January in the Garden
The month of abundance!
Weather
Check Niwa’s seasonal outlook for updates.
Be prepared to take advantage of any rain: eg before rain: direct sow carrots, coriander, zucchini, plant out any seedlings, after rain: lay mulch, if you haven’t already done so. Weeding is always more pleasant after rain!
In the Vege Garden
Water deeply at least 2-3 times a week if you can, preferably in the evening, so plants and soil have a chance to soak it up over the cool night. Lettuces appreciate a daily watering.
Seed saving season is upon us! Take a look around your garden, and notice any plants that are going to seed (or that you would like to collect seeds from!) Here are some plants that are seeding now: sugar snap peas, sweet peas, orange cosmos, parsleys, coriander, dill, lettuce, silverbeet, carrots, tomatoes. Check out the full article here.
Harvesting Tips:
Capsicums/sweet peppers may still be green- harvest one or two if you can’t resist, they usually color up by the end of January and become much sweeter
Harvest rockmelons when the skin develops an orange flush and the characteristic aroma develops. Be careful - rats know when melons are ripe from the scent too, and will eat holes into the fruit simply to get to the seeds, so have your eyes peeled and your nose tuned in! Check them before nightfall.
Watermelons are ripe when the spot where they lie on the soil turns deep yellow, and the tendril closest to the fruit withers and dies.
Onions will be lodging now - ie flopping over, and the first wrappers will be turning papery. Bring them in to dry, before any rain. Longkeeepers need to stay dry from the point of lodging, otherwise they can start a new round of growth, which makes them harder to store.
If birds are getting to your ripe tomatoes, pick them as soon as they show colour- they will continue to ripen beautifully indoors in a warm spot
Most pumpkins/winter squash will be developing but are quite a way off harvesting.
Keep lifting your kumara plant runners to stop them rooting and setting baby kumara which will take away from the main crop; while you’re at it, weed under the vines so the plants get maximum sunlight
Feeding the Garden:
Liquid feed heavy producers such as egg plants, cucumbers and tomatoes weekly with either purchased or home made liquid fert if your soil is not very fertile. Fish and seaweed mixes are great. Apply liquid fert to damp soil, not dry, preferably in the evening.
Watch out for:
caterpillars (use nets or Bt)
aphids (plant alyssum, let your coriander flower!)
birds after your seedlings (use nets)
Green Veg Bugs on beans, tomatoes and peppers: add some neem granules to holes around the plants, do morning hunts for the adult and juvenile GVB’s on plants which offer enclosed protection, such as broccoli, hollyhocks, silverbeet and pak choy - the GVB’s hide in the middle of the plants/leave and come out to sunbathe on the edges of the leaves.
Tomato fruit worm- a caterpillar that eats its way in and out of tomatoes, even unripe green ones. You will recognise it by entry holes eaten into fruit, often accompanied by a larger exit hole with messy frass (insect poo). Pick damaged fruit and destroy the caterpillar inside if it’s still there. Also eats into corn cobs, caterpillars crawl up the corn silks into the top of the cob and eat out the kernels.
Tomato Potato Psyllid - see our full article here on this extremely destructive pest
Monitor/set traps for rats in the kumara patch and around capsicums and melons
Powdery mildew on zucchini and pumpkin plants- this usually comes after dewy cold nights, which we have ahd a lot of lately with the southerly airflow. Remove affected leaves, spray plants thoroughly with a 20% milk solution - this does actually work!
In the Orchard
Harvest time! Plums and peaches are ripening now… ever considered building a solar drier? Read our how to guide here.
Thin overcrowded fruit on pears and apples; it seems to have been a great season for fruit set on pip fruit!
Summer prune plums that have finished fruiting: choose a dry day
Protect developing fruit against birds
Feed citrus with sheep pellets or chook manure before the next rain (3x per year but not in winter) too late to prune as borer beetle out and about
Mulch fruit trees after rain to lock in the moisture
