VEGETABLE CROPS

Wairarapa Daily Times, 10 December 1937, Page 3

VEGETABLE CROPS

SUMMER FEEDING. The time has come to point out that the initial manuring for vegetable crops is not enough, though many growers consider that it is. To begin with potatoes. The time to feed them is just before earthing up. The fertiliser is covered with the soil banks, beneath which it soon dissolves and helps the then forming runners to develop the maximum weight of high quality tubers. . In potato feeding you must avoid nitrogen, which makes the tubers watery, and in many soils causes them to turn black on cooking. The finest fertiliser for heavy soils is a mixture of three parts superphosphate of lime and two parts sulphate of potash; for light soils, where potash is deficient, two parts superphosphate of lime and three parts sulphate of potash. In both cases the application is at the rate of lioz per yard run, and the fertiliser is sprinkled evenly without touching the leaves or stems. Peas and broad beans, both being pod-bearers, have similar needs. Growing them for the sake of tlieir seeds, you want something which develops those seeds to the maximum'.size quickly. Superphosphate of lime does that.

From the time the first flowers fall until the last pod is gathered, dress weekly with this fertiliser at loz per square yard. Feed every five days,, using superphosphate of lime and quarter-strength liquid manure (one gallon per yard run) or sulphate of ammonia (loz. per yard run) alternately. Early-sown Globe beet is now just starting to swell its roots. This is one of the few crops of maritime origin. Therefore, include agricultural salt in its feeding scheme. Use salt and sulphate of potash, both at loz per yard run, weekly and alternately until the roots are pulled for use. To have onions of the best quality from now until the yellowing of the leaf tips, feed every five days. On the first two occasions use superphosphate of lime to stimulate root action. This, as well as seed development, is a function of the phosphates. Follow with two applications of nitrate of soda, which will encourage healthier, more vigorous leaf development. Now that you have given both roots and leaves their turn, you are in a position to put something into the bulb. Do this with sulphate of potash, which rapidly transports the food just where it is needed, thus keeping the plants working at high pressure. The individual dose of each of the fertilisers is equivalent of a quarter teaspoonful.

, Summer cabbage are also ready for feeding. Unless you get right on to the nail with them, they will develop huge, spongy heads consisting mostly of thick, uneatable leaf stalks. To prevent them doing this, and ensure the closest possible fold, feed weekly from now until the heads are ready for cuttings, using alternately quarter strength liquid manure (four pints per plant per dose) and agricultural salt (one tcaspoonful per plant per dose). In using salt you are, as in the case of beet, harking right back to an ancestral need. 1 Batches of lettuce will from now onwards be reaching the feeding stage regularly. If after the plants are half grown you feed them weekly -with sulphate of potash at loz per square yard, you will get firm, closely folded, nutty heads of exquisite flavour.