SOME SOWING HINTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 September 1938, Page 4

SOME SOWING HINTS

CARROTS, TURNIPS AND BEET. The carrot is a native of Europe and a biennial. It maljes its fleshy root one season and the next uses it up to form flowers and seed. It is perfectly hardy and will stand the hardest frosts we get during the winter, but as roots left in the ground become stringy and useless in the spring, we have to depend on obtaining the first roots by early sowing, either in gentle heat in a frame or on a well-drained, sunny border. Later on the main crop varieties can be sown and in late summer a rovz or two of the early varieties can be sown to provide young, tender roots for late autumn and early winter. Though carrots can be grown in any well-drained and deeply cultivated soil they prefer a light, sandy loam, and a place which has been manured for the previous season’s crop. Fresh manure should not be dug in for carrots, for it has a tendency to cause them to fork. When preparing the ground for carrots it should be first of all forked over, breaking up all lumps and taking care to keep the fine weathered soil on top. With the hoe draw drills about half an inch deep, sow the seed thinly,- dust with superphosphate and push the soil in again with the foot or the head of the rake and make it firm, finishing it off smoothly on top with the back of the rake. As the birds do not interfere with either the seeds or seedlings of carrots it is not necessary to protect them in any way, but if the weather is very dry it is an advantage to cover the drills with pieces of scrub until germination takes place. As soon as the seedlings are large enough to handle they can be thinned out to about an inch apart, but any other thinning can be done when the roots are large enough to use. For the early and very late crops we sow the stump-rooted varieties, such as Early Gem or Early Nantes, and for the main crop intermediate varieties such as Red Intermediate, James Intermediate or Chiswick Beauty..

Turnips require similar soil and cultivation to carrots, except that they should not be grown on the same ground twice in succession, to prevent clubroot, and they require to be protected from birds in the early stages by stretching strands of black cotton along each side of the drills. The seeds should also be protected by coating them with red lead. They also require more room to develop, and the first thinning of the early kinds should be to four inches. Varieties to sow for the first early crop are Snowball or Early White, Milan, and for main-crop Golden Ball or Orange Jelly. For winter garden, swedes are sown, these being Purple Top of Bronze Top. Beet, being a seaside plant, like seaside conditions, and if the soil is heavy or peaty it is a great advantage to work in some beach sand. The seeds of beet, which are larger than either carrots or turnips are in little groups, and they should be covered with an inch of soil or sand. The early turnip-rooted kinds are thinned out to six to nine inches apart, and the main crop to nine to twelve inches, and as the plants are damaged by birds, it is advisable to cotton them as soon or before the seeds germinate. The varieties to sow are 'Globe and Egyptian turnip-rooted for early crops, and Blood Red and Dell’s Dark Red for the main crop. To get nice straight roots of the main crop varieties, it is advisable to make holes with a crowbar and to fill these with light loam such as old potting soil. This is necessary if the soil is a stiff clay. The holes are made about two feet deep and four inches wide at the top, a few seeds are sown on top of each, they are coverd with an inch of sand, and when the seedling appear they are reduced to one at each hole.