Gardeners’ Queries...

Press, Volume C, Issue 29523, 26 May 1961, Page 8

Gardeners’ Queries...

I have a lawn which is very bad with moss. The lawn gets sun all day. and is not at all damp. It started as a small patch, but has now spread over three-quar-ters of the lawn (Mrs M.T.V., Rakaia.)

Moss is sometimes induced by general poverty of the soil as well as by damp. Make sure that your lawn is receiving adequate fertiliser treatment—the normal 3/1 mix of sulphate of ammonia and superphosphate applied at Joz per square yard each month from now until next September will remedy this fault. As killing treatments the materials Santobrite and lawn sand are both good, preferably combined with raking the moss and cutting afterwards. Lawn sand is best applied in the spring, on a dewy morning which is likely to turn into a drying day. 4 parts of sulphate of ammonia and 1 part of iron sulphate applied at loz to the square yard is a less drastic mixture than 'the commonly recommended 3/1. To be really eifecdive the grass should be slightly scorched—without some scorching you are unlikely to obtain the effect you want.

I have two grape vines in my glasshouse and have had trouble with mealy bug. What is the best material to use and the correct time to spray? I also find grassgrub fairly bad amongst my strawberries. What would he the best way to deal with them? (D.E„- To tar a St.) Two materials may be recommended—either malathion or summer petroleum spray (summer oil). Owing to the insect's dense coat of waxy material it is important that mealy bug colonies be thoroughly wetted to ensure that the insecticides have penetrated to the actual insect. Both materials are' applied during the late spring and early summer Avoid spraying branches of fruit with summer oil—ft will remove the "bloom.” If the Infestation is only a small one it may be quicker to use the brush and methylated spirits method—dabbing individual colonies with meths from a brush. Grass-grub is best controlled with D.D.T. soil dusts. An ounce packet would be more than adequate for the average strawberry plot, and will "proof ft for two or three years