TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

J.P.. (Auckland) writes: I had .i wonderful showing of sweet peas tliis season. They have caused a lot of work In the shape of tying back mid reselling thorn from the effect of the continuous south-west willed, lint ill spite of tills (hey have been very much admired. Home £0 or more shades of colour were all intermixed. I am advised when Unified with lo cut off the vines and leave I lie roots, and they will (m>lllo up as slronj: as over next season. Is tliis a good method. To me it seems a lazy way of gardening. I know it is practised Willi searlet runner* and results seem all right!—So far as my experience has licen the cutting down of the sweet pea plants with the ■•xi tation of a second crop is quite a failure. ]t is seldom that the plants even make a shoot. The sweet pea is.au annual and once seed has matured that is the end of the life cycle. Tile scarlet runner bean is a tuberous-rooted perennial and n.uite different from the sweet pea. NECTAItINM (I'apatoetoe) writes: I have a nectarine tree covered with fruit and f fill me the cjiusc iind rcniodv 'Xlic tree loots healthy?— Due to peae'h scab. It can be controlled by applying limesulphur 1-U'O about three weeks after petals have fallen and two further sprayings at three-week intervals. J.A..T. (Ilemuera) writes: I have lost about ten (lozeu aster plants, which seem to go black In tho sterns from Hie ground up and then thev die off. The same Ihing has occurred with Guinea (Jold marigolds and a bed of antirrhinums. Could you toll me what It is and what is the best thins to do to the ground or in treating young plants?—lt is a bacterial disease which attacks asters and known as aster wilt, and tho antirrhinums as stem rot. Actually there Is Mule if any difference between them, but the control measures are the same. The disease Is in the soil and I should recommend vnu to dress the soil with horticultural napthalenc. This should be applied at the rate of lox per square yard at the time of digging so as to incorporate it with the *oil. It would also be advisable to water the area where the plants have gone off with a solution of disinfectant, one part to 100 parts waler, immediately the infection is noticed and before disturbing the soil. The infected plants should l>e pulled up and burnt, not put on a rubbish lieap to spread the disease. DAPHNE (Kllerslle) asks: Could yon tell me what is wrong with my daphne. Tim tree is two lo three years old, but this last yenr lost all its liowcrs and became covered will, while grub. What could I use to counteract this!— Due to mealy bus. Spray with a white oil spray. This Is obtainable at most seed warehouses and should be used according to directions on container, which is usually 1-SO. The spray llni.l only needs water adding. Watch carefully and if insects appear give another spraying. .T.S.I:, writes: My tomato leaves are covered with a. white mould. What is the directed with leaf mould. Ciadnsporium fulvum. Control measures against this disease include: (1) The provision of adequate ventilation in the house and free circulation of air between the plants by the judicious thinning of the leaves ; spheric'humidity; (3) the dusting ot the foliage with (lowers of sulphur: and (4) the periodic fumigation o£ the house with sulphur vapour. STURDEE writes: Please identifj enclosed.—(l) Orabanchee; (2) .Martcnsla; (3) cannot say.