GARDEN & ORCHARD

Otago Witness, Issue 3520, 30 August 1921, Page 7

GARDEN & ORCHARD

By

D. Tan nock.

WORK FOR THE WEEK. GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY. Continue the raising of summer bedding plants and harden off those well established in their boxes by placing them out in the frames, opening the sashes a little on fine days and gradually accustoming them to open air conditions. Prune back bouvardias, fuchsias, and geraniums which have become leggy, and keep them a little drier at the roots, but spray them regularly to assist the breaking away of the dormant buds. Complete the propagating of chrysanthemums for potting up and put in the cuttings of the summer flowering kinds. Syringe the vines regularly when they commence to grow. As soon as the young shoots appear near the tops of the rods they can be tied up. The early vineries can be tied down whenever the growths are sufficiently long, and all but the strongest and best placed shoots rubbed out. Cucumbers are well worth growing, but as they require a considerable amount of artificial heat, then cannot be grown satisfactorily except in a low pit heated by hotwater pipes or in a frame placed on top of a good deep hot-bed. They require good rich turfy soil, which sould be chopped up roughly and a liberal mixture of well-rotted manure and leaf mould, with a litle sand and bone meal —two parts loam, one leaf mould, one stable manure, half part sand, and a liberal dusting of bone meal. To encourage rapid growth the soil is not made very firm, and room is left for top-dressings later on. The seeds are either sown where they are to grow or they are sown singly in small pots and planted out when they show the rough leaves. The temperature is most important. It should average 6-Odeg. Fahr by night and rise to 80deg. Fahr. by day, though the temperature might rise to 95deg. without any damage being done, provided the ventilators are opened a little. Air has to be given with great care, and draughts avoided at all times. When the shoots show four or five rough leaves the _ tips should be pinched out to cause branching, and when the new shoots which spring from the axils of the leaves are about 13in long their points should be again pinched to cause further branching. They have to be regulated to allow room for all the leaves, and when the fruit has formed the shoots can be pinched two leaves beyond each. When the vines have become exhausted they can be cut out and young shoots laid in to take their place, and a moist growing atmosphere has to be maintained by constant syringeing of the foliage and damping the floors and benches. As soon as the roots appear on the surface top-dressings of good rich soil should be given, and regular applications of liquid manure once a week will be appreciated by the plants. Y\ hen they are grown in frames the soil can be placed m heaps on top of the hot-bed, and the vines, when pinched and treated as already recommended, will be spread all over it. Water must be given freely during dry weather, and once a rnenth half an ounce of sulphate of iron dissolved in two gallons of water will considerably help the plants. The varieties recommended for both house and frame cultivation are Sutton’s King George, Tender and True, and Rallinscn’s .Telegraph. The more hardy ridge kinds, which can be grown without heat, are Long Athens. Stockwood Ridge, and Long Prickly. The' cultivation of melons is very similar to that of cucumbers, except that a heavier soil mixture, free from manure, and a drier atmosphere are necessary. lhe treatment up to the second stopping is the same as for cucumbers, and the lateral growths induced by the second stopping should show fruit at the second or third leaf. When several female blossoms are expanded at the same time they should be fertilised with pollen from the male blooms, which can be transferred from the one to the other by means of a camel’s hair brush, or the male flowers can be stripped of their corollas and brushed against the stigmas of the female ones. This operation should be carried out at midday on a bright, warm day, the atmosphere being kept fairly dry at the time. After the fruit has set. stop all the growths one leaf beyond the fruit, and keep all useless growths thinned out so that the principal leaves will receive the maximum amount of light and air. During the growing season they will require plenty of water with regular spraying; ventilation has to be given with great judgment, and a temperature similar to that recommended for the cucumbers lia s to be maintained. When the fruit approaches the ripening stage less water will be required at the roots and spraying should Ire discontinued. By getting the plants on early it is quite possible to get two crop? of fruit from the same house in one season, the second crop being grown on in pots ready to plant out as soon as the first is ripened. Varieties recommended are Sutton’s Scarlet, Hero of Loclcinge. and Blenheim Orange. Melons can also be grown in frames placed on a hotbed in a similar wav to cucumbers. THE FLOW Kit GARDEN. Violas and pansies are great favourites in all gradens, and whore the summer is at ail moist they should be extensively planted. In Scotland they grow to perfection, and are used in many flower garden scheme's, but in New Zealand the summers and autumns are rather too hot and dry as a rule, and they are most successful when planted as an undergrowth for roses, choice shrubs, or standard geraniums or fuchsias. With us thev are grown as edgings and carpets for the rose beds and borders, and they are most useful; they keep the soil cool under the hush©? and. if planted early provide a display between the two crops of rose blooms. Almost- as soon as ibe dieting of the rose beds is completed the soil should be broken down fine with file fork and the rake, ar.,l the violas and pansies which were raised from cuttings pul in last autumn should be planted out. The plaid.; are lifted with as good a ball of soil as possible, and enrefi.dK- planted out at a distance of a foot apart. As a rule it is better to plant the pansies and the mixed violas among the mivrd loses, and to keep the self colours for the beds of one variety, placing the yellows, white, and light blues or lavender; nmn; ■ the da,rk OoTotired roses and the dark blue- among the light coloured and pink varieties.

The type and the many varieties of viola groceils are suitable for planting in the small beds round standards, and Viola cornuta and its many varieties are also suitable. When violas and pansies have not been raised from cuttings, new plants can be obtained by cutting off all the flowering shoots and dividing up the young growths which arise at their base. This, of course, means a bigger check than planting out rooted cuttings, and a delay in coming into flower, which might cause them to miss the importajit period after the first crop of flowers is over. Continue to divide up and _ replant the herbaceous plants, digging in a liberal supply of stable manure as the operation proceeds; keep the beds and borders in which bulbs are growing edged and f ree from weeds; and scuffle-hoe the shrubbery borders when the weather is dry and sunny. It is important to check the growth ot weeds early in the spring. A little extra attention given to hoeing and digging then will save a lot of trouble later on. Keep the rock garden neat ana tidy, watch for slugs, and water should tae weather be dry, for if starved now, premature flowering is likely to take place and the flowering season of many varieties will be shortened. _ , THE VEGETABLE GARDEN AND ORCHARD. Complete the pruning of peaches, nectarines, and apricots as soon as growth is sufficiently far advanced to enab.e theflowei buds to be distinguished from, the shoot ones, and as they all bear their fruit on the young wood, an effort has to ne made to keep the trees young. As I nave irenuently explained the motnod ot pruning' those trees in detail, I will only give general directions now. As usual, all old wood has to be cut out, all blight-affected shoots removed, some of the older branches cut right out to make room for young ones, and the young twigs reduced to a reasonable number. Apricots bear their fruit on small, twiggy shoots, which arise on the old wood as well as on the young wood, and this has to be considered. After pruning comes spraying, and it is now considered good gardening practice to spray all fruit trees and bushes, whether they appear to require it or not. There is no doubt that spraying is carried to excess by many, and that it is expected to correct ills which are the result of Ibck of drainage, unsuitable soils and situations, and wrong varieties. Blight are always worse on weak, unhealthy trees, and it is often better to uproot and burn them than to keep on spraying. Winter or early spring is the most suitable time for applying sprays, for then the trees are dormant, and they can stand a much stronger spray than when in leaf. It is also true that the blights are then more or less in a state of rest, and several of the insect ones a:e hiding in the cracks or crevices of the rough bark. There are two kinds of blight which we can tackle during the winter—the insect ones, being scale and woolly aphis, and the fungoid ones, mildew, scale, brown spot, and leaf curl. In damp districts, where there is a considerable amount of moisture in the air, moss and lichens often grow on the stems and branches, and as these choke up the breathing pores in the bark and harbour pesls, they should be removed with some lime or caustic spray. For insect pests some oil spray is the most effective, and there are now plenty of really excellent brands on the market, which should be applied according to the directions on the tins. Kerosene, either pure or diluted with water, is excellent for destroying woolly aphis, and in the care of very bad attacks the warty growths can be painted with a half-worn brush, which will rub the oil in. Other insect destroying sprays are lime, salt, and sulphur—4olb quicklime, 151 b salt, 201 b sulphur, and 60 gallons water. A spray suitable for killing both insect and fungoid pests is the Woburn Winter Wash, composed of copper sulphate lilb, kerosene 5 pints, water 10 gallons, quicklime gib, caustic soda 2!b. This wash will also clean the trees of moss. For fungoid pests alone the winter formula of Bordeaux mixture is recommended, also self-boiled lime and sulphur—flowers of sulphur 10!b, quicklime 151 b, water 50 gallons. To get the best results and secure economy of spraying materials, a proper sprayer should be used. These are of several types, the ordinary bucket pump being very useful for small orchards. The knapsack sprayer worked by a handle is very good, and so also is the one worked bv compressed air, which leaves both hands free to work the nozzle. The ordinary garden syringe is wasteful and not a? all effective. Even distribution and thorough saturation are necessary to secure satisfactory results. ANSWER?i TO CORRESPONDENTS. “J. M.”—To obtain the seeds of eunressus macroearpa and pinus insignus, the cones may be collected now, or for that matter at any period of the year. Select those cones that are fully developed— not too old and nor burst open. The seeds of both these trees are dispersed by the hot rays of the sun and the hot winds cracking open the hard woody seed vessels or cones. Therefore, if the cones are spread out on a sheet of paper and kept in a dry situation in the full blaze of the sun in the course of time they will split open and release their seeds. A much quicker method is to subject the cones to a quick heat by placing them near the five or in the oven, when they will readily open, and the seeds can then Vie easily shaken out. From now on till the end of October is the best lime to sow all conifer seeds.