Ruud Kleinpaste: Planting time for trees and crops

<p>We had a great autumn… quite warm! – getting cooler now</p> <p>Some fruit trees are still producing fruits: All you need is relatively warm autumn conditions for ripening to be successful. Feijoas and figs and some apple varieties</p> <p>Feijoas: select you favourite variety; they are all more or less similar when it comes to resistance of frosts, so chose what you like.</p> <p>Feijoas are still dropping at my place (don’t “pick” them, let them drop!!!)</p> <p>Many varieties to plant in autumn – they are pretty hardy and make great hedges!</p> <p>If you want to create a “hedge”, put two or three different varieties in that hedge and create an opportunity for cross-pollination.</p> <p>If you are in the far north, guava moth may become your nemesis</p> <p>Figs can be a little more tender in the cold, so grab an early-ripening fig variety</p> <p>(Brown Turkey, Mrs Williams, Brunswick, Cape White, etc) when you think you’re “on the edge”</p> <p>Apples would also be a great tree to plant before it gets too wet and too cold – it reduces the fungal infections underground; in really wet spots, think about planting apple varieties “in raised beds”.</p> <p>Before planting a tree or two: ask around your district what grows well and ripens well.</p> <p>The trees really need not huge amounts of fertility at all (if they are on perfect soils they become tall and lanky too quickly, requiring pruning a lot)</p> <p>Select varieties you like to eat or process into apple-sauce (“applemoes” in Dutch); remember: if you are short of space, grab a young tree with two (or three) varieties grafted on the Main stem/Trunk</p> <p>Garlic should be in the soil this weekend – (to be honest, I planted mine a month ago!!) to avoid that dreaded garlic rust disease.</p> <p>It works for me as the bulbs are ready to harvest in late October before it becomes a pain!</p> <p>Another important tip is to put garlic in a different bed each year – simply to escape old rust spores hotspots</p> <p>The same goes for the Egyptian walking Oni