DOWN TO EARTH: Autumn harvest

Autumn is almost upon us and so is the main harvest of long-term crops in our garden. This is not to say you haven’t been enjoying an ongoing harvest of salads, zucchini, beans, tomatoes, summer cabbages, fresh herbs and summer fruits like raspberries, strawberries, plums, apples and now peaches.

Ongoing harvesting of the above-mentioned crops encourages continuous production, as the plant tries to generate seed to ensure its survival. What to do with crops after harvest so they store well is another question.

Last week, in response to Ask Sol, readers sent in numerous questions relating to harvest and storage, the answers to which are to be found in the following tips:

Vegetable Care:

Water well in the mornings as required.

Lift trailing kūmara runners over themselves (better than trimming) to discourage formation of surface roots.

Keep removing laterals from tomatoes to encourage growth of the main stem and fruiting.

Thin carrots, beetroot, and parsnip, and mound slightly. Add coffee grounds to deter carrot rust fly.

Chop down summer green crops at the flowering stage. Leave a month before planting.

Sow winter green crops, or sheet mulch vacant beds in preparation for spring.

Spray Bt on Brassicas weekly until white butterflies are gone. Liquid fertilise greens, leeks and Brassicas. Keep mulching late potatoes and yams.

Dig out oxalis bulbs now.

Collect and squash shield bugs before they overwinter.

Trim dead asparagus fronds (compost) and mulch well.

Harvest and storage tips:

Harvest fresh beans when full size, before seed forms. Drying beans: leave until pods are dry and brownish before removing, drying till crisp, and shucking out of their pods.

Harvest sweetcorn when tassels are brown. For popcorn or maize (for dry kernels), wait until sheaths are dry before harvest. May need to protect them from birds or rodents.

Save seed from lettuces, mizuna, rocket, basil, beans, and tomatoes. Process and dry well.

Seed crops are best put in the freezer for a week to kill bugs and eggs. Store seed in glass jars or airtight containers with rice or silica gel sachets.

Extend the harvest of frost-sensitive crops like eggplants, capsicums, and cucumbers, by cloching with frost cloth or mikroclima.

Harvest onions when tops have flopped. Dry in partial sun for a week and either tie in bundles to hang dry, or in boxes.

Harvest pumpkins and melons when stalk and adjacent tendril goes brown. Use secateurs to leave a stalk for better keeping.

Harvest chillies and capsicum once they colour. Or start while they are green, producing a different tasting fruit. Eggplants/aubergines are trickier to pick. Ideally, they have a mature colour, are firm but not squishy, and when cut the seeds are still immature (whitish). Also use secateurs with these fruits. Store in fridge.

Harvest kūmara at the end of month, or about five months from planting. Check a few tubers to see if skin is firm and take care to harvest without breaking. Harvest when there’s fine weather coming and leave on the soil to dry/cure. If wet, lay tubers in a hothouse or somewhere warm with good humidity to cure for several days. Then store in a warm dry place, best individually wrapped in paper or straw.

Most crops prefer being stored in a cool, dry, rodent-free place. Using earthen plaster or earth walls is advantageous, as earth allows air exchange, balances humidity levels, filters possible impurities from the air, and has low toxicity. Hothouse: Maintain ventilation, daily watering, and liquid feeding, to prolong harvest of fruiting crops. Spray with garlic and pyrethrum vs aphids and whitefly. Mulch. Sow/plant winter salads or green crops.

For transplanting: All seeds 5 and 6 March. Spring onions and leafy greens (spinach, spinach beet, silver beet, lettuce, endive, pak choi, Chinese cabbage, cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli) (also 13 and 14 March). Herbs and flowers (also 2 and 12 March). Sow direct: All seeds 5 and 6 March. Salads, spring onions, kohlrabi (best 13 and 14 March). Carrots and beetroot (cloche), radish, and turnip (also 8-11 March). Flowers (4 and 22 March). Peas (also 7 and 16 March).

Plant: Best 1 and 17-31 March. Salad greens, spinach, cabbages, cauliflower, and broccoli. Flowers, eg bulbs.

Herb Care:

Plant herbs, eg parsley, or transplant self-seeded perennials. Sow herb seed directly.

Harvest herbs for drying or leave to seed.

Weed and mulch.

Fruit care:

Support heavily laden branches.

Harvest late apples and pears, peaches, black passionfruit, late berries, figs, and grapes (net).

Complete summer fruit pruning, including berries, in sunny periods. Paste cuts with Inocbloc.

Sow beneficial understory plants.

Remove cardboard moth larvae traps and burn.

Frost/wind-protect sensitive fruits, eg avocados.

Spray all fruits with diluted seaweed. Spray disease-prone fruit with copper oxychloride vs fungal diseases after harvest, before leaf fall. Spray citrus with neem/mineral oil vs insect pests to reduce sooty mould. Spray lime sulphur on stone fruit trees vs pests and diseases.

General Garden Care:

Mulch mow or re-sow bald spots in lawn.

Make lots of compost with crop residues, etc.

Harvest last comfrey for a liquid brew.

Take tip cuttings of ornamentals and herbaceous plants. Collect seaweed/seagrass and mulch.

Prune shelter for sun and airflow. Chip prunings. Plant shelter trees and shrubs for protection and habitat.

Many thanks to the readers who submitted questions.

We will publish next month’s question topic in a few weeks’ time and revise the column into a Q&A format.