New Horticultural Devices

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31499, 13 October 1967, Page 6

New Horticultural Devices

Ways and means of increasing production, improving harvesting techniques and safeguarding crops against pests and disease are under constant study. A repellant has been marketed in England containing organic substances which is repugnant to wild life such as birds and rabbits. The powder is applied as a seed dressing and is reputed to provide protection to the plant until it reaches the twoleaf stage. A further applicaion then will safeguard it until it is well established.

Another substance, a liquid concentrate, is for use on actively growing non-edible plants, on which it has an effect lasting several months. Glasshouse tomato, crops grown under a system known as “prescription growing” have had yields increased by as much as 40 per cent. The technique employed is to maintain critical day and night temperatures in the glasshouse while surrounding outside air is enriched with carbon dioxide. In America a chemical compound has been used successfully to slow down the main trunk growth of apple trees. This has resulted in earlier flowering, quicker fruiting and earlier harvesting. It has also meant less pruning and a smaller tree.

Sprout Harvester From the Netherlahds comes news of a mechanical sprout picking machine which is used to strip one-crop stands of brussels sprouts and can be used to remove the final yield of crops which have been picked over several times. The stem top is pushed through a rotating ring fitted with rubber fingers and between two spring loaded steel rollers that rotate towards each other and grip the stem. The sprouts

are then forced off by the fingers and collected in a forward mounted hopper. The influence of light on plant growth has been a subject for experimentation for a long time and is widely used in forcing plants. Different coloured lights have shown varying influences on their growth. For instance yellow-orange light accelerates seed germination and flowering. Blue light has a tendency to restrict the height while red light causes tall slender growth. Violet light, on the other hand, makes a plant bend.

America has found how to maintain the greenness of grass during the dry summer months. A chemical pigment is used as a spray paint and immediately on application to a browned sward turns the area green. It is claimed to be perfectly safe and harmless to the grass. It is long-lasting and the colour is durable.

Another interesting invention, this time from Britain, concerns asparagus harvesting. The asparagus spears are guided into a picking channel where they come in contact with a cable. This releases a knife at ground level which cuts off the spear. The spear falls on to a moving rubber conveyer belt which carries it to a bin at the back of the machine.