Defend your passionfruit

Bring your garden indoors

If you can’t get into the garden because it’s pouring with rain, bring it inside with you and put it in a vase. Make cut flowers last longer by following these simple tips.

1. When picking flowers, use secateurs because scissors tend to squish stems.

2. Cut flowers on an angle to expose more of the central part of the stem, known as the xylem tissue, which is responsible for uptake of water. Add an additional 5cm vertical cut to the base of woody stems to aid with water uptake.

3. Remove any leaves below the water line to prevent decay and bacteria growth.

4. Spiked blooms, such as snapdragons or delphiniums do best if picked when a few flowers are open.

5. Dip the cut ends of flowers with milky sap, such as poppies and hollyhocks, in boiling water for 30 seconds.

6. Keep flowers alive for longer by using a flower preservative, or make your own. To 1 litre of water, add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1⁄2 teaspoon bleach.

7. Re-trim the plant stems and refresh the water every day.

Passion killers

Watch out for snails on passionfruit vines. They seem to be keenest on the flowers and climb to great heights to reach them, but snails can also ring bark entire stems. Go on a night hunt with a torch as pellets at ground level won’t be any use.

Passionvine hopper juveniles (aka fluffy bums) are hatching now. Try organic spraying oil (or even a can of flyspray), but you’ll need to be quick as they hop out of the spray.

If leaves are yellowing, the plant may be short of food. Use a slow-release fertiliser designed for fruiting plants (citrus fertiliser is good) now and also liquid feed when they’re fruiting.

Plants are large and vigorous and need a sturdy support. Train so there is a framework of main stems (leaders). When they reach the top of the support, pinch out the tips of the leaders to produce side shoots (laterals) and train these sideways. Fruit forms on the current season’s growth. If you are worried about a lack of pollinators, get busy with a paintbrush.

Psyllid season

Tomato/potato psyllids (TPP) are sap suckers, transmitting viruses from plant to plant.

Infected plants fail to thrive and have distorted yellow leaves. Potatoes also develop a condition called zebra chip – dark stripes occur when the potatoes are fried.

In areas where TPP are present, consider covering your potatoes and tomatoes with horticultural pest control mesh from garden centres and the Biological Husbandry Unit at Lincoln University. TPP are most active in midsummer, but crops need to be covered well before the pests are present. If you put up the mesh later in the season, TTP may be inside already and you’ll have made a sheltered spot for them to wreak havoc. The mesh also protects against many other pests and gives some wind protection and extra warmth too. For information about how to use the mesh, the pests it’s effective against, and research supporting its use and sales, visit bhu.org.nz.

Spraying is tricky as TTP tend to fly away. Insecticides that control aphids are likely to control psyllids. MPI reports good results with products containing abamectin and spinosad. Avoid products with pyrethroids and organophosphates, which also kill TTP’s natural predators. Research is ongoing and it seems likely that biological control (predation by other insects or parasitoids) will be the best long-term solution.

Protect your peepers

When you are slip, slop, slapping before a gardening session in the sun, remember to put on sunglasses too. Ultraviolet (UV) light is as damaging to the eyes as it is to the skin. Too much exposure to UV can cause cataracts to develop much more quickly and there is also a possible link to age-related macular degeneration. Closefitting, wrap-around styles give the most protection from stray rays.

Reading or sunglasses give some protection from random twigs and do help remind you to avoid rubbing your eyes with dirty hands or gloves, but use strengthened safety glasses for protection from flying debris when using power tools – mowers, shredders, hedge trimmers, weed eaters and so on. In really dusty conditions or when dealing with plants with toxic sap (euphorbia, anthurium, oleander, poinsettia etc), protective goggles are even better.

Garden stakes are another hazard. It’s really easy to impale yourself on a hidden plant prop when you’re reaching for a recalcitrant weed or an almost out-of-reach tomato. Plan ahead when you’re putting up supports for climbing plants. Either design frames without sharp corners or pop stake toppers on the poking out bits. Stake toppers can be as basic or as decorative as you like. Even an empty aluminium can upended on top of a metal or bamboo stake will do the job.

Three Sisters companion planting

I first heard about the Native American three sisters’ technique for planting corn, beans and squash when I visited New Mexico 35 years ago. It is now fairly well known as a companion planting method.

In theory, it sounds like an ideal plant combination. The beans climb the corn stalks and as a legume they contribute to the soil fertility by converting nitrogen from the air into a form in the soil accessible to the corn. The large leaves of the squash cover the soil, suppressing weeds and reducing moisture evaporation from the soil. The three plants are also touted as a match made in heaven from a nutritional standpoint. Together they provide all the elements for a balanced vegan or vegetarian meal.

But does the Three Sisters method work in New Zealand’s less arid growing conditions? Is the harvest from all three sisters as productive as it could be?

I’m afraid I did not have success when I tried it in my Auckland garden. The beans grew faster than the corn and the courgette planted at their feet was quickly infected with powdery mildew, and eventually swamped them both. The harvest was very disappointing, and it was difficult to reach into the tangled thicket to pick the beans and courgettes when they were young and tender.

I suspect planting the beans after the corn is well away would help. As I’m short on space I planted everything too close together, so a lack of air movement and Auckland’s humidity contributed to the rapid spread of fungal disease. Some varieties of corn, beans and squash may be better suited than others to this growing technique. Crops that can be left to mature and dry on the plants like maize, popping corn, dried beans and pumpkins may be a better bet.