govt. house rotation - wk 3

My third week in the Government House gardens sees us completing the irrigation system in the Japanese Pond garden bed. There is already a water source in the bed so that is great. We just have to excavate it a little to create enough room to connect the pipe and install a filter. We have decided on a total of four above ground sprinkler heads on uprights, that will sit approx 80cm off the ground, attached to a stake for support. 

The pipes are connected. The filter will follow later.....

Before we choose the sprinkler heads, we check the pressure of the water with a pressure tester. The water here at Government House is known for having excellent pressure and the tester shows up 65 kPa (kilopascals) or 95 psi (pounds per square inch) which is more than enough to do the job and the sprinkler heads we have will be fine. For my benefit, as an exercise, Mick also suggests we also do the old fashioned bucket method and we find we can fill a 9L bucket in 9 secs. Very good pressure indeed. 

Adjustable directional spray heads.

After all the connectors and joins are fastened together and the stakes driven in and secured to the stands, it's time to finally turn it on. We start by flushing the line to rid it of dirt and any blockages then fix the heads on to check the radius of the sprays. We end up swapping one sprinkler head to a smaller radius as there is too much water ending up on the path. All in all though the water coverage is quite good and we are very pleased, as I'm sure the plants will be now too. It's been great to see this project through from concept to completion.

Good regular water = Happy plants!

After lunch I head to the chook pen with Steve to plant four new Citrus trees that will add to his impressive collection already.

The lucky new trees to have found a new home.

Steve takes me on a tour around the two pens to show me all the different varieties here including lemons, limes, oranges, cumquats and mandarins as well as a few exotics that Steve is very happy to have thriving here and fruiting well for the first time. Citrus seems to be the only trees that survive the rigors of living with chooks, as they are just not interested them.  Steve treats me to a taste of a few of them and I am impressed at the different flavours and how well they are thriving in our cool conditions here. For someone like myself who also has plans for a rotational chook pen at home and is interested in planting citrus, Steve recommends planting lemons such as the Meyer (Citrus x meyeri) and Eureka (Citrus limon 'Eureka') and Limes. I also fancy the "Lemonade" hybrid which is a lovely sweet lemon crossed with a mandarin.



Nice healthy fruit!

It's time to start planting and Steve runs me through his preferred method. We select a site (in a straight line with the existing trees to allow for easy mowing) and scalp the turf off. Then we dig a hole that

is approx double the root ball circumference and mix this soil in the wheelbarrow with some compost and fertiliser (SeeMunGus).



Steve running me through good planting technique.

After teasing out the main roots to help them grow outwards and not continuing in the circular pattern from the pot, we place it in the hole aligning the main shaft straight (instead of the rootstock) and back fill. Steve points out that one of the most important things when planting out is to make sure that the planting level is the same or just slightly below the soil level in the pot and definitely not above. All the small top roots must be below the soil line otherwise the plant could get stressed and not grow as well. Good to check the rootstock for any shoots as well and rub them off so they don't draw energy away from the grafted tree.

Freeing the main roots.

Place the tree in the hole to check the level before back filling.

The final task we have here is unique to chickens pens, and that involves the placement of 4 concrete blocks around the base of the tree to prevent the happy scratchers from undoing our good work thus far!

All finished. Sorry chooks - no more scratching for worms now!

A deep watering in completes our task and Steve explains that he will give the newly planted trees a good soak every day for about a week before easing them off to a normal watering regime.

An obvious deficiency so......some investigation needed.

On a final note one of the trees we notice on our tour around the orchard is suffering from a clear deficiency. I can't remember what Steve said it might have been on the day so have decided to take the opportunity to research this for myself. After reading up, all the signs for me point towards a Zinc deficiency as described below: 

• Zinc deficiency produces a bright creamy-yellow mottle. Symptoms are usually worse on the northern (sunny) side of the tree. The deficiency is most acute in alkaline soils. It also affects citrus growing on acid coastal soils. 

• Even in its earliest stages, zinc deficiency lowers yield, reduces tree vigour and makes fruit small and poor in quality. Leaf symptoms include small, narrow leaves (little leaf) and whitish-yellow areas between the veins (mottle leaf). Leaves also crowd along short stems (rosetting), and smaller twigs die back.

So we can clearly see bright yellow mottle colouring. The affected leaves appear a little narrower than the unaffected green leaf at the top of the picture. And from memory the shrub was more affected on one side than the other.

The treatment suggested:

• Use an annual foliar spray (zinc sulphate) on the spring flush leaves when they are about two-thirds their full size. Severely deficient trees need two or more sprays during the season. Use a combination spray of zinc sulphate and manganese sulphate if the tree is also manganese-deficient.

I'm keen to ask Steve what he thinks about this theory next time. To be continued.......