Propagation = making new plants.
The cheapest way to grow your own vegetables is to grow them from seed, especially if you have saved the seed from last year's plants. Other ways of propagating plants include taking cuttings, division and grafting.
At the Growing Your Own Vegetables from Seed workshop for WIC members you had the opportunity to:
• Identify what is needed (mix, pots, seeds) to start raising plants from seed
• Learn about making home made seed raising mix
• Learn what seeds are appropriate to sow now
• Sow some seeds in punnets
• See a range of containers for growing vegetables & the type of plants suited to grow in them
• Look at a home made cold frame, learning how to make and use one.
Thank you to the Salvation Army for providing the hall free of charge, and to the Hamilton Organic Centre for supplying seed mix.
Replies
Ma'ara and I cut up the white grape prunings that were given away at Peter's McNaughton's workshop (July 2012) and potted them up: they have budded up nicely - thanks Peter!
Always label your new plants - it is easy to forget what you have planted and when. River Cottage use wooden clothes pegs to label their pots and microgreens.
Bethy White (some of us visited her garden near Otorohanga) did some experiments and found that writing on your labels in soft pencil would last much longer under our strong NZ sun than when you use pen - and you can reuse the label!
Propagating Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)
Origin: South America
Place the seed potatoes in a shallow tray in a dry, sheltered sunny, spot. An egg carton is ideal, keeping them separate, dry and you can put the lid down to give the potatoes some additional protection on frosty nights. You can cut large potatoes into sections with 3 or 4 eyes each, but make sure the cut is exposed to the air and dries out thoroughly.
When the sprouts are about 1 cm long, rub off all but 2 or 3 of the strongest ones. This will take about 4-6 weeks.
Your potatoes then need to be acclimatized to the cooler outside temperatures, or ‘hardened off’. Move them outside but under cover, such as under an evergreen tree or porch for a few days. (Seedlings grown under cover need the same hardening off process before planting.)
There is information about planting and growing your sprouted potatoes under the Growing discussion.
Time to divide your rhubarb
According to Lynda Hallinan in her Get Growing with NZ Gardener weekly email newsletter, this is the time of year to divide your rhubarb.
Ideally, use a garden fork to lift the plant, then break it into sections using a spade. A machete may work too.
Often the central section which did most of the growing last season will be exhausted: put it in the compost heap.
Replant the sections with lots of compost and some manure if you have it.
If you now have more plants than you need, why not pot up and swap some of the extra plants for another plant you can use? Swap with friends, or on Ooooby, or the next HOGs (Hamilton Organic Gardeners) meeting, or through the 'Crop Swap' section of the Get Growing newsletter.
There are nearly 25000 keen gardeners on the Get Growing email list! Get the weekly newsletter by sending an email to: getgrowing@nzgardener.co.nz . They also have a Facebook page - click 'Like' to get their updates.
Where to buy herb plants
Anita was asking where to get lemongrass plants as she could not get them from the supermarket. To buy less common herb plants, you are best to go to a garden specialist - a garden centre or nursery. Many of the hardware shops include a plant section - eg Bunnings, Mitre10. The best selection is from specialist garden centres. They are listed in the Yellow Pages of the telephone book under 'Garden Centres & Nurseries'. A couple in Hamilton include:
Remember that herbs are often grown from cuttings (part of a branch) or by division, so if you know a friend with a herb you are interested in, see if you can swap something...
Lemongrass can be propagated by division. It is native to India and Sri Lanka - both hot countries. Some people in the Waikato say that lemongrass grows like a weed in their gardens, while others would only grow it in a warm place in a pot. It can tolerate down to -2 degrees Celsius and likes full sun, high humidity and well drained soil. It can go dormant (look dead) in winter - the dead leaves will help protect the roots from frost, so wait to trim the plant back until early spring. Trim to about 15 cm high to encourage new fresh growth.
Save your own seed and save money!
Bok Choy or Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa chinensis) is flowering in my garden at the moment.
Rather than cutting off the whole plant as you see in the shops, I harvest the outer leaves as I need them so it keeps growing.
I have left two of my best plants to flower: the seed will provide my next crop.
While that happens, the insects and I enjoy the bright yellow flowers!
When you are harvesting brassicas like cabbages, harvest just the top portion, leaving the growing stem and a few leaves. With time, it will sprout again and produce another small cabbage or three at no extra cost...
Remember that brassicas are gross feeders: they will grow better if you give them a feed with a little extra compost, rotted manure or liquid fertiliser.
Photos: Red cabbages re-sprouting.
FINDING HERBS
Someone was asking where to get herb seeds and plants in NZ. These are just a few suggestions - there are many herb specialists, often selling by mail order:
*TIP* Some of the herbs you may be familiar with may grow wild here, so no one will bother to sell the seed! If you can't find what you are looking for ask at a nursery or browse one of the many books on NZ weeds/wildflowers - the public library has several.
NEW PLANTS FOR FREE
One of the key skills for gardening for little money is to know how to propagate (make new plants) from old plants. This includes seed saving and growing new plants from cuttings or by division.
Click on the link below to download the WIC handout about propagating plants from cuttings, division, etc.
Some key points about cuttings:
(Photo: preparing a cutting using secateurs)
Plant propagation.pdf
When you are raising a lot of seedlings, it is usual to use large seed trays, often called flats: basically a shallow box.
Most plant nurseries use plastic ones, but they are hard to get for the home gardener. Traditionally flats were made from wood, like the ones I photographed recently in a local gardener's greenhouse (left).
When Cheryl & Mike from the Permaculture Trust demonstrated how to make compost bins from free recycled pallets (untreated timber), they suggested using some of the off-cuts to make flats.
There is more information about traditional flats here and on the Koanga Gardens web site (they sell macrocarpa flat kits).
Sam Wilson (Global Institute for Appropriate Technology) recommends making trays about 14 inches by 12 inches by 6 inches. "Leave about 1/8 inch gap between the bottom boards so extra water can drain out, and then cover this base with newspapers or a thin layer of leaves to keep the soil from draining out."
The flats would also make a nice gift for a fellow gardener.
If you missed the Grow Your Own Vegetables From Seed workshops run by Clare Jackson of Green Footprint, you can at least download the handouts below. The 'more information' handout was prepared by WIC.
If you would like the workshop to be repeated, please let Kathryn know, ph (07) 834-1482
Grow Your Own Vegies From Seed handout.pdf
More information on seed raising and saving.pdf
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next