WHY SEEDS FAIL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1847, 31 July 1907, Page 65

WHY SEEDS FAIL.

Vegetables of good quality cannot be grown without first sowing genuine seeds. It is exceedingly annoying, after preparing, sowing and cultivating, to find that instead of' having spent time and money profitably, you have lost heavily in. obtaining a spurious article. When purchasing be satisfied that those from whom you obtain supplies are reliable, and expect to pay a fair price for what you obtain. There are plenty of cheap and worthless seeds, as well as any other article in the market, and it would always be advisable to guard against them. Some cultivators, through foi got fulness of the fact that .the products of a garden, being natives of various soils and climates, require peculiar management, sow tlie seeds in the ground at improper seasons. The early and most hardy species and varieties should not be planted until the ground can be brought into good condition, as some species of plants, that in an advanced stage of growth will stand a hard winter, are often cut off by a very slight frost Avliile young, especially if exposed to the sun after a frosty night. Some seeds, such as those of beans, cabbage, lettuce, radish, turnip, etc., being from their nature .apt to vegetate quickly, are often destroyed wliilo germinating through variableness of the weather; others are liable to be devoured by insects is forty-eight hours after being soivn, and before a plant is seen above the ground, unless a suitable remedy is applied in time to destroy, the vermin. Other species, such as beet, carrots, celery, leek, onion, parsley, parsnip, spinach, etc., being naturally of tardy growth, take (in favourable sea-' sens) from two to three or four weeks to vegetate, are apt to perish through incrustation of the soil, or other uncoward and unaccountab'e circumstances which cannot always be controlled. Failmos often occur through seeds being deposited too deeply in the ground, or left fto neat- the "surface. Sometimes for tho want of a proper quantity .of seed in a given spot solitary plants will perish through not having sufficient strength to open the pores of tho earth, and very frequently injudicious management in over manuring and improperly" preparing the soil causes defeat. Other failures of success.- are, for instance,, tho shooting or prematurely going to seed of certain vegetables, as! lettuce, endive, kale, etc. The reason in most cases is to be found in sowing too thickly, and to leaving the plants which are to be transplanted too long in the seed bed, or in thinking them out too late if they are to be left on the spot; often also in checking the growth by keeping too dry, or through ravagejs of insects, and frequently by a,spell of hot weather early in the spring, which forces up the growth instead of swelling the heart. In some sowings of seed made during dry weather, with a drought following, a total failure often occurs fiora neglecting to fiunly press or roll, in the seeds, so that when they germinate the action of the heat and drought may- not affect tlie tender germ. This noint is specially applicable to the cabbage tribe. Never .tread or roll in the seeds when the -ground is wet or sticky. The seedsman's fair reputation is often unjustly defamed, through the failure of seeds, when the fault 'is to be attributed entirely to one or other of the above causes.