BORDER PLANTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 August 1939, Page 3

BORDER PLANTS

HOW TO RAISE THEM.

If you have a hardy flower border which you intend to fill quickly with perennial plants, you can do so at little expense if you have a greenhouse. A heated structure is not necessary but quicker results are obtained when a minimum night temperature of 45 degrees can be maintained. By sowing seeds in heat at this season of the year, it is possible to obtain flowers from some of the plants the first season. This affords the opportunity of selecting the best for planting in their permanent positions in the autumn. Put a layer of the rough siftings in the bottom of the boxes and fill these with a light sandy compost passed through a quarter-inch sieve. Press it moderately firm, sow the seeds thinly and cover with a little finely sifted compost. Very small seeds need only the lightest of coverings, but the larger ones will require more in proportion to their size. To hasten germination, moisten the soil with tepid water and cover each seed box with glass or several thicknesses of paper. In a temperature of 45 to 50 degrees most of the seedlings will appear in two or three weeks. When they are seen, put the seed boxes on a shelf near the glass to promote sturdy growth. THE STRAWBERRY PLOT SOME USEFUL HINTS. Strawberries which were plahted last autumn have had a trying time. Where the frost has loosened the roothold, the soil should be made firm again at once. A plant cannot take up nourishment unless its roots are in close contact with the soil particles. Where the soil has been. excessively wet the surface will be packed, and a hard crust will form when dry weather comes. This must be broken up to let warmth down to the lower levels and start root activity. The push hoe is the safest tool to use for this purpose. It is important to keep down weeds by regular hoeing. A few of the outer leaves invariably die off during the winter. These form convenient hibernating places for pests and should be removed and burned.

Where the soil was well prepared last tutumn for a new bed, with plenty of organic manure placed well down, a complete plant food will not be required this spring. Older beds which bore a crop of berries last season, will have drawn heavily on the nourishment previously given to them, and they, in consequence, will need a complete plant food if good results are to be expected again this year. If obtainable, well rotted manure is best of all, but it should not be applied too soon. It will be of more benefit if left until the soil has had time to warm up a little. Mineral fertilisers in these days, often have to take a larger place in the diet of growing crops, but they can only be used beneficially for strawberries if the soil has already sufficient humus. Artificial fertilisers alone cannot make the moist soil conditions necessary for this crop. A suitable mixture to use for topdressing the old beds on most soils, is superphosphate four parts, sulphate of potash four parts and sulphate of ammonia one part, used at the rate of half a pound for each square yard of bed. This is best applied in early spring about August and should be followed by the manure mulch. SUMMER DROP OF FRUIT POLLINATION PROBLEMS. The so-called “summer drop” of fruit, when many small fruits fail to develop and fall from the trees in early summer, occurs to a greater or lesser degree every year. In some places it may be so severe that there is an almost total failure of crop. This time of fall varies with different fruits; in apples it may be as late as January, while with cherries it is usually a month or so earlier. The fall of fruit may be due to bad weather, but it is often the result of faulty pollination. Experiments have shown that the young fruit of cherries will not develop and remain on the trees unless pollen of a suitable kind reaches the flowers and brings about fertilisation. Some fruits, for example, gooseberries and currants, will set and develop good crops of fruit with their own pollen; but other, including many varieties of our commercial fruits, will not do this. In partticular, sweet cherries will set no fruit with their

own pollen, and must be fertilised by pollen of a different kind of cherry. Not only this, but varieties of sweet cherries fall into groups where crosspollinations between members of the same group are always ineffective. Varieties within the same cross-incom-patible group should not be planted together, but any such variety may be planted withany other variety which is not of the same group, provided, of course, that their blossoming season overlaps sufficiently to ensure effective cross-pollination. POULTRY MANURE QUICK IN ACTION. Numerous inquiries have been received regarding the merits of poultry manure. The manure from poultry is highly nitrogenous, if collected without contamination of sawdust or floor coverings containing disinfectants. It is as strong and powerful as guano, and is best treated on the same lines. In the first place, the manure should be collected and stored in a dry place, until it can be pulverised to a dry powder. It is then best mixed with some sifted soil or sand, doubling the bulk, and finally used as if it were guano. Poultry manure is quick in action and most serviceable.