As an ex-Melburnian myself, I have to tell you that summer here is (as a general rule) terrible for growing veggies. Consensus seems to be that what the humidity and heat don't kill, the pests and diseases will. Fruit fly has been a particularly nasty experience for me and, unless you're prepared to spray continuously or put up a physical barricade (such as netting the fruit or the entire plant), your tomatoes will be infected by it if you grow them in spring/summer. This seems to be true of any fruit/veggie susceptible to fruit fly.

Sweet potatoes and ginger seem to do OK in summer, although the latter will need more water than the former.

If you live in a frost-free part of Bris (outer areas might not be), then you can plant tomatoes in autumn so that they ripen before fruit flies attack in spring. In fact, autumn seems a particularly fertile period here for veggies: the green leafy ones do really well in the cooler weather (they tend to bolt to seed in the warmer months, or just wilt under the strength of the summer sun).

Remember also that we're on stage 3 restrictions (no hosing allowed). If we move to stage 4 in the next few months, you'll only be able to water your plants with grey water--not recommended for edibles. You might be best advised to simly build up your soil and hold off planting until the drought breaks.

g'day artvanderlay,

oh i don't know cestrum, i've been a qlder all my life and though the middle part of summer say from mid dec' to late feb can be tough with heat (i don't think humidity does much to plants not like it does to us), i still get good summer tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums you name it.

summer beds are best placed on the eastern side of the house so they get some shade from around 10am onward, i use raised beds and heaps of mulch, and give the root zone areas of the plants a good watering early in the morning, and i don't worry too much about any heat wilt on the hotter days as that is just the plant conserving itself.

i have had very little problems with nematodes, or wilt or even fruit fly for that matter, ou need to start you fruit fly program now and keep it going all year.

wherabouts in brissy (roughly) ie.,. eastern bayside, northern bayside?? are you moving to artvanderlay?

if you are generally in the eastern to nrothern suburbs you should be able to gorw tomatoes all year round i have 2 healthy plants going that i put in when we moved here, ok they take longer for the fruit to mature and ripen but hey!!??

also invite you over to

ausgarden to further your knowledge base.

look at this as a new challenge and a learning curve one i'm sure you will succeed in.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

A fruit fly program means spraying or erecting physical barriers, right? Capsicums will get fruit fly too, and I assume cucumbers as well, so they all have to be protected in summer.

I think Queenslanders have a different attitude--they've grown up with fruit fly and accept that they have to take steps against it. (Like cane toads.) But Melburnians haven't: their main concern is getting enough warm days to ripen the fruit! It's a shock to see those squirming maggots in a tomato. (Like the shock of seeing your first live cane toad.)

Also, summer in Melb is a fertile period when so many fruits and veggies ripen. Here, summer is the harshest time of year while autumn seems a much more fertile season.

As an ex-Melburnian, that's been my experience.

Thanks cestrum and len for the advice.

I guess I'm going to have to get used to the new critters I'll be encountering. I'm not sure whether I'm up for a fruit fly program, I've looked at Len's website and the various fruit fly prevention strategies which seem straightforward enough, but I wonder how much will be in my control. For example, they appear to rely somewhat on the discipline of neighbours (and mine) to stop gestation of larvae. As Len suggests I'm probably best to have a go and see what results I come up with.

In regards to Brisbane location I dont have one yet, we aren't moving until January, but it'll be somewhere near UQ in St Lucia (I'd call it west-south west, but maybe the locals make a different division). Is this likely to make much of a difference to the results I get?

no barriers cestrum,

traps made from drink bottles and good garden husbandry like not letting any fruit drop and rot on the ground and not using same in compost heap any damaged fruit needs to be destroyed or disposed of off site, had a neighbour once who had a yellow guava, great host plant for the f/f i would go and pick all fruit that developed after flowering and dump it.

any fly i get rarely damaged the whole fruit they tend to go to the flesh around the seed area mostly, so much of the fruit can still be used. know lots of people who eat it no matter what, they reckon only a bit of added protein.

all the cousins to the tomato will get fly, along with all soft fruits, the exceptions are cherry, grape & pear tomatoes. plus some tomatoes seem more vulnerable that do others.

len

Oh Len, only a bit of added protein :-) You and I will never agree on that!

I had only cherry tomatoes, and they were infested with fruit fly. It was my first tomato crop here, grown in a new veggie patch on reclaimed lawn, so I was very disappointed.

Art: fruit fly might be less prevalent in your area, and if you've seen pics of Len's garden you'll see what's possible if you take the necessary precautions. As for me, I won't try spring/summer growing of tomatoes until I get some cheap gauze curtaining material from the op shop ... after the drought breaks. You'll know by Jan whether stage 4 restrictions have been introduced but you wouldn't be planting tomatoes in mid-summer anyway, so your first crop is likely to be an autumn-sown/planted one after all :-)

Jeez you buggers have it tough up there. The worst I get down here is a few bird pecks. Hope we all get some rain eh. Damn dry down here i can tell you. Resevoirs at 7 % yikes. Going to get another tank in next week so I have enough for the tomatoes, plus drinking water for when they dump flouride in our meager supply.

yes cestrum,

i don't like the taste of fruit with f/f larva in it has a very over ripe taste to it, but also with the cherries/grapes/pear tom's never had f/f or any major fail with them.

len

I'll take your word for how they taste, Len, as I cut each pea-sized tomato (that looked unaffected by ff) in half before eating it, just to be sure there were no maggots inside. The wiggly insects have an ugh factor (unlike, say, aphids: I don't gag if I accidentally eat a few), but maggots in particular are truly revolting.

The news isn't all bad, of course. Yesterday I ate the last ladyfinger banana from my garden. It's my first ever harvest of bananas (good timing!) and not something I could ever grow in Melb. There's another hand just setting fruit on the same plant and, drought permitting, my goldfinger pup might set its first fruit this year too.

It's just a matter of expectations and familiarity. Winter was the worst season for me in Melb; here it's summer or, as I call it, the Big Sweat :-)