Saturday Morning with Jack Tame

Ruud Kleinpaste runs us through his top tips for sowing seeds!
We’re in the middle of seed-sowing season; Longer days and warmer temperatures are the natural conditions that Nature favours for the regeneration of plants through seeds. This generally goes for flowering plants (think: wild flower meadows!) as well as vegetables.
Generally speaking, sowing seeds has a few common do-s and don’t-s
With a few exceptions, it pays to sow seeds in a nice bed of seed-raising mix, to make them sprout and grow a little, before you can transplant them into their final growing place, be that the garden or in pots
Let’s start with the exceptions:
Summer root vegetables and plants that hate to be transplanted should be sown in situ… Parsnips, radishes and carrots are great examples of fussy transplanters.  Nikau palms, grass trees and Dracophyllum are also devils to transplant!
The vegies should be sown in perfectly prepared soils without rocks or lumps (they will cause splitting of carrots and parsnips and deformation in radishes)
Try to sow each (rather tiny) seed 7 or 8 cm apart (think of the spacing when they are full-grown)
It’ll be hard with those tiny seeds – can always thin them out carefully, when half-grown.
Nikaus and other specimen plants could be carefully transplanted into larger pots if so required… making sure you don’t disturb the rootball.
 
“Regular” sowing in seed raising mix:
This mix is important as it is sterile and that limits fungal problems such as “damping off”
The mix is also very fine; it holds water nicely, without becoming waterlogged
Those are the two extremes you’ll have to juggle with when sowing seeds: keep’em moist – not wet
 
Don’t bury your seeds too deep in the mix; if there are germination problems, it’s usually because they’ve been buried!
Golden rule: cover with a layer of mix around the same thickness as the size of the seed
Hardly covered at all !!!
Don’t use watering cans to water the newly-sown seeds, as that may totally disturb the delicate balance and cause water “runners” and miniature typhoon flooding symptoms: best to use a plant misting bottle to keep the top layers moist;
Gentle watering via mist!!
 
Do we need to warm the seed-raising mix?
Some species (tropical ones) quite like a warmer stratum to germinate (tomatoes, chilies and capsicums germinate much better that way; Basil and Cucurbits – pumpkins, melons and such fruit- will also thank you for the warmth).
Use a flash propagation pad (like the electric blanket for seedling trays) underneath the mix, making sure you don’t dry out the mix too quickly. Some folk use old bain-Marie systems with steam and warmth.
 
Keep seeds in the dark, no problem, but once the cotyledons (the first two seed leaves) have emerged, they need light to photosynthesise; Not blazing sunlight, but filtered light is best.
Grab yourself some seed catalogues (Kings Seeds, Yates, Egmont etc) and dream of what you may grow … Try the weird stuff  -  you might like it!

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her family have travelled to the U.S this week to attend the United Nations General Assembly and has been putting the New Zealand brand in the international spotlight.

Enable Me's Hannah McQueen discusses how women can close the gender pay gap and improve their financial situation. 
Some of the issues:
-A recent survey found that one-third of women have less than $5000 in their KiwiSaver.
-According to the World Economic forum, women’s retirement funds are 30-40% smaller than men’s around the world – but women have longer retirements
- Women are almost twice as likely to face poverty in retirement
- The gender pay gap is 9.2%
- 90% of women feel insecure about their finances
- Money is the leading cause of insomnia among women
- Mums get paid 17% less than Dad’s
- Women’s incomes fall 20% post-divorce, while men’s tend to rise more than 30%
If you want a better financial future go to Enableme.co.nz and book a consultation.

US correspondent Paul Stenhouse joins Francesca Rudkin to discuss the latest technology news. 
There's talk that Instagram is over, as we know it?
Instagram was the photo app that forced you into a square, allowed you to make all your photos look amazing with filters.. and famously made headlines when six years ago it was bought for $1 billion by Facebook.
Apparently there's been disagreement with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram's co-founders over where the company should go next. They abruptly called it quits and are now 'taking a break'.
Amazon's cashier-less stores are set for a BIG expansion?There are reports Amazon is planning 3,000 of them by 2021. First one opened in 2016 in Seattle.. then another.. now they've expanded to Chicago with SF and New York on the way. 
Someone I know who live sin Seattle said Amazon basically tells you to try and steal stuff.. try to trick it.. whatever.. they think they have it all sorted out with their array of motion detection, sensors, camera and more.
This is how fast they move.. 10 stores open by the end of the year, 50 locations in major cities by next year, and then an exponential growth in locations in 2020 and 2021, so long as it doesn’t hit any roadblocks.
Walmart, Target, 7/11 must be terrified!!
Google wants to make it easier to make plans with your friends..
Have you tried organizing dinner with friends?! It's a mission.. everyone in NYC has their preferences, their allergies.. it makes it hard. Google wants to help that by allowing you to use Google Maps to create a shortlist and send it to your friends to poll about where to pick.

Tara Ward takes us through her picks for this week's viewing:
The First: Sean Penn stars in this near-future drama about a crew of astronauts attempting to become the first humans on Mars (Soho & Neon, from 4 October)
Age Before Beauty: from the writer of TV series Poldark, Age Before Beauty is a family drama set around a struggling Manchester beauty salon (Lightbox, 4 October)  
Reality Round-up: as The Block NZ houses go to auction, Married at First Sight NZ kicks off it’s second season and the much anticipated Project Runway NZ begins (The Block NZ, Sunday 7.00pm; MAFS NZ Sunday 8.30pm; Project Runway Monday 7.30pm)

The Herald's Karl Puschmann has been listening to Jungle - a British band who do modern soul/70s funk type stuff. It’s very cool. Their last album (their debut) was nominated for the Mercury Prize and they had a global hit with the single Busy Earnin’.
For Ever is their sophomore album which Karl gives a solid 7/10!

This week Catherine Raynes has been reading:
Now You See Her by Heidi Perks, Penguin $37
Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty, Pan Macmillan $38

This week NZ Herald's Damien Venuto and Jack discuss, amongst other things, the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern guest editing the New Zealand Herald and Mike Hosking is till top of the ratings.

Ruud Kleinpaste runs Jack Tame through the coming gardening festivals around the country.
Auckland Clivia Show – at the Auckland Botanic Gardens on Saturday 6 Oct from 9.00 am to 3.00 pm
We have some fabulous Clivia breeders and some cool new varieties; not just the red or cream flowers, but also striped seed pods – always interesting and tropical-looking plants – shade tolerant!
Rapaura Springs Garden Marlborough – Blenheim and environs Thu 8 – Sun 11 Nov  http://www.gardenmarlborough.co.nz/
Workshops (Annabel Langbein, Lynda Hallinan, Dan Rutherford, RuudK); Chris Woods – UK speaker) lots of options for garden tours – good old “Garden Porn” – visit some fabulous gardens – a garden fete – and heaps of merchandise – Julie will take extra bags for plants!!!
Tauranga Garden and Arts Festival       Thu 15th to Sun 18th November https://gardenandartfestival.co.nz/15-general-content/46-early-bird-ticket-sales
I’m going this year for the first time – mix of open gardens and workshops, speakers and demonstrations. Big boozy lunch with Hon Maggie Barry on Sunday at Mills Reef winery; The festival hub "Bloom in the Bay” is at Tauranga’s Historic Village
Great Barrier SPECTACULAR by NATURE Garden Tours  23-25 November https://greatbarrierislandcommunityhealthtrust.org.nz/fundraising/spectacular-by-nature-garden-tour/
On one of those brilliantly beautiful islands in the Hauraki Gulf. A very special place indeed and so relaxing!
Anniversary dinner on Friday evening, the garden tours to all the quirky and stunningly situated gardens is on Saturday and a Rose Show on Sunday morning – honestly… it’s a treat!
Book ASAP because flights and accommodation might be at a premium
I’m going – no matter what!
New Zealand Flower and Garden Show   28 Nov to 2 December at the Trusts Arena Henderson AKL
https://nzflowergardenshow.co.nz/#carousel_422479232_2256
This really is the re-invented version of the famous Ellerslie Flower Show from earlier this Century.
Probably the biggest Garden event in NZ – large and well-supported
Easy to spend a day (or two) there
 
And then there are the events organized by Mitre 10, up and down the country: Mega night at Whangarei (10 October), “Ladies Night” in Nelson 5 November; always good to pop in!!

Dr Bryn Thompson talks to Jack about cold exposure therapy, new research into placebos and the health risks of flavoured e-cigarettes.