MOSS MULCHING OF POT PLANTS

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2162, 29 January 1881, Page 3

MOSS MULCHING OF POT PLANTS

For want of a better name wo have given this to a practice that we have recently introduced into our greenhouse department. Some time about the Ist of January of this year one of our young men suggested mulching with Moss (Sphagnum) a lot of Hoses grown in 7-in. pots that had become somewhat exhausted by being forced for flowers for the holidays. Believing the idea to be a good one, I at once had a lot of nearly 3000 plants so mulched, mixing, however, with the mess a goad portion of bone-dust, perhaps one part weight of bone dust to thirty parts of moss. In two weeks the effect began to be easily perceived on all the roses that had been so mulched, and without shifting they were carried through until May with the most satisfactory results, many of the plants having by that time attained a height oi 4ft and sft, and though they had bloomed profusely during a period of nearly six months, were in the most perfect health and vigor. Believing that i? this system proved so satisfactory in a plant requiring such careful handling as the rose that doubtless it would do well with many other plants, we at once, almost without exception, adopted the moss and bone mulch on nearly every plant cultivated, whether planted out in borders or grown in pots, and the result, without a single exception, has been in the highest degree satisfactory, Among the plants so treated are azaleas, begonias, caladinms, carnations, crotons, dracaenas, euoharis, gloxinias, palms, pandanus, poinsettias, primulas, roses, hothouse grape vines, and hundreds of other kinds. All plants are mulched as soon as wo can reach them from Sin pots upwards. In strong growing plants the roots can be seen striking upwards into the mulch in four or five days after it is pub on, and in nearly all oases within two weeks. One great advantage is that by this system plants can be grown as large and fine in a 4in pot as in a Sin pot without the mulch, for the reason that the plant is now fed by the moss and bone from the surface of the_ pot—the beat feeding point, as most cultivators of experience now believe. Another advantage of the mulching system Is its great saving of labor ,for it just takes about one-fourth of the time to mulch the surface of a pot as it does to shift it. Another, its saving of watering—the moss acts as a sponge, retaining and giving out the moisture to the plant just as it is wanted. Another, that it crowds down all weeds, and does away with the necessity of stirring the soil in the pots or borders. Another and most important advantage to us who are packers is that it ligltms the weight of our goods by one-half—that is, we get as large a plant with half the weight of soil. In my practice of thirty years I have never seen a method of culture that I believe to be of suoh importance, hundreds who have visited us this season have been eqnally impressed with its value, for the “ proof of the pudding” is most apparent in its results. We have used already over twenty team loads of mess and about one ton of hone dust, but never before have wo made an investment that has been so satisfactory.—Pete#' Henderson, in “Gardener’s Monthly.”