June 28, 2025 • 19 mins
On The Garden Hour with Pete Wolfkamp and Ruud Kleinpaste Full Show Podcast for 29nd June 2025, Ruud discusses why your fruits may be smaller than expected, how to help birds that are roosting and transplanting trees.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Resident Builder podcast with Peter Wolfcamp
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be Well Read climb Pass.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Good morning, sir, A very good morning, Piedro.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Indeed, so I was excited the other day, just quietly
about a little post on the local ecological group going
there signs that are migrating into our area.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Migrating to your area into the city. I used to
have them in Meadowbank.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Awesome. So anyway, I gave you know, those two the
designs for the l boxes that you see, I've given
them away. So now I'm looking at the Wingspan because
Wingspan on their website have got a pdf you can
download it. And then so I'm going to have a
crack at one of those.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah, good, Yeah, put.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Much in the tree. See what happens.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
You'll be quite honest. They would take, for instance, I
was like to levels in a box, right, Okay, they
quite often like to go down where they lay their
eggs and they jump up and they go out the
tunnel going and they're out that sort of stuff. So
they probably find that most of these boxes will work
for these owls. The only problem is starlings, right that
(01:19):
go in and and they they are chicken little buggers.
But that's anyway. But no, have a go and the
more moreporks, the better it is. And I love that noise.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Hey, yeah, amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Hey, before before we go on, I know we need
to go other thing. I just want I've got some
people asking again about the chatterm islands. So doing ninethe
till the sixteenth of December. Now here you go. The
best way to go about this. If you want to
go on board, you better be quick because it usually
goes quickly. The tour company is there is the name
(01:54):
who does it? The tour company dot co, dot and z.
The tour company is one word and basically everything is
there online, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Just before
Christmas ninth till the sixteenth. I'm really looking forward. And
Julie apparently is going to come with me also. She
thinks it's one of her favorite islands. No, I'm not joking.
(02:17):
That's good for plants, man, it's brilliant, amazing, it's one.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Would be amazing, fantastic. So the tour company.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
At that your company dot go dot.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
And said, wonderful. Let's get amongst it, folks. If you've
got a question for rid call us now eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty is the number?
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Hollo bub hi, Hey, I've got a Well, there's a
lemonary on a section where they're going to demolish their house.
It's probably window heights and it's got some not quite
right lemons. So I thought i'd pick those and try
and prune it so that if when the digger comes
(02:53):
in to demolish the section, I could get him to
dig the lemonry up and transplant it. What are my.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Chances pretty good this time of the year. Great? Absolutely,
And at that point, no, you don't really need to
prune it. If you can carry the weight of it
with the ball of clay at the bottom, you know
what I mean, you should be fine. And if it's
an honestly or have somebody that's really strong to help
(03:20):
you out, I reckon the more roots and so on
and support you keep on that particular plant, the better
your chances are for a very good translocation.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
If I put it in a big old sack like
a wall pack, yep, that could probably hold it together
better because absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And do you drag it across yes.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
But definitely get rid of all the fruit and don't
prune it.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
No, I wouldn't get You can get rid of the
fruit if you want to. And you know what, you
know what, be surprised if you leave the fruit on
that that tree might actually be okay and you might
get ripe fruit rather than.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Thank you very much for your hope.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
You are more than We'll take care and I'll tell
you what. Transplant the tree with a digger. That's the
way to do it.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
That's good.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I mean typically if you're trendsplanning, you're limited to a
root ball that you can carry, right, So obviously, Hello,
that's awesome you, Jeff, A very good morning to you.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
Hello, yeah, Jeff, Yeah, I've got some flex plan I
want to get rid of. Look, I've sprayed the ports
and then nothing's happened. What do I do?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
How long ago did you spray it?
Speaker 5 (04:41):
Oh? Six months?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Oh okay, what do you put on it?
Speaker 5 (04:46):
I guess you'll guess your normal week hill or you
off the shelf?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Okay, here you go. You might have to go to
people like like you know, stocking station agents, but the
best the best materials, did I know? And I've killed
quite a few flecks over the last year because we
build a garage on this plot where the flex was,
and I use triclop here and I can spell that
for you. Oh no, I can make it. I can
(05:12):
make it. The common name scrub cutter, scrub cutter, scrub cutter.
You can get it from New Farm. That's that's the
people that make it or Yates also have Hydrocottle killer,
which is made by the same material. But the scrub
cutter is the stuff that I use on gorge broom,
BlackBerry brushweed, hydrocottle wondering really trout to scantier and flex boy,
(05:39):
and it will go down to God. I've got huge
flex bushes that in the end, gay literally in three
months time, will give you upside down.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
Look off, give up, awesome you very much?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Off you go, good way.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Quick? Tis for the tool company. That's t o U are,
Isn't it okay?
Speaker 5 (06:02):
All right?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Someone was just wondering about the spelling for some reason, right, Julie,
Hello there.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
Hi, I've got were not as much of a problem.
But these and Hornby and Christ and we have around.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
There's another Julian Christ jun yep, yep, yep. I'm married
to one of them. Lovely to meet you.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
Well, I'm not married to anyone. Well, that's not that
I know of anyway.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Gotcha a serious question.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
Blackbirds that are around my place and the acting like
it's spring. The males are chasing the females all over
the place. I had two two blackbirds that nearly flew
right into me, and the indropped on the ground and
carried on fighting and scrapping. And it's just it's been
gone on for ages. I think it's spring and it's
(07:04):
the middle of bloom and winter.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, they might be. There might be a bit of
competition between some of these birds, you know that they
say this is actually my patch, now, bugger off, that
sort of stuff. And it could be. It could be males.
You have to remember that the males are the black ones,
really dark females. Females are dark brown, and that's something
that you can tell the difference. But if you've got
(07:27):
a juvenile male that could still be brownish, you know
what I mean, A young male for the first year
and he thinks he knows everything. You know what those
boys are like sometimes, Yeah, what do you want me
to do?
Speaker 6 (07:44):
Just tell me. You've probably told me the answer, and
all the years and all the years I've lived, I've
never seen birds. Blackbirds act like that.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, they do, they do. They can go quite early
if they really feel it's time for them to get
into the game. We are a bit early at the moment,
but you will get blackbirds sometimes breeding in August, so
that's not that far away. Yeah, thank you, you're more
and welcome, Julie, which.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Kind of ties into the comment that I that I
saw around you know from wingspan, saying, hey, now is
the time that birds are starting to think about nesting
and so on and breeding. So if you're going to
do something to help that, I build a bird box,
now's the time to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
But you've got you're absolutely right. And the boxes are
also used for roosting in any time when they're not yet,
so that's a nice If it's rubbish weather, that's where
you go.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Hence the little pig on the outside so they can
sit there and look around.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yes, exactly, all right.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
See now I'm kidding the impassion that I now have
to make alterations right to the existing design because you,
like you think, they like to hop up and down. Sorry,
I had to add like a mezzanine floor inside the
bird box.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
They do like that, yes, especially especially those owls. Yeah, yeah, no,
I think it's great.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I keep going, I'm gonna need a building consent. We
don't please don't take that early context.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
Hello, Mary high peek one peshould get oranges. I think
I'm perhaps the neighbors. He's got a beautiful orange tree.
But the oranges all are all tiny. I've got four
ordinary sized ones, but the rest were all chiny, and
they're always right there. What can he add? What can
(09:34):
he do to produce them slightly big? We're in Tokorowa,
which is very cold, of course.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah, okay, Now tell me about those little oranges. Do
they actually when you cut them open, are they like
oranges in the middle or are they just are they
slightly different in shape and so on as well?
Speaker 7 (09:56):
No, they're just that orange and that's beautiful. I've been
cutting them in half, you know. It's a sort of
a pain theft like I cut them like we used
to for nick Will. The little quarters, the.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Smaller tiny quarters.
Speaker 7 (10:11):
Yeah yeah, tiny quarters. But the big ones there, but
they are.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Okay, excellent. Now this is oh that got that. There's
a second point here. You've raised, first of all, some
are small and they are sour. To me, that indicates
that fertilizing them with some sulfate of potash from say,
very early spring onwards, would totally sort that out. So
sulfate of potash is a material that you get as
(10:39):
a fertilizer. I assume that you fertilize the tree anyway.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
I think he will he he fertilizes beautiful Louisa plum tree.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Louisa plus. Yeah. Okay, all right, okay, So what I
would suggest is general fertilizer, say three times a year,
and a handful of sulfate of potash on the root
zone as well. And that is and potash is the
K of NPK, the K part for carlium, and that
(11:15):
is something that makes a plants grow and trap and
shrubs and trees grow better flowers. That means they will
get better seeds or fruits and the and the nice
thing is too that those fruits will start a lot
sweeter as well. That is all part of the potash job,
if you like.
Speaker 7 (11:36):
Okay, so there you go.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yep, thank you very much for all the best.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Mary.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
You take care, take care. We're going to take a
short break. We'll be back after the break you and
news talks. They be coming up eleve minutes away from
nine o'clock. The root is with us in Lynn very
good morning.
Speaker 8 (11:54):
Oh, good morning, guys. How are you?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
We're good? Thank you? Lynn?
Speaker 8 (11:58):
Right. I've just got an observation rather than a than
a grizzle. Listening to the program, I hear if somebody
has a diseased but or a sick looking plant, that
they take it to a garden center. Or years ago,
I used to work in a garden center and our
(12:19):
hearts would go into our boots when we saw somebody
coming in with a diseased branch, and you sort of
looked around our garden center. There's thousands of dollars' worth
of stock, and coming through the gate is a diseased plant.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
It's like it's like bio biosecurity, you know what I mean.
Speaker 8 (12:44):
It's maybe it could be suggested that they put it
in a plastic bag or cover it somehow. All I'm
thinking of is the poor garden center owner.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah, I see what you mean. You have to remember, though,
that's quite often garden centers no which plants are very
susceptible to things like that, and they give them sometimes
a preventative spray. All right, we didn't, didn't you. Okay,
there you go, no years ago.
Speaker 8 (13:19):
And my next next little thing is Louisa plum. I
have a very old Louisa plum. Now I think they
outblow themselves. They totally outgrow themselves because it's old and
it no longer fruits as well as it did. But
one year, and this is no word of a lie,
(13:42):
one plum weighed two hundred and fifty grands.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
They can't. Yeah, that is enormous.
Speaker 8 (13:50):
It's the huge, just absolutely huge. They're a meal.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Wow. Have you still got that plum tree by the way,
or have you?
Speaker 8 (13:59):
It doesn't fruit, so well, be lucky. If we get
probably about twelve plums a year, have you thought.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Of getting another one or getting two and put them
in the same hole and you've got a pollinator and
then not so pollinator. You know what I mean?
Speaker 8 (14:12):
This is massive, This is massive.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Thing.
Speaker 8 (14:16):
It is and I have said this to you before,
we haven't. It's not our oak tree, but the neighbor
has an oak tree sort of at the front, the
plums at the back. The oak tree is huge as
forty five to fifty years old. It doesn't fruit anymore.
Either very few acorns and it happened.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
It can happen, Yeah, that can happen. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 8 (14:41):
Yeah. So the plumb at the back, the acorn at
the front and no fruit. It just is so odd
and happened in the same year that they started getting
lighter with their fruit, and.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Could have been a meteorological thing. I don't know, you know,
it could be anything.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Really much appreciating, Lord, you have a great day, take
care of all this. And Philip, greetings.
Speaker 9 (15:06):
Let's hell empty emptied out my fire from where saw
the ash at the moment? Yep, I've got three citrus trees.
We'll I put it around now or just leave it
till spring.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
No, dude, now, no, good now? Yeah do it? No,
I said, no, do it?
Speaker 5 (15:23):
No, don't you spring?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Yeah, you can do it now, little bits at the time,
thin over the ground, not too much because it becomes
it cooks on you know, it becomes like hard and
stuff hard, you know what I mean. But this is
pot ash we talked about earlier. This is the natural
version of poty. Yes, I do the same thing, and
I do Julius Louisa plum all that sort of stuff,
(15:47):
and that potation slowly as soon as it rains will
go back into the root zone and it'll be there
for a couple of months, and by the time you
really need it, which is in spring, it is there boom.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
And it sounds like.
Speaker 9 (15:58):
As soon as it rains, we've got enough as it is.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Don't don't you start me for crying out that.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
It sounds like the application is a sprinkling. It's not
like you're trawling it on and making a footpath around
the base of the tree.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
No, it's not three inch thick. No, you need a
building consents for three h thick. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Absolutely, Hey, thanks for all the best. Are we getting
some lovely texts around, you know, just from people who
are saying, look, here's one. I had a ruru flight
close to me at dust two nights ago while I
was at trail running around the back of Lindfield in
Auckland out were stockland way around Lindfield. The numbers seem
to be gradually increasing these last couple of years. That's exciting,
(16:42):
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
It is exciting. And what I'm doing now is I'm
getting the pallets that they eat right after dinner and
we then with kids, put them wet, make them wet
and start to find all the contents like bones of mice,
and then you put those bones together and you can
recreate amosis skeleton.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Right would a r eat a mouse? Oh yeah, like
chop it up or just gobble it down?
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Hold, they know it's it. They don't chop it up,
They swallow it a hole and then they have to
get rid of those bones by going And there's a pair, right.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
How fabulous. And here's another one. Someone on the kupp
Ofy Coast in a rural or more pork sit on
the top of the lamp post waiting for the gum
emperor moth that was attracted by the light. There are
some gum trees nearby. We always knew when it was
successful because of the delighted shriek and because there's little
present that left on our car roof pike below exactly
(17:43):
a lightful low.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
And they also get these wonderful large moths that you
get right. I used to toss them up to the r
and lang on where I used to live, and they
would catch the poor and eat it right in front
of me, and then the wings go down. You're like
just amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And so people you know making boxes right, for them
that actually helps the process, or it's not distracting from
them doing what they would do naturally and find a
safe splace in a tree or something like that. But
do we intervene too much? Is there a conn?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Really? What you read in the city, you don't have
too many old yeah, you know, with holes in the
old trees with holes in them. You actually create a
nice shelter in the shade box. And you know you've
got to be lucky. But when it works, boy, you'll
have so much fun.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Right, I'll add that to the list. I know yours
it is pretty big, but I think this is a
worthy project for a couple of days in the workshop,
I think.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
And if you go to Wingspan, as you know, you
get from the same stories, you get exactly to see
how it works.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
And if you want to know how to make an
l box Wingspan, go to the website, download the pdf.
It's got all the details there. It gives you a
cutting list so you know exactly what you need to cut.
It's pretty straightforward.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Mate, have a guest day.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
We'll catch you in July. All of this take care
so you Ritio folks. Thanks very much for your comments
and your conversation, a little more research from my part
about this whole healthy homes thing and the apartments and
the heating thing. I think we'll talk about that next
week on the show. Have a great week, Take care
all the very best.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
For more from the Resident Builder with Peter Wolfcamp, listen
live to news talks'd be on Sunday mornings from six,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Resident Builder podcast with Peter Wolfcamp
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be Well Read climb Pass.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Good morning, sir, A very good morning, Piedro.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Indeed, so I was excited the other day, just quietly
about a little post on the local ecological group going
there signs that are migrating into our area.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Migrating to your area into the city. I used to
have them in Meadowbank.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Awesome. So anyway, I gave you know, those two the
designs for the l boxes that you see, I've given
them away. So now I'm looking at the Wingspan because
Wingspan on their website have got a pdf you can
download it. And then so I'm going to have a
crack at one of those.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah, good, Yeah, put.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Much in the tree. See what happens.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
You'll be quite honest. They would take, for instance, I
was like to levels in a box, right, Okay, they
quite often like to go down where they lay their
eggs and they jump up and they go out the
tunnel going and they're out that sort of stuff. So
they probably find that most of these boxes will work
for these owls. The only problem is starlings, right that
(01:19):
go in and and they they are chicken little buggers.
But that's anyway. But no, have a go and the
more moreporks, the better it is. And I love that noise.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Hey, yeah, amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Hey, before before we go on, I know we need
to go other thing. I just want I've got some
people asking again about the chatterm islands. So doing ninethe
till the sixteenth of December. Now here you go. The
best way to go about this. If you want to
go on board, you better be quick because it usually
goes quickly. The tour company is there is the name
(01:54):
who does it? The tour company dot co, dot and z.
The tour company is one word and basically everything is
there online, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Just before
Christmas ninth till the sixteenth. I'm really looking forward. And
Julie apparently is going to come with me also. She
thinks it's one of her favorite islands. No, I'm not joking.
(02:17):
That's good for plants, man, it's brilliant, amazing, it's one.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Would be amazing, fantastic. So the tour company.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
At that your company dot go dot.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
And said, wonderful. Let's get amongst it, folks. If you've
got a question for rid call us now eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty is the number?
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Hollo bub hi, Hey, I've got a Well, there's a
lemonary on a section where they're going to demolish their house.
It's probably window heights and it's got some not quite
right lemons. So I thought i'd pick those and try
and prune it so that if when the digger comes
(02:53):
in to demolish the section, I could get him to
dig the lemonry up and transplant it. What are my.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Chances pretty good this time of the year. Great? Absolutely,
And at that point, no, you don't really need to
prune it. If you can carry the weight of it
with the ball of clay at the bottom, you know
what I mean, you should be fine. And if it's
an honestly or have somebody that's really strong to help
(03:20):
you out, I reckon the more roots and so on
and support you keep on that particular plant, the better
your chances are for a very good translocation.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
If I put it in a big old sack like
a wall pack, yep, that could probably hold it together
better because absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And do you drag it across yes.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
But definitely get rid of all the fruit and don't
prune it.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
No, I wouldn't get You can get rid of the
fruit if you want to. And you know what, you
know what, be surprised if you leave the fruit on
that that tree might actually be okay and you might
get ripe fruit rather than.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Thank you very much for your hope.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
You are more than We'll take care and I'll tell
you what. Transplant the tree with a digger. That's the
way to do it.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
That's good.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I mean typically if you're trendsplanning, you're limited to a
root ball that you can carry, right, So obviously, Hello,
that's awesome you, Jeff, A very good morning to you.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
Hello, yeah, Jeff, Yeah, I've got some flex plan I
want to get rid of. Look, I've sprayed the ports
and then nothing's happened. What do I do?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
How long ago did you spray it?
Speaker 5 (04:41):
Oh? Six months?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Oh okay, what do you put on it?
Speaker 5 (04:46):
I guess you'll guess your normal week hill or you
off the shelf?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Okay, here you go. You might have to go to
people like like you know, stocking station agents, but the
best the best materials, did I know? And I've killed
quite a few flecks over the last year because we
build a garage on this plot where the flex was,
and I use triclop here and I can spell that
for you. Oh no, I can make it. I can
(05:12):
make it. The common name scrub cutter, scrub cutter, scrub cutter.
You can get it from New Farm. That's that's the
people that make it or Yates also have Hydrocottle killer,
which is made by the same material. But the scrub
cutter is the stuff that I use on gorge broom,
BlackBerry brushweed, hydrocottle wondering really trout to scantier and flex boy,
(05:39):
and it will go down to God. I've got huge
flex bushes that in the end, gay literally in three
months time, will give you upside down.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
Look off, give up, awesome you very much?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Off you go, good way.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Quick? Tis for the tool company. That's t o U are,
Isn't it okay?
Speaker 5 (06:02):
All right?
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Someone was just wondering about the spelling for some reason, right, Julie,
Hello there.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
Hi, I've got were not as much of a problem.
But these and Hornby and Christ and we have around.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
There's another Julian Christ jun yep, yep, yep. I'm married
to one of them. Lovely to meet you.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
Well, I'm not married to anyone. Well, that's not that
I know of anyway.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Gotcha a serious question.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
Blackbirds that are around my place and the acting like
it's spring. The males are chasing the females all over
the place. I had two two blackbirds that nearly flew
right into me, and the indropped on the ground and
carried on fighting and scrapping. And it's just it's been
gone on for ages. I think it's spring and it's
(07:04):
the middle of bloom and winter.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Yeah, they might be. There might be a bit of
competition between some of these birds, you know that they
say this is actually my patch, now, bugger off, that
sort of stuff. And it could be. It could be males.
You have to remember that the males are the black ones,
really dark females. Females are dark brown, and that's something
that you can tell the difference. But if you've got
(07:27):
a juvenile male that could still be brownish, you know
what I mean, A young male for the first year
and he thinks he knows everything. You know what those
boys are like sometimes, Yeah, what do you want me
to do?
Speaker 6 (07:44):
Just tell me. You've probably told me the answer, and
all the years and all the years I've lived, I've
never seen birds. Blackbirds act like that.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, they do, they do. They can go quite early
if they really feel it's time for them to get
into the game. We are a bit early at the moment,
but you will get blackbirds sometimes breeding in August, so
that's not that far away. Yeah, thank you, you're more
and welcome, Julie, which.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Kind of ties into the comment that I that I
saw around you know from wingspan, saying, hey, now is
the time that birds are starting to think about nesting
and so on and breeding. So if you're going to
do something to help that, I build a bird box,
now's the time to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
But you've got you're absolutely right. And the boxes are
also used for roosting in any time when they're not yet,
so that's a nice If it's rubbish weather, that's where
you go.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Hence the little pig on the outside so they can
sit there and look around.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yes, exactly, all right.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
See now I'm kidding the impassion that I now have
to make alterations right to the existing design because you,
like you think, they like to hop up and down. Sorry,
I had to add like a mezzanine floor inside the
bird box.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
They do like that, yes, especially especially those owls. Yeah, yeah, no,
I think it's great.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I keep going, I'm gonna need a building consent. We
don't please don't take that early context.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
Hello, Mary high peek one peshould get oranges. I think
I'm perhaps the neighbors. He's got a beautiful orange tree.
But the oranges all are all tiny. I've got four
ordinary sized ones, but the rest were all chiny, and
they're always right there. What can he add? What can
(09:34):
he do to produce them slightly big? We're in Tokorowa,
which is very cold, of course.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah, okay, Now tell me about those little oranges. Do
they actually when you cut them open, are they like
oranges in the middle or are they just are they
slightly different in shape and so on as well?
Speaker 7 (09:56):
No, they're just that orange and that's beautiful. I've been
cutting them in half, you know. It's a sort of
a pain theft like I cut them like we used
to for nick Will. The little quarters, the.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Smaller tiny quarters.
Speaker 7 (10:11):
Yeah yeah, tiny quarters. But the big ones there, but
they are.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Okay, excellent. Now this is oh that got that. There's
a second point here. You've raised, first of all, some
are small and they are sour. To me, that indicates
that fertilizing them with some sulfate of potash from say,
very early spring onwards, would totally sort that out. So
sulfate of potash is a material that you get as
(10:39):
a fertilizer. I assume that you fertilize the tree anyway.
Speaker 7 (10:44):
I think he will he he fertilizes beautiful Louisa plum tree.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Louisa plus. Yeah. Okay, all right, okay, So what I
would suggest is general fertilizer, say three times a year,
and a handful of sulfate of potash on the root
zone as well. And that is and potash is the
K of NPK, the K part for carlium, and that
(11:15):
is something that makes a plants grow and trap and
shrubs and trees grow better flowers. That means they will
get better seeds or fruits and the and the nice
thing is too that those fruits will start a lot
sweeter as well. That is all part of the potash job,
if you like.
Speaker 7 (11:36):
Okay, so there you go.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yep, thank you very much for all the best.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Mary.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
You take care, take care. We're going to take a
short break. We'll be back after the break you and
news talks. They be coming up eleve minutes away from
nine o'clock. The root is with us in Lynn very
good morning.
Speaker 8 (11:54):
Oh, good morning, guys. How are you?
Speaker 3 (11:56):
We're good? Thank you? Lynn?
Speaker 8 (11:58):
Right. I've just got an observation rather than a than
a grizzle. Listening to the program, I hear if somebody
has a diseased but or a sick looking plant, that
they take it to a garden center. Or years ago,
I used to work in a garden center and our
(12:19):
hearts would go into our boots when we saw somebody
coming in with a diseased branch, and you sort of
looked around our garden center. There's thousands of dollars' worth
of stock, and coming through the gate is a diseased plant.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
It's like it's like bio biosecurity, you know what I mean.
Speaker 8 (12:44):
It's maybe it could be suggested that they put it
in a plastic bag or cover it somehow. All I'm
thinking of is the poor garden center owner.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah, I see what you mean. You have to remember, though,
that's quite often garden centers no which plants are very
susceptible to things like that, and they give them sometimes
a preventative spray. All right, we didn't, didn't you. Okay,
there you go, no years ago.
Speaker 8 (13:19):
And my next next little thing is Louisa plum. I
have a very old Louisa plum. Now I think they
outblow themselves. They totally outgrow themselves because it's old and
it no longer fruits as well as it did. But
one year, and this is no word of a lie,
(13:42):
one plum weighed two hundred and fifty grands.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
They can't. Yeah, that is enormous.
Speaker 8 (13:50):
It's the huge, just absolutely huge. They're a meal.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Wow. Have you still got that plum tree by the way,
or have you?
Speaker 8 (13:59):
It doesn't fruit, so well, be lucky. If we get
probably about twelve plums a year, have you thought.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Of getting another one or getting two and put them
in the same hole and you've got a pollinator and
then not so pollinator. You know what I mean?
Speaker 8 (14:12):
This is massive, This is massive.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Thing.
Speaker 8 (14:16):
It is and I have said this to you before,
we haven't. It's not our oak tree, but the neighbor
has an oak tree sort of at the front, the
plums at the back. The oak tree is huge as
forty five to fifty years old. It doesn't fruit anymore.
Either very few acorns and it happened.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
It can happen, Yeah, that can happen. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 8 (14:41):
Yeah. So the plumb at the back, the acorn at
the front and no fruit. It just is so odd
and happened in the same year that they started getting
lighter with their fruit, and.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Could have been a meteorological thing. I don't know, you know,
it could be anything.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Really much appreciating, Lord, you have a great day, take
care of all this. And Philip, greetings.
Speaker 9 (15:06):
Let's hell empty emptied out my fire from where saw
the ash at the moment? Yep, I've got three citrus trees.
We'll I put it around now or just leave it
till spring.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
No, dude, now, no, good now? Yeah do it? No,
I said, no, do it?
Speaker 5 (15:23):
No, don't you spring?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Yeah, you can do it now, little bits at the time,
thin over the ground, not too much because it becomes
it cooks on you know, it becomes like hard and
stuff hard, you know what I mean. But this is
pot ash we talked about earlier. This is the natural
version of poty. Yes, I do the same thing, and
I do Julius Louisa plum all that sort of stuff,
(15:47):
and that potation slowly as soon as it rains will
go back into the root zone and it'll be there
for a couple of months, and by the time you
really need it, which is in spring, it is there boom.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
And it sounds like.
Speaker 9 (15:58):
As soon as it rains, we've got enough as it is.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Don't don't you start me for crying out that.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
It sounds like the application is a sprinkling. It's not
like you're trawling it on and making a footpath around
the base of the tree.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
No, it's not three inch thick. No, you need a
building consents for three h thick. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Absolutely, Hey, thanks for all the best. Are we getting
some lovely texts around, you know, just from people who
are saying, look, here's one. I had a ruru flight
close to me at dust two nights ago while I
was at trail running around the back of Lindfield in
Auckland out were stockland way around Lindfield. The numbers seem
to be gradually increasing these last couple of years. That's exciting,
(16:42):
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
It is exciting. And what I'm doing now is I'm
getting the pallets that they eat right after dinner and
we then with kids, put them wet, make them wet
and start to find all the contents like bones of mice,
and then you put those bones together and you can
recreate amosis skeleton.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Right would a r eat a mouse? Oh yeah, like
chop it up or just gobble it down?
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Hold, they know it's it. They don't chop it up,
They swallow it a hole and then they have to
get rid of those bones by going And there's a pair, right.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
How fabulous. And here's another one. Someone on the kupp
Ofy Coast in a rural or more pork sit on
the top of the lamp post waiting for the gum
emperor moth that was attracted by the light. There are
some gum trees nearby. We always knew when it was
successful because of the delighted shriek and because there's little
present that left on our car roof pike below exactly
(17:43):
a lightful low.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
And they also get these wonderful large moths that you
get right. I used to toss them up to the r
and lang on where I used to live, and they
would catch the poor and eat it right in front
of me, and then the wings go down. You're like
just amazing.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
And so people you know making boxes right, for them
that actually helps the process, or it's not distracting from
them doing what they would do naturally and find a
safe splace in a tree or something like that. But
do we intervene too much? Is there a conn?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Really? What you read in the city, you don't have
too many old yeah, you know, with holes in the
old trees with holes in them. You actually create a
nice shelter in the shade box. And you know you've
got to be lucky. But when it works, boy, you'll
have so much fun.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Right, I'll add that to the list. I know yours
it is pretty big, but I think this is a
worthy project for a couple of days in the workshop,
I think.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
And if you go to Wingspan, as you know, you
get from the same stories, you get exactly to see
how it works.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
And if you want to know how to make an
l box Wingspan, go to the website, download the pdf.
It's got all the details there. It gives you a
cutting list so you know exactly what you need to cut.
It's pretty straightforward.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Mate, have a guest day.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
We'll catch you in July. All of this take care
so you Ritio folks. Thanks very much for your comments
and your conversation, a little more research from my part
about this whole healthy homes thing and the apartments and
the heating thing. I think we'll talk about that next
week on the show. Have a great week, Take care
all the very best.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
For more from the Resident Builder with Peter Wolfcamp, listen
live to news talks'd be on Sunday mornings from six,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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