Steve’s top tips For growing tropicals

• Bring more aeration into the root zone by adding perlite or pumice to your grow mix.

• Steer away from overhead irrigation

– it only encourages blight. Instead, water by hand around the base of the plants. You can do this with up-ended soda bottles fitted with adjustable water drippers (available from online retailers).

• Fungus gnats love moist soil. In the greenhouse, trap them with yellow

(not white) sticky tapes.

• Rare and tropical plants can be a source of income that helps pay for your gardening costs.

• Use what’s available locally to create greenhouse ‘furniture’ (Te Puke is a source of kiwifruit bins, which – turned on their sides and fitted with shelves – can become great storage units). • Consider air pruning pot-grown plants to prevent them becoming root-bound. Make holes in the sides of the pot so that when the plant’s roots come into contact with air, they die off. This will force the plant to grow new, healthy, fibrous roots, rather than continuing to grow round and round the pot in circles.