Time to shine for these veges
It’s a great time to plant those coldsensitive varieties, writes
WITH WARM WEATHER
looking like it has finally settled in, and summer just around the corner, now is a great time to plant cold-sensitive vegetables.
The cucurbit family encompassing cucumber, zucchini, scallopini, pumpkins, kumo kumo, melons, etc, are the most cold sensitive of the summer vegetables. These tender plants dislike lower temperatures and tend to collapse when it drops much below 10C. However, with warmer temperatures (15C+) they romp away, growing at a rapid rate with cucumbers and zucchini producing their first harvest within six weeks.
Many enjoy watermelon and rockmelon. They are great summer favourites and can be easily grown in the home garden. The watermelon has a thick dark green skin and bright red flesh and is ready to harvest when the fruit sounds hollow when tapped. The rockmelon fruit has a rough, thick skin and has bright orange flesh and is ready to harvest when the fruit pulls easily from the stem. Both fruits can be eaten chilled for desserts, used in salads and as a garnish. One of my children has a great interest in growing plants and growing a watermelon in a pot the last few years has been a rewarding experience.
Eggplants, capsicum, chilis and tomato plants all need the heat to thrive. Although they will survive in temperatures above 5C, they tend to sulk and prefer like the cucurbit family to be in 15C+. Now is a great time to plant.
If you want to get a jump start on your crops then many of these plants are available in stores now in larger sizes. This week I spotted both capsicum and chilli plants covered in flowers with fruit already set on them.
Two warm summer crops that are best planted as seeds direct into the garden bed that they will grow in are beans and corn. Beans come as dwarf and climbing.
Dwarf beans form a self-supporting bushy plant growing approximately 25cm tall and wide. They are quick to reach harvest, ready for eating around 7-8 weeks from sowing. Planted now they will be ready for Christmas dinner.
A highly recommended top producing bean variety is in the Ican Chefs Best Seed Range called Supreme. It is high yielding, with strong disease resistance and has straight 14cm long beans set high on the plant for easy picking. The pods are distinctively glossy, very fleshy and have excellent flavour.
The bean Supreme comes ready over a 2-3 week period so making a number of sowings every three weeks will give a consecutive harvest through the summer months. As a small growing plant they are an ideal vegetable to grow in containers if you are limited for space, as well as in the garden.
Climbing beans form a larger plant and need some support. A structure of approximately 1.8-2m high is recommended with trellis, wires or string being ideal for the tendrils to climb around. Climbing beans take approximately 10-12 weeks to start cropping from sowing but will keep flowering and producing beans for as long as the temperatures remain warm.
Some climbing bean varieties will form a tuberous root system that if left in the soil will regrow in future years. To leave your root systems to grow again the next year the vines should be cut off above ground level as the plants die off in the autumn rather than being pulled out roots and all.
A couple of good climbing varieties are Yates Shiny Fardenlosa which is renowned for long straight, stringless, flat glossy dark green pods. It is highly prolific.
Another popular and top performing climbing bean variety is Yates Scarlet Runner which produces very long pods for