GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18809, 3 December 1932, Page 22 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES.

SEASONABLE WORK. SPECIALLY COMPILED TO SUIT CONDITIONS IN WAIXATO.

(By “Nikau.”)

Vegetables. — lf early sowings of cucumbers, marrows, and pumpkins failed, sow more at once. Make sure that enough runner beans have been sown; they do best in the open, as they then get all the moisture there is, and both sides of the row can be cultivated. Sow lettuce in the permanent quarters, because the transplanted seedlings often run to seed in hot weather. Use Bordeaux (lib to lOgals) for tomato plants and potatoes. Apple trees need the arsenate spray to check codlln moth. Flowers. —This is the best time to plant zinnia, cosmos, aster, and other tender plants. / Take, up bulbs, anemones, and ranunculi; work the soil, manure it well, and leave it a week or so before planting annuals. Stake lilies, gladioli, delphiniums, and other tall plants. Plant dahlias and chrysanthemums. Put in cuttings of hydrangeas, using sturdy new growth. Plant edgings of lobelia. Sow portulaca in dry places, and hellophila (the new blue annual) in a sunny, border.

OVER THE AIR. The following Is liased on the lecture broadcast, last Saturday evening, under tlie auspices of the Auckland Horticultural Society. “The Hygiene of the Garden” was one of a series of lectures given every Saturday evening at 7.30. To be a successful gardener, three things are necessary: (1) Knowledge, (2) enthusiasm, (3) industry. To have good plants it is necessary to buy seeds and seedlings of good quality. Seedlings may be very deceptive. For instance, they may be succulent and vigorous, and yet be very tender, having come straight from a hothouse without hardening off. Such plants fall an easy prey to cold winds. A good way is to visit the nursery and buy the plants there. ; Another thing is' to get plants that are proved lo be good doers —half our gardens have poor varieties. The next point lo no-ie is that overcrowding must be avoided, for this fault leads to weakly growth which is easily attacked by disease. The best plan is to devote one bed to one kind, or to follow a proper bedding scheme. The ground should be got ready a while before planting, so that it will settle down. A fine tilth is the condition necessary to yield healthy growth. The labour does not end with the planting: the push-hoe should be kept going, as this prevents weeds from growing, it aerates and stimulates the sell and it retains the moisture. Three elements are especially _ important in the diet of plants: Nitrogen, potash and phosphorus. Potash gives the plant stamina, enabling It to resist disease, and it also increases the richness of the flowers. Sulphate of potash may be raked in at the rate of two ounces to the square yard. Plants use nitrogen in the form, of nitrates. Ammonia Is set free from humus by (he action' of bacteria; yand is turned into nitrites and these are turned into nitrates. Nitrogen is needed in large quantities by plants grown for their leaves (cabbage and lettuce, for example), but of course all plants need some, nitrogen. This substance also helps to keep plants from “bolting,” i.e., running prematurely to seed. To provide humus, sow peas and lupins and turn them in when they are one foot high. If green crops are not available use cow-manure for light soils and stable manure for heavy soils. If none of these is available, use rubbish heaps. As these are often hotbeds of disease, it is well to burn rubbish and supplement the resulting ashes by means of artificial manures. Here is a good hint: sprinkle a handful or so of qrea every now and then on the heap. Tills will then rot in a couple of months to form stuff like real stable manure. Lawn clippings and autumn leaves answer to this treatment very well. Artificial manures to provide nitrogen are sulphate of ammonia, nitratq of soda and urea. The. latter is certainly the best, as it is twice as rich as the others [ln this lies a danger.] Urea stimulates the nitrifying bacteria. If the manures are used as liquids, one ounce of either the sulphate or the nitrate to a gallon is sufficient; if urea is used, A oz. is the proper amount. On-ce a week is often enough for applying liquid manures.

Phosphorus in the form of phosphates stimulates root action, enabling- plants to hold out, well in dry weather. It also hastens maturity and the production of flower, fruit and seed. Ronedust is rich in phosphorus hut -being insoluble in water is very slow in its action. Superphosphate is fairly quick ami fairly lasting, and is to be applied during the growing season. Basic slag supplies phosphorus and other elements, and is to he regarded as a soil rectifier. It should be applied as a winter dressing at the rate of a handful lo the square yard. Liquid manures should not bo applied to a thirsty plant; water Die ground first, and then use liquid manures. Pests and Diseases.

The second part of the address dealt with pests and diseases. "Weeds are not to he considered as wholly evil, for they force us to cultivato the soil. We should not wait until the weeds appear; instead, the hoe is to he used all the time as a preventive. “One year's seeding makes seven years’ weeding.” Inserts in the soil ran he killed with carhon bisulphide put in I o holes six inches deep and a foot apart. Birds do much damage, hut do still more good in killing slugs, snails and other pests, and arc therefore to be encouraged in the garden. Black 'rollon slrelrhed along the lines of seedlings will keep birds away entirely. A new idea is Ihsi: Blue is very distasteful to birds, so bright blue rags should be hung about the plots to be guarded. Slugs and snails are a worse problem. Seedlings may be protected by powdered coke or sawdust, scattered along Hie row. Shell lime if unslaked is fatal In slugs, but. it is rendered harmless as soon as it heroines moist. The speaker preferred to go out willi a lantern nearly every night in early spring and In scalier unslaked lime ahmit Hie plaids. The pests could hr, poisoned I bus; Take a handful of P'dlard. one teaspoonful of Haris green 1 1 drndh poison . and make the whole inln a paste with milk. In making liii-. one mils) lake care iml in breathe i,! Uil ' poisonous <!ii-.|. I Headers are ;11 1 \ i « 1 <I |n avoid I his poisonous rem-lii-ecl pesls rail be divided inln; (I I.liewers. Mich as grubs, beetles and cutworms; ■> suckers, im-luding scale insects unj aphides. The

chewers fire to he killed Try the poisoning of their food; arsenate of lead (one ounce to one gallon) Is a very effective poison, and does not harm the plants. This spray should be applied to tomatoes to lull grubs. Tunnelling insects such as those In the leaves of cinerarias are harder to deal with. The end of the tunnel should be squeezed, as the insect is there. Aphides lessen the vitality of the plant, and also give entranoe to fungal diseases through the punctures in the soft stems. A contact, irritant spray Is needed. Black Leaf 40 Is a good one. Soap solution should be added, as this helps the various sprays to adhere. For thrips on gladioli, etc., and for redspider on many kinds of plants the insecticides must be sprayed on the under surface of the leaves, as that 'is where the pests are most active. Then there are the fungoid pests, such as the common diseases of the tomato and the potato. Then there are the rusts, mildew, and wilt or ‘‘sleeping sickness.” These are all examples of fungi, and are produced from spores which develop readily in warm, moist weather. Bordeaux Is the best fungicide, or rather preventive; a suitable strength is 5-4-40. Lime-sulphur at 1 to 100 or even 1 to 150 is also effective. Sulphide of potassium (a dangerous poison) is a good preventive if used at the rate of i oz. to the gallon. The speaker preferred Burgundy mixture, made as follows:, Take 1 cup of bluestone, grind it up, and dissolve it in 1 gal. of hot water in a wooden vessel—a metal one spoils the mixture and is in turn spoilt by it. Then take i£ cups of washing soda and dissolve this In another gallon of water. Pour the two lots into a wooden vessel and add water to make up to 10 gals. Add lib of soap, as this helps the solution to spread. Burgundy mixture made thus is cheap and effective. Wilt is a disease which can be prevented but not cured. We find that stocks, asters and antirrhinums raised in boxes are far more susceptible to it than plants raised in the open garden. Wilt (including collar-rot) can be checked by the use of powdered bluestone and shell lime (2oz of former to lib of lime) worked into the soil as a light dressing at least three weeks beforeplanting. This treatment kills the small slugs harbouring below the surface In springtime and early summer. If asters are transplanted, they should first be dipped, roots and all, In a fungicide. Finally, listeners were reminded that the Auckland Horticultural Society is holding its summer show of gladioli and sweet peas in the Town Hall on December 8 and 9.