The garden is looking great at the moment – and I’m enjoying it before the hot weather comes and turns it all a bit brown and unsightly.
Fruits are fruiting: The tamarillo has flowers all over it, some of which are starting to set fruit, the fig has figs forming and my old passionfruit looks like it wants to produce again this year. All these are very exciting but its the passionfruit I am most pleased about as the one I planted out recently isn’t putting on as much new growth as I would like….
They aren’t the only things fruiting. Tomatoes are being set, beans developed, cucumbers forming and capsicums are growing. Those capsicums are on a plant that I brought through the winter and as a result I am very proud of it (not that I did much other than not pulling it up out of its pot last May). Both my capsicums made it through winter (along with all my chillies) – only one is fruiting so far but both have flowers on them. The slower one was the one I pruned and I have to say the pepper plants that weren’t pruned or were pruned in mid Spring are now the ones that are the most vigorous.
Elsewhere in the garden the shallots look like they might be starting to form bulbs.
The drying beans are flowering:
But less good is that there’s something wrong with one of my pots of potatoes:
Diagnosis and cure would be gratefully accepted.
And that was November – the attached doc shows what I sowed and planted and when I did it. November 2011
You haven’t had blight conditions have you?
All your crops look fantastic – I can enjoy them vicariously!
It don’t think its blight as my understanding of blight is that you get a white mould under the leaves and they dont have that. What sort of conditions produce blight?
I’ve never seem white mould on blighted foliage.
The conditions for blight are called Smith periods which means
On each of 2 consecutive days the minimum air temperature was at least 10oC, and there were a minimum of 11 hours with a relative humidity of at least 90%.
this link may be helpful.
Ah – perhaps I read the wrong thing. We did get the humidity and perhaps the coolness. Thanks for the link – I will have a look!
I’ve really enjoyed your November posts Liz! Great work and the garden is looking fantastic. Don’t know what the potato is doing though, sorry!
Thanks Phoebe – Its difficult to know if its affecting things under the soil – they have about a month ago so hopefully they are far enough progressed that its shouldn’t prove too problematic.
Your garden is looking beautiful. Not so sure about mine. Thanks for doing the Photo-Vember challenge with me, it was great having someone else out there trying to post a photo every day.
I really enjoyed it – and I really enjoyed yours. I think I will continue to post a single photo once a week – when I get back from holidays that is.
Thanks for sharing your monthly wrap-ups! I was just wondering what others were thinking worked or didn’t work this past growing season, but it looks like you’re just entering yours!
Its all looking good thus far – hopefully we will have a warmer summer than last year when the tomatoes struggled a bit. We shall see I guess.
Your growing season is the opposite of ours. I am putting my garden to bed and yours are growing beautifully and producing. Looking forward to reading more about your harvests.
Thanks – it only seems fair – for months I’ve read about people’s fabulous tomato harvests and now its our turn – I hope ours lives up to its promise.
I admire that mauve bean flower colour. Your garden seems to do very well. My first big tomato for spring had a black bottom on the fruit which is a first and I wonder why at the moment. Wow you still have plenty of chard to harvest!
They are pretty flowers aren’t they? They are tongues of fire which is a drying bean. The tomato may have blossom end rot?
Hi Liz, November sure went quickly and i enjoyed reading your blogs and admiring your colorful photos. Your veggies are looking very healthy and so exciting when all the fruits start to develop! I had a quick look in my Aussie Dept of Agriculture book on veggie growing and the marks on your potatoes maybe blight(which also affects tomatoes) brought on by warm and humid weather.
Recomended Control by spray or dust with mancozeb or zineb.( not sure about these products as havn’t used them myself.)
Thanks Andrea – I wasn’t sure about blight as from what I can gather it leaves telltale white mould on the back of the leaves and these none on this plant. I will isolate it just in case though as I don’t want it infecting either the other potatoes or the tomatoes. Thanks for having a look for me though – much appreciated!!!!!
Hi Liz, I have only just found your blog and will enjoy reading the older posts as well. One thing did interest me as I saved my capsicums through winter too for the first time and I am disappointed there are no flowers yet. But I pruned mine and reading of your experiences think now that might be the reason. Hopefully they will produce later though.
Jo
Hi Jo, Thanks for commenting – I have two that I brought through winter and the one I pruned has only just started flowering within the last couple of days – pruning it does seem to have set it back quite a bit. I hope yours produce and I will have a look at your blog too.
Oh that fig looks exciting. I didn’t realise they grew out from the trunk??? I’m off to check mine now 🙂
They are cool aren’t they? Hope you found heaps.
I’m jealous! Since we are going into winter and my gardens are all dormant right now… I hope you figure out what is wrong with your potato plant.
Lynn
Thanks Lynn – I’ve spent the last 6 months looking at fabulous northern hemisphere gardens so I know exactly how you feel.
Would love to have passionfruit here in Japan… tried once but failed… sorry, am quite clueless with the potato thingy…
I guess the winter temperatures would probably get too cold for them.
This garden recap is like a tonic for me. Seeing your garden starting to hit it’s stride for the peak season of growth is wonderful for those of us heading into the darkest and coldest days of winter. The promise of good things to come in those baby fruits forming on the plants must make you very happy.
Thanks – they are fabulous – I just hope they stay on the plants, ripen and then I get to eat them before something else does…..
Liz, I’ve been looking in some of my books to see if I could help with identifying the potato problem. To me It doesn’t look like blight. Blighted leaves normally have soft brown patches, and yours look dry. In Dr. Hessayon’s “The Vegetable Expert” there is a picture that looks just like yours, and it says the problem is most likely frost! I suspect not in your case… Another explanation may be Magnesium deficiency. It says that leaves affected by this turn “brown and brittle”. If this is the problem, feeding the plants with a suitable liquid fertiliser (one containing Magnesium!) would probably be the best bet.
Thanks Mark!!!!! I will definitely give it a go – it seems to be affecting only one of the plants so a deficiency kind of makes most sense!