Watch and wait: what to sow now for summer eating
These crops are more your ‘investment vegies’ – the ones that take longer to produce, but keep on giving for many months, writes SOPHIE THOMSON
While I love leafy greens and other quick-growing crops for their near instant gratification, my favourites for the warm season are the ‘watch and wait’ vegies. You do need to invest a bit more patience before you see a harvest, but the rewards are often far greater, with some fruiting for six months or longer. The mainstays of the season are vegies from the tomato family (Solanaceae) and cucumber family (Cucurbitaceae), but you might also try sweetcorn and sweet potato, which are fun to grow. Dig in!
SOLANACEAE
This family of vegies includes tomato, capsicum, chilli, eggplant and potato.
Tomato
There’s no contest between the flavour of a store-bought tomato and a fully ripe, home-grown one. Tomatoes can be grown either in the ground or in containers, and most varieties require support as they grow. When you plant seedlings, bury the stem up to the first or second leaf node to encourage extra roots to form along the stem. There are so many great varieties, but for salads I love the larger fruiting cherry varieties, such as Tommy Toe. Tomatoes can be troubled by a range of pests and diseases, however, keeping your plants in optimal health is one of the best preventatives. Fruit fly can be a problem in some areas.
Capsicum & chilli
These are compact plants that are highly productive, and there is a tremendous variety of sizes, shapes and colours to choose from. In tropical and subtropical climates, they can be grown year-round, but elsewhere they are planted in spring for summer and autumn cropping. Chilli and capsicum plants can take 3–4 months after sowing to produce their first return. Capsicum fruit and large chilli varieties are susceptible to fruit fly damage, but smaller chillies are less vulnerable.
Eggplant
While eggplant is best known for its shiny purple-black skin, there are also varieties with white, red, orange, yellow, green or purple and white skin, and they come in
variable shapes and sizes. Plants need at least five months of warm to hot weather to produce worthwhile returns, but if you are in a warm, frost-free area, they can be long-lived and may crop for several seasons. Bushes grow 40–90cm high and are partly self-supporting, but they need staking if they are carrying heavy crops. Harvest your eggplants when the skin is soft and indents with light pressure.
Potato
There are also many different potatoes, including those with white, yellow, pink, red or purple skin, and while most have white or creamy yellow flesh, there are also some with purple flesh. Crops can be planted now in most areas. Be prepared to protect plants if you get late frosts, or delay planting until late spring. In mild areas, you can also plant in late summer
to autumn. In the tropics, plant potatoes in autumn so the crop can be harvested before high humidity and rainfall return.
It’s best to start with certified disease-free seed potatoes every year, and these can either be planted whole or cut into pieces that contain at least two or three ‘eyes’ (dormant buds). Before planting, allow the buds to produce short shoots up to 1.5cm long. Potatoes produce about 80 per cent of their crop on growth above the seed potato. To achieve this, gradually mound soil around the stems as the plants grow, leaving about 20cm of the plant exposed. They are ready to harvest in 15–20 weeks, depending on the variety. ‘New’ potatoes or chats can be dug up as needed from 8–12 weeks, after plants have flowered. Use a fork, not a spade, to harvest your potatoes, to avoid damaging the tubers.
CUCURBITACEAE
These summer staples include zucchini, squash, tromboncino, pumpkin, melon and cucumber. Many are vigorous vines that can be trained over frames to save space, or you could try growing some of the compact bush varieties.
Zucchini
Easy to grow, zucchini plants are highly productive, and there are both vines and space-saving bush types available. Allow two plants per family. Zucchini can start cropping in as little as 50–60 days, and they fruit for about two months, so plant successional crops to extend your harvest season. Pick fruit every day or two, when they are 10–20cm long, otherwise they’ll rapidly achieve mammoth proportions!
Squash
There are two groups of squash. Summer squash are picked immature and eaten fresh, while winter squash are harvested fully mature and stored, as with pumpkins. Like zucchini, different squash varieties are either compact bush types or vigorous vines. My favourites include bushy button or patty pan squash, and spaghetti squash, which I train vertically on a frame. I also love gem squash from South Africa, which produces grapefruit-sized, dark green balls that can be stored for many months.
Tromboncino
This is an interesting vegetable. Strictly speaking, it’s a zucchini with a bulbous end. It is a rampant climbing vine, and I love growing it over arches to provide some summer shade. Tromboncino can grow up to 1m long but is best picked at 20–25cm, while still young and tender. It can be stored for up to 12 months.
Pumpkin
Available in many shapes and sizes, pumpkin is easy to grow and can be stored for months in the right conditions. For smaller gardens and households, try bush types such as Golden Nugget, or smaller-fruited types, including Orange Summer and Potimarron. Immature pumpkins can be picked and eaten as required. To store, harvest in autumn or at first frost, when the vine dies off and the fruit stalk dries and hardens. Leave a 5cm stalk on the fruit when harvesting.
Melon
Nothing beats the refreshing juicy flesh of a home-grown watermelon or rockmelon, and there are many heirloom varieties of different sizes and colours, both skin and flesh. Their trailing vines are less vigorous than pumpkins, but training them to a frame is still useful for saving space. Keep plants moist to ensure the best fruit quality.
Cucumber
These crisp and refreshing salad staples vary greatly in size and shape. They thrive in full sun but appreciate some dappled
light during midday in hot, dry climates. Plants start fruiting within 2–3 months. A second planting in midsummer will keep you in fruit into autumn. Cucumbers have high water requirements, so mulch well and don’t allow them to dry out.