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Showing 1411 - 1440 of 1601 comments

Pumpkin 13 Sep, tony (New Zealand - temperate climate): surely it is not worth saving pumpkin seeds unless you have an heirloom variety? Most supermarket ones would be hybrids so they are unlikely to be true to the parent, and pumpkins are known to cross easily with cucumbers etc. Of course you would dry the seed if you are going to store them. Hardest thing with pumpkins is keeping the water up to them, they have so much foliage, they dry out easily.
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Jerusalem Artichokes (also Sunchoke) 01 Sep, Heather (New Zealand - temperate climate): I promise they will grow. My tips - to harvest them only one plant at a time - or 'bandicoot' a few tubers from the side. Really fresh tubers - I mean today's - don't need peeling, just scrub. When replanting, save the smoothest tubers. I kept them going for four or five generations and managed to get an easy-peel strain going. If you have too many [and who doesn't?] goats love the tops and chickens love the tubers. Eating toast with artichoke soup tends to reduce the anti-social after-effects. Warning! If you leave a whole plant in the ground from year to year, it will still grow but you will end up with amazingly complex unpeelable tubers.
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Pumpkin 27 Aug, Lachlan (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate): Do seeds need to be dried before planting?
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Pumpkin 14 Sep, Mike (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate): Seeds need drying if being kept for planting in the future.
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Pumpkin 26 Aug, Lachlan (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate): If l were to save the seeds from a pumpkin l bought from the supermarket will they be Hybrid variety? Do l have to dry the seeds out before planting them?
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Pumpkin 07 Sep, Liz (New Zealand - temperate climate): Pumpkins from a supermarket are likely to be hybrids . You do not need to dry the seeds before sowing but they will keep better until you want to use them, if you spread them out on some kitchen paper
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Asparagus Pea (also Winged pea) 22 Aug, Thomas Ting (New Zealand - temperate climate): Hi, can we grow tropical Psophocarpus tetragonolobus Goa bean in Hamilton NZ?
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Yacon (also Sunroot) 18 Jun, Subhadra (New Zealand - temperate climate): I am interested in sunroot plant. where can I get the seed or plant in Auckland, New Zealand so that I can plant some in my vegetable garden.
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Yacon (also Sunroot) 01 Nov, Ittai (New Zealand - temperate climate): hi, Where can I get the seed or plant in Christchurch , Newzealand ? How much is it ? Thanks.
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Yacon (also Sunroot) 23 Apr, G.Renting (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate): I would like to buy yacon tubers/seeds for my garden
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Sweet Potato (also Kumara) 17 May, Aaron (New Zealand - temperate climate): hi what is the best way to store kumara thanks
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Ginger 21 Apr, anthea boden (Australia - cool/mountain climate): i would like to know if i can grow ginger in tasmania in winter . i have some sprouting ginger. how can i keep it alive? thank you Anthea
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Borage (also Burrage, Bugloss) 22 Mar, Penney (New Zealand - temperate climate): I had organic blue Borage growing over this summer 2012 just North of Auckland, and have dug it up now as it was not in a good place, but heaps of bees and bumble bees visited it and now I have heaps of healthy little new Borage plants coming up everywhere and it is mid March. I have re potted them into plastic plant bags with potting mix. I thought I might try selling them at a market, but will they live? I see you say it dies down in winter....so are my efforts going to be to no avail?
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Snow Peas (also Sugar Peas, Mangetout, Chinese Peas) 11 Feb, Al (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate): A little confused with the snow peas info. It says to grow Apr-Oct which is Autumn, winter to spring but then says at the end start in pots in frost prone areas. In New Zealand -cool/mountain we can get hard frosts throughout that entire time. Are the plants really going to grow in the middle of winter?
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Snow Peas (also Sugar Peas, Mangetout, Chinese Peas) 02 May, Simon (New Zealand - temperate climate): Hi They will grow in winter, but not where there are hard frosts. If you get heavy frost wait till the threat of them is over.
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Leeks 07 Feb, Susan Johnson (New Zealand - temperate climate): How much root do you trim off before planting? How do you know when the leek is ready to harvest?
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Spring onions (also Scallions, Bunching onions, Welsh onion) 03 Feb, Bernadette Staal (New Zealand - temperate climate): I am growing onions and spring onions with Pea's but I notice your web site says these mixes should be avoided, why is this?
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Okra (also Ladyfinger, gumbo) 01 Feb, Silversurfer (Australia - sub-tropical climate): I had great success planting early crop of Okra in 2011. I use the Burgundy Okra which is somewhat cold tolerant (Eden Seeds). I soaked seeds in warm water for 2 hours and heated up the ground or seed tray prior to planting (clear plastic) and maintained greenhouse conditions with a portable cover (very easy low cost cover) = significant increase in propagation. I cropped and ate these for 2 months and followed up by planting green Star of David Okra. Same method produced great propagation results BUT I have a problem with these at harvest. I'm hoping someone has an answer. The Star of David sprouted the fattest Okra Ive ever seen. I thought Id managed to grow giant Okra yet no matter how short I picked them they remained too hard to eat - huge unusable crop - I only collected seeds. U guys got any answers? I will plant a late summer crop of Burgundy Okra that can survive longest into winter. Combining the use of cold tolerant and green Okra I hope to crop for 8 months a year.
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Zucchini (also Courgette/Marrow, Summer squash) 24 Jan, David (New Zealand - temperate climate): No Zucchini flowers cause the rot as they absorb water. As soon as the zucchini starts to develop [3- 5cm] the flower needs to be plucked off to prevent rot. The same can be said for pumpkin, kumu kumu and butternut. Many more fruit will reach fruition especially with lots of manure to feed the soil nutrient sapping plants
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Sweet corn (also corn,maize) 02 Jan, Shane Sowerby (New Zealand - temperate climate): Is there anywhere in New Zealand where I can buy Purple Corn seed?
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Salsify (also Vegetable oyster) 30 Dec, Diane Mathers (New Zealand - temperate climate): I have just harvested my first crop of salsify. The roots are small and forked quite a lot. Is this due to too much nitrogen in the soil or is this normal ?
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Asparagus 27 Dec, Mary (New Zealand - temperate climate): I am a first time grower and am preparing the ground with compost only in a mound.what else should I add? SHEEP MANURE OR CHOOK.DO THEY LIKE LIME?
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Asparagus 15 Apr, Trudy Franklin (New Zealand - temperate climate): Asparagus prefers a high ph of 7.0, so my gardening books state, so yes liming likely will be needed. Can you test the ph of your soil? I give mine horse manure and sheep pellets - I have no source for hen poo, but I cannot see any reason why that would not be good for them.
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Rockmelon (also Canteloupe) 12 Dec, Liz (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate): There are a couple of photos on the rock melon page. Click on them to make them larger.
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Capsicum (also Bell peppers, Sweet peppers) 07 Dec, cherry rotella (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate): I planted red capsicums in august. They are growing tall, lots of foliage. Very tiny peppers are appearing but they are not growing any bigger. They appear to be turning brown and falling off.
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Potato 28 Nov, Selwyn Law (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate): I have grown some potatoes in flexi-bins - the light cheaper ones, 30 and 40 litre sizes. Drainage holes I melted into the sides of the containers with a hot pipe (neat holes) about 50mm or 2" up from the bottom. The holes being higher, allows a pool of water to remain in the pot and excess to drain out. Try a little potting mix about half full and top up the shoots with straw etc. Works well and containers are reasonably easy to move if required.
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Cabbage 27 Nov, Rex (New Zealand - temperate climate): I wonder if you can tell me if cabbages can resow themselves ? I have cabbages growing along my fence a long way away from my garden so don't know how they come to be there
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Silverbeet (also Swiss Chard or Mangold) 07 Nov, Nathanael (New Zealand - temperate climate): Why can you not grow silver beet next to corn? is it just because of the shade of the corn?
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Onion 05 Nov, wes (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate): We grew white onoins & have just harvested & are now drying in the sun. How long should they be dried ? Is it better to leave the tops on or should they be cut off to speed drying? Regards,wes.
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Borage (also Burrage, Bugloss) 28 Oct, Duncan (New Zealand - cool/mountain climate): Borage is a dynamic accumulator, which means that it collects and stores a lot of nutrients within its biomass. It sends down a long taproot, extracting nutrients from the sub-soil and massing them within the plant. The easiest way to benifit from this is to simply cut the plant back and use it as mulch. Also, the small leaves and be eaten within salads etc, and the larger ones cooked like spinach/silverbeets. They have a slight cucumber flavour to them. The flowers contain a chemical thought to help prevent cancers, although this could use more research.
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Showing 1411 - 1440 of 1601 comments

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