Moon Calendar – November 2017
FULL MOON 4th November
Garden
- Foliar feed if necessary all veges with seaweed, fish/phyter, vermiliquid etc
- Liquid feed ground around any plants that need a boost
- Plant kumara tupu,
- Plant main crop potatoes onto trenches of wilted comfrey leaves,
- Plant Jerusalem artichokes, Chinese artichokes, yams, yacon, aniu
- More transplanting
- Mulch any beds that are ready
- Harvest flowers and herbs and seeds for drying
Orchard
- Keep watering and watch for pest/disease problems
- If there is still moisture in the ground there will be loads of grass that can be scythed to use as mulch on the garden
LAST QUARTER 11th November
Garden
- Weed, mulch and water
- Continue pricking out and transplanting
- Watch carefully for insects/diseases and learn what they are, how they impact you and what the best ways are to manage them.
- Continue harvesting flowers and herbs for drying
Orchard
- Continue watering and mulching
- Observe which trees are happy and which ones are stressed. Why? What can you do about it? What can you learn for the future?
- Time to prune your cherimoyas, back to three buds of new growth, cover cuts with pruning paste to stop borer getting in
- Great time to plant sub-tropicals
NEW MOON 19th November
Garden
- Check for water stress – the less stress, the less pest problems
- Transplant last of spring plantings – late crop tomatoes, beans and corn, basil, courgettes, cucumbers and leeks
- Watch for young, black shield bugs – use neem tree oil spray
- Take care of liquid fertiliser barrels; keep stirred and refilled with comfrey manure seaweed etc. Tomatoes, corn, pumpkins may need a boost now
- Plant seed into trays for late summer harvesting of dwarf and climbing beans, courgettes, carrots, beetroot, lettuce (tree lettuce will take the heat), basil, tampala, short season corn ( if you are in a area with a long summer), celery
Orchard
- Check young trees carefully for moisture stress. Water stress now will mean damage from cicada, shield bugs, pear slug, woolly aphids and die back on young trees.
- Watch fruit carefully and net trees where you need to. We use 10m squares of knitted bird netting, raised over the trees with a bamboo pole on two corners of the netting and pulled in together underneath.
- Watch carefully for branches of stone fruit showing signs of silver leaf – often just one limb of a tree will have silver leaves. Now is the time to cut that limb off and burn it and inoculate the tree with Trichopaste and or Tricho dowels.
FIRST QUARTER 27th November
Garden
- Finish planting any seeds needed for continuity including late sunflowers and flowers for autumn colour (zinnias, gaillardia, cosmos, and marigolds)
- Keep up regular watering and nutrient maintenance
- Foliar feed three days before full moon – regular foliar seaweed could save many pest and disease problems if your soil health is not yet ideal
- Watch for shield bugs
Orchard
- Check moisture levels on all young trees, look at the soil and leaves
- Watch for bronze beetle damage, pear slug and cicada damage
- Foliar spray with seaweed vermiliquid