WORK WITH SEEDLINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 224, 21 September 1929, Page 6 (Supplement)

WORK WITH SEEDLINGS.

As soon as seedlings which have been pricked out into boxes and have been stood in frames, greenhouses, etc., have recovered from the move and commence to grow rapidly, they should have plenty of air admitted to them, gently at first, and after a little while they will stand full exposure, when they can be removed from the frames, etc., and stood outside. The more gently this is done the better, as there is less chance of giving the plants a check. Many people raise the seedlings all right and get so far as to prick them out in the boxes, and then fail owing to the fact that they either bring out to full exposure and give the plants a check, which they never get over, or keep them so long in a forcing atmosphere that when they are put out they are drawn and weak. The plants are benefited up to a certain stage by lieat; it assists the seedling to overcome the check of transplantation and to put forth new roots. Once this stage is reached it is better'to treat the plant as natural as possible and in as gradual a manner lis possible, to bring about the change from a forcing to a normal condition. Although plants may not make the same apparent growth in a short time when —own under natural as under fox'ced conditions, yet there is no question about the fact that the naturalgrown plants will, all other things being equal, produce far and away a better crop of flowers, fruit or whatever it may be grown for. This applies without exception to all plants no matter where they may be natives of, and, although some will stand a lower