TREATMENT OF SEEDLINGS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1939, Page 9

TREATMENT OF SEEDLINGS

SOME TIMELY HINTS

As soon as the seedlings appear, al! shading and glass should be removed and the pots, pans or boxes should be placed up near the glass in a slightly cooler atmosphere, and given more air. This is to prevent the little plants from becoming drawn in their efforts to reach the light, and to encourage strong sturdy growth. As soon as they can be handled easily they should he pricked out into pots or boxes, giving them more room to develop and a richer soil to root into.

Soil for pricking out should consist of two parts fibrous loam, two parts old potting soil, one part old well-rotted manure, such as we get.

from a hot bed. one part leaf mould and one part sand with a six-inch potful of wood ashes and a five-inch potful of bone meal to every barrow-load of the mixture. This should be turned twice to mix it thoroughly and then passed through a half-inch sieve. Like all soil mixtures, it is better prepared a fortnight before it is to be used. The boxes, which are 20 inches long and 15 inches wide and a few inches deep with holes in the bottom to allow for drainage, are prepared by placing about an inch of rough material such as the siftings from the soil mixed with an equal quantity of strawy manure to assist drainage. We then put in two inches of the rough sifted soil, making it firm, and then about half an inch of fine soil, which is made level and firm with a piece of board fixed on to a

handle. A box of the dimensions mentioned is a standard sizel and when all are the same it is much easier to arrange them on shelves, and in the cold frames, so as fully to occupy the space available) would accommodate nine rows of seedlings, eight being placed in each row. The box should be marked out with a ruler so that each seedling may have the same space to grow in, and in any case it looks neater to have them all the same distance apart. The pots, pans or boxes in which the seedlings are growing should be water ■ ed well the afternoon before they are to be pricked out, the moisture assist ing the roots to hold on to particles of soil. They are lifted carefully to avoid the roots from being broken and with as much soil as possible adhering to them, a hole is made with the propagating peg deep enough and wide enough to allow the roots to drop in easily to about the same depth as they were in the seed receptacles, and the soil is pressed in firmly, but gently against them making it firm. They are watered as soon as the box is completed, and it is placed in a closer and warmer atmosphere for a few days and shaded from strong sun. No matter how careful we may be a large number of the delicate root hairs are damaged and until they are replaced, and growth starts again, it is necessary to prevent loss of moisture by keeping them shaded during sunny weather, and in a more moist atmosphere, and to give them a little extra heat to stimulate the formation of new root hairs.

As soon as the seedlings have taken to the new soil and started to grow, they can be shifted to a cooler and more airy place, but still kept as close to the glass as possible to encourage sturdy growth, and when they are well grown they are placed out into a cold frame and gradually hardened off, by first opening the sashes a little, then more and more until they are taken off altogether and only put on at nights or when the weather Ls very rough and cold.