Autumn soon! But there is so much work in the garden and garden in September that my head is spinning! On the one hand, this is the time to take stock, and on the other, it is the beginning of preparation for a new crop! September is usually a busy month for gardeners - no less work than spring. And if we consider that the hot, dry summers in the Kuban brought us force majeure, then there is a lot of work, as if to not miss something. The most important thing is to help the plants prepare for the winter. Where do we start? ...
As always, first we’ll see what weather awaits us. The site “Well and the weather!” Will help you orient yourself, plan our gardening activities, wherever you and I live. - (nuipogoda.ru) Open this page, enter the name of your city or town - you will find out an approximate forecast almost specifically for your garden for a week, month, quarter ahead. But, again, the forecast is approximate.
Of course, I would like to draw up a clear work plan, but life is full of surprises. Forecasts, alas, do not always come true.
What can and cannot be done in the garden
Be sure to water the fruit trees. They suffer so much from us in the hot summer. Professionals have such an expression - “moisture-charging irrigation”. It is required every fall, and this one especially. I already wrote about this, so I will not repeat myself.
Please read the article “Watering trees in autumn or how to prepare a garden for wintering”. Pay attention to the section on water recharge irrigation. By the way, it is relevant not only for gardeners in the Krasnodar Territory, experts recommend it in the autumn in all regions. I think that the warm autumn that they promise us will allow us to carry it out as it should. More than once I watered fruit trees even in November, despite the fact that the soil was moist at that time.
By the way, if you have fruit trees with fruits - late varieties of apple trees, pears, then water them until the crop is harvested - no need. Watering can cause premature mass fall of the fruit.
It is still early to prune the trees - you have to wait until the leaves fall off. You can only reduce the amount of this work by cutting off the tops of the tops of the top, if you didn’t have time to do this in the summer.
Taking off the berries of dogwood, I noticed a fluffy coating on green branches, as well as on the back of the leaves. This, alas, is the larva of a white circadian.
Cutting off the shoots of hazelnuts grown from the root, she also noticed the same picture.
What should I think about? The fact that the warm days of September will allow another generation of white cicadas to appear. Therefore, inspect all garden plants. Note this - it should be treated with any drug against leaf-eating, for example, Fufanon, Actelik.
What can be done in the garden
After collecting the last harvest, it is necessary to free the beds from all plant debris, rotten fruits, vegetables. Free areas from the dried stalks of corn, sunflower.
Now it’s hard for me to say when I will put things in order in the beds with tomatoes, as long as I have blossoms, they are tied, and cherry tomatoes are being sung at the same time. I love these tomatoes - they don’t get sick, the hell of the current has withstood dignity, the blanks, salads look beautiful with them, they are tasty, moreover.
And beds with early varieties of tomatoes have already finished bearing fruit. In some places small fruits still hang. Here they turn red, collect them, and then you can remove the tomato bushes from the beds.
Until it is time to remove peppers from the beds, I am not talking about the crop, but about the plants of the bell pepper themselves. The heat was sleeping a little, they bloomed, in some places even new ovaries appeared. If there are no October frosts, then I will wait for the second wave of the harvest. To help plants cope with the new crop, it is necessary to prevent the drying of soil on the beds of pepper now - it must always be moist. Feeding them is also good. I think it’s enough to feed them (not more than once in 10-12 days) with some universal fertilizer, for example, Kemira Universal.
At the end of September, I think it’s time to go in for bulbs - tulips, hyacinths, daffodils transplants, if you decide to plant them in a new place. And it’s time to dig out gladioli, put the bulbs where it is dry, that is, prepare them for winter storage.
Watch the video. Despite the fact that the name of the video includes the word “August”, I think that for the climatic conditions of the Kuban all the tips are applicable for September.
The last thing I wanted to remind.
How to prepare a cellar for the winter storage of vegetables and preparations
Do not forget in September about the cellar! It is very important to prepare it for winter storage of vegetables and processed products. Very often, a careless attitude to this issue can negate all our garden work.
If the basement is dry, it’s good - it’s already halfway done, but if not, you should open the lid, dry it thoroughly.
For example, I store potatoes, onions, carrots, and beets there. What do I usually do to keep these vegetables well? Firstly, I clean the floor, remove a small layer of the earth, fill it with a thin layer of clean sand mixed with quicklime. And, secondly, I look at the state of the ceiling, the walls of the cellar, if, for example, last winter it was too wet there, then the white ceiling, the walls of quicklime, which, by the way, is also a good antiseptic.
Quicklime is also a good absorber of moisture, which means that such whitewashing will make the cellar air a little drier. This will save your vegetables from fungus. If whitewashing from last year was preserved quite well, instead of whitewashing for additional disinfection, I fumigate the cellar with sulfuric smoke.
And now advice to those whose cellar is affected by mold, rot. First you need to clean the walls with a rough brush, the ceiling of mold, rot. Tightly plug the supply and exhaust pipes with something. You can use a sulfur checker, or you can use the old grandfather's method. Pour quicklime into a bucket. Its amount will depend on the volume of your cellar, but the proportions are as follows - 2-3 kg of quicklime is enough for 10 cubic meters. Pour lime with water and run away from the cellar as quickly as possible. Close the lid tightly, I still throw an old cotton blanket on top of the lid so that the gas emitted by the lime when extinguishing disinfects not only air, but also walls, the ceiling, and the floor.
Edited September 9, 2016