Rain, heat and humidity played havoc with gardens this summer. How do you keep your flowering plants looking good with all this weather action?
The key to success is to foliar-feed your plants regularly and watch out for moisture-related infestations of snails and fungal disease.
What is foliar feeding? Rain quickly washes away the nutrients in your soil and plants need lots of food to support their growth and flowering during late summer. In order for your flowers to continue to produce colour, foliar-feed them once a week.
Plants absorb fertiliser in water through their leaves just as quickly as they absorb it through their roots. Mix the foliar fertiliser with the recommended amount of water and use a watering can to sprinkle it on the annuals.
Foliar fertilisation particularly benefits annuals, which are competing with tree and shrub roots for nutrients. Foliar feeding works best with a half-strength Multifeed P, Multiclassic, Chemicult or Nitrosol.
* Cutworms and snails thrive in wet, humid weather. Sprinkle snail bait and cutworm bait to prevent them from damaging your plants.
* If the stems of your plants are a wet, brownish colour at the soil level, this is a sign of fungal disease or “damping off”. Fongarid fungicide tablets control this fungi. Avoid planting the same species of annuals in the same bed year after year. Rather plant a new species to further control fungal disease. - Saturday Star