Ruud Kleinpaste: Planting before the dry season sets in

It’s already getting dry in Canterbury, and I still need to do a lot of planting in order to save us from starvation.

Juuls has planted Christmas spuds. Seed potatoes: “chitted” (meaning the “eyes” have started to run out) and the plants are doing well – shooting up in their large tubs on the deck. Every week or so we carefully add some soil on top of the stuff that’s already there, so that the main stem will produce more and more potatoes.  

This is Julie’s “spud race” for the spring challenge at her work.  

Potato fertiliser always has a bit more “P” (Phosphate) in it to encourage root growth and tuber growth. Jersey Bennes and such early varieties are probably the best to use before Christmas.  

Potato-Tomato Psyllid  

I don’t want to play Russian Roulette with this pest: it damages potatoes and tomatoes, so I prefer to keep potatoes well away from my tomato tunnelhouse. 

It’s called Biosecurity! 

Tomatoes  

Should have been sown now in seed-raising mix and transplanted outside when the frost danger is over; in the tunnelhouse I don’t have that problem, so can bang them in as soon as they are 20cm tall with good roots.   

I’ve got my favourite line up: Tigerella, Sweet 100, Black Krim, Artisan Blush, etc, plus some new stuff I uplifted from the Kings Seed Catalogue. 

 

Initially feed them with general fertiliser and start using tomato/Rose fertiliser when flowers develop the new fruit – Seaweed Tea (Wet&Forget) 

Broad beans are another must in our garden – I was lucky to have them survive the winter and self-seeded in the coldest months of the year  

The related French beans need to be sown too – do a row every month or so, so keep the supply coming during summer and into autumn!  

If you’ve never tried growing Witlof (endive) try sowing it now.   

 

During spring and summer, you grow the root system sturdy and large. In late autumn harvest the roots and bury them in a tub with sandy soil in a dark spot (under the house). The roots will sprout these white and delicious chicons which taste wonderful and bitter; recipes everywhere! Even the French like them. 

I usually keep up with my lettuce (COS!) and spring onions but will need to plonk in the peas and beans ASAP before the summer sun creates havoc.  

These crops have a habit to grow in just about any soil condition. As long as they have good light and are not kept too dry.  

Liquid fertiliser seems to be the best way to keep ’em happy, and when I chuck Seafood Soup and Seaweed Tea on them they shoot up with vapour trails  

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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.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be Ro climb Passes here in person, yeh, in the garden.
That's so good to see you, sir.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
The same here made luckily.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'll tell you why. I shall tell you to get
your microphone slightly closer.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Again, closer again, closer again.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
People what they want, they want more route. So at
the at the climb Pass household, the spuds are in
the ground.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yes, Julie has put together her potatoes for growing for
burns out high. It's a little competition they do there,
and so I didn't have much to do with it.
But from carrying the heavy soil, that's about it.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
That's it. That's all you're good for.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
But that, yep, exactly. But it actually is working quite
nicely because those plants are growing like billio, which is good. Yeah.
And so what she needs to now do is raised them,
if you like, so that you get a longer stem
underneath the ground. That gives you more potatoes. And with
a bit of luck, she might be getting second prize
or third.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
With a better luck.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Sorry, darling, there you go, but that's it. Yeah, So
there's there's lots of stuff going on. Tomatoes, by the way,
is especially in Chrishers where it's still dry and now
quite a bit warmer than it was. It's a good
place to have your tomatoes if you've got a tunnel
house to chuck them in now ratherwise wave, wait till
the soil is about fifteen degrees centigrades. Yeah, that's when
you plant it. If you're further sout.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
What about if you're up north now, I mean we
have got waiting two more weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Now, go go for it. I think you can. You can, Yeah,
you can, you can do it? Probably, yeah, quite sure.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Okay, what are your pecks for tomatoes?

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Oh? Man, I've got my my normal ones. My normal
one is Tigerrella that I use for everything, for the sources,
for whatever. And it is a wonderfully good looking thing.
Sweet one hundred. Everybody has Sweet one hundred. You realize
I picked my last Sweet one hundreds three weeks ago. No, yeah,
we talked about that long time ago. Remember that's crazy.
But this is tunnel house. What do you expect, you know?

(02:02):
On the porthills? Black crim Artisan blush. Artisan Blush is
a beautiful one which is orange and striped and yellow
and that's gorgeous, very good, you know, honestly, this is
the time to do it and start on now. Broad
Beans self sown late last autumn and are still flowering

(02:23):
and now being pollinated by bumblebees. So are we having
broad beans very soon on the porthills as well. It's amazing.
We've had such a dry, strange time. It's good. French
beans is the next thing that I have to put in,
and that is stuff that I do every two or
three weeks, simple thing, because they need to be you know,
you get new crops the whole time. She can give

(02:44):
them in one after the other. That's easy. And then
the last thing that I want to talk about enough thinker,
we talked about that before is whitlof which is a
Dutch thing or Belgium thing and dive and that there's
a thing that you grow during the summertime and in
autumn time you get the big roots which look like parsnips,
and you dig them into a binful of night send

(03:07):
under the house in the dark, and then you get
these crazy cyclons of white vegetables that are s oh,
they are so better. But as you said, yeah, well
you can do everything with cheese and cheese and ham
and and that sort of stuff. You wrap it up

(03:27):
and you put it in the oven, and you've got
the most amazing vegetable, really Dutch thing.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, that sounds beautiful in terms of peace control. Yeah,
you've got the potato tomato sillad as well. You have
to be a bit kevlo right now.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
Which is why Julie's potatoes are not allowed anywhere near
my tomato tunnel house because that silla it goes for
both tomatoes and potatoes. And I don't mind them on
the potatoes because it's a cheap, cheap crop really, but
my tomatoes are.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Your prize tomato.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, so I don't want to buck them up. So
that's so I leave those apart. Honestly, that's important. And
of course the other thing now is just now after
the the apples have flowered, and I think I mentioned
it last week, get yourself some mad x three three
mad x m A d E x three right, quite expensive,
but if you shared with your your your your neighbors,

(04:20):
you will have five six years worth of stuff in
different freezing. That's where you keep it.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Okay, that sounds great, Hey, can I can I give
you ask for some help for the coming weeks. So
my passion fruit has done pretty well over the last year,
but obviously it's going to be a busy time again
soon for my passion fruit. And I had that bloody
hopper you know that? And and that the is it
a moth?

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Or yeah, it's actually a true bug?

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Right, So can you we can talk about this in
the coming weeks. But I haven't had it over winter obviously,
but now it's getting warm again, so I'm sure it's
going to be back. I'm sure it's the eggs have
been lying around, so can we can we try and
tackle it again? Or this is this like the myth
of have you seen them already? I haven't seen them
this spring summer.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Keep your eye up. This is the time to keep up.
You're doing the right time. So they come out this
tiny little f buffy bum yeah yeah, yeah, right. Any
spray that you can get, it's a fly spray. Get
them early when the time in the morning, when it's
really win still, and they try to flick away, but
in the cloud of that spray they will go under.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Okay, And that's the fly spray.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Any fly morteen who gives a toss.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Okay, that's not that's not the sort of organic Yeah,
that's run yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
Organic fly spray. Why not? Now, honestly, this is the times.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Get it going, you know, yes, yeah, get out of here. Okay,
that's good to know. Thank you very much. Hey have
you read Sally Rooney? Are you a reader?

Speaker 3 (05:44):
No, I'm not. I can't read.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
No, No, I don't believe it.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
Fall asleep.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, okay, I know. We've got Sally Rooney's just do
you know who Sally Rooney is? No road Julie does.
That's of course she'll be ride over this. Sally Rooney's
released her new book. She is like she is like
the darling of She's Irish. She's like the darling of
the new generation of Irish writers. Anyway, she wrote normal people.
Have you heard of that?

Speaker 3 (06:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (06:07):
I have heard of from That's okay more, Yeah, that's enough. Anyway,
she's got a new book out. We're going to talk
about it after eleven o'clock this morning. That's why I asked.
It is so good to see you in person. So
good to see it. Rude Broad is wetteran as well.
It's the first time that our producer Libby has held
one so that's very exciting.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
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