PESTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 27, 1 February 1930, Page 6 (Supplement)

PESTS.

The past few weeks las proved to the 'average • gardener that we are a long way-off solving the problem of ; growing plants free .from disease, particularly fungoid diseases. In spite of spraying and other forms of attack, they various rusts, rots,' black legs and spots have gone on flourishing. The weather has in a measure been the cause, but where does our efforts at spraying come in. We have to take the weather, like the kids take castor oil and if spraying is only effective when the" weather 4s reasonable, or seasonable) then we are but wasting time and material. The fact of the matter is we usually start spraying, at the only a preventive, when we should be burning the crop. "Clean" seed, and by that I mean seed saved from plants as nearly as possible free of disease and selected for that reason as seed bearing plants, is the first essential. The amateur as a rule is so keen to get seed from the largest fruit or biggest flower that he overlooks a little weakness in the way of disease. It is hard to have to, pull up and discard a promising plant simply because it is a little diseased but it is really the first,essential of the successful hybridist. So far the treatment of seed prior 'to sowing has not received a great deal of attention .but experiments with a solution of mercurial chloride, or corrosive sublimate as it is called, goes to show that .there are hopes in this direction. The., treatment of the soil prior to sowing is also worth considering. Another important method of garden sanitation, and one often neglected, is the immediate destruction of all rubbish, especially portions of diseased plants, including weeds, for it must be remembered that many of the diseases find a rest home on some of the common weeds. The rubbish heap should be banished from the garden and all waste either buried or burned. If humus is required it can be more cleanly applied by sowing a quickly growing crop and digging it in. The spraying of plants that are known to be liable to disease should be begun almost as soon as the plants are through the ground. Spraying in the early stages of a. plant's life will often carry it through, where later sprayings are noneffective. No doubt a season such as the present catches many of us "trusting to luck" and in a normal season • we should get through with it. With all the advance in science, the chief points in successful gardening are clean seed, clean soil and clean ground and although various insecticides and fungicides may .'Jie means to the" end, they cannot equal'or replace cleanliness.