VEGETABLE CROPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20508, 8 March 1930, Page 5 (Supplement)

VEGETABLE CROPS.

SUCCESSIONAL SOWINGS.

Conditions still continue- favourable for most varieties of vegetable crops and where the ground has been -well worked and kept frequently stirred there has been little difficulty in maintaining healthy growth. Peas and beans have continued to give good yields while lettuce, spinach, beets, marrows, and cucumbers continue to give useful crops. Crops sown during the past month continue to make healthy, vigorous

growth. The more rapid the growth of the later sown crops, liQwever, the more care will need to be exercised in thinning the sowings to keep up a succession. Root crops, especially, require care in this respect, for although most lato summer and autumn-sown crops remain longer in a condition of usefulness than during hot dry weather, there is never tho same tenderness and sweetness when fully developed as with crops that have reached a useful stage, though not so fully advanced. Turnips arc usually tho first to mature, as they require to be grown in fairly rich soil and are never so palatable as when quickly grown. They soon become useless when fully matured. To maintain a supply of useful roots a sowing should bo mado about every third or fourth week. Carrots if sown as directed a few weeks ago will now bo making vigorous growth, and another sowing made toward the end of the present month should carry the crop well into the winter. Tho variety Manchester table is one of tho best of the short-rooted varieties for table use. Parsnips take longer to develop their crop, but when well grown_ in deeplyworked ground they remain in a useful condition throughout tho whole winter. PREPARING THE GROUND. BENEFIT OF RAISED BEDS. In preparing the groiind for later sowing particularly for turnips, carrots and parsnips, as well as lettuce, spinachi onions and similar crops, better results will bo attained by forming tho ground into raised beds, more especially if the ground is £ili of & stiff, rstentivc nature. Raised beds, in any case, for autumn and winter crops results in more rapid germination of seed and growth of crops than sown upon the level ground. _ The planting out of cabbage, cauliflower and other colworts should bo proceeded .with as soon as reasonable healthy plants aro obtainable, while plants already established should bo given occasional sprinklings of nitrate of soda, or sulphate of ammonia along the rows just before rain, with a light stirring of tho soil. The former can bo applied at tho rate of 21b. to 31b. to each 40 square yards, and tho latter lglb. to 2!b. according to the strength of the plants. Tho more rapidly these plants ijre grown tho less subject they aro to attacks of aphis pests. Occasional spraying in any case assists greatly iu keeping these pests under control.