MOSSY LAWNS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 June 1939, Page 3

MOSSY LAWNS

NEED FOR BETTER DRAINING. Lawns on heavy soils are often covered with moss during winter. This is usually due to imperfect drainage, and improving the drainage is the only permanent cure. For the immediate destruction of moss, however, spraying with a solution of permanganate of potash is to be recommended. The usual strength of the solution is half an ounce to one gallon of water. If these quantities are mixed in the watering can it may be half an hour before all the permanganate is dissolved, in spite of the purple colour of the liquid. Let us assume that 20 gallons of solution are to be prepared. The ten ounces of permanganate of potash are weighed out into a bucket. An old tin with a capacity of half a pint is filled twenty times with water, the water being emptied on the crystals. If the solution is stirred occasionally, the permanganate will dissolve, producing a very strong solution. This work should be done a day or two before the solution is needed. When the watering is to be doone, the same tin is used and to every gallon of water, one canful of the concentrated solution is poured and stirred for five seconds. In this way a large area can be covered in one afternoon.