NOT YET TOO LATE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 19, 18 October 1943, Page 4

NOT YET TOO LATE

Sowing Of Vegetable Seeds

NEXT MONTH IMPORTANT

Seedsmen, who arc best able to judge, say that the public has responded well to the call made to householders to grow as many vegetables as possible and that only the prolonged wet weather has deterred the backyard gardener. There is a tendency for the novices to be discouraged, but this is not justified. Seedsmen pointed out at the weekend that nobody should think yet that they ha'd “missed the bus” because they had not been able to sow vegetable seeds by the usual time. Nature tended to right itself, and if seeds were planted when the weather settled and got warmer they still would grow satisfactorily. In fact, many people who sowed late got better crops than those who sowed early. Moreover, it would be next winter that there would be a tendency for vegetable shortages rather than this spring, for in spring there was usually a surplus, and it was in November that the sowings for winter began. One expert warned against filling the garden with crops which would be coming on at the time when winter crops should be sown. Space should .be left for sowings next month. The adverse weather has not caused any shortage of seedlings, for most of their young lives are spent In frames out of reach of the weather, while there are reported to be ample supplies of seeds. The opinion was expressed by a large seed merchant that New Zealand had as good a supply of seeds as any country, and he said that inquiries for New Zealand seeds had been received recently from overseas. He knew of no kind of vegetable seed of which New Zealand was short. The shortage of seed potatoes that existed a few years ago does not exist this season, and there is no need for amateur gardeners to resort to the devices they used to adopt, such as saving the eye-ends of table potatoes for planting.