PLANTING OUT STOCKS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 76, 16 April 1937, Page 12

PLANTING OUT STOCKS

Many failures occur with the early flowering stocks, and gardeners aro continually complaiuing about their plants Uying off withouf cause. The main tiung Jn growing good stocks is a sunny airy position and a well-drained, free soil. They canijot stand any excess of wet, and half the failureg in gi'owipg stocks can be put down to excessively wet spells and indiff erently drained soils j once the plants are thorougkly checked by excessive wet at the ropts they beccme diseased and fajlure is then cerfcain, J The only way jbo combat this is to plant them ip. a very open, sunny, weJlarained bed. A fine bed of stocks can be absolutely ruined by a too free use of t{ip sprinkler in a drought season. All stock seed will produce a fair proportion of single flowers, The very best strains, howeyer, will give nearly 70 per cent of doumes if ] every plant is put out, but if only the streng and earlier plaflts in the • seed beds are used, the proportion of [ doublpa may be increased to 80 per f cent, When this is done all the weaker and later plants should be rejected. As with most garden plants, the more select and choic© the strain the ' more expensive it is to produce the 1 seeds; the dcuble flowers do not seed and tho greater the proportion of them the less tlie yield. It is therefore essential to secure your stock seed from a reliable source, and do not under any circumstances use cheap seed.