GARDENS IN TAUPO

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 41, 22 October 1952, Page 5

GARDENS IN TAUPO

NOTES ON FERTILISERS

(By

"Flora.")

Continuing the notes on lertilisers: — Potash salts generally improve the texture and colour of the leaves, flowers and fruit. It greatly assists in the formation of starch. Iience it is especially required for crops which produce an abundance of carbohydrates — potatoes, beet, neas, beans an • fruit trees. It cari he provided in sulphate of Potash, Muriale of Potash br Wood-ash from the bonfire also contains potash. Potash salts are, applied in autumn or winter or wood-ash can be used at anv season, in any available quantity and applied as a top dressing. v A word about lime will not be out of place. Lime must not be regarded as a manure; but as a soil amendment; as it unlocks otber nlant foods in the soil and makes them available to the plants. Hydrated or garden lime is the most common form for application. It can be applied any Lime during the winter, it is best scattered over the surface after digging. Lime should not, however, be mixed with the manure on the surface, or mucb of the food of that manure will escape in the form of ammonia gas. Caution is necessary in the use of inorgamc fertilisers. An excess can throw the soil fertility out of balance. Cbemicals alone, without the presence of an adequate sunply of bumus in the soil wdl, in time, I cause "dead soil." Used with discretion, rather in the nature of a tonic, than an aetnq,l feeding material, can prove beneficial.