HINTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 276, 27 November 1897, Page 3 (Supplement)

HINTS.

Plant out cabbages, celery, a few cauliflowers in cool districts, egg plant, leek, lettuce on very rich ground, okra, capsicum, or chili, and tomato. Sow largely seed of French beans, red and silver beet, cucumber-, egg plants, melons, pumpkins, vegetable marrow, squash, sweet maize, and tomatoes. Sow a little seed of cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celery, mustard and cress, endive, leek, lettuce, onion, parsley, parsnip, radish, rhubarb, sea kale, swede and white turnip.

The summer pruning of trained trees is a subject evidently not generally mastered by amateurs. To each place where it receives attention there are a dozen where neglected. Yet it stands to reason, if dwarf-trained trees are to be kept in bounds and in order by corrective primings, summer pruning-, the least violent form, is the best. There is little excuse for this. If any amateur grower advances the assertion that he 'understands winter but not summer pruning,' we would suggest to him now, at this late date, to do the winter pruning now instead of,later. By this means he will check root action and induce some additional fruit buds to form. Whereas, if he cuts his trees in the winter, he prepares the way for strong wood shoots only to form, in spring, and grow throughoiit the following summer — an absolute waste of energy forced on by injudicious treatment year by year.

In many gardens the apples and pears should now be sprayed with the Paris g-reen mixture for codlin moth, that is if the fruit is well formed. In mixing Paris g-reen with the whole of the water, use a little of the water first and mix up as you would mustard, and then add this to the full quantity of water and thoroughly stir up. If only a small quantity of mixture is needed take an ounce of the Paris green and mix this up in a little more than a gallon of water. Do not forget to keep the solution well stirred up as you apply the spray. Tie bandages round the fruit tree stems and examine these later on.

The sweet potato is well worth the growing, for it makes a good change from the common kinds of vegetables. The best way to manage is to plant some tubers in a warm spot in the g-arden and encourage them to make quick and good growth by enriching the soil with plenty of good stable or farmyard manure. When the vines have attained some growth take cuttings and plant them where they are likely to strike root soon. This they will readily do if kept sufficiently moist and warm. When the cuttings are well rooted plant out in rows about a foot, or sow apart in the rows, and rows 3ft apart. It is the custom for some gardeners to use glass frames for starting the tubers into growth and striking the cuttings. A frame made of unbleached calico will answer the purpose quite as well.

Grape Vines.—Vines now growing freely in various stages, according to the dates when started into growth, require very frequent attention. In moderately early structures the berries will require thinning. Cut them away freely so that each berry retained stands qiiite clear. Retain all the upper ones upon the shoulders, cutting away the underneath and centralones only ;also retain the lowest berry on each bunch and sufficient above it to insure a wellfurnished extremity. Late houses, where little if any artificial heat has been given, have the young vine shoots grown long.enough to require final thinning of the shoots. Choose the strongest, best placed, showing the best racemes of flower, and break all minor ones ofE at their base, excepting on such rare occasions as a weak shoot only exists on any spur, which must be retained for the due furnishing of leaves and formation of a fruiting lateral for next year. All laterals thus retained pinch back. Those bearing flowers at one leaf beyond the flowers and such as are flowerless stop at about the fourth leaf. Do not crop or over-crop very young vines. Any vines which do not fruit well take care to thin out well, so that the shoots retained can grow strong-er. Dense growth, a synonym of weak shoots, is generally the main cause of unfruitfulness.

To encourage present vigorous growth with large leaves frequently throw water over the floor of the house, especially during hot,_ sunny weather and afternoons. This may seem a simple matter, but it has an important bearing on the growth and good cropping capacities of these fruit vines. Vines when in flower it is not customary to syringe. It is, in fact, important not to do so as regards all varieties except Black Hamburgh, which generally sets its fruit well under varying conditions. Some growers never do syringe their vine foliage, and with good results, though, on the whole, we prefer to imitate nature to a reasonable extent in this matter.