While we are still hoping that some proper summer weather finally comes to us, the vegies we planted last year haven’t particularly minded that every day is not a beach day. Most will be cropping pretty well, actually, given the regular rainfall and increasing warmth in the soil.
It’s always exciting when the first fruits begin to form, to watch them increase in size daily, and finally picked for the kitchen or eaten on the way back in. While a sense of achievement and pride can often be felt during these early harvests, it is important to keep up the care for your crops to ensure the fruits of your initial labour continue to be realised.
Pruning your vegetables during the growing season is one way you can help increase the quality of your fruit-producing crops. Tomatoes are the classic example of a summer vegetable that responds well to pruning, but a similar strategy can be applied to many of your fruiting vegetables. By pruning, or really thinning, we aim to reduce the number of fruit each crop carries in order to increase the quality of our harvests.
So for those who would benefit from a tomato pruning recap, the main intention is to increase the quality of the fruit by removing unnecessary vegetative (or plant) growth. Above each leaf growing from the main stem you will see a new shoot protruding. These shoots essentially become a replica of the tomato plant and will themselves produce new shoots and fruit. And so on. By reducing the number of these shoots, we will in turn reduce the number of fruit the plant will carry. Many may think that this doesn’t sound very sensible, as we want as many tomatoes as we can. However, when we leave a tomato plant unpruned and over-producing, the fruit will generally become smaller and less flavoursome. While we may be used to flavourless tomatoes for much of the year, it is well worth creating the richest fruit we can during our growing season.
Many other fruits can benefit from this theory. Once your pumpkins have produced enough fruit and are beginning to ripen, you can cut off the excess growth while you wait for the lucky ones you’ve chosen to ripen. The same can be applied to watermelons and your other melons.
As well as pruning for quality, you may also want to keep up with some regular feeding if you feel that your soil is lacking somewhat in nutrients. Sometimes you can be in a rush to plant your vegies as the warm weather approaches and may not have prepared the soil as diligently as you had hoped. You can remedy this in part by applying weekly or bi-weekly liquid feeds, or even throwing around a few handfuls of granular fertiliser – organic, of course. As always, water well before and after applying fertiliser.
As the real warmth of summer arrives – fingers crossed – make sure you keep a close eye on all your plants. And enjoy the wonderful harvests that the warm season can bring.
HAPPY GARDENING!
Drew Cooper, Edible Gardens
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