OCTOBER - EDIBLES - Grow your own & enjoy the satisfaction.
TIME TO HARVEST...
Start enjoying the fruits of your labours with lettuces, pak choi, brassicas, spinach, silverbeet, beetroot, broad beans, carrots etc all coming on stream. Tip: broad beans are so much better picked young before they get old & floury.
TIME TO PLANT...
Main crop potatoes, lettuces on a regular basis, and in the second half of the month, capsicums, courgettes, cucumbers, chillies, eggplants, tomatoes. Plant all herbs, remembering that basil needs a really warm sheltered spot. If existing herbs are looking healthy give them a trim and a liquid feed to stimulate new growth. Herbs need to be grown fast to be at their tastiest best and picking encourages new growth
TIME TO SOW...
Seeds sown now will be ready to plant out in November. Sow beetroot, brassicas, broad beans, silverbeet, courgettes, spinach, lettuces, tomatoes, sweetcorn & peas. Sow dwarf & runner beans when the soil is warming up. Good quality fresh seedraising mix, warmth & protection from cold wind, are keys to seed raising.
TIME TO FEED...
Pretty much everything! Regular feeding maximises the naturally strong growth at this time of year and keeps the essential nutrients supplied. Different plants have different requirements (eg compare root crops to tomatoes) and we can talk you through those different needs.
TIME TO PROTECT...
Merging seeds & new plantings of seedlings from slugs & snails, plus the new shoots of delphiniums. Be ready to protect new seedlings from frost as October can be a real mix of temperatures. Mound up potatoes as they grow (good protection from late frosts too). Protect apples & pears from codling moth which starts at blossom time – spray with Success now or use codling moth traps. Use Success on raspberries at blossom time to stop caterpillars invading fruit.
TIME TO CONTROL...
Aphids on new growth of roses, fruit trees, hellebores, garlic etc. aphids suck out the sap, spread viruses, cause sooty mould, but easily controlled with Enspray 99.