STORING OF FRUIT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21716, 3 February 1934, Page 8 (Supplement)

STORING OF FRUIT

APPLES AND PEARS Careful storage is necessary to preserve the mid-season and late-keeping apples and pears in sound condition throughout their normal season. Many varieties are not sufficiently ripe to eat when gathered from the tree and must be stored, sometimes for mouths, before reaching maturity and the best condition for use. Early varieties, on the other hand, become ripe so soon after picking that little can be done by way of storage to keep them. It is important to remember that, however ideal the storage conditions provided, if apples or pears are kept long past their normal season there is certain to be considerable wastage. PREPARATION OF FRUIT The preparation of fruits for careful storage ought to start during the growing season, for essential conditions of successful storage are that the fruit should be sound and free from damage or blemish by pests or disease. A frostproof outhouse or shed, or a roomy cupboard, can be adapted to storage successfully providing certain precautions are taken. The essentials are that the store-place shall be clean, wholesome, frost-proof or nearly so, well ventilated and darkened. If the atmosphere is too dry and the temperature uneven the fruit shrivels and deterioratss in quality. Excessive dryness is usually the most serious fault in improvised fruit stores and is responsible for much of the shrivelling experienced. All stored fruits should be inspected frequently. If storage room is limited, late-keeping cooking apples and hard-skinned dessert varieties can be kept in a clamp or pit out-of-doors; this is prepared in the same way as for potatoes. The site for tho clamp should be level and well drained, free from the drip of overhanging trees. The apples should be heaped on a good thickness of clean straw or fern. ANOTHER LAYER OF STRAW On top of the apples another layer of atraw is placed and the fruit is left to " sweat " for ten days or so. When the fruits have dried the straw is covered with a coating of fine dry soil some 6in. deep and the sides of the clamp well sloped to carry off rain. Wisps of straw or small drain pipes must be left along the ridge of the coating of soil to act as ventilators. Finally, a small trench "is dug around the foot to carry off surplus Late-keeping apples may also be wrapped in tissue paper, packed in wooden boxes, nailed down, and then buried to a depth of 6in. underground. PLANNING FOR FUTURE WORK IN FEBRUARY In February flowers, fruits and vegetables are in such quantities in the garden, that on? is apt to forget the necessity of work and plans for future supplies. That way, however, lies disappointments to come, since there is plenty of work and future planning for tho enthusiastic gardener. Much can be done to prolong the display of blooms by devoting a short time each day to the removal of withered flowers and any seed heads which have formed. Vegetables benefit also by the regular removal of pods, especially with dwarf and runner beans. Tomatoes, cucumbers and marrows also demand nourishment. Farly bulb planting will claim attention, and the propagation of bedding plants for use next season, such as geraniums, heliotropes, etc. The sowing of annuals to replace those doing duty in the beds at present, will need to be soon taken in hand. Where sheltered sunny borders are available sowings of hardy annuals will give a quantity of bloom in late winter and early spring. RAMBLER ROSES BEST TIME TO PRUNE P The pruning of rambler roses is best undertaken a§ soon as the blossoms have faded, as the best flowers are borne on shoots or branches which grew during the previous season. Pruning is often deferred until autumn or even winter. If the work is done as soon as the flower display is over, the new slnots will be fully exposed to air and sunshine and will mature accordingly. It is usual to cut back to where a promising young shoot has already commenced to grow. If the primer remembers that his purpose is to encourage tho development of strong, young shoots which will flower the next season, and to cut out the old ones to make room for them, he will not go far wrong. Weeping standard roses, which generally consist of rambler roses, budded on tall stocks, can bo treated in the same way. When the blanches have carried flowers they may be cut away to make room for the young growths. Climbing roses of the larger types do not need treating so drastically, but a certain amount of thinning is always desirable. MAGNIFICENT ORCHID A magnificent orchid has been shown at many English flower shows. Its correct name is Odontoglossum Grande, and it has become known among plant enthusiasts as " the orchid grown on a slag-heap," because its owner had his greenhouses built on what was the waste heap of u colliery. Mr. J. MaeCartney, a Bolton business m,an is the owner of this wonderful plant, which lias more than 80 flowers. It has won 15 first prizes in eight years, and it was the prize exhibit, at the great Southport flower show. It is claimed of the slagheap orchid that it is the biggest orchid plant ever shown. Mr. MacC'artney has between four and live thousand orchids at Bolton.