|
 See
also: The Reg Moule Gardening Q&A Archive
See
also: Send in your gardening question for Reg
Moule
MARCH
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:
Richard
Barton from Southampton asks:
I cant get my eight year old kiwi (Jenny) to bear fruit. It flowers
every year and I hand pollinate but no fruit. Help! |
Reg
answers:
Hi Richard,
I'm sorry to read about the trouble that you have been having trying
to get a crop on your Kiwi fruit "Jenny". This is a self
fertile variety of Actinidia deliciosa so it bears the usual slightly
hairy fruits, rather than the slightly more rounded and hairless ones
carried on the main self-fertile variety "Issai". The latter
is of a different species, being a self fertile variety of Actinidia
arguta. Usually Jenny plants are capable of coming into fruit after
they reach the age of 3 years but they do need as sunny a position
as possible, preferably against a south or west facing wall. Now although
it is quite possible for them to fruit in our climate the
conditions have to be right, and that means a decent, long, warm summer
as Kiwi's neeed a long growing season to crop well. In fact if you
wanted to be certain to get a good crop every year you would be well
advised to grow them under glass, where they enjoy similar conditions
to tomatoes. Certainly hand pollination is a good idea, but if subsequent
conditions are not favourable then fruit will not develop. When a
crop is produced they will not usually be ready for harvest until
October. So really my advice is to make sure that the plant is in
a sunny, sheltered position, keep up the hand pollination, make sure
that the roots do not become
too dry, and hope for a good summer.
If you are getting the flowers, then you must be pruning correctly,
or at least not doing anything too wrong, so it must be down to subsequent
conditions. You should always try to erect some sort of protection
shelter over the plant to help to provide the longer growing season
that it craves.
With Best Wishes,
Reg. |
Robert
Clark from Scarborough asks:
I would like to plant a single fruit tree. What would be your choice? |
Reg
answers:
Hi Robert,
Well, considering where you live I would go for an apple. I suppose
that you have a lack of space so that is why you can only have one
tree, so I am going to recommend only suitable varieties that are
self-fertile, although it is true to say that even these usually do
better when they have a pollination partener of a suitable, different
variety. So here are a few suggested varieties for you to look up:
Falstaff, Red Falstaff, Red Devil, Red Windsor, Saturn, Scrumptious.
All of them are primarily dessert varieties and although you could
try seeing if any are available locally, getting a catalogue from
a specialist mail order fruit nursery would be a good idea. A couple
of examples are; Keepers Nursery in Kent (01622 726465, www.keepers-nursery.co.uk)
or in Gloucestershire Highfield Nurseries, Whitminster (01452 740266/741309.
E-mail: highfield.gs@freeuk.com)
With Best
Wishes,
Reg. |
Eileen
Rapson from Alness asks:
My 5ft bay tree has aphids on the underside of the leaves, brown little
pockets like small egg sacks. |
|
Reg
answers:
Hi Eileen,
I think that what you are describing are not truely aphids but they
could be either scale insects or bay suckers. If they are just brown
or light yellow/green limpet-like creatures stuck to the undersides
of the leaves they are scale insects. Bay sucker tends to make the
leaves curl under on themselves, often with the upper surface turning
yellow in patches, but when opened up there are loose white bits,
a little like egg cases, inside. In either case they are doing the
same thing as aphids and that is sucking the sap from your plant.
The next question is do you use the leaves in cooking? If yes I
would harvest a supply to take you over the next few weeks before
treating the plant with Bio Provado Ultimate Bug Killer. This is
a systemic insecticide that travels around in the sap of the plant
so that any insect feeding on it is killed. The ready to use version
will persist in the plant for up to 6 weeks while the concentrate
version will persist for up to 8 weeks. This is probably the most
efficient method of obtaining a good control.
Of
course this would not be any good if you were an organic gardener,
so in that case the alternative would be if you have scale insects
- spray thoroughly with products like Growing Success Bug Killer
or Bio Organic Pest Killer repeating the thorough application about
three times at five day intervals. Both of these contain safe active
ingredients that kill the pest species by suffocation but do not
harm any beneficial insects. If you have bay sucker the organic
control is simply to remove and dispose
of infected leaves, as you cannot get at the insects with organic
treatments as they are wrapped in the foliage.
With Best Wishes,
Reg.
|
Alison
Samson from Wimborne asks:
We have a wisteria which was planted about 2 years ago and we now
need to move this as of building work. When would be the best time
to move it ? |
Reg
answers:
Hi Alison,
If the job is urgent you could move the Wisteria straightaway, before
it comes into leaf. Otherwise you could leave it until the foliage
comes off again in autumn, which would probably be the better decision,
if that is practical for you. As the plant has only been put in a
couple of years ago it should move reasonably well, but you will need
to cut the top back by at least one third in order to create a better
balance between the amounts of root and foliage.This will delay flower
production but taken over the projected life of the plant it is only
a minor set- back. Whenever you move it make sure that the soil is
moist around the roots
before you begin and take as much soil with the rootball as possible.
I find that it is always best to dig the new planting hole before
lifting the plant so that, after a few minor modifications, it can
be slipped into its new position very quickly.
With Best Wishes,
Reg. |
Paul
Radford from Whelford asks:
Several years ago, we created a vegetable patch. The area where we
live is in amongst the gravel pits and so we needed to dig out and
back fill with top soil. despite buying from a reputable supplier,
the soil we ended up with is heavy in clay. We are now looking at
making 10 raised beds of 1 foot deep by 8 feet by 4 feet. We have
found a supplier of topsoil comprising beet washings that will need
manure to nourish it. However, the cost of this route equates to buying
bagged compost and bagged manure!! What is our best and most cost
effective way of filling these beds? |
Reg
answers:
Hi Paul,
Yes, the idea that you have about making raised beds is great! I think
that this is a really good way for people to grow most of their own
veg but there are some crops like Brussels sprouts and purple or white
sprouting broccoli that do not particularly like raised beds as the
soil is not solid enough for them to grow well.
You say that the first lot of topsoil that you bought is "heavy
in clay" but how heavy is it? Could it not be improved by the
addition of some pea shingle and organic matter such as mushroom compost?
I think that I would mark out and edge my beds then get some mushroom
compost (check to see if there are any mushroom farms near to where
you live as this stuff is much cheaper when you collect it from the
farm or have them deliver several bags) it consists of well rotted
stable manure mixed with peat, or some other casing material like
composted bark, which has grown a
crop of mushrooms. It is rather alkaline but many vegetables quite
like limey soil.
Dig some mushroom compost into the soil in the each bed before filling
them with the mixture of topsoil and pea shingle with more mushroom
compost added. After filling the beds sprinkle some seaweed meal over
the surface and rake it in. This is like fast food for bacteria and
they will, with other soil micro-organisms, start to multiply and
work on breaking down the clay for you. You see clay soils are potentially
very fertile once you help them along by creating some air spaces
(hence the pea shingle) and giving the micro-organisms something to
work on (the mushroom compost and the seaweed meal).
As you will not be walking on the beds you will never be compacting
the clay down again and I wouldn't think that the topsoil you bought
was very heavy clay.
Subsequently, in autumn, cover any vacant bed areas with a layer of
mushroom compost or rotted stable manure and leave it in place over
winter so that the worms can work on it before forking the remainder
in sometime in the early spring.
With Best Wishes,
Reg. |
Valerie
McLoughlin from Esher asks:
Do you prune hydragers |
Reg
answers:
Hi Valerie,
Yes, established Hydrangeas should be pruned if you want to get the
best out of them as far as flowering is concerned. Of course there
are several species of Hydrangeas but I expect that you are thinking
of the common ones such as H. macrophylla, the bushy shrub with large
dome-shaped flower heads in pink, blue or white.
Normally I do mine in early-mid spring, just when the buds are begining
to unfurl and burst into new leaves. First take off all the spent
flower heads from last summer following the stems down to the first
pair of fat buds and cutting just above them. Then look at the shrub
overall and remove about 3 of the oldest, least
productive stems to leave about 10cm (4in) of stem from which new
growth will arise. If there are masses of weak spindly shoots low
down in the bush remove them entirely.
After pruning I normally feed my plants using rose fertiliser at the
rate of a handful per sq. m or sq. yd.
With Best Wishes,
Reg. |
Alex
Tooth from Cambridge asks:
How do I get my Dracaena pot-plant to have multiple shoots, like the
ones sold in garden centres? |
Reg
answers:
Hi Alex,
The difference between your Dracaena plant and the ones sold in garden
centres (as long as yours is the same species) is that the ones on
sale have been pruned back. All you need to do is just cut your plant
off just below the lowest leaves in the head of foliage. April would
be a good month to do the job but be ready with the kitchen roll as
there may well be some bleeding of sap from the
wound. The plant should then respond by producing two or three shoots
from dormant buds on the stem just below the cut.
With Best Wishes,
Reg. |
Another
question from Alex Tooth:
For the last two years my crop of runner beans has been ruined by
insects which bore a little hole in the base of the flower and drink
the nectar. The flowers then just drop off without setting pods. Help!
|
Reg
answers:
Hi Alex,
The holes are eaten in the bases of the flowers by short tongued bees
and they do it in order to reach the nectar offered by the flowers.
Unfortunately they cannot reach the nectar by the normal means of
entry, via the front of the bloom, as their tongues are too short.
I'm afraid that there is nothing that we can do to prevent this, but
hopefully the number of flowers ruined in this way are relatively
small, so you still get a decent crop.
With Best Wishes,
Reg. |
Sonia
from Spain asks:
I live in Spain and I have just bought a hydrangea. I know they don´t
like the sun, so can I repot it in to a nice pot, and when is the
best time to repot it, please. |
Reg
answers:
Hi Sonia,
Yes you can pot up your hydrangea, and I would put it into a fairly
large pot at any time between now and when the new foliage begins
to emerge from the buds.
If the plant that you have is fairly small don't put that straight
into a very large pot as it would then be likely to grow a lot and
not bloom for a while. It would be better to take it up through the
pot sizes gradually as it grows.
Of course there is also the chance that you have bought a hydrangea
as a houseplant that already has flowers and foliage on it. If that
is indeed the case then you can still move the plant up into a larger
pot and you can do the job at any time between now and mid July.
With Best Wishes,
Reg. |
Donald
Ahrens from Manitowoc, Wis. USA asks:
If red cactus only grow by grafting then how did they get the first
one? |
|
Reg
answers:
Hi Donald,
There
are several types of these colourful bodied cacti, the red bodied
ones being the most commonly seen, but there are also yellow and
even nearly black bodied species. As they lack chlorophyll they
have no means of sustaining themselves so all of them must be grafted
onto a green cactus stem, or rootstock in order to survive.
The most commonly seen red cactus is Gymnocalycium mihanovichii
cv. "Hibotan", sometimes called "Ruby Ball"
or "Red Top". Occasionally you may find these plants listed
under the name Echinocactus mihanovichii. They are mostly grafted
on to a rootstock of the cactus species Hylocereus, although sometimes
other hardier species are used instead. As we have established the
colourful bodied cacti could not support themselves and the really
bright ones have been bred by Japanese plant raisers.
Where exactly the first plant came from I'm not sure, but about
the most likely way would have been for it to arise as a variation,
or "sport" as gardeners would describe it , on an ordinary
green cactus of the same species.
Sometimes for no apparent reason at all, but it could be due to
some sort of damage to the growing point or other big shock to the
parent plant, a shoot arises that is different to its parent. It
could have different coloured blooms or variegated foliage, then
if this is propagated and grown on have an entirely new variety.
In the case of the cactus it would have had to have been grafted
onto a rootstock in order for it to survive and young offshoots
taken from the original to increase the initial numbers for future
breeding purposes.
Another
plant which readily produces colourful foliage variants when an
established plant is cut back really hard is holly (Ilex).Cut a
plain green holly tree back hard and you often get a shoot with
just plain bright yellow leaves. This is a similar situation to
the cactus insofar as the shoot would not be able to sustain itself
independently of the pruned parent bush as it cannot make food for
itself due to its lack of chlorophyll.
With Best Wishes, Reg.
|
See
also: Send in your gardening question for Reg
Moule
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Gloucestershire's Gardening Guru Reg Moule gets his wellies on to
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