Permaculture Living

A nice, easy customer question. I wish they were all like that.

Question: There are cockroaches in my compost. How do I get rid of them?

Answer: I asked the customer if the compost was dry looking. Customer said yes, so suggested wetting the compost with a bucket of water. The moisture will discourage the cockroaches and also encourage better decomposition of the contents.

(There’s more info on making compost in the article on growing vegies in containers.)

Another customer question from my time working in the nursery.

Question: What tomatoes can you grow in winter? Is fruit fly a problem?

Answer: Winter is a good time to grow larger tomatoes (Beefsteak, Roma, etc) in Brisbane. These would normally be susceptible to fruit fly and hard to grow to full size without being stung, but in winter pests like fruit fly are less numerous. The plants and fruit do grow more slowly but on the upside there are fewer pests around.

In summer, cherry tomatoes are the best choice for vegie gardens in Brisbane, as they’re less susceptible to fruit fly. There’s also a bigger harvest of cherry tomatoes, so if a couple of fruit do get stung, there’s still plenty left to harvest.

I worked in the Edible Landscapes nursery for a few days and answered (or tried to answer) a lot of customer questions. The following question about sooty mould on citrus trees was pretty common.

Question: My mandarin tree has a black mould on the leaves and is not bearing as much as usual. How do I fix this?

Answer: It has sooty mould, a fungus growing on the leaves, which means there is a sap-sucking insect problem like aphids, scale, white fly or mealy bugs. The insects suck the sap from the leaves and exude honeydew, which drips back onto the leaves, and the mould grows on the sweet substance.

Spray it with white oil to kill the sap-suckers and thus get rid of the mould. To make white oil, mix together:

- 1 cup of cooking oil
- 2 cups of water
- 1 tsp of dishwashing liquid
- Dilute the mixture at 3 teaspoons per half a litre of water and spray on the affected leaves.

Make sure to use it in the cool of the day so it doesn’t burn the leaves. The mould should then wash off in the next rain (or hose it if you’re impatient and then reapply).

Battles with the local possums continue. Not content with eating every tomato, chilli and capsicum plant within reach, they have moved onto the pumpkin vines.

Two of them have been returning to the pumpkin every week or so to test for ripeness. This was their last test - it’s now been fenced off.