BORDER CARNATIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 June 1940, Page 8

BORDER CARNATIONS

SOME USEFUL HINTS. During the autumn and winter months several of the best and safest fertilisers can be incorporated in the beds and borders of carnations which have not been replanted. These fertilisers are slow in action and their absorption into the soil is very gradual, so they benefit the plants in a minor degree only if added in spring. Bonemeal, which contains phosphates, lime and a little nitrogen is one of them. Used at the rate of three or four ounces per square yard, its lasting effects are very noticeable. Well decayed horse or cow manure which are the best agents for enriching the soil with humus, should be used at this time, also basic slag which supplies lime and phophates to stiff, heavy soils. Four ounces per square yard is a fair dressing. Sulphate of iron is rich in iron. Only a quarter ounce is needed for one square yard and this chemical is also a fungicide, enabling the plants to resist disease. It is one of the most valuable materials and should always be used, but very few carnation growers seem to do so. Soot, provided it is old and weathered can be used at any season but not at the same time as lime. It is a wonderful insecticide and should be kept near the surface. Dusted over the plants in humid weather during the spring and early summer months before the buds swell, it is a preventive of carnation maggot and rust. In regard to the former pest it has been noted by experienced growers that shoots, which were ' perfectly clean when layered down in the open border, are frequently found to be spoiled on lifting a few weeks later, the fly having deposited eggs which hatched out in the intervening period. A dusting of soot a day or two after layering is a deterrent and worth the small labour involved. Lime plays an important part and is essential to carnations. It is a wonderful purifier, for its action on the soil frees valuable foods which otherwise lie dormant. There are various forms of lime, but ground lime or carbonate is mostly used during the winter months. Gypsum or sulphate of lime can be applied anywhere and at any season at the rate of one pound per square yard. Gypsum can also be used with organic or nitrogenous manures. Another safe and valuable form of lime for carnations is old mortar rubble finely powdered. Special manures may cnly contain one, or perhaps two of these ingredients and can be used to supply a deficiency of its particular quality in any other manure. This is why it is often better for novices tc procure a well-balanced plant food from a reliable source and use strictly as per directions.