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starling starts with ... Starting a tropical fruit garden in outer northside brisbane. Need lots of advice. I've started to clear areas for the trees, but I really have no idea what I'm doing. I have ordered carambola, brazil cherry, aussie raspeberry, blueberry, soursop, and star apple. I have also ordered a pink banana tree (dwarf) and purple apple berries, as well as a vanilla bean orchid and ice cream bean tree. I live on 3 acres, which backs onto a river which I can pump water from at the price of the fuel. What I really need to know is how to prepare the soil for planting. I have access to an endless and free supply of cow and horse manure, but really am all at sea when it comes to turning the soil and putting in the right kinds of minerals/trace elements. I understand soil has a ph, but I have no idea what mine is, or how to test it (yes, that's the level of ignorance we're dealing with here. would really appreciate any advice or tips. thankyou starling | About the Author whiteside 13th July 2013 2:17pm #UserID: 8102 Posts: View All 's Edible Fruit Trees |
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Original Post was last edited: 13th July 2013 2:24pm | |
Mike J says... First of all, forget the icecream bean tree (Inger). They can turn feral very quickly, sending suckers up from their roots for up to 20 metres from the original plant. The Beans are not much in the way of food. It is like eating icecream with a heap of cotton wool mixed into it.If you have to plant one, put it as far from any building or pipes that you can. Severely disruptive root system. And for all of that, when you get heavy rain and wind together, they are the first ones to fall over. pH is the measure of acidity/alkalinity in the soil. 7.0 is neutral, and and numbers lower are increasing in acidity. There are not many plants that will grow with a soil pH of 4.00 as the soil is so acid it burns their roots and locks up some nutrients. Most plants thrive in soil around 6.0 to 7.0. As the numbers rise over 7.0, the alkalinity increases. Beans and peas will grow well, for example, in a pH of 7.5 but once it rises over 8.5, the number of plants that can grow there diminishes rapidly. You use Iron Sulphate to reduce soil pH and lime to increase it. pH test kits are available from most good garden centres. A good reliable brand is Manutec. It consists of a white powder and a purple liquid. Mix the liquid with the soil and sprinkle the white powder on it and wait for the colour change. Compare the colour with the chart that comes with it to tell the pH. I like to dig a circle about a metre in diameter as deep as I can, say around 300mm deep, and add more soil to it to make a mound about 300mm higher than the surrounding ground level. While building your mound,it is the perfect opportunity to dig in manure and compost and about 200 grams of a good general fertilizer like Nitrophoska TE spread evenly through the mound. Mulch it with bark or wood chip with 25% by volume of lucerne chaff added. If you use straw to mulch with, bring the lucerne up to 50%. Lucerne acts as a deterrent to pathogenic root fungi and behaves like a slow release nitrogenous fertilizer. Plant your trees in a small hollow in the top of the mound and make sure you water in well the first time so that large air gaps collapse around the roots of your new tree. Discourage lateral branching until the tree is around 1.50 metres high but don't be too savage with the secateurs while the tree is very young and never remove more than 25% of the total foliage at any one time while the tree is young. Your Vanilla orchid will need a shaded wooden trellis about 1.8 metres high with three or four horizontal rails on it. As the orchid grows, make sure you have left room at either end of the trellis to extend it if needed. I have seen a single orchid covering a trellis 6 metres long! It likes a fairly humid environment and total freedom from frost. If you use shade cloth, use only 75% or higher, WHITE shade cloth. Never use dark colours like black or green. You will suppress photosynthesis too much. So, armed with your pH test kit, you can fine tune the planting bed for each specie and get optimal results. It is a bit of a sweat doing all this but the rewards will be great. | About the Author Mike J Mackay 14th July 2013 10:42am #UserID: 8095 Posts: 6 View All Mike J's Edible Fruit Trees |
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BJ says... you're up between the lakes/dams? Does it frost there? I know it does up the road at Dayboro and back toward Samsonvale, but unsure if you are past the hills in the frost zone. If you do it will restrict a few things you can grow and give you a few extra options. Get to know your soil. do the ph tests as Mike J suggests, but also know your soil type. there are heaps of soil types in the area with beautiful rich red soils toward the coast a bit, heavy shale toward dayboro and bushrock and clay mixes in the hills. Some soils need more input than others. though good organic matter is always welcome. you'll need to compost your manure as a first step. With the native raspberries, put them in a raised bed or similar so their growth can be restricted or you'll spend too much time controlling their runners and suckers and end up with a formidable clump that you probably wont bother to brave getting into for the berries. also, Annette Macfarlane's 'successful organic fruit growing', or something like that, would be a great resource, as she lives a few kms up the road from you. also, local fruit grower clubs will put you in touch with the growers in your area who can advise on the best things to grow and the best ways to grow them. | About the Author Theposterformerlyknownas Brisbane 14th July 2013 12:45pm #UserID: 3270 Posts: 1552 View All Theposterformerlyknownas's Edible Fruit Trees |
starling says... Mike, thanks for the feedback. Extremely helpful, I'll get the PH test kit tomorrow and work from there. Thinking I might skip the ice cream bean based on your info, sounds like it isn't worth the effort and might be a nightmare. Strangely, I've never seen frost in the top section of the house, but the back paddock gets it, and gets it hard occasionally (once so thick it crackled underfoot). I'm going to say that the soil is mostly clay based, but loamy in some places. I've been hauling up river sand to mix in with the beds, and have procured some dolomite to help (bloke at the nursery told me to do this). Been hard work clearing everything, spent most of today ripping out an ancient mock orange, lot of earth to turn over and I still have to mix the sand and manure in to it. Very large area. I have some purple apple berry seeds to I need to cultivate as well as some others (mostly guavas, feijoas, though I did get some black futsu pumpkin seeds as well as red kuri, tiger melon seeds and moonbeam watermelon seeds). Thanks for the info, much appreciated. cheers | About the Author whiteside 14th July 2013 8:11pm #UserID: 8102 Posts: View All 's Edible Fruit Trees |
starling says... BJ, Property is on vores road. I wouldn't say it gets as cold here as dayboro, which can get freezing in my experience. Generally a pretty quiet street except during redclaw season which brings in the white bucket brigade. Front paddock never gets frost, back paddock can get very frosty. There's a custard apple tree which grows and fruits well there, but the fruit itself is never very good--always woody. Bumper macadamia hauls though in the same spot. Thanks for the info on the Atherton raspberry, I think I'll need to watch a few videos on this raised bed business, having a hard time picturing what that looks like. Will be posting updates regularly. cheers | About the Author whiteside 14th July 2013 8:20pm #UserID: 8102 Posts: View All 's Edible Fruit Trees |