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)

Fruit

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.

Chores for September

• 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.

Make use of your Pruning Gear

• 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.

Watch out for Damaging Pests

• 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.

To stake or not to stake?

• 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.

Plant a Choko

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.