Crop Rotation Why bother with crop rotation? It is a really effective way of controlling pest and disease problems. Some veggies are susceptible to certain types of fungi or bacteria and if you keep planting the same crop in one position it is only a matter of time before your crop is attacked. All the Brassica family (broccoli, cabbage,) is vulnerable to club root disease and cabbage white butterfly. Tomatoes are prone to getting wilt, root knot nematode and blossom end rot. By moving crops around and planting them among other veggies it lessens the chance of a disease getting hold and confuses pests. The other factor to consider is that each type of veggie has different nutrient and water requirements. Most veggies grow in a neutral ph but peas and beans prefer dolomite lime in the soil prior to sowing. Beetroot needs boron added to get a good size beet. Crop rotation is particularly important when it comes to long-term crops like eggplant, potatoes, onions and garlic. There are 4 different groups or crops of vegetables: Crop 1: Crop 2: Crop 3: Crop 4: Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, leafy vegetables (brassicas) Carrots, onions, garlic, beetroot, potatoes (root vegetables) Peas, climbing beans, mung beans, snow peas (legumes) Tomatoes, corn, eggplant, pumpkin, chilli, capsicum, zucchini (fruiting vegetables) The crops must be rotated in order as follows: Bed 1 Bed 2 Bed 3 Bed 4 Year 1 Crop 1 Crop 2 Crop 3 Crop 4 Year 2 Crop 4 Crop 1 Crop 2 Crop 3 Year 3 Crop 3 Crop 4 Crop 1 Crop 2 Year 4 Crop 2 Crop 3 Crop 4 Crop 1
Fertilising Most vegetables are annuals and will need to be fertilised on a regular basis to get a good crop. All fruit trees and bush tucker also needs fertilizing to increase yield. Veggie beds need to have applications of dolomite lime and a general purpose fertiliser with trace elements once every 6 weeks. Applications of a liquid fertiliser can be given to seedlings when they are first planted out into beds and then on a monthly basis. Fruit trees need a good granular slow release fertiliser at planting out time and then monthly. Liquid fertiliser can also be applied on a monthly basis. When fertiliser has been applied it is important to water it in well so that it doesn t burn the roots of plants and cause leaf fall. Blood and Bone can be used on all plants and vegetables including native bush tucker plants. Manure is not a fertiliser, but it is a great soil conditioner and feeds the microbes in the soil. Use fertilisers that have NPK plus all the trace elements. Stocktech, Baileys and Richgro make excellent fertilisers, both granular and liquid.
Harvesting Harvesting times are dependent on the weather, soil type and timing of crops. Fruit must always be ripe before picking as the sugars will not develop after picking. All seed packets have a time for harvest on each vegetable, but this is a guide and depending on the weather and soil type it may be sooner or later. It is better to harvest in the morning and store veggies in the fridge. Fruit will need to be kept in air conditioning or eaten soon after harvest. Note that some oranges and mandarins may still be green when they ripen. The skin will not turn orange but remain green at harvest time, this is very common in tropical areas. Peas, beans, zucchini, tomato, eggplant, chilli and capsicum will crop more the more you pick. Once the harvesting is over, plant out a different crop in that area.
Composting Making a compost heap is invaluable for remote communities. It will be your free supply of soil conditioner that is usually $16 per bag. Composting also recycles all the vegie scraps, lawn clippings, old straw and leaf litter and turns it into beautiful soil. Composting is all about creating the right environment for the production of microscopic bacteria that actually creates the compost. The most important thing to know about composting is the carbon to nitrogen ratio : 40 parts Carbon (dry material) to 1 part Nitrogen (wet material). Examples of things that contain Carbon and Nitrogen are listed below: Carbon (40 parts) Newspaper Straw Sorghum Hay Sawdust Nitrogen (1 part) Manure Fresh grass clippings Blood & Bone Kitchen scraps Fresh leaf litter Eggshells Start your compost heap with a layer of Carbon, then a small layer of Nitrogen, sprinkle some Blood and Bone then repeat and keep adding layers of material in the right amounts as it becomes available. Other elements vital to successful composting are moisture and oxygen. If you are layering your compost make sure that each layer is watered. If your compost heap gets too wet or too dry, microbial activity will stop and so will the composting. Allow the compost to heat up and when it starts to cool down, turn it every day. This process helps evenly distribute the microbes and provide an oxygen source for them to grow in. Take care not to breathe in the compost dust when turning it. The easiest way to compost is to make 2 boxes made out of tin so that one compost heap is being filled while the other is ready to use. The most ideal size for quick compost is 1 cubic metre. When your compost is ready you can use it to top up your vegie beds and enrich the soil around fruit trees.
This is an example of some simple compost bins at Noonkanbah
Pruning Fruit trees must be pruned twice a year to increase the quality of the fruit. Passionfruit and Choko vines also need pruning. The best time to prune anything is after fruiting finishes. Do not prune from December March as this is the hottest time of the year and leaves and bark of trees may get sunburnt. You can safely prune off 1/3 rd of all plants. Pruning will encourage new growth and most fruit is borne on the most recent growth. After pruning always fertilise and water in well.
Seed Saving Seed can be expensive, but many vegetables produce their own seed that can be harvested and saved. Always select the strongest plant to harvest seed from. Lettuce, broccoli and carrot may need to be bagged as the seed is very fine and will be lost. Pumpkins, tomato, watermelon, rock melon, paw paw, chili, eggplant, can all be grown from their own seed which should be saved, dried out and stored until use. Never store seed in plastic, use either glass jars or paper bags. Mark the container with the name of the plant, date when collected and when to plant out. Most seed will store for 4 years. Seed should be stored in the fridge or an air-conditioned room. Collecting lettuce seed using a paper bag
Pest & Disease Control You can reduce the risk of pests and diseases by using crop rotation, and by maintaining your garden free of weeds and excess water. The wet season is the time for pests to attack just about everything. In 2010 plagues of grasshoppers and locusts attacked the East Kimberley and the Peninsular during February, March and April. When there are large numbers of flying pests there is no effective control except to net the crops. During the dry season watch crops for caterpillars, fruit worms, aphids and other small insects on your crops. These will come and go during the season.
Pest Looks Location Treatment Aphids Tiny white winged insects Buds, leaves stem Pyrethrum spray or use in clusters vegie crops Natrasoap, Eco oil or Derris Dust Caterpillars See picture below eats Leaves and stem vegie Spray with Success or the leaves crops Dipel Termites or Plant droops and dies, Roots and stem of No control for edible mastotermes hollow stem citrus, passionfruit crops Fruit Fly Small brown winged insect Fruit on fruit trees Use Lebaycid, Eco- Naturalure Citrus Leafminer Curled citrus leaves with Citrus leaves Use Pest oil or Eco oil silvery trail Mealy Bug Small white clusters of Fruit trees, citrus Use Eco oil insects on new growth Scale White patches on stems or Fruit trees, citrus Use Pest oil, Eco oil brownish raised patches on leaves and stalks Thrips Tiny insects white, Fruit trees, tomatoes, Use Natrasoap, Nature s yellow, black leaving white onions, beans Bug Gun, pyrethrum marks on leaves, new spray growth stunted, wilting Tomato Fruit Worm Caterpillars that chew Under the stalk and Use Success or Dipel holes into the fruit and veg then they drill into the fruit Mites Yellow/brown leaves, Tiny spider-like mites Use Natrasoap or Eco oil stunted buds and new can be found under leaves leaves Grasshoppers Leaves and stems Use Eco Neem and Eco oil
It is important to identify the pest or disease before spraying anything. For pest and disease identification go to the website www.padil.gov.au which has photos of the most common pest and diseases in WA. The most common problems in Kimberley gardens are as follows: PEST TABLE caterpillar eggs caterpillar chrysalis Diseases Blossom End Rot sprinkle dolomite lime on beds before planting out tomatoes and capsicums Rust Copper oxychloride Powdery Mildew Use Eco Rose, Ecocarb Sooty Mould this is due to scale, white fly or aphids secreting honeydew. Control the insects and the sooty mould will disappear
Making Garden Sustainable Annual Planning Dry Season The dry season is the best time to plant out veggies, the best month to start your sowing seeds and transplanting seedlings is late March/April. Most of the Wet season bugs are starting to disappear and hopefully the days are becoming cooler. The cooler weather veggies like broccoli, broad beans and cabbages cannot be planted out until May. Use the dry season to top up beds with fresh soil, manure and straw. Get your crops out before the end of November when the rains and bugs arrive all at once. The Dry season is a great time to collect seed from veggies and store them in a cool place to use the next dry season. Dry Season Vegies: capsicum, chillies, broccoli, tomato, lettuce, climbing beans, peas, sweet corn, silverbeet, spinach, carrot, watermelon, rock melon, spring onion, Spanish onion, garlic, beetroot. Wet Season The wet seems to be arriving late, or in some cases not at all. Wet season growing can be difficult because of the intense heat, heavy rains either drown the roots of veggies or beat them into the ground. The other problem is fungal diseases that hit certain veggies. Don t bother spraying for pests or fungal problems if it is going to rain your hard work will just wash off. The main job during the wet is to try and keep the weeds under control. The beginning of the Wet is the best time to plant out all the native and bush tucker plants. It is also ideal for all the tropical fruit trees as they will grow very quickly. Anything planted over the wet will need fertilising every 4 weeks and liquid fertilising every 3 weeks as the nutrients will get leached away in the rains. Wet Season Vegies: snake beans, New Guinea beans, Ceylon spinach, eggplant, basil, chillies, garlic chives, watermelon, sweet potato, rosella, ginger, turmeric, mung beans, soya beans and peanuts.
Annual Budgeting For a backyard garden with a growing area of 4m x 2m and 2 fruit trees you will have about 10m2 of garden. To grow 2 3 crops every year in a backyard garden you should budget for: Seeds Seed raising mix 1 x 5kg bag Potting Mix 2 x 20kg bags Fertiliser 1 x 20kg bag Liquid Fertiliser Pest control products as required These may cost from $150 to $200 over the whole year. For a larger garden the size of an EON Edible Garden with about 350m2 of growing area including 10 fruit trees you will need to budget up to $500 over the year for products to make sure your garden grows. You can save money by collecting your own seed from your favourite veggies to use the following year.
Garden Maintenance Plan Here is a simple maintenance plan for your fruit and vegtable garden listing the tasks to do regularly to get the best results EVERY WEEK Hand water all vegetables beds with hose (in addition to automatic watering) Hand water all fruit and bush-tucker trees with hose (in addition to automatic watering) Check watering system to shadehouse, trees and vegie beds fix leaks and replace missing dripper heads Weed vegie beds, around vegie beds and trees and along fencelines Check for pests on all veggies and fruit trees and spray if necessary: aphids : use pyrethrum caterpillars : use Success grasshoppers : use eco-neem oil Check if seedlings in shadehouse are ready for planting EVERY 2 WEEKS Liquid fertilise all vegie beds using a watering can. Usually 1 capful liquid fertilizer per 9 litre can Transplant seedlings when 4-5cm high from shadehouse to veggies beds EVERY MONTH During growing season, sow new seeds in seedtrays in shadehouse in seed-raising mix During growing season, sow seeds direct into empty vegie beds (peas, beans, corn, carrot, zucchini, pumpkin, watermelon, rockmelon, mung beans, onion) Liquid fertilise fruit trees using a watering can. Usually 1 capful liquid fertilizer per 9 litre can When there is NO WIND, spray Round-up on weeds between vegie beds, along fencelines. DO NOT ROUND-UP NEAR FRUIT TREES AND BUSH-TUCKER TREES EVERY 3 MONTHS
Fertilise all fruit trees and bushtucker plants with granular fertilizer 1 handful per tree and water in well with hose Fertilise all vegie beds with granular fertilizer 1 handful per square metre and water in well with hose When vegie crop is finished, rotate a new crop in the bed. Top up vegie beds with compost, cow manure and straw/sorghum and water well before replanting