Planting Information > What to do When >
September
According to the Antipodean Astro Planting Calendar for
September:
Friday 19th and Saturday 25th for Leaf Vegetables.
For the 2004 calendar contact: Brian Keats PO Box 1560 Bowal NSW
2576 (price: $14.00)
Custard Apple: Leaf loss should occur this month.
Time to prune trees. Low irrigation. Mulch trees.
Figs: Pruning can be carried out, be very vigorous.
One-third can be cut off. Figs are only produced on new wood of
the new seasons growth. Give trees a good feed of Organic Extra.
Mulch well.
Lychee: Increase irrigation.
Low chill stone fruit: Carry out final thinning
Stone hardening will occur this month. Continue with high irrigation.
Prune out water shoots and dense foliage for better size Fruits.
Use fruit fly control programs (e.g. netting or an attractant method).
Mango: Don't let trees dry out. Once flowering
occurs spray with copper based spray for anthracnose if visible.
Passion fruit: Vines will start to grow this month
apply a little Organic Extra and mulch vines at least 2 to 3 metres
out from the base.
Pawpaw: Spray with wettable sulphur in the evenings
for spider mite.
Persimmon: Flowering will start in early varieties
Mulch trees, low irrigation.
Strawberries: Apply small amount of Organic Extra.
Keep up irrigation. Pick fruit when fully ripe.
- Tip: Prune young Native Shrubs
as they grow. Sow seeds and plant seedlings of any herb except
basil (wait until days are really warm for that).
- Plant out any flower and vegetable seedlings
from the June container sowings.
- Sow Flower and vegetable seeds for summer plantings.
- Attend to your fruit trees as per above.
- Plant potatoes and sweet potatoes in the vegetable
garden. mound up soil around potatoes already growing.
- Plant avocados, custard apple, lychees, macadamias,
mangoes, sapodillas, and star fruit.
- Plant an indigenous Queensland Tree Buckinghamia
celeissima (ivory curl) Calistemon viminalis (weeping bottlebrush).
- Plant shooting dahlia tubers for early blooms.
- Keep annual flowering seedlings weeded, and
maintain watering if necessary.
- Plant bromeliad suckers in shady places.
- Take cuttings of poinsettia.
- Deadhead perennials and annuals as they fade
to encourage further flowering.
- Tip prune new growth on native shrubs to keep
them bushy.
- Tidy shrubs with secateurs or hedge trimmers
as they finish blooming. Cut back new growth by at least a third
on rangy shrubs Philadephus and japonica. Very old wood can be
sawn at ground level.
- Prune bottlebrushes just below the flowerheads
as soon as they start to turn brown.
- Aphids often spoil flowers at bud stage. Rub
or hose them off whenever you see them.
- Slugs and snails relish young plants and damp
conditions. Lay bait traps and surround new trees with gravel
to deter these.
- Maintain the fertilising.
- Sprinkle liquid fertiliser fortnightly on quick
growing plants such as vegetables and annual flowers.
- Spread complete fertiliser or blood and bone
under the outer leaves of shrubs, climbers and young ornamental
trees and water it in ( fork holes help penetration).
- Mulch plants with home-made or mushroom compost.
- Tall growing perennials ( Dahlias, Easter daisies,
Delphiniums, for example) and annuals (sunflowers for example)
generally need to be staked.
- Use stakes that are as inconspicuous as possible,
and hide them amongst the foliage if you can.
- Stake tuberous plants like dahlia at planting
time (to avoid skewering tubers later) and other kinds when they
are in bud.
- Use only enough sakes to support the plant.
- Tie with soft material such as lengths of pantyhose
leg.
- Staking trees and shrubs is often avoidable
if you choose small, sturdy plants that will anchor themselves
as they grow, spindly ones can be cut back.
- If staking is essential, use two or three stakes
and tie with pantyhose or binder twine.
- Remove stales as soon as plants are stable.
This perennial vegetable is related to melons and zucchini but
is best grown over a fence or substantial trellis rather than o
the ground . It is very much at home in frost free Queensland, where
it will fruit at least twice a year. Now is the time to plant chokos.
- Prepare a wide deep hole in well drained position,
enriching he soil with compost and animal manure plus a cup of
Organic Xtra.
- Buy or beg a whole fruit and wait until it sends
up a shoot.
- Half bury the fruit on an angle with the shoot
pointing downwards.
- Water well, and continue to water in dry weather.
This vine will grow rapidly.
- Pick and eat the fruit while it is young and
tender.
- Once a plant is established it should receive
about a cup of Organic Xtra every spring.
|