HINTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8, 10 January 1902, Page 3

HINTS.

Coleus propagated at this time form useful decorative plants for late autumn, and for wintering to produce spring cuttings.

Liquid Manure for Greenhouse Plants.—Horse droppings make a good liquid manure, one peck to 20 gallons of water; and lib of g-uano, or one peck of fresh cow dung to the same quantity of water in each case, are also good liquid manures for softwooded greenhouse plants.

Spring-sown Onions, which are bulbing freely, will be found to ripen their bulbs more uniformly together if the stronger necked ones are now bent down, so that the tubular leaves lie upon the ground. In the case of very stiff necked ones, it will be necessary to give each a twist with the hand, else they are likely to break. Where the crop is bulbing uniformly kindly, but the majority of leaves are upstanding, bulbing will be accelerated and the sizes of the bulbs increased by forcing the leaves down more quickly with a long rod.

Ripening Grapes.—Muscats always take longer to ripen than Hamburghs, etc., when grown in the same house. The roots, being inside, require root waterings fortnightly or so, according to depth of border, drainage, etc., up to the time they begin colouring. Giving moderate amounts of fresh air at the upper apertures by night is the best aid to colouring, but it must be in accordance with the rise or fall of the natural temperature without, though the thermometer may be allowed to fall to 60 degrees; but shut the house up early in the morning to raise the temperature 5 or 10 degrees for the day heat.

Lawns suffer greatly from the drought, and small ones in front town gardens are conspicuous when brown of colour. Surface sprinklings prove of very little use, hence to retrieve and maintain greenness the ground below low down has to be well saturated once for all. This done, a sufficient amount of moisture will exist to insure that a latent moisture will be held and diffused considerably, pending the revival of the grass, the formation of fresh roots, and their maintenance in growth for some time. We do not advocate the use of pedestal distributors maintained in one position for hours, which causes injury to the smaller grasses, but a prompt and thorough soaking of some depth. If the drought continues, mowing machines should have their knives set higher, so that they do not cut the grass so close to the ground. Ridge Cucumbers and Vegetable Marrows, though they made but slow progress, owing to the cold temperature experienced, are now growing freely. Still they require every attention to get them to fruit as'soon as possible. Some, owing to the, check they received, have already shown female flowers within four or five leaves of their base; these and all male blooms are best pinched off nntil the plants have made more growth, and so established themselves at the root as to be capable of bearing consecutively once they commence. Stir the soil around their base and, if the crops are valued, place a mulching of good loam and rotten manure over the roots. Manurial waterings greatly assist the latter once they start growing freely. These may be made by placing a bag of animal tlropping-s in a tub of water, subsequently applying the clearer liquid, or where such things are not readily 'procurable half an ounce of sulphate of ammonia may be stirred up in each gallon of water.

Early Celery.—Proceed with moulding up periodically, a-s the forwardness and strength of rows permit. If, owing to the backwardness of any, it is desirable to dig before February is out, considerable mouldings have to be made at one and the same time, it will be well, before the work proceeds too far, to tie the leaves of each plant in place with flax.

Celery should be moulded a little at a time in preference to packing a heavy weight! of s_d_ against the rows at one time. By the former practice the sticks become inured to the operation, whereas, .by the latter, they are liable to receive a check, to say nothing of the fact that large quantities of soil hurriedly packed against them at the time cause the sticks to become crooked. Even if not so injured the mass sets about them and presses them unduly. The work, properly conducted, shouldl be so advanced as to get all fairly moulded by the middle of next month, at which time it may rest awhile if the weather is favourable, pending ; finishing the mounds ion 3, and so smooth the surfaces of the mounds as to insure their throwing off heavy rain waters. Late rows trim up and give them a preliminary moulding. Ilmpregnating) ' Melon Flowers.— The female flowers have the fruit directly under the flowers, whilst the male flowers are simply like female flowers without the fruit below. Impregnation is effected by taking the male flower when fully expanded by its stalk, and, whilst holding the stalk between the finger and thumb, removing the corolla, then placing the central part so as to touch the

centre of the female flower; thus! ! some of the pollen is placed en the stigma of the female. The anther of the male, or the flower denuded of its corolla, may be left in the female flower. This should be repeated on all the flowers, selecting a fine clear day when there are several flowers open, so as to secure simultaneous setting with the requisite number —three or four fruits—to each plant. It is not necessary to impregnate the flowers of cucumbers unless seed be needed, then impregnate the flowers in the same way as those of melons. Cucumbers require to have more moisture thaimelons, and the soil should be lighter. Melons require a strong loam made firm. When setting, the atmosphere for melons should be dry, also when ripening.