Gardening Notes

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 25, 13 November 1930, Page 9

Gardening Notes

POTTING PLANTS,

As tilic- tim-a for potting and repixtting pkmts is drawing near, a few .rcjuarks on the subject may not be out of place,--especially those who foci uncurtain which -way to proceed so as to g;«a success in the future. 1 don't intend to treat any- special line of pot plaats, nor do 1 put down any hard and fast rule; therefore; I will generalise my remarks. The first to take into consideration is the soil for spotting. We hear different opinions as to soils used and which is bewildering to- many gaxdeaors and mystifies those; .they attempt tv teweb. We hear and head of all insuaer of exciting'composts such as "■waxuo, night-soil, bullock's blood, offial of ifche slaughter house, and various other not very nice materials, but all this resolves itself into the single fact that all animal,, matter as well as animal dung enriches the ground, bonedust, shavings; of horn and hoof among" •the Test. But tii'ere- is an uneewfcainty about the strength of all these materials., which, renders thorn unsuited 'for (lG&ca:te and valuaible plants, although, for farming operation and coarse veget«atbLo growing, they are valuable. -V' collection of pot plants cannot,ibe played with, and their existence -would be placed in jeopardy by exciting composts of •which, the strength, is not easily ascertained. Our amateur^ cultivators are disheantened as suoh. coimbiniations are ( to them (perfectly impraetieaible. The .private gardener, r perhaj)s, falls back on ius employer, and ascribes the unhealthy 'coaftfitioa. of his plants'.'to the effect of his not ibeing able to procure such and sraoh a soil, -which he says, is necessary for some special class of plants and excuses his failures thereby. Tfce young florist, beginning "business, in some country town, with, restricted ■wi^wy^ and with, limited knowledge. a£ wbait he is undertaking, looks upon 'his aqgost authority in despair, and his heart sinks within him when he knows ttifct iio silver sand is within a hundred mules of him, and 2ie is told, without qualification, that it is necessary for Ms juaspagaiting tench or as an ingredient in. his potting soil. He Begins without 'it, iand as he will possibly make some rfiailudes, these failures are laid at the

door of tin? soil or sand that he has

fa&en obliged to use while the chances A are" twenty to one that they were not. vWe fcaye we may say, one big heap of tuirfs from, a loamy pasture 'three incites or less in thickness, they.are cut during spring or summer, and laid, with grassy sides together, so as. :ta decompose, and the heap is repeatedly turned (Until 'it 'becomes friaible. A heap of leaft mould one year old if possible. I£ (the latter is not obtainable thoroughly rotted "horse or cow manure will do nearly as "well. JVlix these together -ha.lriTig two iparts of loam to one part of leaf mould or decayed manure. If *3ie loam is clayey use one part of silver ox river sand if obtainable, if.-not some clean road grit,, will do. A load ; hand for special •purpose. For small ar two of turfy peat can; -be kept at spots two to four inches, run it t&rough a sieve of half-inch meshes, wihieh thof<mghly incorporates the parts; for Jaurge pots it is not necessary <ib\ run it through a, sieve. The first operation of spotting is when the rooted cuttings aTe transferrod from the propagating pot vor (boxes to the pot. Almost without exception, plants of every variety,; sat this stage siould be placed in a threeinch pot, occasionally some of the coarser growing plants may require the f ourinefa. size, from the fact of the roots ibeing too 3&Tge for the three-inch; Taivt Utasre are. few exceptions of this kind Another point of importance, and one top, often neglected, is to pot off the cutiings at .once when rooted, no matter how small the roots may "bej half an is a much better length for them to be wihen potted than two inches, and the operation is much more quickly performed when the roots are short than when long. But the main evils of delaying the potting off of cuttings are, -that when left — long, the cuttings up weak for want of room; the soots which become iard and woody, d« not strike fre«ly into tlie soil, greater care is required in. shading and waering after potting and the plant usually loses Jts lower leaves, weakening hte vitality and subjecting it to a great- . -er «Aance of •disease. On the other itand, care must be taken not to pot

off too soon, as when the roots are only (Commencing to form, the young plants are o^jten seriously checked by shifting. ! After repotting, as a rule, both with old and young plants,. wateT should not be given too freely umtil growth, becomes vigorous. Tho great mass ,of plants, 'when in tho condition of rooted cut- | 'tings, do much better in the snv size for the reason that the smaller vmass of soil in the three-inch, pot aldows the moistiire >to pass off quicker .and tHereiby .prevents the soil from ibecomiiig sour or sodden, which would be 'the case more or less if t£te cutting had ibeen over-patted in a four, or five-inch pot. The operation of potting cuttings is very simple; always use clean washed, pots as this is of the greatest im-' ponancc; and which, can be dono on rainy days or other times if not too (busy, so to be ready when wanted. Now, the instruction on the potting of plants is the necessity of draining pots Un the operation of shifting or potting 'plants. This draining process is performed in various ways, according to the school in which the operator has been trained; one simply places a piece of potsherd, or crock, over the hole in the bottom of the pot; another goes at it more elaborately, placing large pieces below, amd grating off with finer ones, to the heights of two or three - incitesi; another find great virtue in c2iarcoal as a drainage used in the same way, another knows 'that oyster-shells for that purpose cannot be excelled, and practices accordingly. But I maintain it is only necessary in potting cuttings or pot plants to place something over the hole in the bottom of the jt; not if or tho purpose, of drainage, .but to prevent the soil from shaking out. The hole may bey covered with a bit of broken pot, an oysfter-skell, chip or whatever is at hand. Now, many years of practice in the growing of plants without the use of much crocks, charcoal, or any other substitute "has led me to be-lieve-that the system is > utterly wrong* in theory and perfectly useless in.practice, and very muck time is taken up in preparing pots for potting. It is" wrong in theory, for I content that the escape of moisture ot draining 'from the flower pots .takes place in a very slight degree from, tiae bottom,.'taut almost entirely from the porous sides of the flower pot. ' Every gardenr know? How quickly the soil geite sour in. a glazed,'a dirty, or a hard iburned pot; let him drain ox crock it as *h.e will, and that yellow leaves and a sickly growth, quietly folloiw. J£ tib.Q plaßit is too far gone, removal fxom. the glazed pot to one of proper texture will quickly resuscitate, even if the draining or crocking is dispensed with. "Whenever j I wisih. to resuscitate an , unhealthy plant, I wash, tlie soil from the roots amd pot in a new pot where the drainage is perfect from, its porous sides. What better evidence can be given than this universally known fact that the theory of the operation is wrong? Whesther •this sufficiently proves the theory of tiie operation to 'be wrong may be questioned by some, brut that iSoue system is useless, in our practice, cannot very weil.be questioned. Now, if the. theory is correct that the plant drains from the sides, and not. too much from /the bottom of the pot, the variety of planter has nothing to do with the master, and for that,reason it makes no difference what is jt&e size or wlhat the kind of plant growri> he it six inches or six feet, be it a geranium or an orchid. It is well known that nearly all the larger establishments throughout the old continent have abandoned this useless practice. It may seem, the righit thing when growing large plants such as camellias, cypresses, palms, etc., in boxes or tubs; but in stack eases, .it&ere is not much chance for admission, of air or evaporation from the sides, especially if they are painted, and to compensate for this the box or tufo is usually filled with potsherds or charcoal to onethird its depth, and, again, perhaps when pots too large for the size of the plant are tised, drainage to one-third tke depth, is employed to counteract the injury that? would be done by too great a mass of soil around the roots. Oiie great bar to changes is the easymaxim that we are all apt to hold: "Let well enough alone." This, perhaps, is what makes thousands excuse themselves for what I think is an utterly Bseless practice in this case. Throwing a kandful. of potsherds, into the brium of a pot wiU certainly not injvr*- the growth of the plant, neither would a sovereign/but neither woTild

Ido any good; the sovereign would have bought something and so would the labour thrown away in this useless

operation

Now, as to the modus operandi of j»ofcting cuttings, the pot is iilled, to the level with, soil, a space made with, the finger in the centre of the soil of sufficient size to admit the root, which, is placer in the opening thus made; the soil is closed in again by pressing with the thumibs, close' to the neck of the" Glutting, which firms the soil around the root; a smart rap is struck the side of pat with the hand, which levels the surface of the soil, and the operation is done. The time to shift a plant from a smaller to a larger pot is shown toy the roots beginning to mat around outer surface "-of tsh© ball. It is not

necessary to shiftt when the first ■'root touci.es the side of the pet; let them curl pretty well around the ball, tout they must' not ibe allowed to remain long enough to become haTd or 'woody.

In most cases the slightest tap <on the edge of the pot is sufficient to turn out the ball of earth. Soil in depth, according -to the size of the plant should be placed in the bottom of the. pot, the 'ball placed in tthe centre, and the soil packed moderately firm, in the space, either by the finger or by a piece of stick made of suitable size for the purpose.. The; soil should fee so dry as nevtn* tostiek to the fingers but by no means quite dry.

When a plant shows by the condition of its roots that it requires a supply of fresh, soil for its support, instead of shifting it into a large pot, it is taken out and tike soil 'wasted clean from the roots, and either placed back again in the same pot, in fresh soil or in one of a single size larger. This washing th« soil from the roots instead of shaMiug it off, has the advantage of leaving all the fibres or working roots intact, while by shaking the soil off the ball, thei most valuable pants of tie roots are injured. Plants tims grown are particularly valsaible for distant shipment,' as a strong-xooted and vigorous plant is obtained without the necessity of shipping a heavy weight of soil.

♦'He knew what's what." —Skelton,

At least that's what Smith said of the friend who recommended) Baxter's Lung Preserver for coughs and colds. And there is no doubt about it that this fine old specific is marvellously soothing. Gives instant relief.

"Baxter's" also possesses unique

tonic properties which, tone up the systeam against .-further attacks. Now obtainable with a screw cap which preserves the contents. All chemists and stores —economical family size, 4/6; medium size 2/6; small size 1/6. .