HUMUS ALL IMPORTANT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 February 1939, Page 3

HUMUS ALL IMPORTANT

A DRY WEATHER SECRET. One of the secrets of dry weather gardening is to ensure plenty of organic matter in the soil. Humus is all important, and if first-rate plants are to be grown, the application of organic manures during a dry season is necessary. Plants growing in a soil with a sufficiency of humus are usually healthy, and are not attacked by pests and diseases as readily as those grown in soil deficient in organic matter. Once organics have been applied, then fertilisers can be used to stimulate the crops and supply deficiencies. Stable manure is difficult to get. but efficient substitutes can be obtained in the shape of spent hops, fish manure or green manures. Green manuring is an excellent method of adding humus to the soil. This consists of growing plants for the purpose of digging in before they mature. Most green manures, like rye and mustard, give back to the soil the food absorbed during growth. But when members of lhe legume family are used, that is, clovers, peas, vetches or lupins, a good deal of nitrogen is collected from the air and added to the soil. Sometimes green manure is slow in decomposing and calcium cyanamide can bo used to accelerate the rotting, and to add nitrogen and lime. Whatever plants are used, they should be cut down just before they flower, and then chopped in pieces with a spade. The calcium cyanmide should then be applied at the rate of one ounce to the square yard. Leave the material for seven or eight days, then dig in. If possible, another green manure should be sown over the same piece of ground, to again be dug in, in its turn in winter. The advantage of this method of green manuring is that it not only enriches the ground, but cleans it also. Those who have no spare land for green manuring, should save all the vegetable matter they have and pile it in suitable heaps, to dig in during winter.