Cold proof your winter veggies and flowers
Did you know that winter can be as stressful for plants, as it is for people? By boosting your plant’s immune system, the result will be healthy and productive veggies and flowers!
After such a wet summer, we may just be facing a colder than usual winter. While we can wrap up, veggies and flowers have very little protection against extended cold spells.
A supplement containing silica not only induces systemic resistance in a plant, it also has a number of strengthening actions. According to Cathy Church of EcoBuz that promotes friendly to nature garden care, silica has the following actions:
- It hardens and strengthens the plant cells.
- It reinforces the plant’s circulatory system, so that water and nutrients are transported more efficiently
- By strengthening the plant, it helps to activate a barrier between the plant and the environment, making it more resistant to stress, pests and diseases.
Most garden soils are deficient in silica, which explains why plants are so susceptible to diseases and pests under stressful conditions like cold, drought, wind, pruning and transplanting.
Insects and disease bypass the healthy plants because weaker plants offer an easier way in, says Cathy.
Silica is a key ingredient of EcoBuz Start Gro . It is liquid plant supplement that is used as a drench ( 5ml to 1litre) when planting or when plants undergo the stress of transplanting or pruning and when extreme weather conditions are expected.
Some tips:
For winter veggies and annuals that have already been planted, drench with Start Gro once a month in May and June. Although frost tender lettuce will be more tolerant of cold weather, frost cloth should still be used when frost is predicted.
Cabbage, broccoli, kale and other brassica seedlings particularly benefit because they need to be well established before winter really kicks in.
May is still a good time to plant out winter annuals like pansies and violas, calendula, primulas and poppies as well as winter veggies in seedling trays from the garden centre. Give them a good start by using Start Gro together with HumiGro a carbon based soil conditioner and RootPro that contains a natural beneficial fungus that protects roots against soil disease.
This three-in one biological treatment can be mixed into a watering can and applied when planting. The carbon improves the soil structure and promotes soil health, while the Root Pro and Start Gro induce the plant’s inherent resistance mechanism.
For July and August replace StartGro with MultiGro, the “all-in-one” plant tonic that is a blend of macro and micro-nutrients that stimulate growth and plant wellness. It can be applied as a drench or foliar feed.
