Many vegetables can be sown this month

Press, 7 January 1983, Page 9

Many vegetables can be sown this month

At this time of the year, when beaches, barbecues and holidays are popular, gardens are often neglected, but there is much which should be done.

GARDENING

by

M.Lusty

The first week or fortnight of the New Year always seems to slip by before there is much real enthusiasm for gardening in many homes — but there is much which should or could be done. Vegetable section: January is the time when wintermaturing crops must be planted out. giving them the maximum time to become fully established under the most favourable conditions - warmth and sunshine.

Planting out under very y«sKarm and sunny conditions f .11 frequently induce wiltfl <g. sometimes to the extent ifl at the transplants do not recover. If one reduces the leaf area by about one-third, this debilitating effect can be considerably lessened on such vegetables as leeks, cabbage and cauliflower. This method should not be attempted on lettuces. The use of paper caps for shade is beneficial.

As the following list indicates. there are still many vegetables which can be sown or planted in the next three to four weeks, or more in really, favourable areas.

Sowings include beetroot, dwarf beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, endive, lettuce, kohlrabi, parsley, peas, radish, swedes, turnips, spring onions and spinach. Plantings of borecole, broccoli (white and green), brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, celeriac, endive, lettuce, leeks and silver beet, can also be made.

Curcurbits should be making good growth, sending out and developing trailing stems, flowers and fruit. Pinching out the growing tips should cease about midmonth. allowing plants to continue to grow unrestrained.

Long spells of dry weather could see an increase in the incidence of powdery mildew and mites, which can severely affect plants. Triforine and benomyl, which could be used alternately, will give good control of powdery mildew’; mites can be controlled with kelthane or tredifon.

Tomato crops are very prone to physiological problems when subjected to irregular watering. This is accentuated if watering is overdone when applied, more particularly where there is an imbalance of plant nutrients. One of the most common of these troubles is blossom end rot. This upset causes a depression of the fruit usually from the base, which gradually blackens, upwards. Keep staked varieties well supported but make sure that the ties do not

damage the plants. Continue to pinch outside shoots but do not begin defoliation for several weeks yet. Fruit: Summer pruning is an important task right now, especially for grapes. Kiwi fruit (Chinese gooseberries) and pip fruit trained as cordons or espaliers. The usual procedure when summer-pruning apples is to prune back growths in excess of 230 mm to about four or five leaves, always cutting to an under side bud. All shoots less than 230 mm should be left intact. Summer pruning does not, however, mean that winter pruning becomes unnecessary; it is complementary to it. The effect is to curb vigorous growth and encourage so-called feathering; to gain the full benefit of fruit-bud initiation, pruning must be done earlier.

The aim in pruning grapes is to increase air circulation, allow better penetration of sunlight but not to the extent that developing fruit becomes scalded, and to make the vines more manageable. Generally, only one bunch of grapes should be allowed to develop on each shoot, which is cut back to one or two leaves past the bunch. Nonfruiting laterals can be cut back to three leaves unless required as replacements. The pruning of kiwi fruit should follow much the same procedure. All berry fruits should be thoroughly sprayed for pests and diseases just as soon as the last fruit has been removed. Use acephate (plus zineb). Similarly, continue to

maintain good control of top fruit problems such as codling moth, leaf roller, powdery mildew, black spot and brown rot.

Ornamental: Rambling roses have but one burst of bloom and then that is it for another year. For this reason they can be pruned now’. Spent wood should be cut out at. ground level and the current season's growth retained and tied down.

Continue watering, feeding, spraying and dead-heading roses. Budding can be carried out now on roses and many other shrubs and trees. It is important to water well those plants which are to be treated in this manner, and to use only completely healthy bud wood. Buds should be cut with a little

wood behind each one, the whole procedure requiring some practice before it can be done satisfactorily. Many ornamentals can be propagated from cuttings now. semi-ripe material being utilised and rooted in a medium containing sharp sand. Some of the plants which can be propagated from cuttings now include ericas, fuchsias, azaleas, abutilons and manukas. Carnations can be increased by means of layering or from cuttings. Lilies which have flowered can be lifted and used for propagating by means of their scales. Lawns should not be cut low or too often at present, particularly where cultural attention is generally of a minimal standard.