How to Help Vegetables

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22628, 16 January 1937, Page 10 (Supplement)

How to Help Vegetables

MANY garden owners have found thai sudden spells of hot sunshine which have been sandwiched between periods of cold, windy and wet weather have not been altogether benelicial to growing crops/ Most vegetables and salads make the best progress when warmth and moisture come toI 1

Things are not so bad when temperature is moderately cool, and the soil just damp. Growth may be slow, hut it can lie regular, and that is more satisfactory in the end. Jsut when the soil is chilled by excessive rain, with insufficient sunshine to warm it up, roots become inactive. Then cold winds will toughen the stems and foliage, so that plants become stunted and sometimes deformed. When that condition obtains a sudden rise in temperature spurs the plants to make a move, but their hardened skins cannot.expand quickly enough to make a sudden jump without involving Home injury, for these reasons, although we arc all anxious to see the peas, beaus, onions and carrots make greater progress, it is wise to take steps to tone down the heat of the sun when it comes on the crops in sudden spasms. The use of temporary shading has been of great value lately. Some leafy branches stuck in round seed beds have

Combating, Adverse Conditions

t. just, the tempering influence required. Wi.sc indeed arc those who Jinvc utilised their lawn cuttings for Mulching the vegetable quarters; they have made; u vast difference to the wellbeing of young carrots, beetroot* and the rows or peas. Heflvy rains have battered the bare soil, leaving it ready to bake on the first really hot day. The hoe will need to be kept busy to counteract these adverse conditions.