Southern Gippsland Climate Resilience Project
Climate change will bring lots of challenges for food production. How can we adapt?
Vegetable growing in a changing climate
Sunday 11 January 2015
Food Hub, 12 Silkstone Road, Korumburra
PROGRAM
1 p.m.
Intro – Meredith, Grow Lightly
Vegie growing in a changing climate, and notion of resilience. Run through handouts. Resources, including
plants, seeds, seedlings – where to get them.
1.50
Jo and Bob McLeay, Ranceby
Vegetables: why we chose Ranceby; what we have done; what we have learnt
Questions
2.35
2.50
Cuppa
Joe Aiello, Inverloch
Vegetable growing in Inverloch – how I decide what to plant and when – changes I have noticed since I started
– how I Iook after the soil – water/irrigation
Questions
3.30
Discussion and wind-up
Documents
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List of vegetables
Sow what when
o Planting calendar Department of Agriculture 1972
o Planting calendar Allsun Farm
o Tasmanian Growing Guide (Peter Cundall)
o Plum Cottage (Outtrim) planting plan
Acidity tolerance
Day length
Germination temperatures
What’s available when in South Gippsland
Optimum storage conditions
Books and websites
Resource list from ‘So you think you can farm’, October 2014
Grow Lightly Connect
What vegetables might I grow?
Alfalfa sprouts, punnet
Artichokes, globe med/ea
Artichokes, Jerusalem/kg
Asparagus
Avocados
Basil
Beans - broad/kg
Beans - broad, young, eaten whole/kg
Beans - green or yellow/kg
Beans - fresh borlotti/kg
Beetroot med-large topless /kg
Beetroot med-large with tops/bunch 3
Bok choy
Broccoli/kg
Cabbages, small/ea
Cabbage - red
Capsicums, bell, green/red
Capsicums, other smaller, (more to a kilo)
Carrots/kg
Cauliflowers, medium
Celery
Chard/silver beet
Chillies large/kg
Chillies small/kg
Coriander, medium bunch
Cucumbers
Eggplant
Fennel
Garlic, all kinds/kg
Kale /bunch
Leeks large or small, bunched
Lettuce/salad mix/kg
Lettuce, fancy, good size
Mushrooms, cultivated/kg
Oca
Onion - shallots
Onion - white. brown, red
Onion - spring/small bunch
Parsley/med bunch
Parsnips
Peas - shelling
Peas - snow/kg
Peas - sugar snap
Potatoes
Pumpkin, grey/blue
Pumpkin, Golden Nugget and other
interesting types
Pumpkin, butternut type/kg
Radishes/bunch 10 large
Rhubarb/bunch 6-8 stems dependingon size
Rocket, aragula
Rocket, wild
Spinach, 100g bag
Squash
Swedes
Sweet corn/ea
Tomatoes/kg
Tomatoes - cherry
Turnips, Japanese, small/bunch
Warrigal greens/200g bag
Yacon
Zucchini/courgettes - green, yellow, striped,
Planting calendar Allsun farm
http://www.allsun.com.au/plantingcalendar.pdf
Tasmanian Growing Guide (Peter Cundall)
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2008/07/07/2296755.htm
Acidity tolerance of Food plants
The Effect of Shorter Day Length on Winter Production
by Lynn Byczynski
The two primary environmental factors that affect plant growth are temperature and day length.
Temperature is easy enough to understand: Every plant species has a temperature range in which
it will grow, and optimum temperatures in which it will thrive. Day length is a little more
complicated, especially in combination with temperature. Understanding the relationship between
the two can lead to more successful season extension and variety selection.
The first thing to know is that the term day length is a misnomer in this respect: Scientific
research has confirmed that it's the length of the dark periods, not the length of daylight periods,
that predominantly controls plant growth. This fact was discovered long after day length became a
widely used term in horticulture, and the term has stuck. Understanding the importance of dark
periods can come in handy for the grower, though, because it can be used to modify plants'
response to day length, leading them to bloom outside their normal season. More on that later.
Many plant species have day length triggers that determine when they grow vegetatively and
when they bloom. They may be long-day plants or short-day plants. Some plants do not react to
day length; they are called day-neutral.
Figuring Day Length at Your Latitude
Day length is a function of latitude; all locations having the same latitude coordinate have the
same amount of daylight on any given day. Day is equal to night, 12 hours each, at the two
equinoxes, which mark the beginning of spring and the beginning of autumn. The winter solstice
marks the shortest day (longest night), and the summer solstice marks the longest day (shortest
night) of the year. In the winter, days are longer the closer you are to the equator, and in the
summer, days are longer the farther you are from the equator.
How Day Length Affects Crop Production
Most plants do not grow when day length is less than 10 hours. Even if the temperature is kept
within the optimum range — for example, in a climate-controlled greenhouse — most plants will
just sit dormant until the magic 10 hours of light per day arrives.
Here are some examples of why day length may be a factor in gardening success:
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Cauliflower starts to develop a head when days get shorter. That happens sooner in
southern than in northern regions. Cooler temperatures during head development also lead
to better flavour. So cauliflower is an easier crop in the south than in the north.
Basil does not grow during the short days of winter, even in a tropical greenhouse.
Many of the most popular cut flowers have day length triggers. Rudbeckia for example,
grows vegetatively during short days and flowers when days are long. If you plant
Rudbeckia in early spring, you can grow big, healthy plants that send up bountiful long
stems as the days get longer in summer. If you plant them in late summer, however,
hoping for a fall crop, you will get few flowers on very short stems because the day length
is too short to trigger blooming.
Many other aspects of food and flower crop production are affected by day length, temperature, or
a combination of the two. If you have ever wondered why certain crops do not grow as well for
you as they do in other parts of the country, day length may be a contributing factor.
If you are not attuned to the day length in your location, get a sunrise/sunset calculator or app,
and mark your calendar with the dates when you have 10 hours of daylight, 11 hours, 12 hours,
and so on. Over time, you will begin to notice correlations between day length and your garden's
activity.
Germination temperatures
Minimum (°C)
Preferred (°C)
bean
8-10
16-30
beet
4
10-30
cabbage
4
7-35
carrot
4
7-30
cauliflower
4
7-30
celery
4
15-21
corn
10
16-32
cucumber
16
16-35
eggplant
16
24-32
lettuce
2
4-27
onion
2
10-35
parsley
4
10-30
parsnip
2
10-21
pea
4
4-24
pepper
16
18-35
pumpkin
16
21-32
radish
4
7-32
rutabaga
4
16-30
spinach
2
7-24
squash
16
21-35
tomato
10
16-30