Ruud Kleinpaste: Spring snow and bugs needing attention

Planting from now on is becoming a much better idea. The chances of frost have diminished, but there will be still possibilities of “Spring Snow”, if you get my drift.  

If you’ve had a look at the plants in your local botanic Garden, you’ll find what will grow well at your place. In many frost-free areas I’m thinking of Ngutu Kaka (Kaka Beak). This is a native plant that will look red and just amazing. It’s one of those plants I have always wanted to grow, simply because it looks stunning with those flowers, and it attracts the nectivorous birds. 

As an old Trustee of “Project Crimson” (do you remember that organisation?) I am certainly a proponent of the Genus Metrosideros, which is the group of trees, shrubs and plants related to pohutukawa. Metrosideros carminea is one of those native gems that will wake you up in spring. Just look at that colour! 

Just inhale the smell, and look at the insects associated with this native gem.  

And then there are the not-so-native Vireya. They are Rhododendrons of tropical origin. They smell and love warm climates. My favourite one is Vireya tuba.   

 

Originally from the mountains of Papua New Guinea, it grows up to 2 meters high and needs protection from frosts (grew well for us in Auckland and will do fine on the frost-free port hills). And its smell is just divine!  

Winter flowerings. Bright and beautiful, but a native beetle has woken up too:  

Lemon Tree Borer (Oemona hirta) will be on the wing soon. Laying eggs on damaged citrus branches or on pruned wood of citrus and many other native shrubs and trees. 

The beetle grubs will create tunnels and cause a heap of damage! No more pruning and keep an eye on those grubs that will create havoc on citrus and other host plants.  

And then there is our codling moth (which arrived all the way from Europe, many, many years ago). Moths lay eggs after flowering of the apple trees (and crab apples, and walnuts!) Out of those eggs hatch very hungry codling moth caterpillars that will tunnel into the developing apple fruits, spoiling them. 

 

Control and prevention:  

There is a cool spray called Madex3, used by commercial apple growers that value organic treatments. This Madex3 is a virus that should be sprayed a week or so after apple flowering (in the next week or two!). The virus will only kill Codling moth – very targeted! And may need a second spray a month or so later.  

It’s available from some of the more switched-on suppliers in NZ:  

Farmlands, Horticentre Hawkes Bay and Richmond, GoodtoGrownz.co.nz, just look for Madex3.  

It’s not a cheap pest control material, but it will last for years in your freezer. And if you cleverly share a 100 ml bottle with your neighbour or friend it is the best and safest method of keeping the caterpillars out of your pip fruit. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks at me, it is slowly getting warmer. Well,
we're officially in spring. Daylight saving is tomorrow. That means
that the chances of frost are rapidly diminishing in our
men in the gardener's rouge climb past here with the
springtime planting tip skill to serve.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, good morning, and yeah, I can imagine those biceps
of yours.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
It's just I yeah, I sometimes just catch it, you know,
sadly catch an image of myself in a mirror and
I'm just like, wow, it's so unimpressive.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, is that all?

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, I go the other way for me,
it's like God is dead.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Hey, I've just thought i'd chuck a few plants together
that high on my list that I'm going to be
is looking at for printing, foot planting now, and also
a couple of bugs that would need real care at
the moment. So let's start off with Noodu kaka, which
is the kaka beak from if you like tough, sort
of gismone area, if you like, yes, fabulous plant, actually

(01:20):
absolutely brilliant. It's the plant that James Cook saw when
he went towards towards then part of the of the
of the of the globe, and he saw it flowering
all over the mountains. It's gorgeous red and it attracts
nectivorous birds. Honestly, it is if you want birds in
the garden too, this is the one to use, I suppose,

(01:42):
because you get all these creatures coming to you and
they say, oh, thank you now to kaka. Brilliant to eat,
always good. So that's number one. Second one is because
I used to be a trustee of Project Crimson. Do
you remember that lot, Well, they were the people that
actually saved Gawa from up north and and of course

(02:04):
belongs to the genus metro seed ross, which means iron
heighted tree. The wood is so high that they used
to make all sorts of ships and ship parts from it.
It's that hard. But anyway, there's a little metroceedras called Carminia,
which is a really beautiful red shrub if you like,

(02:24):
and it has small versions of poulticaua flowers as dense
as PoTA kawa, but flowering right now. And there's some
strange thing about that Carminia. Jack and that is that
when you use seeds, you will get climbers, so you
get a climbing rata if you like. And if you
and if you take cuttings, you get shrubs. They are

(02:45):
a bit lower, of course. Yeah. Another core one, and
this is not a native, is Verea tuba or rhododendron tuba,
which is in a creature from the Papua New Guinea
and it's one of the most smelly rhododendrons you can have.
It's gorgeous. Just leave it at that. Let's go to
the bugs. Lemon tree is on the wing. Now I've

(03:09):
talked about this before, I do it so every time
at this time of the year, no more pruning citrus
trees because when you make a cut in a citrus tree,
those little borers are big borer beetles. They will lay
eggs on the cut and they can get in, and
that means that these larvae will literally make huge tunnels
in the lemon tree. So this is your your way.

(03:31):
Don't do it now, do it again later on after
it's all done in autumn. So that's important. And finally
it's time now because the apples are flowering for coddling
moth control mad x three m A d E x
three is the only material that really works well and
it is actually a virus that kills the caterpillars of

(03:56):
those moths, so it's completely organic. It supportant, it's supported
by key industries and you can get from Farmlands or
Horty Center and Hawks Bay Good to grow New Zealand
all their love places.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Okay, hey, thanks Summer for more From Saturday Morning with
Jack Tame, Listen live to News Talks ed B from
nine am Saturday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.