GARDEN & ORCHARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3773, 6 July 1926, Page 11

GARDEN & ORCHARD.

WORK FOR THE WEEK.

By

D. TANNOCK.

THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY. Continue to sow seeds of half hardy annuals, and early vegetables as advised in last week’s notes, not up hydrangeas, and box or pot up beading geraniums. Standards or fuchsias, heliotropes, and ivy geraniums are very useful for planting in beds of tuberous begonias and those raised from cuttings last year should be potted up and brought into the warm greenhouse to encourage growth, for these must be well grown before they are jplanted out. They must also be thoroughly well hardened off. Therefore, it is necessary to encourage them to make growth now. Standard fuchsias. which were lifted from the flower beds last autumn, are also beginning to shoot now, and they, too, should be potted up and placed in the warm house. Old plants which nave been used for years may be put in half tins but the most of them will go into 6in pots. Pelargoniums will be showing their first flower buds, but as these would be too soon, the tips of the shoots can be pinched out to encourage branching. Sweet peas can be sown now. and there are three methods of raising seedlings, all of which are satisfactory. One is to sow the seeds about lin apart round the inside of a 6in pot, and when the seedlings are well grown and hardened off thev can be turned out of the pot, separated out, and planted with very little root disturbance. There check, however, and to prevent this we usually sow one seed on a little piece of lurf about 2in square and the same in depth. When well grown the little pieces of turf are lifted with the roots practically intact, and planted with the minimum of check to tneir development. The third way is to sow one seed in a small 3in pot, or some other suitable container (some people use egg shells) but the idea is to have as little root disturbance as possible when planting out, and the plants are easily turned out of the pots without hurting the roots. THE FLOWER GARDEN. Continue to prune shrubs and trees, to dig or fork the borders and to clean up leaves and rubbish. The work on the rock garden, wall garden, or paved path, can be carried out when it is too wet to work on the beds and borders, and all construction work and tofa-drp«sing should be finished as soon as possible if it is proposed to plant the alpines this season. Many have started to grow now, and it will spoil the spring display to delay. The planting out of the herbaceous perennials can be undertaken now, and bearded iris should be the first to receive attention. These are most satisfactory plants as they will grow anywhere except m sour, wet. swampy ground, and though divided up now will flower quite weil next summer. The Japanese and Siberian kinds can also be planted, but their likes are directly opposite to the bearded kinds and they thrive in wet, boggy, swampy ground. THE VEGETABLE AND FRUIT GARDEN. Complete the pruning and planting of bush fruits and trees as soon as possible, and yvhen this is done they mav receive their winter spraying. Being at rest we can use stronger sprays than when they are in leaf, and though the insects are also mostly in hiding, very considerable damage can be done to them. PLANT MITES. There are quite a number of small, almost microscopic, insects which attack plants, and these are usually grouped under mites. Some attack the young leaves, and both flower and shoot buds. Others attack the more matured foliage, and others form galls or growths on the leaves of certain plants. The begonia mite is very troublesome, and unless checked in time may damage the whole plant. The insects when examined with a hand lens are white or colourless, and are therefore difficult to detect, but the damage * they do to the plants soon becomes apparent. They suck the juices out of the leaves, young stems, buds (both flower and leaf), and so damage the delicate tissue that they cause malformation. The leaves become marked with brown or rusty streaks and curl up and fall off when touched. The same or a similar mite attacks cyclamen, primulas, gloxinias, gesnerias, bouvardias, etc. Prevention is better than cure, and it is most important to keep the plants healthy by potting them in the right soil, not over-watering or over-feeding, providing plenty of fresh air, without creating draughts, and avoiding fire heat as much as possible. Moist and suitable growing conditions are maintained by frequent syringing of the foliage and damping of the benches and paths. When the mites make their appearance the plants should be sprayed with a solution of nicoticide, or they can be first syringed with clear water and then dusted with flowers especially about the buds and unaer the leaves, where the insects abound. Spraying with a strong solution of Gishurst compound or anwtking containing sulphur will also be found serviceable. The plants can be dipped in tobacco water or some other nicotine preparation. As a safeguard it is advisable to fumigate the plants in the greenhouse or propagating houses at least once a fortnight with XL All or nicoticide. Probably the most troublesome of all mites is the red spider, which is not a spider at all, but is has been called one because the insects weave a sort of web over the under sides of the leaves which they infest. This pest attacks plants in the open air quite as readily as those under glass, and is usually most troublesome during warm, dry weather, when the vitality of the plants is low. Though a little larger than the begonis mite, and of a brick-red or rust-red colour, the insects cannot be examined without a hand lens, but the damage they do soon becomes apparent. The females lay eggs, and from these emerge.larvee, which differ from the adults in their size and in having only six legs. The mites, when they become established on a pljftt, spin weld of very fine texture on flfir backs of .the leaves. They then, by means of their suckers, bore into the tissue of the leaf cells and stick the sap. The leaves soon become yellowish or

greyish green, marbled with the paler patches on the upper surface, and the Glistening web on the lower surface reners it grey. A severe attack by red spider kills the . leaves, which fall prematurely, the crop of fruit or flowers is lessened, and tne young growths formed the next season are stunted and weakened. Attacks of led spider are worst when tho growth of the plants receives a check through drought and heat, and we frequently hear it described as a dry-weather blight. Any measure which will promote growth, such as frequent syringing and watering, or mulching, will diminish the risk to some extent. Insufficient fresh air, and too high temperatures are both largely responsible for plants growing under glass being attacked, not that the degree of temperature is too high, but the heat of the water pipes dries the atmosphere unduly, and to counteract this we usually recommend spraying the plants overhead twice a day, and sprinkling the paths and bencnes frequently. Sulphur, in the form of flowers of sulphur, is frequently used for this and other mites, and. with bellows or other suitable apparatus it is blown into the atmosphere, and it settles on the foliage and young stems. It is also used in a solution tor spraying, lib of sulphur being boiled with 21b of quicklime in four gallons of water 2oz of soap being added to make it stick. Fumigating with X.L.AII, or tobacco, is also an advantage and the hot-water pipes are sometimes painted with lime and sulphur mixed. BULB MITE. This creature belongs to the same class as those already described, and it does great damage among bulbous plants of all kinds, both those which are tender and have to be grown under glass, and those which are quite hardy. It is generally, if not always, accompanied by a yeast fungus, whose presence may be detected with the naked eye by the red patches on the roots, scales, or necks of the bulbs, as well as the red stripes on the petals and leaves. These stripes are a sure indication of the fungus, . and often of the mite as well. Some gardeners consider the fungus is the real enemy, and that the mite follows, for it is usually understood that it is brought about by errors of cultural treatment. Bulbs which are badly attacked are better destroyed, but those only slightly affected can be washed in the sulphur solution recommended for red spider, or they can be dipped in strong soapy water, or Gishurst Compound solution, to which some sulphide of potassium has been added. Newly-imported bulbs, which have lost their vitality through being kept out of the ground too long, and other causes, are often attacked by mite, and it is not advisable to plant them near, or among, clean healthy ones. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. “Islington,” Dunedin.—The flower * forwarded is of Protea mellifera, the Cape Honey-flower, or Sugar Bush. It is a shrub or much-branched small tree growing to a height of 10ft or 12 ft, and quite hardy in Dunedin. It produces its peculiar, but ornamental, flowers practically all the year round, and sometimes the buds are frosted in the . water, but the plant does not seem to suffer. It is well worth growing on a dry, sunnjt bank. It flowers when quite small. “Kelso,” Otago.—The apple sent is a kind of Jonathan, but not true to type, probably due to the conditions under which it was growing. “J. A. F., St. Clair.—The iris, sent is the Gladwin Flag, Iris foetidissima, quite a hardy species, which will grow and fruit in any odd corner. There is no need to keep it in a pot or in a frame.