A PLANT BOX WITH DIVISIONS.

Patea Mail, 11 March 1882, Page 3

A PLANT BOX WITH DIVISIONS.

Among the many devices to allow plants to be handed without disturbing the roots we have seen none so simple as the one described. A shallow box of any desired size is provided with partitions to divide it into square compartments. The bottom of the box, instead of being nailed on in the usual manner, should be small enough to slip inside of the frame formed by the sides and ends, and held in place by a few screws or nails that are not driven quite home. As many strips of straw-board are provided as will make the desired number of divisions. One set of these should have a cut made from the centre to the upper edge, and the set that crosses them should be cut from the centre to the lower edge ; this will allow the two sets to lock together. The compartments thus made being in place, they are to be filled with soil, and a few seeds sown in each, all the plants but one being removed when large enough to be well established. Or seeds may be sown in other boxes, and the plants, when large enough, may be transplanted to this, placing one in each division. When it is time to set out the plants, the box may be taken to the garden ; the screws or nails that hold the bottom being taken out, the frame can be lifted off, leaving the squares of soil undisturbed. Each one of these, if carefully taken up by means of a flat trowel or a piece of shingle, may be put into a hole prepared for it, without breaking a root fibre. Such boxes will answer where seedlings are raised in the window as well as in a hot-bed.