Planting Information > What to do When > April

Fruit

Custard Apple: Fertilise trees – 20 gms of organic fertiliser per sq m to drip line.  Harvest every 3 to 7 days. If mealy bug is a problem spray individual fruit with pest oil or wipe on metho and water (30% metho+70% water)

Figs: Close to end of season.

Lychee: Less watering is required but don’t let trees dry out.  If Erinose mite appears, spray every 10 to 14 days with wettable sulphur from pinhead size new growth to fully open and hardened off. (Peter Sauer adds 15mls of leaf microbes per litre of water to spray).

Low Chill Stone Fruit: Water needs to taper off now as trees begin to defoliate.

Mango: If any anthracnose fungus is visible, spray with a copper based spray every 2 weeks or with 25mls leaf microbes and 5grams wettable sulphur per 1 litre of water.

Passion-fruit: The water can be tapered off. Harvest fallen fruit under vines every 3 - 4 days.

Pawpaw: Plant out new trees.  Apply boron now, 1 teaspoon per mature tree. Spray leaf microbes 25mls leaf microbes per 1 litre of water if black spot is seen.

Persimmon: Main harvest time. Decline water needs. Apply a little super fine lime and gypsum 50 gms per sq metre of each.

Strawberries: Plant out new runners. If you want to leave last year’s plants, prune only.

Bananas: Give stools a high organic potassium fertiliser, 200 grams per stool (any organic fertiliser that has added sulphate of potash).

Citrus: If any fungal problems arise, spray with pest oil and leaf microbes. Add the pest oil +15 ml per litre of the leaf microbes. This will also control the citrus leaf miner and scale

Have an Autumn Clean Up

• Choose evergreen trees, shrubs and climbers for planting after rain.
• Plant flower and vegetable seedlings from January and February container sowings.
• Do last big sowing for spring flowers and crops.
• Fertilise fruit trees.
• Spray deciduous fruit trees with Bordeaux mixture and white oil as leaves fall.
• Repair lawns.
• Add weeds and fallen leaves, garden refuse, including dead fern fronds, to compost heap or bin.
• Derris Dust cabbage plants and other brassica to deter cabbage moth and butterflies.
• Cheek plants for scale (spray with white oil if necessary).
• Choose positions for new fruit trees. and order for winter planting.
• Rake gypsum into excessively clayey soils at the rate of two cups per sq metre.
• Water mature fruit trees well, fork holes around their dripline and cover holes with two to three buckets of dry poultry manure.
• Lift lillum bulbs if plants have become crowded. Choose firm, medium-sized ones to replant (as soon as possible) in good, well prepared soil.
• Lift corms of finished gladiolus, discard shrivelled parts and store plump corms in a cool dry place.
• Give roses a boost with fertiliser to encourage further flowering.
• Take side shoots of bromelaids to replace old stock, Plant shoots in a shady- corner with well-drained soil. Pot some with the BOGI Fair in mind.
• Plant potatoes and shallots in vegetable garden.
• Take cuttings still - with the BOGI Fair in mind.
• Pick persimmons when they have reached and held their brightest orange colour but re still firm; soften completely indoors before eating.

A Perennial Chore

Flowering perennials such as scanthus, delphiniums, rudbeckia and shasta daisies are an easy going lot, but once a year they need a little attention. Check yours now.

• Have they finished flowering? If so, remove dry stems and yellow leaves. If not, postpone action until they are dormant.
• Do they need dividing? The plants themselves will tell you by loosing vigour or pushing their crowns out of the ground. You may want to confine them anyway. If they don't need dividing, work a handful of blood and bone into the soil round each.

Dividing and replanting is easiest on a cool day after rain.

• Prepare new ground, incorporating compost and a little blood and bone.
• Cut off three-quarters of the growth.
• Dig out the whole clump and select rooted offsets from the outside of the clump. Discard the rest.
• Plant the offsets firmly in their new position and water well. Maintain watering, if conditions are dry, until plants are well established.

Liquid Refreshment

Plants need frequent nourishment, just as people do, and soluble fertilisers applied by watering can are the equivalent of a healthy snack. They are valuable and quick-acting stimulants to growth.

If you have farm animal manure on hand and time to spare, you will find homemade liquid fertiliser is an effective substitute for the bought kind.

• Place a large rubbish bin near but, hopefully not too close to the house.
• Tie a knot at the top of each leg of a pair of pantyhose. Stuff the top with fresh manure and tie the waist securely.
• Fill the bin with water. Drop the 'bag' of manure in the water but let the legs hang over the edge of the bin. Clip the lid on.
• Using the dangling legs as handles, shake the bag of manure in the water every day for a week or so.
• Before sprinkling the liquid onto your well-established plants dilute it to the colour of weak tea; make it weaker for seedlings.
• Refill the bin with water and the bag again, for repeated doses; each batch will be weaker than the last and eventually no dilution will be needed.