VEGETABLE CROPS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 24, 23 October 1936, Page 16

VEGETABLE CROPS

Start Thinning Out

Start thinning your rows of vegetable seedlings as soon as the plants are large enough to handle. Steady growth without check is possible only when this routine is strictly'adhered to.

The final distances for the plants should not be reached for several weeks, thus minimising root disturbance and allowing a margin for late losses.

At present early-sown turnips and parsnips have reached the rough leaf stage, and a start should be made on them.

Overcrowding among shorthorn carrots, radishes an’d spinach may call for some easement, although these are never thinned to regulation distances, being pulled as required. Later on, maincrop carrots, beetroot, successional sowings of turnips, endive and so on will demand attention;

As a start thin the crop to leave the plants l-2in. apart. The following week take out alternate plants or groups, and a week or so later reduce them to their final positions. The soil must be moist to enable you to pull out the unwanted seedlings whole and without disturbing the soil. In the majority of cases, the thinnings must be regarded as of no use. They do not bear transplanting. Onion and lettuce seedlings can be transplanted, however, either to fill gaps in the row or to make another row> You must draw them out very carefully, though, with all their roots intact.