Planting Information > What to do When > June

Fruit

Custard Apple:Peak harvest period, harvest every 3 - 7 days. Don’t let trees dry out.

Figs: Dormant period. Don’t let trees dry out.

Lychee: Don’t let trees dry out.  Fertilise trees this month. Mature trees (5 years and older) 1.5kg organic fertiliser with sulphate of potash added per sq m to the drip line of trees. (For trees under 5 years use only 50g).

Low Chill Stone Fruit: Fertilise trees with 50g of organic fertilser with sulphate of potash added per sq m to the drip line of trees. Prune off 2/3 of new growth.

Mango: Apply gypsum if soil pH is 6 or more. If below 6 pH apply lime, 50g per sqm of either. Mature trees (5 years and older) 1.5kg organic fertiliser with sulphate of potash added per sq m to the drip line of trees, water in well.

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

Pawpaw: If you have not applied boron, apply now. 1 teaspoon per tree. 40% of annual organic fertiliser can be applied, e.g. 20g per sqm.

Persimmon: Decline water needs. Apply a little garden lime and gypsum, 20g per sq m. 

Strawberries: Plants should be coming away well.  A little organic fertiliser with sulphate of potash can be applied now. Use fish emulsion or kelp spray regularly over plants to keep in good health.

Bananas: Keep up the water. When fruit are formed, bag fruit with banana bag, tie bag to top of stem and drape down to bell. Leave open at bottom for air. Cut off bell to get larger fruit.

Citrus: Harvest should start this month and continue until August. Keep up watering.

Avocado: Add garden lime, 20g per sq m to drip line and gypsum 20g per sq m again to drip line. Early varieties can be picked. Don’t let trees dry out.

Chores for June

• Plant Citrus trees in warm districts.
• Plant out flower and vegetable seedlings from March and April container sowings.
• Divide and replant perennials, (remember the fair and pot some, buy new ones).
• Take hardwood cuttings of deciduous plants (15-30 cm) and insert deeply in garden soil. Those that 'take' can be planted out next autumn.
• Smother weeds with thick mulch.
• Feed parsley with liquid fertiliser.
• Check the compost Organic matter that will rot down over a few months
• The Moisture contents, all parts of the compost.
• Put potatoes and shallots, sweet potato and chives in vegetable garden.
• Mound soil around potatoes already growing, to prevent infestation by the potato moth.
• Put rotted cow manure under rose trees, if possible, when planting ( with soil on top of manure to protect the new roots).
• Split up clumps of daylily after six or seven years, or if new plants are wanted.
• Apply liquid fertiliser to developing vegetables, such as members of the cabbage family, and to all flower seedlings.
• Lift dahlia tubers and store them in sawdust to prevent drying out and rot.
• Squash caterpillars visible on foliage (rather than spray ones you can't see). Look underneath as well as on top.
• Sharpen secateurs and saws for winter pruning jobs.
• Reduce watering of house plants.
• Plant rhubarb crowns in soil enriched with old manure, blood and bone, established plants also need this as a mulch.
• Tip-prune sweet peas.
• Winter pruning (Roses should not be pruned before July)
  Cut back deciduous fruit trees to control their size, to produce the right amount of fruit bearing wood (for small crops of large fruit), to stimulate new growth from time to time. Check the requirements of particular types of fruit trees. See what to do for fruiting trees (refer above) .
• Deciduous ornamental trees to plant:
  For warm and subtropical areas: Cassia fistula (golden shower), Diospyros Kaki (persimmon), Erythrina indica (Indian coral tree), Largerstroemia indica (crepe myrtle).
• Deciduous Ornamental Shrubs to plant:
  For warm and subtropical areas: Caesalpinia gilliesii (bird of paradise), Hibiscus syriacus (rose of sharon), Plumeria species (frangipani), Spiraea cantoniensis (white may) but no further north than Brisbane for the May.
  • There are now deciduous fruit trees available which include apples, pears, nectarines, peach and plum for the subtropical and tropical areas.
• Clean up that scale:
  Scale is the protective coating laid down by various insects that infest and can seriously harm, plants such as citrus and other fruit trees, palms, ferns, roses and eucalypts. Scale insects are active in summer and dormant in winter.
  
  At any time of year you may see ants eating the honeydew secreted by the insects, or notice sooty mould on it. You may choose to ignore scale, hoping that natural predators (ladybirds and certain wasps) will control it, or you can intervene.
  
  Possible action now (June):
  a) Scrub off small patches with a soft tooth brush dipped in diluted white oil (20 mls in a litre of water).
  b) Spray infestations with white oil at the same rate.
  c) Cut off and bum badly damaged stems and leaves.
  
  Possible action in summer:
  a) Spray with white oil (10 mls per litre of water).
  b) Ants should be brushed off and squashed where possible, as they often worsen scale attacks. Always be on the lookout for these insects and as soon as they appear deal with them.
  c) Soft brown scale on the leaves of a citrus are usually seen on the midrib of the underside of the leaves.