that have problems with either cats, birds or late frosts then make some hoops out of No8 wire and place them along the row with a clearance of about 200mm in the middle of the row.

Place crop cover over the hoops and on one side cover with soil and on the other side with lengths of old timber or similar.

That allows you to easily take off to tend to the plants as needed.

The heat from the grass clippings will warm the soil which greatly helps germination.

Once well developed then you can remove the hoops and cover and store for future use.

Now lets look at doing similar but in seedling trays or by using cell packs or punnets.

If you keep the punnets and cell packs that you have purchased in the past then these are good value to use.

Wash them out in hot water so they are nice and clean.

To fill I use only purchased compost of high quality such as from Daltons or Oderings.

I have found that seed raising mixes are a gimmick and most of the ones I have looked at are too expensive and do not work as well as a good quality compost for most seed germination projects.

Think about this; outside in Nature we find all sorts of soils types even straight gravel or sand where seeds do not appear to have much trouble germinating, without any special mixes from mankind.

One important aspect to consider when germinating in seedling trays is to have heat from a heat pad.

Some garden shops, pet supplies and brew shops have heat pads which can be used for germination.

I place a sheet of polystyrene block on a bench to direct the heat upwards then sit the seed trays on the heat pad.

If you go to wholesale fish outlets or fish departments of supermarkets you will likely find used polystyrene trays free or for a few dollars.

You can sit your heat pad in the tray and being white it will provide lots of good reflected light.

If the pad you buy is a higher temperature than you require then cover the pad with sand and keep the sand moist. Sit your seedling trays on the sand.

Fill your seedling tray or cell packs to about two thirds full with purchased compost as above.

Carefully sprinkle a few seeds over the compost keeping them apart so they each have their own space.

Spray then seeds with MBL and Mycorrcin mixed together in a trigger sprayer with non chlorinated water. Once the compost and seeds are wet then cover seeds with more compost (You can sieve it if you like) and wet down with your spray.

Now you spray the tray at least twice a day to keep the compost moist using the same trigger mix.

Once a few seeds have germinated and before they start stretching for light get them out into natural light from overhead such as on a bench in a glasshouse.

If you do not have a suitable place then place your polystyrene box outside with a sheet of glass over it.

The seedlings will need spraying still but off the heat pad a lot less. Make sure the seedlings are in good

light but not strong sun light to burn them.

If you are worried about them at night you can bring the polystyrene box inside or onto a porch.

When the seedlings are big enough to handle prick them out and pot them into small pots once again using the compost.

WELCOME TO SPRING PROMOTION

As many of you are aware this time of the year we try to offer some specials for you to use during the coming growing season.

The following specials will start today 13th August and finish on Thursday 31st August at Midnight.

Any orders must be placed on our mail order web site at www.0800466464.co.nz

ALSO MOST IMPORTANT…PLACE THE WORD SPRING in the CUSTOMER MESSAGE BOX

This allows me to sort out the various discounts and add any shipping before I phone you to organise mode of payment for the order. (Credit/Debit Card payment over phone which is the best and fastest way alternatively I email you the details for a bank transfer)

While on the phone I can also answer any questions you may have. (Its called service which is not common these days)

Here are the offerings:

25% off Neem Oil, Neem Granules and Neem Powder

20% off all other items except for BULK items

Of the above: North Island if your order comes to $100 or more after discount then free shipping. (Not including Bulk items)

South Island in your order comes to $150 or more after discount then free shipping. (Not including Bulk items)

10% off Bulk Items such as 10kilo bags BioPhos, Ocean Solids and Unlocking Your Soil. These bulk products will incur shipping at cost.

These are 10kg North Island $16.00 South Island $19.00

Up to 25 kg North Island $19.00 South Island $25.00

We do not send to PO Boxes or outer Islands such as Waiheke or Stewart Islands But will send to the Ferry depot servicing those Islands

Image by onehundredseventyfive from Pixabay

Gardening

TOMATO STARTING TIME (Wally Richards)

August 7, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

August for my money is the start of a new growing season, the day light hours are increasing every day plus dormant plants and trees are waking up.

Time waits for no man and so the quicker we get started the better; the sooner we will be rewarded with the fruits of our endeavors.

Already garden shops have tomato seedlings in cell packs and individual pots ready for you to grow on.

Likely you can find some Sweet One Hundred tomato plants which a plant is a good choice as it produces early a lot of bite size ripe tomatoes which are ideal in your summer salads.

Early Girl is another one you are likely to find as it is a medium size early maturing tomato suitable for the home garden.

Now if you have a glasshouse or the equivalent then you off growing with a smile on your face.

A glasshouse protects from the elements but it does not protect from what you do.

If your glasshouse is an open soil to grow in or even a raised garden you have constructed to grow in then do not be in a hurry to plant your new tomatoes in the cold soil.

If you have a thermometer put it into the soil and see what temperature is at 5 centimeters deep.

Until you have a consistent soil temperature of 10 degrees C (Which is the temperature many seeds will germinate at) there is no point of planting the tomatoes into the cold soil.

This is particularly so if the soil is wet. Dry soil will give a higher temperature reading.

But you are impatient, you want to be the first in your circle of friends to have a ripe, new season, home grown tomato.

Ok dig a hole a couple of spade depths and get the motor mower out with a catcher on and mow the grass (hopefully the grass is not too wet to mow.)

Now stuff the grass clippings into the hole and pack down firmly till it is within about 100mm of the soil level.

Sprinkle about 10mm of soil on top of the grass and then sprinkle Wallys Secret Tomato Food with Neem onto the soil then another 10mm layer of soil over that.

Thats about a 80mm hole which you can sit your tomato plant in the middle of and back fill the hole so the trunk of the tomato plant will be buried up to or just beyond the first set of leaves.

The reason to bury the plant deep is because tomatoes will produce more roots up the trunk when buried.

A bigger root system will ensure a bigger healthier plant.

Now sprinkle some of Wallys Secret Tomato Food with Neem onto the soil around the plant but not touching the trunk.

This food will be watered down over time and the Neem Powder will create a smell disguising the tomato plant smell making it more difficult for insect pests to find where to lay their eggs.

In fact you could also Spread some of Wallys Neem Tree Granules around over the soil areas to make even a bigger smell barrier.

The heat from the composting grass will warm the soil and speed the growth of your tomatoes.

Also place a stake into the soil near the plant for support later on and on the stake hang one of Wallys Sticky white Fly traps with only one side’s cover peeled off to expose the sticky yellow surface.

The still covered other side will rest against the stake.

As you plant grows taller lift the yellow sticky pad higher so it is always just above the top of the plant.

Hang a White fly sticky trap near each vent and door to catch any incoming.

Do all this and with any luck you will have a season without a lot of whitefly problems.

Now if you do not want to make a hole and fill with grass clippings then repot your tomato plants into pots a bit bigger than what they were purchased in, use black pots as they are best for trapping heat.

The reason being is that you dont want to go into too bigger pot too soon and have the danger of over watering and maybe killing the tomato plants.

You can keep re-potting into larger size pots as the plants fill the pot with their root system.

Apply the Wallys Secret Tomato with Neem at each stage, in the pot and on top of the mix.

The plants will need watering and a little often, during the day is the rule rather than a drench to make the soil colder at night.

If you do not have a glasshouse you can use a sunny porch, conservatory, car port or under the eaves on the north side of the house.

The potting up progressively to bigger size containers is the answer for best results.

Later on when the season progresses you can plant your potted tomatoes out into a sunny sheltered area of the garden.

Likely they will then be about a metre tall and in a large bucket size container.

Using Wallys Neem Tree Granules and Yellow sticky white fly traps out doors will also help reduce insect pest problems.

If you do not have any place to plant your tomato plant then get a plastic container or plastic rubbish bin than is between 50 litres to 100 litres.

A 200 litre plastic drum cut in half is ideal. But make sure its sitting where the plant will spend all summer and autumn as it will be very heavy to move around.

Use Daltons Value Compost as the growing medium.

Apply Wallys secret Tomato Food With Neem to the soil surface every so often or every 4-6 weeks

It has a good amount of potash which will ensure you have great juicy tasting fruit.

If you had problems with the tomato psyllid last season then you need to invest in Wallys Cell Strengthening products to eradicate the pests from your back yard.

Spray your tomato plants with Wally Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) every week as they are growing to ensure healthy good producing plants.

I mix up the MBL in a one litre trigger spray bottle and leave it sitting near the tomato plants so I can spray them when ever passing if required.

If any insect pests start to get established such as white fly then spay just before sun set with Wallys Super Neem Tree Oil and Super Pyrethrum combined, under and over foliage.

Repeat every 7 days as required.

If you have a worry about blight on your tomatoes then Spray them with Wallys Super Copper Nutrient at 5 mil rate and a month later again.

If blight does attack spray the Plants with Perkfection at 7mil rate.

When removing laterals only do so on a sunny day when the air is dry.

To set fruit on a sunny day tap plants to make them vibrate which sets the fruit.

Ensure that later on when in flower that the medium is kept moist so you do not get blossom end rot.

Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)

4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)

Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion.
This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief,
INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)

Gardening, News

GARDENING FOR HEALTH (Wally Richards)

August 2, 2023 Pam Vernon 3 Comments

I am very conscious of people that have only small sections or live in flats, retirement villages and apartments which means they have either no land or very little land to grow food in.

For people in those places they need to make the most economical use of their land available and also to grow the most highly nutritious food possible.

This is particularly so now as a draconian Government has passed the therapeutic bill which means they control what natural remedies, vitamins, minerals and supplements that you are allowed to purchase and use for your well being and health.

Traditional remedies that their parents and grandparents used to keep them healthy is now only available at the whim of some bureaucrat whom likely has a big Tax Paid salary and less knowledge about health than most of us gardeners.

So far they have yet to try and stop us from growing our own healthy food and high health products.

Recently I wrote about growing sprouts on a window sill and using Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) in the water that you are sprouting the seed with.

Spouts are very nutritious and when you sprout the seeds with MBL they become super nutritious.

Now let me tell you a little story about what I discovered over 20 years ago that made a big difference to my health and well being.

I had learnt about MSM (Organic Sulphur) which is a white crystal powder from pine trees that you dissolve in a vitamin C fruit juice and take morning and night.

Your body needs a regular amount of sulphur daily and back 40 plus years ago you would have got your daily sulphur dose from your purchased (once upon a time) very healthy food chain.

(Not any more unless you are growing your own vegetables naturally and putting sulphur into the growing soil in the form of gypsum).

MSM I learnt about from an authority on the subject who is living in America and was sent 500 grams to try it.

I did and the first thing I noticed was that my memory improved significantly to the point that I could go into any room and know why I was there.

Reason being is sulphur helps carry oxygen to the cells and they function better.

Great relief for sore joints, arthritis and many other health issues.

Sulphur is also nature’s beauty element and often women that take MSM notice an improvement of hair, nails and complexion. It is also anti-aging. (I think mainly because of the continual detox MSM does when taking regularly).

I also learnt about that same time, after reading about Sea 90, that wheat grass and barley grass are two plants that will take up all the 114 known minerals and elements if they are present in the growing medium.

(Tomatoes want 56 different minerals and elements which they take up)

I was well aware of the fad referred to as drinking wheat grass juice for health and had even tried some once from a juice bar and found it bitter and not nice to drink.

But if the wheat grass takes up all the minerals and elements given to it when it grows then there is some great benefit in growing it and juicing.

There are four sources of mineral rich products, Ocean Solids being the minerals from the ocean along with the sodium chloride (salt which is about 95%) and the other 5% is the other 113 minerals and elements.

Minerals from powdered rocks which is called Wallys Unlocking your Soil and the MBL which contains the minerals from prehistoric times when the young planet was mineral rich.

BioPhos for the phosphate which we use as a building block for several important substances including those used for cell energy, cell membranes and DNA.

I then started growing wheat grass with all the above minerals and even if you do not have much land to grow stuff you can do this also.

I obtained some polystyrene boxes from a fish wholesaler (Also some supermarkets give them away)

I filled the boxes which are about 400mm by 28 mm wide and about 200 mm deep with Daltons Value Compost to about two thirds full; after putting some drainage holes in the sides of the box

(just up from the base. Reason being is some water will be under the mix as a reservoir to help keep mix moist.)

Over the compost I sprinkled Ocean Solids, BioPhos and Unlocking your Soil; then just covered that with a little more compost.

On top of that I spread the wheat seeds very thickly like many were touching each other then I sprayed them with the MBL mix.

I watered down with non chlorinated water and placed a sheet of glass over the box to keep mice and birds from getting in and eating the seeds. Keep the mix moist with regular watering.

When the box had a good show of germination of the grass I then did the same process to a second box to enable more grasses to be cut and used continuously.

When the grasses were well established I then removed the glass cover and once they reached a height of about 150mm it was time to harvest and juice. You can spray the grass with MBL for added benefit.

Now this is very important you need to use a manual type juicer which you turn the handle to squeeze the juice out of the grass.

Electric ones will destroy some of the goodness and antioxidants as they heat up while juicing and are hard to cleans because the green juice really stains.

With a pair of scissors you a couple of handfuls of grass off just above soil level and run them through the juicer. The liquid will be sweet as it has a high brix level which also indicates its full of goodness.

I started juicing once a day and it made a big difference to my well being.

Back then I was still a smoker and would over indulge in my favorite spirit at times.

I used to suffer from chronic indigestion if I ate ice cream in the evening and pastry foods before bed, waking up later, in a bad way.

The wheat grass fixed that completely which I figure was caused by an unbalance in my body and I have hardly ever had indigestion since.

Some people prefer barley grass to wheat grass and there is no reason not to grow both together for added benefits of the barley. You will find barley juice is a little bitter when compared to the wheat juice.

I wrote about juicing many years ago after having found great health benefits from it.

One chap told me that he took the wheat grass juice 3 times a day while under going chemo and he did not lose his hair and sailed through the treatment with little side effects.

Many people have improved their health from this easy to grow grass.

An alternative to juicing is to put the grass into a high speed blender with other things to make a super healthy smoothie.

If you prefer; you can grow in a raised garden or open garden simply follow the instructions for growing it in the boxes.

I have on our mail order web site at www.0800466464.co.nz made a new category link called Wheat and Barley Grass products.

In there you will find a kit with the wheat, barley and minerals all in a polystyrene box which you can use to grow the grass in.

I have also ordered from overseas some manual wheat grass juicers which should arrive later in August.

Beat the Government’s therapeutic bill and grow your own healthy Vitamins and Minerals.

Gardening, News

About plant diseases & how to control them (Wally Richards)

July 31, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

Plant diseases appear when a plant is lacking in one or more elements or the plant is in stress for what ever reason.

Normally we spray a fungicide to prevent or control a plant disease which sits on the surface of the leaves and branches.

Dependent on the disease we use a copper fungicide or a sulphur fungicide alternatively the compound potassium permanganate and in some cases a combination of two or the whole three sprayed together.

It some diseases such as curly leaf on stone fruit trees (nectarine & peach) we apply a fungicide copper every 7 to 10 days; or again after rain, if we have not used Raingard in the spray.

With curly leaf in stone fruit the disease often strikes when it rains because the spores are splashed up from the soil below but if the rain has washed off the copper fungicide then there is no protection.

Curly leaf in stone fruit is a difficult disease to prevent and dependent on how bad the leaves are damaged means a loss of some or even all the crop.

In severe cases the tree may die also.

Now this is interesting and extracted from an article I received recently…

People misunderstand the use of copper as a fungicide. They drench the plant and often create excesses of this mineral in the soil.

75% of the copper response comes from within the plant, rather than on the leaf.

(Dr Don Huber)

Dr. Don Huber is a retired professor of plant pathology from Purdue University in Indiana, USA.

He has over 50 years of experience in researching plant diseases and soil-borne pathogens, as well as their relationships with microbial ecology, nutrient availability, and crop productivity.

Dr. Huber has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on these topics and has received many awards for his contributions to the field of plant pathology.

He is also a recognized authority on the potential risks associated with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the use of glyphosate herbicides.

However, excessive use of copper-based fungicides can lead to copper accumulation in soil and water, which can have negative environmental impacts and they are proving to be less effective than some alternative forms of copper. As a result, there has been increasing interest in the use of copper nutrition products as an alternative approach to controlling plant diseases.

Comparative studies between Copper nutritional products and Copper Fungicide have consistently shown that the preventive and curative efficacy of the former is often significantly higher, and in the worst case, similar to that of the Copper Fungicide.

Copper Nutritional products demonstrated exceptional performance in terms of their long-lasting efficacy, compared to Copper Fungicides.

They maintained significant levels of control for up to 90 days, whereas Copper Fungicides showed a notable decline in control after just 7-14 days.

The difference in their mode of action explains this contrast; Copper Nutritional products are systemic and designed to increase the plant’s copper levels, whereas Copper Fungicides are contact-based and remain mostly on the leaf surface, making them susceptible to weather-induced degradation and physical removal.

Copper nutrition products work by providing plants with a source of copper, which is an essential micro nutrient required for plant growth and development.

Copper helps to activate enzymes involved in several physiological processes in plants, including photosynthesis and respiration. Additionally, copper has been shown to have anti-fungal properties, which makes it effective in controlling plant diseases.

Studies have shown that copper can enhance plant immune responses by regulating gene expression and enzyme activity involved in defense mechanisms.

For example, a study by R. Mehari et al. (2015) in the journal Plant Physiology and Biochemistry found that copper enhanced the activity of enzymes involved in the synthesis of lignin, which is a component of plant cell walls that plays a crucial role in plant defense against pathogens.

I am pleased to say that we now have a copper nutrient which I have called Wallys Super Copper Nutrient and is available from our mail order web site in 250 ml bottles.

Or you can ask your local garden centre to order the product in for you.

I was told of a trial that was done on a stone fruit tree to prevent curly leaf.

Only one part of the tree was treated and that part had no curly leaf and even the following season still no curly leaf where the rest of the tree suffered from the disease.

Used at the rate of 10 mils per litre for initial application and then at 5mils per litre of water for maintenance.

If you have a stone fruit tree that suffers from curly leaf then spray the tree now before spring movement at 10mils over the branches where the leaf buds are. Coverage should be as good as able all over the tree.

When there is a show of leaves later on spray again at the 5 mil rate.

If the tree is flowering only spray the foliage at the end of the day when pollination has finished for the day.

Another spray of foliage at 5 mils per litre of water can be done after fruit has set.

Trials that I have read about diseases on other plants have also being very good at controlling various disease problems.

Thus where you have problem diseases such as on roses and other plants this copper nutrient maybe the answer you them also.

Dr. Don Huber also commented that the only reason copper fungicides helped in control of various diseases is that some of the copper would get into the plant which would then help the plant as written above.

But applying Wallys Super Copper Nutrient cuts to the chase reducing or eliminating the need for copper fungicide sprays.

Order from www.0800466464.co.nz link at plant diseases

Gardening, News

FRUIT TREE TIME (Wally Richards)

June 25, 2023 Pam Vernon 1 Comment

About this time each year; fruit tree nurseries lift the new season Delicious fruit trees out of the ground and either wrap the roots or bag them into planter bags, secured with twine as the roots have been cut.

It is very important that as soon as the tree is out of the ground the roots need to be covered and kept moist. If the bare roots are left too long they dry and the up lifted tree dies.

Every now and then I hear from a gardener that purchased a deciduous fruit tree (or ornament including roses) planted them and later in the spring the tree will leaf up and likely flower then nothing.

The reason being is the tree was already dead but had enough sap to be able leaf and flower before it ran out of steam having dead roots that cant take up moisture etc.

Like wise if you cut a branch off a flowering deciduous tree now that has flower buds on it and place the branch into a vase of water then it will flower later on when it is ready to do so.

The branch is clinically dead with enough sap and vigor to flower.

Gardeners often don’t realise that they had purchased a dead tree because it had appeared to come to life then faded.

Ideally you return the dead tree to the place you purchased it from with your docket as proof of purchase for a replacement or a refund.

Likewise when you are buying deciduous plants you must keep the roots covered and moist till planted and even then if the soil is dry then regular watering is needed.

Evergreen fruit trees such as citrus and feijoa are often available all year round but the best time to buy and plant is in the autumn/winter period as they have a new season of spring to establish before going into summer.

Citrus trees must have a free draining soil as they will died of root rot in heavy wet soils.

I have found the best way to overcome this problem is: you plant the young tree into 50 to 100 litre plastic drum or plastic rubbish tin.

You drill 50mm holes using a circular drill saw, four in the bottom and four in the sides at the cardinal points about 100mm up from the base.

You then bury the container about a third into the soil where you want it to grow.

Use compost to plant into the container along with blood & bone, sheep manure pellets or any manures available.

I personally dont like citrus fertiliser as it is acidic, harms the soil life and does not have sufficient potash in it.

There are varieties of fruit trees that suit most climates in NZ even some types of apricots that don’t require the chilling of winter as found in areas of the south island.

Some fruiting types require more maintenance than others having seasonal pests or diseases.

The most hassles free and great producers, from a fairly early age are Nashi pears and Feijoa and prior to the guava moth in the north of NZ were fairly pest free.

Nashi may in the middle of summer have some damage to the foliage from the pear slug pest which are easily controlled by sprays of Wallys Liquid Copper.

A tree ripened Nashi pear is so juicy and delicious when grown naturally.

Feijoa is another favorite of mine and there are a number of types readily available in NZ garden centres these days. Here are some examples:

Unique; (my favorite) An early season, prolific bearer of fruit from a young age.

This variety produces medium sized fruit with smooth, soft, and juicy flesh. A truly self-fertile variety.

Triumph; Produces medium to large sized oval fruits with firm skin, juicy and moderately soft flesh and an excellent sharp flavour.

Flesh somewhat gritty but with good seed-to-pulp ratio. Ripens late in the season. Good pollinator for Mammoth. Needs a pollinator. Which means you need two to have good crops.

Mammoth; Produces large, soft, round to oval fruit, with thick, somewhat wrinkled skin. The flesh is slightly gritty, and the quality and flavour are very good.

A strong growing tree of upright habit, it will grow up to 3 metres tall. Bears larger fruit with a pollinator (Triumph is a good option).

Anatoki; An early season variety with lush dark green leaves on a very attractive plant. It produces exceptionally sweet round fruit. Needs a pollinator.

The tree is quite vigorous, with large deep green foliage.

Apollo; A vigorous and productive variety that produces a medium to large oval fruit with smooth, thin, light green skin. Ripens mid to late season. Flavour very pleasant, quality excellent. This is an upright, spreading tree that will grow up to 2.5 metres tall. Semi self-fertile.

Bambina A dwarf variety, with thin edible skin surrounding sweet aromatic pulp bursting with flavour. Bambina is a good choice when planting in a pot. Self-fertile.

Wiki Tu; Producing huge fruit on a dwarf growing (2.5m), Wiki Tu is an easily managed, slow growing tree. The sweet and meaty fruit has a firm texture and good keeping qualities.

A mid-late season fruiting variety, it is partially self fertile, though is best with another variety nearby for cross pollination.

Remember Feijoa are gross feeders so a good dose of blood and bone and animal manure should be applied under the tree in the root zone in the spring.

As they start to bud up in the spring give them a monthly dose of Wallys Fruit and Flower Power till harvest.

Now here is an interesting thing in regards to stone fruit and in particular nectarines and peach both of which suffer in spring with the curly leaf disease which can reduce or completely lose the crop.

A few years ago I spoke to an elderly lady gardener who told me that see had an orchard with both nectarine and peach trees and never any curly leaf disease.

The reason being she grew them from stones (stones or seed from inside the fruit) This meant they were not grafted and grew on their own roots.

She told me also one time she purchase one each of the super dwarf nectarine and peach and planted them in her orchard. These two had bad curly leaf disease every season but it never spread to her other stone fruit trees.

My conclusion is that it is the graft that makes the trees weaker and hence the reason for being attacked.

Maybe thats the reason with grafted roses that always have problems

Also if you do plant stones or pips (from pip fruit) where they are going to grow and mature it only takes two to three seasons before they are bearing a small crop of fruit and of course they have cost you nothing.

So choose a nice fruit and plant the stone or pip which maybe similar as the parent but not exactly the same. Mark where you plant it with a stake as it may take a while for it to germinate.

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)

4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)

Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion.
This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief,
INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)

Gardening, News

It’s time to plant garlic (Wally Richards)

June 20, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

The traditional time of the year in NZ to plant garlic is on the shortest day and then harvest will be about on the longest day. (Can pay to leave till later in January as it may increase size of the bulbs.)

The reason for this is that after the shortest day of sun light hours, then each day there after, will have a little more sunlight every day until the 21^st of December.

Or maybe its because it is something to do in the middle of winter along with planting of roses and deciduous fruit trees.

Shallots are also planted at this time.

Garlic has a number of health benefits along with it being a great condiment with food such as steak (garlic butter) and of course my favorite Garlic Bread.

I remember some years ago reading about soaking peeled garlic cloves in raw liquid honey.

What you did was place a small amount of runny honey into a small jar and then pack peeled cloves into the jar before topping up with honey as you filled.

Storing the jar in a warm place like a hot water cupboard (so the honey would stay liquid and not crystallize.

I think after been in store about 3 months you would eat one clove first thing in the morning for health and weight control.

Mr Google confirms this with : While we all use it as a food ingredient, it is also an effective medicine that helps in burning belly fat and detoxification. Research suggests that garlic can be effective in weight loss and is an inevitable part of a balanced diet.

Also the following:

Eating 4-5 garlic cloves in the morning can help to boost your immunity, which is essential now when we have entered the winter season.

It contains compounds that help the immune system fight free radicals and disease-causing foreign pathogens.

How long do you need to take garlic extract to start experiencing its benefits? Since some of the beneficial compounds in garlic extract are fat-soluble, it may take 1-2 weeks for this substance to deliver noticeable effects.

Garlic has been shown to reduce fat accumulation and fat weight in the liver, restore antioxidant activity in the liver, and reduce MDA levels in the liver.

Garlic has a good sulphur content so hence the reason for it helping to detox your body similar to taking MSM organic sulphur crystals on a twice daily bases.

There are eight forms of garlic which are as follows: purple stripe, glazed purple stripe, marbled purple stripe, porcelain, Rocambole, Asiatic, and Creole (although recently it’s been determined that Creole garlic may be in a class by itself).

Creole garlic is considered to be the most expensive and rarest of the all the garlic varieties. Although they were formerly thought to be a sub-group of silverskin garlic, modern DNA studies show them in a separate class by themselves.

Turban is the earliest maturing garlic and popular for this reason. It is a good choice for those who want to spread out their harvest and enjoy some fresh garlic before the rest of the varieties are ready.

It is a weakly bolting garlic. Its name comes from the shape of the umbel (the flower/seed pod on the scape).

Artichoke: The most commonly grown commercial garlic. It has a couple of concentric rows of cloves and tends to be very difficult to peel. But it produces and stores well and this is what you probably buy at the grocers.

You may have seen preperations of what is named Black Garlic which is quite expensive.

Mr Google tells me that it is; Black garlic is essentially regular garlic that’s been aged in a warm environment. Yep, that’s it. It’s not some rare garlic species that’s impossible to find.

Beware: Garlic might be good for people, but dogs metabolize certain foods differently than we do.

According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, garlic and other members of the allium family, including onions, contain thiosulfate, which is toxic to dogs but not to humans.

Growing garlic tips: Best performance comes from improved soil – blend through some well-composted manure or quality compost before planting.

It will not tolerate heavy, clay soil or wet soil. Garlic will grow very well in pots. Use a premium-quality organic potting mix, or one that’s blended for edibles.

Chicken manure is a good option as a fertilizer for garlic as it is a great source of nitrogen and also contains phosphorus, potassium, plus other nutrients needed for strong and healthy plants.

Springle BioPhos over the bed and lightly work into the soil for phosphorus if you do not have chicken manure.

Soak the cloves in Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) at 20mils per litre of water for at least eight hours or as long as 24 – but 12 to 16 hours is ideal.

Your bulbs will start to produce roots as they soak, and longer soaks increase the risk that you’ll break the roots when you plant them. That inhibits growth and reduces yields.

Garlic grows well in a warm, sunny spot in the garden or in large pots. Begin with breaking up the bulbs into small cloves with your hands.

Place the cloves into the soil with the pointed end facing upwards. Note the biggest cloves will produce the best results plant only them and use the smaller cloves in cooking etc.

Break the garlic bulbs into individual cloves and plant them in rows spaced about 8cm apart.

Planting depth is 20-25mm. You can plant them any time from mid June to mid July.

The problem in recent years is garlic rust which attacks the foliage in later spring or summer and prevents the bulbs from growing much because of the lack of energy from the sunlight, caused by the rust on the leaves.

I have not found any normal sprays such as sulphur, copper, potassium permanganate to be of much use to prevent or control the disease.

So on advise I used the cell strengthening products which we recommend for psyllid control on tomatoes, potatoes and tamarillos.

That meant a soil drench with the Silicon and Boron soil drench after the cloves have sprouted and again 2 weeks later.

Also when the foliage was up a weekly spray with the Silicon cell Strengthening spray with the Silicon Super Spreader and MBL added. For two season now I have had no rust on my garlic where the previous season I had bad rust and poor bulbs.

If you had garlic rust problems in previous seasons you may like to try those products and help to have a good crop. If you are growing garlic and not had a rust problem yet then suggest you do a weekly spray with MBL which also has a nice amount of silicon in it.

If you dont want to use the drench and just the spray then we have a 500mil concentrate of the cell strengthening liquid with the spreader added. You would also add MBL to this spray.

This would be sprayed weekly till harvest, made up in a trigger spray bottle it keeps and keep using till all gone.

Later in season if you are unfortunate to get the dreaded rust you can regularly spray the foliage with Liquid Sun shine (Table spoon of molasses to litre of hot water dissolved and sprayed when cool)

Happy Garlic Growing; I am now off to plant mine…..

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

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Gardening, News

Time to plant new season’s strawberries (Wally Richards)

June 12, 2023 Pam Vernon 2 Comments

New seasons strawberry plants are now available in garden centres. The nurseries that grow the plants lift them after the autumn rains have moistened the soil sufficiently, then they are distributed to garden centres.

I find that the sooner you can get your new strawberry plants into their new beds the better results you have in the first season.

Like all things planted it is root establishment that is so important.

When planting place about a teaspoon of Unlocking Your Soil in the planting hole with a pinch of BioPhos for each strawberry plant.

Gardeners with existing beds of strawberries will likely have a number of runners that have rooted in nicely, these can be used for new season plants..

If the existing strawberry bed is not congested with old and new plants and there is ample room still for all the plants to grow and produce, then you can get away with not lifting the runners or only lifting those that are too close to existing plants.

Strawberries are easy to grow and can be grown in open ground or containers.

In open ground the most practical way is to make a bed with wood surrounds 16 to 20 cm tall and have a hinged frame over the bed that has either plastic bird netting or wire netting over the lid.

The whole frame needs to only sit on the soil so it can be moved if required.

If using tanalised timber for the surround then after cutting to size; paint all the wood with a couple of coats of acrylic paint to prevent chemicals leeching into the soil.

Strawberries can be grown in troughs about 16 to 20 cm wide and similar depth then as long as required. I like to hang these off the top rail of a fence.

Special strawberry planters made from clay or plastic are not very good and your results are likely to be poor. (Thats the types where plants are placed in holes around the container as well as on top.)

Polystyrene boxes with holes in the bottom are also ideal containers for good crops if they have a rooting depth of 15cm or more.

The growing medium should be a good compost such as Daltons or Oderings to which you can add untreated sawdust and a little clean top soil or vermicast. (Worm casts from a worm farm)

A mix of about 75% compost, 20% sawdust and 5% vermicast is good value.

Mix the above in a wheelbarrow then place a layer of the mix 5 cm deep in the base of the trough or container.

Now sprinkle a layer of chicken manure, some potash, BioPhos, Unlocking Your Soil and Ocean Solids. Horse manure is also very good.

If you do not have chicken manure available use sheep manure pellets and blood & bone.

Cover with more compost mix to a depth suitable for planting your new strawberry plants.

A similar process can be applied to a open bed with a frame, though the frame height may need to be taller than previously suggested.

Ensure that the soil at the base of the frame is free of most weeds and then place a layer or two of cardboard over the soil. This will help prevent weeds from coming up in the bed, then fill as suggested.

There are a number of different varieties of strawberry plants available to the home gardener, sometimes the older varieties such as Tioga and Redgaunlet (both are hard to come by now replaced with the newer varieties such as Chandler, Pajaro and Seascape.

Different varieties will do better or worse in different climates so choose the ones most suited to your area of the country.

Strawberry types include:

Strawberry Baby Pink ™ Producing stunning beautiful pink flowers followed by small to medium red fruit with sweet traditional flavour. Large bunches of berries ripening over a long period.

Habit – Compact strong growing strawberry. Size – Give these small to medium plants close spacing.

Pollination – Self-fertile. Unknown if short day, neutral or long day type.

Strawberry Camarosa; Large to very large medium dark red fruit. Firm medium red flesh with excellent flavour. Conical shape.

High resistance to wet weather. Habit – Suitable for Northern and Central districts. Vigorous growth habit.Size – Give these vigorous plants wide spacing.

Pollination – Self-fertile. Short day type – flowers are initiated by short day lengths.

Harvest – Fruit ripen 20-35 days from flowering depending on climate, with light crops in early summer, followed by a main crop in December – January. Yield is very good.

Strawberry Chandler; Small to very large medium red fruit. Firm light red flesh with very good flavour. Conical shape. High resistance to wet weather.

Habit – Suitable for Northern and Central districts. Multi-crowned growth habit.

Size – Give these multi crowned plants medium spacing. Pollination – Self-fertile. Short day type – flowers are initiated by short day lengths.

Harvest – Fruit ripen 20-35 days from flowering depending on climate, with light crops in early summer followed by a main crop in December – January. Yield is very good.

Strawberry Sundae ™ Large red fruit with excellent flavour. Firm red flesh in an oval shape.

Habit – Suitable for Northern and Central districts. Vigorous growth habit. Size – Give these vigorous plants wide spacing.Pollination – Self-fertile. Short day type – flowers are initiated by short day lengths.

Harvest – Fruit ripen 20-35 days from flowering depending on climate, with light crops in early summer followed by a main crop in December – January. Yield is average.

Strawberry Supreme ™ Very large bright red fruit. Very firm red flesh with excellent flavour. Conical shape. Good resistance to wet weather. Habit – Suitable for Northern and Central districts.

Moderately strong growth habit. Size – Give these small to medium sized plants close spacing.

Pollination – Self-fertile. Short day type – flowers are initiated by short day lengths.

Harvest – Fruit ripen 20-35 days from flowering depending on climate, with light crops in early summer followed by a main crop in December – January. Yield is very good.

Strawberry Temptation™ Medium bright red shiny fruit with excellent flavour. Pale firm flesh.

Habit – Compact strong growing strawberry. Tough and resilient in relation to pest and diseases.

Size – Give these medium plants close spacing.

Pollination – Self-fertile. Only NZ bred Day Neutral strawberry which means they will set fruit regardless of how long or short the days are making this an ideal fruiter national wide.

Will extend the North Island season. Harvest – Consistent high yields of berries ripening over a long period from October to March.

To enhance your strawberries and increase the crop yields by 200 to 400% drench the bed with Mycorrcin after planting and repeat again in a couple of months time.

Spray the plants with Mycorrcin every two weeks till end of season. Make up in a trigger sprayer it keeps so leave by strawberry bed and spray as required. MBL can be added to the spray.

For bigger berries you may like to try Wallys Secret Strawberry Food.

Special this week till next Sunday

one 250ml Mycorrcin $19.00 and one 1kg Wallys Secret Strawberry Food $18.00 Total $37.00 with free shipping on this to your home saving you $8.50 shipping fee

Both products can be used on other flowering and fruiting plants.

Order at www.0800466464.co.nz put on WEEKLY SPECIAL in remarks box and I will phone you in regards to payment method.
Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

Food, Gardening

Fresh Greens in Winter (Wally Richards)

June 6, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

Like to grow some fresh, highly nutritious greens this time of the year when sunlight hours are short and stuff is slow to grow?

This is also a way to be able to have emergency healthy food when things are not so good.

How you achieve this is to sprout seeds for eating, often referred to as ‘Sprouts’.

In the past sprouts were done in an Agee preserving jar with a screen sieve.

You would place a few seeds into the jar and cover with non chlorinated water and sit on window sill in kitchen.

Each day you would tip the water out using the sieve like screen to stop the seeds falling out.

Fresh water would be added and the above would be repeated daily till the seeds had sprouted and reached a nice size which you then used in sandwiches or salads.

Very nutritious and very simple to do.

Nowadays its even easier with a four tier seed sprouter from Egmont Seeds.

Called Mr Fothergills Kitchen Seed Sprouter they sell for $20.00.

On web at https://www.egmontseeds.co.nz/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=sprouter

You have 4 sprouting levels which means you can sprout 4 different types of seeds or mixes at any one time.

A small amount of seeds is placed in each level and water is applied to the top tier, then because of sprouter outlet caps in the base of each level

(which can be adjusted to allow a amount of water flow to next level) the water works its way down through the tiers..

Then finally the water ends up in the reservoir where you can either dispose of it or use it a second time round.

Doing this alone with the sprouter on the kitchen window sill will give you very nutritious greens to add to your winter diet.

But you can change then into super sprouts by adding a few mils of Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL)to the non-chlorinated water.

MBL is rich in humate and fulvic acid along with minerals and elements which the sprouting seeds will absorb as they germinate and grow.

Incredibly good for your health and great for those wishing to trim up a bit before summer.

One of the problems is that our traditional Super Market food chain is poor in nutritional values unless you are growing a good amount of vegetables yourself naturally.

This means when you cook up a meal from supermarket produce and have to add condiments to make it taste ok (Home grown produce tastes great and does not need condiments to fool you body into accepting it).

So you eat a full meal of supermarket produce and when you are finished you are likely to still feel a bit hungry.

Actually you are not hungry but that is the feeling you get as your body is saying, ‘Thanks for the stuff but where are the minerals and elements that I need to work properly?’

So inadvertently you pig out on potato chips or something to squash the feeling of having not eaten enough.

Now you are going to put on some extra pounds and your body still is not satisfied as he needs nutrition not food stuffing.

Sprouting seeds with MBL is a excellent way to get the goodness your body needs to be healthy, it is in the same top food tier as ‘Smoothies’ and wheat grass juice (done with minerals).

Now to get the seeds to sprout we go and have a look at Kings Seeds at https://www.kingsseeds.co.nz/results.html?q=seeds+for+sprouting

They have a good range of seeds and seed mixes most of which are certified organic.

Examples from their web site are:

Alfalfa: Our most popular sprout with a delicious nutty flavour. Excellent for gourmet salads, omelettes and sandwiches.

High in fibre, vitamins, minerals and proteins. Research has found Alfalfa fibre pushes cholesterol out of the arteries while its saponins also scrub and dissolve it.

The sprouts are many times more nutritious if exposed to the sunlight about the fifth day after germination. They can then be harvested.

Organic Energy mix: Alfalfa, Flax, Rocket, Broccoli Raab, Red Clover and Fennel.

A tasty, aromatic and invigorating blend that stimulates the body and digestive system.

As the Flax and Rocket are both mucilaginous-forming seeds when germinating, particular care needs to be shown to rinse and drain well in the first few days.

At harvest, the Fennel sprout will not be as developed as the others but both its seed husk and sprout should be used.

Organic High Health mix:A tasty nutritious mix of different brassica including Green Broccoli, Pak Choi, and Tuscan Black Kale.

High in vitamins and soluble fibre for cleansing the digestive system and building resistance to bowel and bladder disease. Seeds are easy to sprout reaching maturity using rinse and drain method in 6-10 days.

Organic Vita plus blend: Alfalfa 40% Red Clover 30% Daikon Radish 10% Radish 10% Broccoli Raab 10%

Highly nutritious blend of sprouts, rich in minerals, amino acids and antioxidants combining the mild tastes of Alfalfa and Red Clover with the spicy bite of Broccoli Raab, Radish Daikon and Radish.

Organic Stir Fry Combo: Contains Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) , Lentil (Lens culinaris), Mung (Vigna radiata).

Delicious, succulent and nutty sprout blend to stir fry in Asian dishes or to eat raw in salads and sandwiches.

Easily digested and highly nutritious with heaps of Vitamins B1 and B2, Iron, Potassium, Folic Acid and Protein.

Soluble fibre helps break down cholesterol, lower blood pressure and regulate blood sugars.

Initially soak seeds for several hours then drain. Rinse 3-4 times daily for 3-4 days. Harvest when sprouts are length of the seed (15mm) and store in fridge in a covered container.

Note; seeds which are mucilaginous-forming seeds when germinating you toss the water and MBL mix and do a fresh lot to get rid of the mucilaginous.

Otherwise be healthy this winter with tasty heath treats from sprouts.

Note Store unused seeds in a glass jar with lid in the fridge where they will keep happily for years ready to use any time.

Special for this week is 500 mils Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) free shipping to your home saving you $8.50 courier.

Order at https://www.0800466464.co.nz/15-plant-nutrition

I will phone you when we receive the order to do payment.

Put in Remarks place THIS WEEKS SPECIAL
Special ends next Sunday

Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
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Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

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Gardening

Only a few weeks until the shortest day – prepare for the new season in the garden (Wally Richards)

May 29, 2023 Pam Vernon 1 Comment

The year is slipping away and now there are only a few weeks till the shortest day which heralds in a new season for gardening.

While its quiet gardening wise you have ample time on those nice days to prepare for the coming season of gardening.

Lets start off by those that are fortunate to have a glasshouse or tunnel house and to get it ship shape and ready for growing in soon.

Likely there has been insect problems over the past season and that is very normal as a glass house provides ideal conditions for pests to breed.

You may have some plants still in there growing either coming to the end of their days or not too bad.

What I am going to suggest is a simple way of fumigating your glasshouse but in doing so the plants in there may or may not survive.

It is better to leave any plants that are coming to the end of their days inside to be fumigated and kill the pests on them rather than take them outside and then the pests can colonise your outside plants.

If you have the odd plant in a container that you do not want to lose then best take them out while you are fumigating the house.

Any plants taken out should be placed in a good light but sheltered place and spray them all over; later in the day near dusk, with Wallys Super Neem Tree Oil with Wallys Super Pyrethrum added.

Also in case of root mealy bugs in the mix sprinkle some of Wallys Neem Tree Powder onto the top of the growing medium.

This, with later watering, will fix any pests in the mix feeding on the plants roots.

Place 2-3 tablespoons of Wallys Sulphur Powder onto a heath shovel or spade sitting in the middle of the glass house on the ground. In a larger tunnel house or glasshouse you would need to have more than one sulhpur burning to give a good coverage from the fumes.

A metal plate could be used instead if preferred as long as it is metal and cant catch on fire.

Close all vents leaving the door open for you to leave once lite.

The sulphur powder is not easy to light and you need a very strong flame such as used for killing weeds.

Otherwise dampen a little of the pile of sulphur with some Methylated Spirits and light that.

A fire Starter may also be used. Once the sulphur gets burning it is very difficult to put out.

Once alight it is time for you to get out as the fumes will make it difficult to breathe and you dont want to die with the pests.

Close the door behind you and leave closed up for about 24 hours.

Then open door and vents and any plants you left in the house give them a light sprinkling with water from the hose. It may help save some on them.

After a few hours close down the vents and door as you dont want any stray pests finding their way back in.

Its a good ideal to build up a smell in the house to deter pests from entering by sprinkling Wallys Neem Tree Granules over the floor or soil.

Hang some fresh yellow sticky white fly traps in the house to catch any flying pests.

If you grow in soil in the glasshouse and have any concerns about diseases in the soil then apply Terracin to the soil as a drench and a couple of weeks later a drench with Mycorrcin.

Your glasshouse is now ready for the coming season and you can start germinating or planting seedlings after the 21^st of June.

In the gardens outside keep the weeds down while they are slow to grow.

I prefer to use a sharp carving knife and slice below the crown of larger weeds in under the soil.

This leaves the rest of the roots to decompose in the soil and feed the soil life and plants.

Smaller weeds just scrape the blade of the knife over the soil and wipe them out.

Whitefly and pests on citrus trees are easy to control by placing Wallys Neem Tree Granules under the tree from trunk to drip line and in about 6-8 weeks all the pests feeding on the tree or on the roots will be gone.

There will be a lot of pests from last season harboring over in your gardens so later in the afternoon when the sun is off the plants spray Wallys Neem Super Tree oil with Wally Super Pyrethrum added over and under the leaves of plants where there was infestations earlier.

Good idea to add some Raingard and MBL to the spray as well.

If you have not done so yet spray all cold sensitive plants with Vaporgard, spray on frost protection.

Vacant vegetable gardens can be planted into a green crop.

Ones that can be used for different advantages are:

Blue Lupin – a quick growing, nitrogen fixing crop suited to cooler climates.

Barley – adds protein, nitrogen and organic matter to strengthen the soil structure.

Oats – used to combat soil erosion and to help break up hard clay soils.

Mixed grain – adds nitrogen and organic matter to the soil as well as helping to prevent wire worm.

Mustard – cleans up harmful soil fungi and provides good control of wireworm and nematodes, which often ruin root crops such as potatoes and carrots.

Mustard is a good weed suppressant suited to cooler climates but do not use this crop if you are planting cauliflower, broccoli and other brassica in the same area the next season.

It is not a good time of the year to re-pot house plants as going into a larger container may cause over watering and damage.

This time of the year small drinks of water just to moisten up the mix of potted plants indoors.

Warm water is nice for them also.

Keep warm and dry..

This week special is 3kilo bag Wallys Neem Tree Granules 25% off or $7.00 off the price of the bag

and 25% off Wallys Sulphur powder 500 grams or $4.50 off the normal price.
Order on line at www.0800466464.co.nz and dont forget to put in remarks THIS WEEKS SPECIAL
offer end next Sunday.
I will phone you after receiving the order in regards to method of payment and shipping

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

Image by Helena from Pixabay

Gardening, News

WET FEET IN THE GARDEN (Wally Richards)

May 22, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

With some areas experiencing a lot of rain lately it is a good time to look at how to prevent damage and losses in your gardens.

There is a range of plants we call bog plants and they just love living in wet soil and even in water which makes many of them suitable to use in aquariums for your fish to enjoy.

But even in an aquarium oxygen is needed so we place an air stone connected to an air pump to bubble away under water and aerate the water.

If we did not do this the oxygen in the water would be used up and then the fish would suffocate and likely even the plants would die as the water became stagnant.

By the way if you want to remove the chlorine from a bucket of chlorinated water simply put an air stone connected to an air pump and let it bubble away and within about 12 hours or less the water will be free of the poisonous chlorine.

Very wet soil loses the oxygen and that becomes deadly for the roots of plants.

Some plants are fairly hardy against wet feet where others soon have root rot happen and when enough roots are damaged the plant dies.

It does not matter if some of the roots are in very wet soil or water as long as there are more roots that are above the wet area.

I can give a good example of this as one place I lived in years ago would be a lake of water in the back section during wet winters.

Many attempts of growing ornamentals were hopeless so I planted a twisted willow in the corner which was the wettest area and it very quickly grew.

Then I also planted a couple of cabbage trees both of which took off and as these and the willow grew they helped greatly in taking up the surface water.

After a season I was able to plant a few other native plants that were able to survive as the area was less wet.

My citrus were a problem so I cut some 200 litre drums in half, drilled some large 4-5cm holes in the sides about 10cm above the base.

This meant in dry times there would be a nice reservoir of water to keep the citrus happy.

I then dug a hole so the bottom third of the drum would be buried in the surrounding soil.

This made them stable in windy times when the citrus gained some height.

It also allowed the roots later on to venture out of the drum and into the surrounding soil.

The result of this was that in the middle of winter when the back yard was a a lake of water the citrus were happy as Larry.

When I came to move to another place I lifted the drums (with a lot of effort) and was surprised at the large roots that had grown out of the holes on the sides.

As a good part of the root system was above water the citrus was not affected by wet feet.

The alternative to this would have been to make mounds about half a metre tall and plant citrus trees in these.

Years later after another move to where we are now in Marton the same citrus trees are happily living in the same drums sitting either on soil in the lawn or on concrete.

Of course every few years I need to take them out of the containers and root prune them.

That would not be needed if you had the roots venturing out into surrounding soil.

The very worst thing that you can have in wet winters is any type of mulch around any plants that don’t like wet feet.

Mulches are great in dry summers to conserve soil moisture but deadly in winter as the soil can not breathe and too much wetness is retained.

I remember a few years ago having a phone call from a lady who wanted to know why her very expensive ornamental trees were dying.

She planted then in the spring and in summer she had a pile of old carpet after re-carpeting the home.

So she put that on the soil under her precious ornamentals to suppress weeds and retain moisture.

Worked a treat till the wet times came and the soil became saturated and the expensive plants started to die.

I told her that she had to quickly do two things which was firstly remove the carpets and then spray the foliage with Wallys PerKfection at the high rate 9 mils per litre of water and then at 4mils per litre a month later and repeat once a month till into spring making a total of 6, once a month sprays.

Perkfection assists in recovery from/or prevention of, the following problems, Black spot, Downy Mildew, Phytophthora Root rot, Canker, heart rot, damping off, crown rot, leaf blight, silver leaf, late blight, collar rot, pink rot, brown rot, Armillaria, and gummy stem rot.

It is magic on Buxus for the dreaded Buxus disease that kills the plants.

It has brought back Buxus from near dead to their formal glory and after which I would suggest a maintenance spray bi-monthly at 5 mils per litre of water.

Perkfection is systemic so you dont need full coverage of foliage just a good amount of it.

Another way of improving drainage is like we used to do in days gone by when gardeners would in winter dig their vegetable garden over, mounding up the clods as they went leaving a ditch around the garden about one and a half spade deep.

They would then sprinkle garden lime over the clods for the frosts to take in and break the clods down.

In spring when it was time to plant, the clods would break up into a fine tilth with little effort using a rake.

Now days we dont dig but the idea of a trench around the garden or around a citrus tree just about 12 cm out from the drip line is very practical.

This allows excess water to drain into the ditch were sunlight and wind will evaporate it quickly.

An interesting thing happens sometimes where a water sensitive plant like a citrus, years old suddenly one season shows signs of wet feet.

The reason is often a result of a change of direction with surface water flows which maybe caused by some construction or even a new concrete path or driveway.

The previous flow place is changed to where the citrus is growing and the soil is much wetter than previously.

Remember to frost protect sensitive plants with spray on frost protection, Vaporgard.

I read an interesting article on the Net which you may also find interesting; whether its true or not is up to you to determine.

https://truthwatchnz.is/all-categories/agenda-21-30/hawke-s-bay-is-apparently-in-need-of-a-managed-retreat-agenda-2030-and-the-depopulation-of-the-east-coast

This weeks special is Perkfection 250ml bottle $18.00 or a 1litre container $38.00 free shipping on either size, no discount on either size. Shipping to your home no PO Boxes or outer Islands like Stewart or Waiheke

Offer ends next Sunday.

Problems ring me at 0800 466464
Email wallyjr@gardenews.co.nz
Web site www.gardenews.co.nz

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

Gardening

VISITING LIFE UNDER GROUND (Wally Richards)

May 17, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

There is a saying which reads as… As Above So Below and with plants and trees what is above the soil level is replicated to what is below the soil level.

With a tree it is the trunk and branches we see and mirrored under the soil is the tap root and the root system about a similar size as above.

It is the root system and the medium that the roots are in that is the focus of this article.

We often refer to ‘The Soil Life’ which is a teeming mass of microbes, fungi, and soil insects including earth worms that we find in a healthy soil or the growing medium.

Virgin soil with its canopy of plants, living naturally for hundreds of years has a wealth of soil life and to have a soil like that is the goal of every keen gardener as it will, with very little effort, produce great healthy plants.

A vital part of the soil life are the fungi family called Mycorrhizae.

From the internet we see: A mycorrhizal network (also known as a common mycorrhizal network or CMN) is an underground network found in forests and other plant communities, created by the hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi joining with plant roots.

This network connects individual plants together and transfers water, carbon, nitrogen, and other nutrients and minerals between participants.

Several studies have demonstrated that mycorrhizal networks can transport carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, water, defense compounds, and allelochemicals from plant to plant.

The flux of nutrients and water through hyphal networks has been proposed to be driven by a source-sink model where plants growing under conditions of relatively high resource availability (

such as high-light or high-nitrogen environments) transfer carbon or nutrients to plants located in less favorable conditions. (Helping their mates)

A common example is the transfer of carbon from plants with leaves located in high-light conditions in the forest canopy, to plants located in the shaded understory where light availability limits photosynthesis.

In natural ecosystems, plants may be dependent on fungal symbionts for 90% of their phosphorus requirements and 80% of their nitrogen requirements.

Mycorrhizal relationships are most commonly mutualistic, with both partners benefiting, but can be commensal or parasitic, and a single partnership may change between any of the three types of symbiosis at different times.

These networks have existed for over 400 million years, with up to 90% of all land plants participating.

The formation and nature of these networks, is context-dependent, and can be influenced by factors such as soil fertility, resource availability, host or mycosymbiont genotype, disturbance and seasonal variation.

Some plant species, such as buckhorn plantain, a common lawn and agricultural weed, benefit from mycorrhizal relationships in conditions of low soil fertility, but are harmed in higher soil fertility.

Both plants and fungi associate with multiple symbiotic partners at once, and both plants and fungi are capable of preferentially allocating resources to one partner over another. End.

Back to me: You can see from the above what a incredible resource Mycorrhizal fungi is to the well being of your plants and garden and why you should encourage it and not damage it.

The No-Dig garden that we have often talked about over the years is ideal for building and maintaining these beneficial fungi.(Instead of digging your garden you simply put fresh compost over the soil with other natural manures and plant into this new layer.

This is repeated for every crop)

Mycorrhizal fungi can increase a plant’s roots catchment area by up to 800%.

The bigger the root zone the bigger and better the plants.

We can encourage Mycorrhizal fungi to grow by drenching the soil with Wallys Mycorrcin every so often like once a month around preferred plants and crops.

What we should not do is to use chemicals that will kill the Mycorrhizal fungi and beneficial microbes in the soil. Chemical sprays and man-made chemical fertilisers that leach into the soil and the worst one is your chlorinated tap water you use to water the garden with.

A housing and filter that is 10 micron carbon bonded can be snapped onto your hose tap to remove the chlorine. See http://www.0800466464.co.nz/37-water-filters-remove-fluoride-and-chlorine-

Gardeners that have filtered the chlorine out of their garden watering remark on what a difference it makes to the health of their gardens and plants.

The chlorine is added to water to kill bacteria and it is caustic in nature which is not good for soil life.

We see that Mycorrhizal fungi connects plants underground through their roots and by that means can send messages to each other.

An example of this is a forest stand where the outer trees are attacked by a disease or insect pests and the trees send out a message to the fellow trees about what is happening which then allows the other trees to start building their defense systems against possible attack.

Some plants are very hard to establish and the answer to this I learnt many years ago is that you find a mature specimen of the plant you wish to cultivate and you take some of the soil from the mature specimen root zone and you place that in the planting hole of your specimen.

Plant up and then drench the soil with Wallys Mycorrcin to aid growth and that impossible plant to grow is away laughing.

Introduction of beneficial microbes to the soil is another way of improving your gardens and plants health.

Biologically active soils have the ability to retain moisture and release nutrients ensuring greater production, faster rotation and more rapid recovery from stress.

To build a healthy biological soil we need products that can feed living organisms.

Increasing public awareness of the environmental impact of using chemical-based fertiliser has created a demand for a safe, natural and environmentally friendly fertiliser.

Biological fertilisers increase nutrient availability and feed important soil organisms, such as earthworms and microorganisms (fungi and bacteria) – all essential for plant and soil health.

The product we have called Bio Marinus not only does the above but also introduces new beneficial microbes to your gardens.

Readers may recall the British comedian Kenneth Horne’s radio show “Beyond Our Ken” featured a gardener called Arthur Fallowfield, played by Kenneth Williams.

He often said “The Answer Lays in the Soil”.

THIS WEEKS Special is Mycorrcin is either 250mils, 500 mils or 1litre and till next Sunday we will pay the shipping to your home (No PO Boxes or outer Islands)

No discounts on the product sizes so 250mils is $18.00; 500 mils $30.00 and 1 litre is $50 free shipping on one or more of the same product.

Order on our Mail Order Web site at http://www.0800466464.co.nz/15-plant-nutrition?p=2

In Remarks please state This Weeks Special..

After receiving your order I will phone you to sort out payment either by credit card over the phone or a bank transfer..

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

Gardening, News

The importance of phosphate in your garden (Wally Richards)

May 11, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

Phosphorus stimulates budding and blooming. Plants need phosphorus to produce fruits, flowers, and seeds. It also helps make your plants more resistant to disease.

Phosphorus helps plants gain more energy from sunlight and with cloudy, hazy skies we are seeing too often; plants need all the advantages possible to gain energy from sunlight.

Phosphorus doesn’t dissolve like nitrogen. The soil will hang onto phosphorus, not releasing it into water.

Phosphate is needed by all life forms but if taken in too greater quantities it becomes harmful.

In the distant past phosphorus was obtain from manures especially bird or bat droppings called guano.

Phosphorus is also obtained from Reactive Rock Phosphate which is a hard phosphatic rock. In most soils it dissolves very slowly.

To make the rock phosphate more readily available to plants man discovered a process of using sulfuric acid early in the 1900’s, and a new agricultural fertiliser was created called Super or Super Phosphate.

It became a boon to agriculture and farming with tons of Super been spread to cause fast growth in fields and crops.

Unfortunately like a number of discoveries such as DDT and Asbestos, there was a hidden price to pay. Super phosphate kills soil life because its acidic and with their demise leads to unhealthy plants.

Not only that, it was also found that Super laden plants and grasses caused health problems in stock including cancers.

I read a very interesting book years ago called ‘Cancer, Cause and Cure’ written by an Australian farmer, Percy Weston.

Percy observed the results of the introduction of Super on his farm and the Malays that occurred.

For many years now I have not used any chemical fertilisers or chemical sprays including any herbicides anywhere on my property.

For a while I noticed, that even though I obtained good healthy crops and plants, there was some factor that appeared to be missing and the crops are not as lush as I felt they could be.

I often thought that I am not getting sufficient phosphorus in my composts and mulches.

This caused me to do a bit of research on the Internet and found to my delight a company in New Zealand called Sieber Technologies Ltd who make a product called BioPhos.

They take the reactive rock phosphate and break it down naturally with micro organisms making it as readily available to plants as Super is.

The company sent me a email booklet and it showed trials that proved that not only did BioPhos work as well as Super, but actually better as it did not have a ‘peak’ growth on application

and gave a much longer sustained release of phosphorus to plants.

Instead of killing soil life it actually supplies new micro organisms to the soil which carry on breaking the natural phosphorus down, meaning that only one application is needed per year unless you are cropping during the winter as well.

Some rose growers and rose societies recommend using BioPhos for better, healthier roses.

BioPhos contains phosphate, potassium, sulphur and calcium at the rates of P10:K8:S7:Ca28.

BioPhos is Bio Certified for organic growing.

It is pH neutral and used at the following rates; New beds work in 100 grams per square metre, the same with lawns but water in to settle.

Side dressing plants; seedlings 8 grams (a teaspoon ) around base of the plant or in the planting hole. Same for potatoes (which do well with phosphorus) Sowing beans peas etc sprinkle down row with seeds.

Roses and similar sized plants 18 grams or a tablespoon full around plant or in planting hole.

Established fruit trees etc, spread at the rate of 100 grams per square metre around drip line or where feeder roots are. Apply to vegetable gardens in spring and a further application in autumn if growing winter crops.

Can be applied to container plants also.

Apply to tomatoes when planting or side dress existing plants.

A number of gardeners over the years have obtained BioPhos and applied it around their gardens; then a few weeks later many have phoned me to say what a big difference the product has made to their gardens.

I presume one of two things has happened or maybe both of the following:

The gardens and plants were lacking in phosphate and the introduction of it gave a noticeable difference to the plants.

Or the plants were able to obtain more energy from the sun and hence creating a growth spurt.

BioPhos is a must for root and bulb crops such as potatoes, carrots and garlic.

I have now completed a third session of gardening with Rodney Hide which likely aired this coming week then available after that on replay at…..

https://realitycheck.radio/replays/real-talk-show-replays/

THIS WEEKS SPECIAL: BIOPHOS two 1.3kilo pouches for $30.00 free shipping (No PO Boxes or outer Islands) Saving you $8.00 shipping costs Normal one 1.3 pouch is $15.00 plus $8.00 shipping total $23.00

or out big 10kilo bag for $38.00 and free shipping saving you $16.00 shipping North Island or $19.00 shipping South Island (No PO Boxes or outer Islands)
That is into a carton for shipping and you could add a few more non bulk items into the same carton.

Order on our Mail Order Web site at http://www.0800466464.co.nz/

In Plant Nutrition area..

In Remarks please state This Weeks Special..
Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

For more articles & with a health focus go here

Image by Annette Meyer from Pixabay

Gardening

GROWING HIGH HEALTH VEGETABLES (Wally Richards)

May 11, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

I have always enjoyed growing different plants that are not commonly available.

This is one of the aspects that makes gardening more enjoyable and exciting when you have successes.

Three vegetables that I have grown in the past and am writing about are not rare but not common for many gardeners.

The first of these is called Chayote or more commonly known as Choko.

Originating from Mexico where the vines grow prolifically they have little financial value there likely because they are so prolific.

Specialist fruit and vegetable shops or flea markets are likely to have chokos for sale at this time of the year for about a dollar each.

Most people likely do not know the fruit and by pass them where people from Asia are likely to be the main buyers.

Choko are a member of the gourd family; Cucurbitaceae, along with melons, cucumbers and squash.

In Asia they are commonly diced up and used in stir fries and soups.

The fruit does not need to be peeled to be cooked or fried in slices. Most people regard it as having a very mild flavor by itself.

It is commonly served raw with seasonings (e.g. salt, butter and pepper) or in a dish with other salad vegetables and/or flavorings. It can also be boiled, stuffed, mashed, baked, fried, or pickled in escabeche sauce.

Both fruit and seed are rich in amino acids and vitamin C.

The fresh green fruit are firm and without brown spots or signs of sprouting. Smaller ones are more tender. I actually I like the fruit raw eaten like an apple they are crisp and refreshing.

The tuberous part of the root is starchy and eaten like a yam (can be fried).

The leaves and fruit have diuretic, cardiovascular and anti-inflammatory properties, and a tea made from the leaves has been used in the treatment of arteriosclerosis, hypertension, and to dissolve kidney stones. So a very versatile, interesting plant.

They are easy to grow and the older fruit will start shooting from the base then all you need to do is place the fruit sideways, half buried in compost with the shoot upwards.

Start off in a container where it will root up and then protect in a glasshouse or similar (even a window sill) till spring when it can be planted out.

It must be planted in a free draining situation, sunny and a degree of protection from frosts.

Spray the vine with Vaporgard for frost protection in winter and cover with frost cloth when there is two or more frosts in a row.

The first season from experience I found no fruit but a lot of growth and some winter damage.

The next season I once again thought all it wanted to do was grow but as the day light hours shortened small flowers and fruit started forming. The fruit grow rapidly and within a week or so a baby fruit becomes bigger than your fist.

For the health and mineral benefits we have; Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Energy 80 kJ (19 kcal): Carbohydrates 4.51 g : Sugars 1.66 g : Dietary fiber 1.7 g : Fat 0.13 g : Protein 0.82 g.

Vitamins are Thiamine (B1) (2%) 0.025 mg: Riboflavin (B2) (2%) 0.029 mg: Niacin (B3) (3%) 0.47 mg: Pantothenic acid (B5)(5%) 0.249 mg: Vitamin B6 (6%) 0.076 mg: Folate (B9) (23%) 93 g.

That is an impressive range of B vitamins making 43% of total them there is Vitamin C (9%) 7.7 mg: Vitamin E (1%) 0.12 mg: Vitamin K (4%) 4.1 g

The Trace metals are Calcium (2%) 17 mg: Iron (3%) 0.34 mg: Magnesium (3%) 12 mg: Phosphorus (3%)18 mg: Potassium (3%) 125 mg: Zinc (8%) 0.74 mg

Health wise how good is that? So easy to grow and eat raw to obtain full benefits of the vitamins and minerals.

Next we have a less common one called Jerusalem Artichokes which is a root vegetable from the Helianthus tuberosus family, also called sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple or topinambour, it is a species of sunflower native to eastern North America.

Grown from tubers it can be successfully grown any where that has reasonable drainage and sun light.

Grown in a container, waste area, vegetable garden or flower garden it will thrive.

In a container it grows about a metre or so tall in open ground from a couple of metres to 3 or 4 metres tall dependent on soil and growing conditions.

In autumn it produces smaller sunflower blooms and dies back about this time of the year when you can start harvesting the tubers.

The nobbly tubers contain about 10% protein, no oil, and a surprising lack of starch. However, it is rich in the carbohydrate inulin (76%), which is a polymer of the monosaccharide fructose.

Tubers stored for any length of time will convert their inulin into its component fructose.

Jerusalem artichokes have an underlying sweet taste because of the fructose, which is about one and a half times sweeter than sucrose.

Jerusalem artichokes have also been promoted as a healthy choice for type 2 diabetics, because fructose is better tolerated by people who are type 2 diabetic.

It has also been reported as a folk remedy for diabetes.

Temperature variances have been shown to affect the amount of inulin the Jerusalem artichoke can produce. When not in tropical regions, it has been shown to make less inulin than when it is in a warmer region.

You can find recipes for the tubers on the Internet, steamed or baked and excellent for soups. They have a nutty, earthly taste a bit like Gin seng.

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) is Energy 304 kJ (73 kcal): Carbohydrates 17.44 g: Sugars 9.6 g: Dietary fiber 1.6 g : Fat 0.01 g: Protein 2 g.

Vitamins; Thiamine (B1) (17%) 0.2 mg: Riboflavin (B2) (5%) 0.06 mg: Niacin (B3) (9%) 1.3 mg: Pantothenic acid (B5) (8%) 0.397 mg: Vitamin B6 (6%) 0.077 mg: Folate (B9) (3%) 13 g: Vitamin C (5%) 4 mg: Trace metals Calcium (1%)14 mg: Iron (26%) 3.4 mg:

Magnesium (5%)17 mg Phosphorus (11%) 78 mg: Potassium (9%) 429 mg

Last and the most uncommon of all is yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius, syn.: Polymnia edulis, P. sonchifolia) a species of perennial daisy traditionally grown in the northern and central Andes from Colombia to northern Argentina for its crisp, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots.

The peeled roots are lovely to eat raw, sweet to the taste without the side effects of sugar..

The tubers contain fructooligosaccharide, an indigestible polysaccharide made up of fructose.

Fructooligosaccharides taste sweet, but pass through the human digestive tract unmetabolised, hence have very little caloric value.

Moreover, fructooligosaccharides have a prebiotic effect, meaning they are used by beneficial bacteria that enhance colon health and aid digestion.

Easy to grow, plants grow about 1.5 metres tall large leaves with a texture like Borage harvest, roots in autumn.

If you can obtain a starter tuber of yacon its well worth growing.End….

Here is a link that I received recently that you maybe interested in especially in regards to the current select committee on the Therapeutic Products Bill.

This bill which has in the past been defeated twice before could mean that you are not allowed to grow healthy vegetables by some Govt committee if the bill is passed.

Presentation of Dr. Guy Hatchard to the Wellington Conference on the Therapeutic Products Bill

Also concerning article from the same writer:

https://hatchardreport.com/are-we-going-backwards-or-rushing-ahead/

We will carry on last week’s special on BioPhos for another week as proving very popular.

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

Gardening, News

Wally Richards & Rodney Hide on Reality Check Radio with Gardening Basics – (must hear)

April 23, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

If you’re new to growing your own food (and even if you’re not) this info is gold. Wally shares from 50 odd years of down to earth gardening experience – easy to follow, from ‘go’ to ‘woah’ … basic and practical. You can also phone Wally on his 0800 number for practical advice.

Listen at the link below:

Wally Richards: Grow Your Gardening Game

Gardening, News

THE IMPORTANCE OF POTASSIUM AND MAGNESIUM IN YOUR GARDEN (Fruit + Flower Power – Wally Richards)

April 23, 2023 Pam Vernon 2 Comments

Potassium often referred to as Potash because the ash from wood burn containers a good amount of potassium and magnesium sulphate is often referred to as Epsom Salts are two important elements in gardening.

A long time ago I realised the importance of these two and so I created a product which combined them, in a prill form, 55% potassium and 45% magnesium and called it Wallys Fruit and Flower Power which is one of the many uses of these two elements.

Plants like us, if they do not get sufficient minerals in their diet, they will be adversely affected and do poorly.

Potassium deficiency will show as soft limp plant growth, poor flowering, taste decline in fruit, and general loss of vigor.

I am often asked what is wrong with plants which, don’t seem as good as they could be, even though they are fed well and watered right.

Often the reason is insufficient Potassium.

Then there is fruit, especially citrus which are lacking in juice and flavor.

Tomatoes and cucumbers that don’t have that home grown flavor that one would hope to have.

Plants that have poor flowering or don’t flower at all. Once again the problem can be insufficient Potassium.

Magnesium is involved in chlorophyll production, which converts sunlight into sugars and is involved in activating enzymes.

Because of its role in chlorophyll, the first symptoms of magnesium deficiency show up as yellowing, usually between the veins of the older leaves. In severe deficiencies, the entire leaf will turn yellow or red and then brown, with symptoms progressing up the plant.

There are numerous plants that show this tendency, citrus, Daphne, rhododendrons, tomatoes, passion fruit and roses to name a few.

Once the yellowing starts to appear then already the plant is having problems and even when magnesium is supplied, it takes several weeks before the lovely dark green colour is restored.

During this time the plant is weakened, as the chlorophyll is not working to its full potential which makes the plant more susceptible to diseases and pests.

The amount of energy created from sun light is affected and plant growth is reduced.

During drought conditions, plants suffer and one important aspect to assist in this is Potassium.

It regulates water absorption and retention, influences the uptake of some nutrients and helps to increase disease resistance.

As the weather cools and winter approaches, plants feel the chill like we do, but plants cant put on a jersey like we can.

The plant’s protection from chills and frosts comes from having adequate Potassium in their diet.

Thus us gardening commentators always suggest to gardeners to supply potash to their plants as winter starts to approach and to avoid using nitrogen fertilisers which only increases sappy growth.

Commercial growers of plants and orchardists use the two elements to ensure their plants have sufficient Potassium and magnesium in their diet.

These two vital elements are blended together in the right balance as required for plants.

For the home gardener we supply Fruit and Flower Power in three pack sizes. 1.25 Kilos, and 2.5 kilos

and a bulk bag which is 12.5 kilos making it the best purchase if you have storage room.

The 1.25 kilos comes nicely packaged in a stand up pouch with a 50 gram (50ml) scoop.

It is used at the rate initial rate of 50 grams (one scoop, just below level full) per square metre around the base of the plant or around the drip line.

Use for any plant that is flowering, fruiting, showing lack of vigor or yellowing in foliage.

Now this next bit might surprise many; but the monthly requirement is 25 grams (half scoop) per square metre.

This should be applied while plants are flowering, fruiting, during dry times and going into winter. Outside of these times a 2-3 monthly dose should be fine.

For fruiting a dose at 50 grams should be applied prior to flowering followed by the 25 grams till harvest. For the likes of tomatoes and cucumbers, apply over fruiting period for best flavor.

I get a lot of complaints that citrus fruit are dry and lack flavor so this will fix the problem.

A number of fertilisers mixes do not contain sufficient potassium, likely because it is a more expensive element which is a pity as it should be at least ample for general gardening use.

Now is a good time to apply Fruit and Flower power around your gardens and repeat each month with a small sprinkling.

It will help to keep your leaves green and the plants will gain more energy from the sun even considering its shorter day lights hours as we head into winter.

It will firm up sappy growth from summer feeding of fertilisers and plant foods.

Also other precautions you should take going into winter include:

Protecting your vulnerable plants from frost by using the Spray on Frost Protection; Vaporgard.

Mulches used to overcome dry conditions in summer should be removed from under plants to allow the soil to breath and dry out quicker during wet periods.

This helps prevent root rots and loss of valuable plants.

A spray of Perkfection over plants that could be affected with wet soil is a good help to prevent root damage through wet feet.

Spray vegetables and preferred plants with Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) each week. (It helps them grow healthier and faster.

Side dress vegetable plants with a sprinkling of BioPhos.

Brassicas (Cabbage etc) that have caterpillars should be sprayed with Wallys Super Neem Tree Oil with Raingard added to prevent the oil washing off with watering or rain.

Reduce the amount of water you are giving container plants indoors and tender plants in glasshouses.

They do not need so much water now and wet feet intensifies the cold and can be fatal.

Any Questions any time just phone me or email me with your contact phone number.

THIS WEEKS Special is a 12.5 kilo bag of FRUIT and FLOWER POWER normal price is $60.00 plus shipping but till next Sunday we will pay the shipping to your home saving $16.00 North Island and $19.00 South Island. (No PO Boxes or outer Islands)

Order on our Mail Order Web site at http://www.0800466464.co.nz/18-bulk-goods?p=3

In Remarks please state This Weeks Special..

The 12.5 Kilo bag will be in a carton which can fit other products from our mail order web site but not other bulk goods.
You will have 10% off any other products you purchase (Not other bulk products)

I will phone you when we receive the order and arrange the free shipping and your preferred method of payment.

Regards

Wally Richards

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

Gardening, News

About sprayers and spraying in your garden (Wally Richards)

March 30, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

Gardeners and horticulturists can at times take things for granted as we are often doing certain chores and don’t stop to realise that what we do and why we do it, is not common knowledge with everyone who gardens or are attempting to garden.

One of these is spraying plants for whatever reason we spray; whether it be for pest control, disease control, weed control or other reasons.

Lets start off with sprayers of which there are many types and I have four types that I use for different reasons and times.

Firstly I have a Back Pack sprayer which is hand pumped and holds about 16 litres of spray.

This one is only used for weed killing and the compound I use in it is Ammonium sulphamate that I dissolve into water at the rate of 200 grams per litre of water.

I add to this Raingard at the rate of 1mil per litre of water.

The best time to spray weeds is on a nice sunny day in full sun light and ideally when the soil is on the dry side.

If you are using any other non chemical weed killers then a sunny day with dry soil is a must for success.

If you are using chemical herbicides you should add Raingard to the spray as it will increase the effectiveness of the herbicide by 50% and apply it also ideally on a sunny day and drier soil.

The reason is that when soil is dry plants are moisture seeking and will take the spray more readily into their foliage.

The sprayer that you use for weed killers should be clearly written on ‘WEED KILLERS ONLY’

failure to do this will often lead to tragic loses in your gardens.

I have had many instances when someone else has used a sprayer that had been used to kill weeds and used the sprayer on plants for insect problems. (It works you kill the plants and the insects disappear, not so nice for your cherished plants)

This is particularly so with chemical herbicides because rinsing the sprayer out after use will not remove all the chemical as they impregnate into the plastic and if you were to use the same sprayer with say an insecticide in it and spray roses,

tomatoes, beans and various other plants, it will cause herbicide damage to the foliage and in some cases kill the plants.

If you have small weed killing jobs to do then what ever you are going to use, put it into a Trigger Sprayer that you mark ‘WEED KILLERS ONLY’

I actually have several 1 litre Trigger Sprayers that I use for different applications and as I do not use Raingard in the Trigger Sprayers I can store what spray has not been used in a shed out of direct sun light for future use..

If Raingard or VaporGard has been used in a sprayer then any spray not used should be either discarded or put into a container for future use so that you can wash out the sprayer immediately and run some clean water though it to make sure filters and jets are cleared of any residue.

So discard the contents, part fill with clean water and give a good shake.

Tip this water out and again part fill the sprayer with clean water and open the nozzle of the sprayer to make a jet and jet spray some of the water through the nozzle.

This will help ensure that the sprayer will be ready for use next time you want to use it.

Failure to do some often means time wasted as you try to clean residues from the sprayer so it will work.

Many products that have been diluted with water will keep for a time if stored out of sunlight, they may slump which means they fall to the bottom and there is more water above the product. A good shake normally remixes the product with the water.

Sometime I will add a little more of the product to the sprayer and also more water as to label instructions to top up the sprayer and overcome any possibility of the product deterioration while stored.

Besides the Back Pack Sprayer and several trigger spray bottles I also have two other pump up sprayers for spraying.

One is a 2 litre pump up sprayer the other is a 5 litre sit on the ground pump up sprayer.

Those are for the jobs that are bigger than what a Trigger sprayer would be used for and yet not enough to use the pack pack size.

Most spraying of any product except weed killers should be done at the end of the day when the sun is going down towards dusk and direct sunlight off the plant’s foliage.

This is particularly important if using any oil products such as Wallys Neem Tree Oil.

Also if using Super Pyrethrum on its own or with the Neem Oil as pyrethrum has a short life when exposed to UV which is in fact about two hours.

Also pyrethrum can affect honey bees and by dusk most of them should be back home in their hives.

Next morning when the sun comes up the Pyrethrum will be gone within a couple of hours.

Now here is a very important point which many do not realise when spraying chemical herbicides.

NEVER spray on a still calm day. Many people think that is the best time to spray when in fact it is the worst.

I learnt that when I obtained my Chemical Handlers certificate years ago and here is the reason why;

When it is calm tiny spray droplets are lifted up in to the air from conventional air currents (warm air rises) and these deadly droplets rise up and will at sometime drop onto what ever is below, your place? Down the road? Who knows but very damaging to what ever plant they land on.

The ideal time to spray is when there is a nice mild breeze, this will force the spray droplets down onto the target weeds.

Another good idea if your sprayer has a wand you can make a spray shield out of a two litre plastic ice cream container.

In the centre of the container make a hole that is big enough to fit over your wand when the nozzle is removed.

Place the end of the wand through the hole and put the nozzle back on.

You place this over the weeds you want to spray and pull the trigger. All the spray will stay inside the ice cream container.

So even on a windy day or calm day you can spray your weed killers safely.

We have now listed on our mail order web site at www.0800466464.co.nz One Litre Trigger Spray bottles for $6.00 each

(See under Disease Control top of first page)

If you are ordering other gardening items from the web site then add a Trigger or two to your order.

On their own the freight cost does not make them a good buy but when freight (if applicable) is on other products the trigger sprays can hitch a ride on that freight.

You get 10% off the price so that makes them only $5.40 each a good buy at that price.

Problems ring me at 0800 466464
Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Part II of the Act covers a broad range of Civil and Political Rights. As part of the right to life and the security of the person, the Act guarantees everyone:

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

Image by Renate Köppel from Pixabay

Gardening, News

HOUSEHOLD ITEMS THAT ARE USEFUL IN THE GARDEN (Wally Richards)

March 22, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

There are a number of items that can be used in your garden to the benefit of plants.

For instance a year ago I wrote the article about using Apple Cider Vinegar on fruit trees to increase their performance and to reduce disease problems.

The formula is 250mil Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) mixed with 5 litres water in a 5 litre sprayer.

Spray the mix in the evening when the sun has just gone off your trees or plants, so the sun isn’t heating/burning leaves through the liquid spray droplets on them, and there’s time for the spray to dry before nightfall..

Spray the whole tree, vine or plant.. under and over leaves, the trunk, branches, twigs, fruit everything..

This will also feed the tree through the leaves (when they are there for deciduous trees) as a foliage food.

Baking Soda applied at a tablespoon per litre of water with Raingard added is good to prevent some fungus diseases such as black spot. (Don’t use on calcium sensitive plants)

Baking Soda can be sprayed over the foliage of oxalis to dehydrate the leaves. Oxalis to sensitive to calcium.

It does not affect the bulbs below but regular spraying of baking soda will keep the garden free of the oxalis foliage without affecting other plants.

To deal to the bulbs in the soil, mix Wallys Super Compost Accelerator at 200 grams per litre of water and water liberally over the foliage down into the soil to compost the bulb and bulblets.

Then there is table salt which can be sprinkled on weeds to kill them which is ideal on pavers and where you dont have other plants growing.

Cooking oils and vinegar can also be sprayed onto weeds in full sun light to dehydrate the foliage and kill annual weeds.

Condys Crystals, (potassium permanganate) a quarter tea spoon per litre of water with or without Raingard to control leaf diseases such as black spot, rust and curly leaf.

Sunlight Bar Soap (big yellow bar) lathered up in water to spray over aphids and soft body insects to kill them. (The fatty acids breaks down their soft bodies)

Dish washing liquid lathered up in warm water to break surface tension to allow water to penetrate.

Aspirin: in plants, just like in mammals, salicylic acid helps them cope with stress and disease. By adding Aspirin to the water, gardeners are hoping to help their plants cope with problems and grow faster and stronger.

The acid is effective on plants because many plants produce it themselves in tiny amounts. Plants produce this acid when stressed or fighting disease. Feeding them a greater supply of the acid proves beneficial. Giving the plant too much aspirin can have a negative effect as it can burn its leaves.

Dissolve 250mg to 500mg of aspirin in 4.5 liters of non chlorinated water and spray plants two to three times per month.

Similarly soak the leaves of willow trees in water for a week or more and use that as a spray as you would the aspirin. Willow water is ideal also for putting cuttings in to help them form roots quicker.

All great uses and here is the most interesting one of all:

Hydrogen peroxide 3%.

I read about this some years ago and it was again brought to my attention recently.

Hydrogen peroxide, well known as an ingredient in disinfectant products, is now also approved for controlling microbial pests on crops growing indoors and outdoors, and on certain crops after harvest.

This active ingredient prevents and controls bacteria and fungi that cause serious plant diseases.

Adding hydrogen peroxide to water promotes better growth in plants and boosts roots ability to absorb nutrients from the soil.

Diluted 3% peroxide adds needed aeration to the soil of plants and helps control fungus in the soil.

It acts as an insect pest deterrent and kills their eggs.

Ideal on brassica leaves for white butterfly eggs this time of the year.

I used 3% Hydrogen peroxide with Magic Botanic Liquid added on tomato and chili plants in my glasshouse and there was reduced actively within a couple of days.

A spray every 2-3 days is ideal for control or once a week or 2 weekly as a preventive.

I see on the Internet that the 3% should be further reduced with water such as 1:1 so if using 3% strength it would pay to do a test spray on a small area of foliage on each type of plant and see if there was any adverse reactions before using at 3% over whole crop or plant.

Ideal this time of the year to reduce pest number going into the winter.

I see the best use is in glasshouses where the product does not get washed away with rain.

Use out doors over and under foliage and you may need to reapply after rain.

Happy Gardening.

For your information I have the 3% hydrogen peroxide available to order thought our mail order web site at www.0800466464.co.nz

It is in the Pest Control section. (Listing will be on the web site with pictures later on today (Sunday 19th April.)

We have a one litre Trigger Spray Bottle Ready to Use with 3% Hydrogen Peroxide and Magic Botanic Liquid spray for $12.50

A one litre refill for the above for $8.00

and a 5 litre ready to use for $40.00

Of course you being subscribed to these Newsletters have a 10% discount off the above as with most of our gardening products.

If you have not used the Mail Order web site previously please tell me when I phone you to sort out payment method and freight that you have 10% off

Regards
Wally

Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

Image by Maya A. P from Pixabay

Gardening

WINTER PREPARATIONS IN THE GARDEN (Wally Richards)

March 19, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

This week I noticed a distinct chill in the air, first thing in the morning, which could be described as a very light frost.

Others must have noticed it in their localities as orders started coming in for Vaporgard, the spray on frost protection.

Now if you think back to Marches in the past years, it is very early to start to get chilly and it is more into April and May that one starts to realise that winter is getting into gear.

March is the first month of autumn in New Zealand and we have just started autumn with some leaf colour changes.

In autumn, New Zealand enjoys some of the most settled weather of the whole year.

Soak up long, sunny days and golden leaves with hiking, cycling or kayaking. (used to be)

Looking overseas there are number of late cold events in places such as California where snow is certainly not common even in winter.

I wound not be surprised if we don’t have a really cold winter this year and an early start to it.

So time to get organised for winter chills in your garden and in your home.

Did you know that your bank is offering Green Loans to people for such things as insulation, double glazing, heat pumps and solar power systems?

I am in the process of installing an off the grid solar power system I purchased from China for my warehouse and my bank has happily lent the cost of installation under this new leaning critia..

So what to do to protect your garden against the coming cold and frosts?

First thing is soft sappy growth of plants caused by nitrogen fertilisers will suffer unless you harden the growth up by applying Wallys Fruit and Flower Power which is half potash, to firm up growth and half magnesium to help ensure foliage stays green in winter.

A small sprinkling once a month starting now will toughen and green up your plants for winter.

Deciduous plants such as roses and many fruit trees that will drop their leaves and rest over winter so there is no point of using Wallys Fruit and Flower Power till the spring when they start to move for the new season.

Wet weather in winter takes a toll on plants that don’t like wet feet and can often lead to their deaths.

Mulches that you used in summer around plants should now be removed as they prevent the soil from drying out and will cause root rots.

Great for summer water retention but deadly in winter. Even weed mat can cause a problem in a wet winter.

It is now time to start a monthly treatment of plants that do not like wet feet such as citrus trees by spraying the foliage with Wallys Perkfection, once a month for the next 3 to 6 months.

It fortifies the roots making them less susceptible to rotting in wet soil.

The above has taken care of your preferred ever green plants but what about the ones that are frost tender such as passion fruit, avocados, tamarillos, hibiscus, citrus etc?

Also glasshouse plants such as tomatoes, Capsicum and chili that you are wintering over?

It is time to spay the foliage with Wallys Vaporgard; ‘Spray on Frost Protection’.

It comes in two sizes 100 mils which makes 6.66 litres of spray which is often enough to do all the cold sensitive plants in many gardens once or 250 mils makes up 16.66 litres of spray.

Place the Vaporgard bottle into a jug of hot water so it pours better and then mix with warm water at 15 mils per litre.

You can add some Magic Botanic Liquid to the spray which your plants will appreciate.

Only spray on a sunny day in full sun light over the plants leaves so the film dries faster.

It gives down to minus 3 frost protection within 3 days of application for about 3 months.

So a spray now will be repeated about middle of June to take your plants out of winter.

If you don t use all the spray mixed up remove from sprayer and store in a bottle in a dark cupboard. It can be used again later. Then and most important; immediately rinse out sprayer with fresh water and tip out.

Then another lot of water which you will spray as a jet (adjust nozzle to make jet) to ensure that filters and nozzle don’t block when Vaporgard sets.

If you don’t do this straight away you will have problems cleaning it the next time you go to use. The above is good practise to do with any sprays you use in your sprayer.

In areas where frosts are very heavy then you can add Wallys Liquid Copper to the Vaporgard spray and that places an extra layer of particles over the foliage to give even better frost protection.

How does Vaporgard work? Besides putting a protective film over the leaves it acts as a sunscreen against UV.

VaporGard develops a polymerised skin over each spray-droplet which filters out UVA and UVB. This provides a sunscreen for chlorophyll which is normally under attack by UV light.

This results in a darker green colour of the foliage within a few days of application. This chlorophyll build-up makes the leaf a more efficient food factory producing more carbohydrates, especially glycols.

Glycol is anti-freeze so the plant has its own anti-freeze protection of the cells. The cells still free but are protected with the anti-freeze.

That is fine if you have a frost every few days but if there is several frosts night after night then the cells dont have enough time to heal before they are fozen again.

That being the case you need to use additional protection such as frost cloth for the second and third frosts.

Vaporgard will ensure that you don’t get caught out from that unexpected frost.

Once you have winter proofed your gardens then also change your watering patterns of your indoor plants which will suffer inside during winter if the mix is wet.

A little water as needed is best for winter indoor plants keeping the mix a little on the dry side.

Most important after watering that you remove any water from the saucer below the pot.

If at this time you find when you water the water quickly fills the saucer below then you have a problem called soil tension which prevents the water from wetting all the growing medium.

If the pots are not too big then plunge them into a tank of water and watch them bubble away.

When they stop bubbling lift and let drain before placing back on saucer. They will accept water better next time. If the containers are too big to plunge then mix some dishwashing liquid into warm water, lather up and water that over the growing medium. It will break surface tension.

Two interesting things were reported this week one about server climate events which we have recently seen.

Ian Wishart did some investigating and here is the out come:

CLIMATE OF FEAR: NIWA’s Missing Storm Data & Its Impact On Extreme Climate Claims

Whatever; one thing for sure the climate during my life time has changed and not for the better, but then again it has been changing from the day planet Earth came into being so whats new.

You will likely see this in the news soon….

Silicon Valley Bank Collapsed yesterday; A bid to reassure investors goes awry. The failure of Silicon Valley Bank was caused by a run on the bank.

The company was not, at least until clients started rushing for the exits, insolvent or even close to insolvent. Other banks are in trouble now also.

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

Gardening, News

Gardening: beating the veggie shortages … (Wally Richards)

March 6, 2023 Pam Vernon 2 Comments

It is certainly interesting times we are living in … there are also some gardening problems to overcome. Recently I went looking for some vegetable seedlings and seed packets of vegetables that I wished to add to my gardens at this time.

I was after cauliflower seedlings to grow and harvest in winter and some onion seeds to sow now. I had to visit several gardening places before I found the items I required. This means that a lot of people have woken up to the fact that fresh produce in the supermarkets are several times dearer currently than they would normally be in March. In fact in March there should be a glut of cheap fruit and vegetables available from spring and summer crops. There isn’t. The supermarkets are now starting to import vegetables that are normally available in abundance from NZ growers. There Isn’t. Imported produce is much more expensive than local grown hence if you are paying $5 for a small cabbage now soon you will be paying $10 or more. I was talking recently to a check out operator at local supermarket than was saying there are several customers that are not at all friendly now. I can understand why, people with limited money for buying food can’t afford all the groceries that they are used to buying; their budget just does not stretch that far. Hence they can be grumpy and even a bit nasty to the Supermarket staff. The same people are in a Catch 22 they don’t have the money to grow their own produce and/or don’t have land that can be used for gardening. Readers of my columns are good gardeners, in the main, and even if on a budget they are able to grow a reasonable amount of their own food which is not only a big saving but also much more healthy for us gardeners.

There are problems that are currently happening and one of these is as I found; a shortage of seeds and seedlings in many gardening outlets. Cabbage and cauliflower seedlings I have purchased recently have caterpillar eggs on the leaves and if you don’t rub them off they will be eaten alive not too long after planting. So check leaves for the little lightly yellow eggs and rub them off before you plant. I use Wally Neem Granules when I plant cabbages etc a little in the bottom of the planting hole and more on the soil surface by the seedlings. This has a very good control of the caterpillars and even though I have caterpillar eggs on my plants and holes on the leaves there is not any caterpillars on the foliage. The holes are made by hungry birds not caterpillars. It is even worse on my silverbeet which young seedlings I planted have either disappeared or they have damaged foliage. More mature silverbeet will likely have a lot of leaf damage from birds feeding. The best way to keep birds off silverbeet and brassicas is to use what I call Crop Cover or what shops call, Bug Mesh. Either laid loose over crops or supported over crops with hoops made from ridged plastic irrigation pipe or number 8 wire. The crop cover is good for many seasons and will keep birds and just about all pests off your crops include neighborhood cats. Old curtain netting could be used instead of the more durable crop cover.

When you buy vegetable seedlings look for the smaller, fresher ones not the over grown ones which have likely been stressed and will go to seed prematurely. Even if you take them home to grow on a bit to make handling easier, then do so. First thing I do when I get punnets home is plunge them into a bucket of water than I have thrown some sheep manure pellets into some time ago. I hold them down into the liquid manure and watch them bubble away. This not only gives them a good soaking of the mix but some nature liquid food as well. Let them drain and place in full sun till you are ready to plant them. Water as need be in the meantime and prior to planting plunge them into the bucket again. Seedlings will pull apart better when the mix is wet and they have ample wet mix on the roots when you plant. After planting give them a watering with the hose to bed them in. Then you can put your crop cover over them if you are going to use this method.

I wrote recently a quick way of converting some existing lawn area into a productive vegetable patch. For those that missed it here it is again:

‘If you want to convert a part of your lawn to vegetable growing then mow the chosen area (a sunny area is best by far) as short as possible (called scalping). Around the lawn edge of this area dig a small trench about half a spade depth. The soil and grass from this trench can be stacked some where for future use. The trench will assist with drainage and as a mowing strip between the vegetable garden and the existing lawn. Place the lawn clippings caught in the catcher over the scalped area. (Extra food for your vegetables crops) Now cover the scalped lawn area that has the lawn clippings with a layer of cardboard or alternatively several layers of news paper. You can find cardboard from recycling places, super markets etc. Sprinkle any animal manure you can get hold of or blood & bone with sheep manure pellets. A sprinkling of Wallys BioPhos and Wally Ocean solids will complete the nutrient requirements. Then over this place a layer of purchased compost which I prefer Daltons as it does not container green waste and thus herbicide problems. This layer need only be about 5cm thick just deep enough to plant seeds or seedlings in.’ end……..

The problem that we all have had this season is the lack of direct sunlight. Called ‘Dimming’ the sun is obscured by hazy skies or too much cloud and not enough ‘Blue Skies’. Plants are slow to grow, flower buds don’t form or don’t open and solar panels don’t make much power as they do in direct sunlight. Can’t help with solar panels other than wash them to make better use of the light available. For plants provide them with Liquid Sunlight by dissolving a tablespoon of molasses into a litre of hot water and when cooled down add some Magic Botanic Liquid and spray foliage of your plants. Repeat every few days. Likely you will notice the leaves will get much bigger and that is good. It may attract ants if they are a problem where you are so then make up some of our Granny Mins Ant Bait and use that to kill the ants. (Old recipe and lots better than most baits and cheaper also).

Off Topic..With the flooding and forest waste problems I wonder why they don’t control burn it? I think they used to in the past as the ashes are great for planting more trees. (Of course they are not allowed/// something about CO2? Workers not allowed to take it for fire wood apparently and logging companies say too expensive to do. (Lot more expensive the damage it does). Also they used to dredge rivers to make them deeper so more water could flow without flooding surrounding areas. (oops not allowed to, upsets river life: PC gone mad). Simple remedies that we used to use. Burn the slash and dredge the rivers!

Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)
2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)
3The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent (Section 10)
4The right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment (Section 11)
Furthermore, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 guarantees everyone: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion. This includes the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO ADOPT AND HOLD OPINIONS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE (Section 1)

Image by Mark Valencia from Pixabay

Food, Gardening, NZ Flood Feb 2023

WEEDS – A NEW WAY TO DEAL TO THEM (Wally Richards)

February 28, 2023 Pam Vernon Leave a comment

This week I received a book from an old friend of mine, Julia Sich which she has written and called ‘Julia’s Guide to Edible weeds and Wild Green Smoothies’.

Many of you will know the ‘Weed Lady’ through her previous book and workshops.

In your gardens you will likely have a number of plants we call ‘weeds’ which are of benefit to your diet and health.

The definition of a ‘weed’ is simply ‘a plant that is growing where we do not want it to grow’.

Many of the plants we grow for food or for their flowers; when allowed to self seed they become weeds.

I recommend that you obtain a copy of Julia’s book and learn to your benefit, many of the plants you pull out, kill and compost which could be better off been cultivated and consumed.

The book is available in two formats as a down load E Book or as a printed publication.

The web site is https://www.juliasedibleweeds.com/

and the book is available for NZ$19.95 for the Ebook OR $34.95 plus postage for the printed version.

The book gives you both the common names and the Botanical names as well as coloured pictures to assist in identification.

Each weed has a written description along with its nutritional values and how to use them for your benefit.

Mind you if the Government had its way it would ban the use of these natural plants and their ancient uses if favour of Big Pharma’s bottom line. (Therapeutic Products Bill)

Pharmaceutical companies hate natural remedies even though many of their concoctions were originally derived from plant’s properties.

If you have the knowledge such as given in Julia’s book then you can look after your own well being as our fore fathers did from all races on the planet. (And at no expense if out of the weeds in your gardens)

We have to read and learn about the advantages of these plants but in Nature animals know what is best for them as far as their well being is concerned.

For instance if you place cattle into a paddock that has a wide range of plants including weeds, the cattle will consume the ones that they need for better health beside eating a lot of grass.

Which is an interesting point in so much as grass is also very good for your health and in particular, wheat grass and barley grass.

That is if you apply all the known minerals and element to the growing medium.

Reason is that grasses will take up all the minerals available where other plants such as tomatoes only require 56 of the known 114 mineral and elements.

That is why some farmers will apply what we sell as Ocean Solids to their paddocks to the great benefit of their stock’s health.

I remember a farmer telling me one time about his practice of spraying diluted sea water over his paddocks which was much to the annoyance of his farming neighbour,

because a certain amount of the sea spray would fall onto the neighbors side of the fence and when the neighbour let his stock into that paddock they would rush over to the area by the fence line and demolish the mineral rich grasses growing there.

Julia mentions ‘your’s truly’ in her book and in particular in regards to ‘Smoothies’

I presume many of you have or still do on occasions, if not regularly, go out and pick a range of greens and put them into a high speed blender with a banana and wizz up a very beneficial brew.

The banana addition takes away some of the unpleasant taste of some plants and makes your drink very palatable.

Julia tells the story of how smoothies solved health issues that she once had as I found the same many years ago when I first started making smoothies from as many different plants as I could get my hands on.

Some plants are nice to eat raw and have flavors that make them appealing such as salad crops.

The rest including grasses are better taken raw in a smoothie.

Besides being of great benefit to your health another very good reason to find out what weeds you can eat is the unusual weather that has affected New Zealand recently.

Here is a update from a Food Producer in the Hawke’s Bay: ‘Hi everyone, food producer here. Just wanted to write an easily digestible post so people can understand how severe the destruction in H.B is for the whole of N.Z

The media aren’t really discussing it fully and people I speak to can’t seem to wrap their heads around how serious this is for us as a country.

What’s been lost: It’s called the fruit bowl for a reason, not just grapes and apples but also pears, onions, corn, carrots, blueberries, strawberries, honey, dairy, beef, sheep products including wool and also apiaries, nurseries and seed banks.

Wineries and orchards have had heritage trees and vines utterly wiped out. We’re talking 30-40-year-old plants gone. Countless bee hives and fields of crops buried under a metre of silt.

These aren’t just for fresh produce but also wine, vinegar, honey, bread and processed fruit and vegetables for things from muesli bars to ice cream and condiments.

The layer of silt now covering the once fertile land has been completely smothered. There’s so much cleaning up to be done before people can replant and fertilize it will take years to get back even close to normal.

In that time we’ll see massive shortages of all the above, affecting almost all food items you can think of.

A very apt warning and not only in NZ but also in many major food producing areas of the world, either through Floods or Droughts millions of acres of crops have been lost..

Think about that. You might want to start cultivating a few weeds for a ‘Rainy Day’.

Of course as we have seen this spring and summer a lack of blue skies with nice fluffy white clouds which has also greatly affected us home gardens as well as commercial growers.

Direct sun shine is what all plants use to create carbohydrates which is the energy that makes them grow, flower and produce seeds.

Hazy skies and cloud cover that prevents direct sunlight being available for plants and solar panels is a very big concern.

In 2006 this matter was brought up at the United Nations and the speech about it can be heard here

VIDEO LINK

Well worth 18 minuets of your time to be better informed. (Now days they talk about ‘Planet Shading’ which would be a bit like a ‘Nuclear Winter’ no sun plants don’t grow.

Playing with weather or the ability to produce or prevent weather patterns is a fact and now days it is harder to determine what is natural and what is man made.

If severe weather events we have experienced are not natural then a lot of people that have been badly affected would not be very happy for sure.

Phone 0800 466464
Garden Pages and News at www.gardenews.co.nz
Shar Pei pages at www.sharpei.co.nz
Mail Order products at www.0800466464.co.nz

1The right not to be deprived of life except in accordance with fundamental justice (Section 8)

2The right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, degrading, or disproportionately severe treatment or punishment (Section 9)

Environmental Health Watch NZ

Category Archives: Gardening

Growing giants by encouraging your children to garden (Wally Richards)

A gardening checklist, heading into Summer (Wally Richards)

DEALING WITH CODLIN, GUAVA MOTHS and ARMY WORM IN YOUR GARDEN (Wally Richards)

Pollinating your plants (Wally Richards)

THE PERFECT RAISED GARDEN (Wally Richards)

More tomato growing tips (Wally Richards)

Bringing the ocean to your garden (Wally Richards)

GROWING POTATOES AND THE POTATO PSYLLID (Wally Richards)

Tomato Psyllid problems in your garden (Wally Richards)

WORM FARMING (Wally Richards)

Seed Germination time (Wally Richards)

TOMATO STARTING TIME (Wally Richards)

GARDENING FOR HEALTH (Wally Richards)

About plant diseases & how to control them (Wally Richards)

FRUIT TREE TIME (Wally Richards)

The tree is quite vigorous, with large deep green foliage.

It’s time to plant garlic (Wally Richards)

Time to plant new season’s strawberries (Wally Richards)

Fresh Greens in Winter (Wally Richards)

Only a few weeks until the shortest day – prepare for the new season in the garden (Wally Richards)

WET FEET IN THE GARDEN (Wally Richards)

VISITING LIFE UNDER GROUND (Wally Richards)

The importance of phosphate in your garden (Wally Richards)

GROWING HIGH HEALTH VEGETABLES (Wally Richards)

Wally Richards & Rodney Hide on Reality Check Radio with Gardening Basics – (must hear)

THE IMPORTANCE OF POTASSIUM AND MAGNESIUM IN YOUR GARDEN (Fruit + Flower Power – Wally Richards)

About sprayers and spraying in your garden (Wally Richards)

HOUSEHOLD ITEMS THAT ARE USEFUL IN THE GARDEN (Wally Richards)

WINTER PREPARATIONS IN THE GARDEN (Wally Richards)

Gardening: beating the veggie shortages … (Wally Richards)

WEEDS – A NEW WAY TO DEAL TO THEM (Wally Richards)

Watching our environment … our health … and corporations … exposing lies and corruption

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The tree is quite vigorous, with large deep green foliage.

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Watching our environment … our health … and corporations … exposing lies and corruption