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by Wally Richards

It’s just before Christmas and just after the summer solstice, the longest daylight day of the year, 21 December.

In terms of daylight, this day is 5 hours, 4 minutes longer than the June winter solstice.

In locations south of the equator, the longest day of the year is around this date. That is why having the longest hours of sunlight along with warmth our plants grow faster and better.

My mum told me that on 21 December 1945 that day was the longest day in her life when she gave birth to me after 6 pm.

The summer solstice marks the official start of astronomical summer and it occurs when one of Earth’s poles is tilted toward the sun at its most extreme angle, and due to Earth’s tilt.

It is that time of the year in our gardens that our summer crops are being harvested and it is still not too late to plant more summer vegetable such as corn to harvest in the autumn.

It is also the time to plant the first lot of winter vegetable and in particular leeks if leeks are one you like to eat. Next month and February will be the main winter crops and flowers planting times.

I had a question recently from a lady gardener who was concerned about a tree that was planted a couple of years ago that was not strong and could be damaged with strong winds. The first question I asked was if a stake was used to support the tree when first planted and there was, but left as support too long.

So let’s look at the best way to plant a young tree you have purchased that has come in a bag or container.

Firstly, in its container plunge the tree into a bucket or tub of water so the container is submerged and watch the air bubbles come to the surface. When the bubbles stop lift out of the water.

You make a hole deeper and wider than needed and you put the soil removed into your wheelbarrow or onto a plastic sheet and you mix into it some nice compost.

On the prevailing wind side of the hole you hammer into the hole a strong stake and you put a layer of the mixed soil into the bottom of the hole up to the level which will allow the tree to sit with the base of the trunk at soil level.

Now remove the tree from its container and if the roots are spiraling around the base then with your secateurs cut through the root spiral at the cardinal points.

Now sit the tree in the hole next to the stake and make sure the base of the trunk is level with the surrounding soil.

If you are in an area that gets very dry in summer and not wet in winter as it has good drainage then you can have the base of the trunk a few millimeters below surrounding soil level. That allows water to pond above the tree’s roots and make watering easier in dry times.

If it’s a wet area prone to flooding plant so that the base of the trunk is about 10cm above surrounding soil level.

After placing the tree in the hole, back fill with your mix of soil and compost.

With nylon stretchable string (balls of it found in garden shops) make a loose tie of the tree to the stake for support while tree roots are establishing.

Being on the prevailing wind side the tree will be blown away from the stake and not towards it to cause bruising. But there is a problem which is if you leave the stake support too long, the tree does not build up strength near the base from the canopy being blown about ,so the tree has a bad weakness as it requires a crutch.

Not good so this was the lady’s problem which I had never thought about before. On with the thinking cap and as I was talking to her the solution came to me.

Four stakes need to be driven into the ground at the cardinal points about 30cm each from the tree and the upper part of the trunk.

Then using that flexible nylon string tied to near the top of one stake and then across to opposite stake but having a open loose ring around the upper trunk. Then again with the other two stakes.

This means that the open loose rings will allow a nice bit of movement whichever way the wind is blowing, but limited movement as there is now support to prevent movement too far and consequent damage.

This then will allow the tree to build up strength at the base. Over time you can open the ring of support around the trunk to allow further possible movement and further strengthen the tree.

After about a year the support can be removed completely.

Thinner bamboo stakes are a bit more flexible and also allow more movement [actually they are quite rigid — ratan cane, used for basket making and furniture, would be better –Eds].

After explaining this to the gardener I thought brilliant, I must write about it.

Now here is a very interesting thing; I have a 10 kV solar panels and batteries I imported from China on and in my warehouse.

The solar panels are highly efficient and the electricians that helped install the system were amazed that even on a overcast day or when it was raining during the day the panels would convert what light was available to electricity and there would be a constant reading on the incoming meter of a nice amount of amps. (Like about 5 plus amps)

I check the system daily on what power is coming in; how charged are the batteries and what the outgoing load is. When there is a good amount of power coming in I switch a number of the display freezers from grid power to solar power.

I had the building dual wired because a low-cost manufactured in China system does not met NZ compliance so cannot be connect to the grid as can an expensive NZ purchased system.

The other day when I checked the incoming power it was fluctuating up and down rapidly every second? I thought there must be a number of small clouds blown in the wind obscuring the sun briefly before the next one?

So I went outside to see what was happening and there is no cloud pattern like that; instead it was like a continuous very light mist moving across the sky and not very high up?

The incoming amps were like 6, 11, 8, 14, 9, 16, 5 and so on, changing every second.

The following day same thing. What was the pollution causing the light level hitting the panels to be like a strobe light?

Now that I think does not bear well for our plants as they need a constant direct light to gain energy from the sun and grow best.

Today it’s an overcast day with dark rain clouds covering the sky with lit up in patches from the over head sun. My readings are constant at 5 to 7 amps with long intervals between any change in readings.

So why on a blue sky with only a thin film of light mist and with bright over head sunlight would cause rapid light reading changes?

It has to be in the makeup of the pollution which must be reflecting light back up into the atmosphere. That’s light our plants need to grow best with!

So, on that note I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hopefully a better year to come next year. One can always hope.

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