Gold Coast Organic gardeners meeting again tonight and it was great to see a massive turnout - especially seeing @dpn and @hhcv turn up. Most the evening was taken up by an awesome presentation/Q&A by Greg Plevey from wormtec, there were so many questions we could have gone until midnight I reckon!
Anyway - some notes from the intro section:
Spring starts in August on the Gold Coast - get planting now... this weekend should be a good weekend for planting seeds. Good things to plant at the moments are:
- Sunflowers
- Nasturtiums (very beneficial in veggie patches and are edible themselves)
- Beans
- Lettuce
- Carrots
- Giant Western Red has now been replaced by "Top Weight"
- For no dig gardens try Chantenay instead - Basil
- Echinacea
Now have new seed packets - are colour coded (green-veg, pink-flowers and I forgot the other colour) and include more info on the pack about seeds and our club. They cost $1.50 please help the club by buying all your seeds from here if you can - they are mostly organic and your purchases help maintain the low prices.
Question about seed germination. Ross' method is to place seedlings in poly veggie cartons and put under glass (old shower screen) to keep humidity up. Create an humid "environment" for the seeds to keep them moist.
Some new books in Library. Good one on Sprouts by Isabelle Shipard. I love sprouts - they are a real superfood - must get some going this week as my wife bought a new sprout kit this week.
Report that some events are happening with Community Gardens - http://goldcosatcity.com.au/parks for more info. I also found another page here
Viability of Seeds. Smallers seeds are viable for less time. Keep at constant temp - NOT IN SHED (Ooops....! Mine are going in bin on weekend then!) Pumpkin seeds can keep 3 years - but most are only 1. Stories about 20 year old seeds from grandmas are the exception to the rule!
Someone asked about Ants on Strawberrys. Planting Penny Royals distrupts then a fair bit. Other solutions were agitating the ground (they hate movement). Get rid of Aphids (they farm them). Fish/Seaweed solution in the morning. Pine needles aroung the base of strawberrys (this is mostly to make soil more acid - but seems to stop ants too... maybe cos plant is then stronger?).
Question about Sweet potatoes - when to harvest. Should have a purple flower and they literally push themselves out of the ground. Reminded me to put mine in - hope it's not too late.
@dpn asked about his Tomatoes - he has lost 2 crops - thought it was a virus. Ross suggested it is probably too many bad nematodes and suggested following the method explained in this months newsletter. Organix was recommended as a solution to bring the good ones back - I reckon Greg's magic Wormix stuff might also do the trick!
Question about best Paw Paw tree - get a Red Paw-Paw - they taste way better. If there is not much space get a Bisexual one so you don't have to buy 2. I then wrote down "Pathos" in my notes (from @hhcv) - I can't remember what this is from!
We then went onto Greg's talk - which was nothing short of amazing... didn't write many notes as I was pretty gobsmacked. Go to his site http://wormtec.com.au for all the info. The soil biology primer he mentioned (only available for a couple more weeks for free) can be found here - it's only html - so my advice is try and scrape it (using wget or similar) before it's gone. A few of my own notes from what he said that might not be on site.
- Worm diet - as varied as possible - Lucerne, Blue Crusher Dust, Newspaper, Veggie Scraps are a good mix. I have a fair bit of crusher dust around my place - I'll have to try that!
- Horse manure - leave it for a month to let wormicides die. Chook, Cat & Dog poop is probably ok for wormicides (my question).
- Northern Rivers Seasol is way better than the Seasol brand - twice concentrate. Northern Rivers are at Harbourtown (Demand Avenue).
And that's it from me... see you again next month. This blog was mentioned in the newsletter - so welcome to new readers!
