SPINACH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1940, Page 9

SPINACH

SOW AT REGULAR INTERVALS. Spinach is the first spring-grown green vegetable to come into use, and it is so much esteemed that an effort should be made by making small sowings at regular intervals through the season to have leaves available all the year round. There are two forms of the ordinary spinach, one with round, smooth seeds, and one with prickly seeds. The round is usually sown during spring and summer, and the prickly in the autumn to stand through the but they are both alike hardy. The only time when ordinary spinach is difficult to grow is during hot, dry, summer weather; it runs to seed so readily, but fortunately the native spinach likes these conditions and it can fill the gap. To maintain supplies, small sowings should be made at intervals of three or four weeks, and as it matures quickly it is often sown as a catch crop among peas or beans; Seed should be sown thinly and unless the plants are over-crowded the first thinning is given when the leaves are large enough to use. The plants are left at from nine to 12 inches apart for summer and six inches for winter. New Zealand spinach is an excellent substitute for ordinary spinach, the flavour of this vegetable being very pleasant and agreeable to the palate of many people, for it lacks the slight bitterness of the common spinach. Seeds of the. New Zealand spinach can be sown now; the hottest and driest part of the garden should be selected. The ground should be deeply cultivated and liberally manured, and the rows can be two and a-half to three feet apart, and the plants are thinned out to two feet apart. During dry weather water in abundance is necessary. Silver beet or spinach beet is also a valuable vegetable during winter and early spring. It can be sown now and is easy to grow.

HARICOT BEANS A VALUABLE CROP. In the case of the ordinary French bean the pods are eaten when quite young and before the seeds have formed properly, but with the haricots the seeds are eaten. For those who have room to spare they are a very valuable crop, the beans being useful during the winter and in spring when the old potatoes are not so palatable and before the new one are plentiful. Only the white seeded beans are cultivated for this purpose, the coloured ones not looking very attractive when cooked. The cultivation is the same as for the dwarf French varieties, good well-manured soil containing lime, being suitable. Seed is sown in drills two inches deep at six inches apart, a few extra seeds being put in at the end of the rows to be transplanted should any blanks occur. If the soil is very well manured nine inches apart will not be too much room, When about 6in high they are earthed up a bit and twiggy are stuck in to prevent them from falling over. They should get two or three applications of liquid manure as the pods are forming, plenty of water during dry weather and a mulch of straw, pine needles or lawn mowings to keep the pods clean. When the pods begin to ripen cut away the foliage which is shading them from the sun and thereby retarding ripening, but do not denude the plants of foliage while they are still green. The mulching of straw or other material in addition to keeping in moisture and preventing the pods from being spattered with dirt also keeps them away from the wet earth and prevents mildew. When the pods are thoroughly dried so that the beans rattle inside them they are ready to pick, and they can be gathered singly and spread out in a cool, airy place to dry or the plants can be pulled up and strung on a line in an airy greenhouse or shed. When shelled the beans are spread

out in trays and placed in the sun, and turned from time to time to dry thoroughly. When dry they can be stored away in tins or bags until required. Beans are a profitable crop to grow for, by means of the nodules on their roots they can take nitrogen from the air, much of which is left in the soil, 1 and those grown for their green pods can be salted down for the winter, and the haricots dried for use during n time when additional varieties of vege tables are appreciated.

KEEP THE HOE GOING SOME SOUND ADVICE. So much has been written on the value of hoeing the surface of the soil around growing vegetable crops that ! one might surely expect nobody would neglect to follow the advance. Probably when such omission occurs, it is due to misapprehension of the full purpose and utility of the simple operation. Many novices hold the opinion that the sole object of the push hoe is to kill weeds, and therefore, they consider that when there are no weeds it is unnecessary waste of time to hoe the ground. That, however, is not correct. Destruction of the weeds is but one achievement. An equally important point is that this useful tool breaks the crust of earth that forms after rainfall or as a result of treading. Left undisturbed, the crust prevents air access to the root run of growing plants and crops. Percolation to a certain amount of air is necessary to the proper transformation of manures into plant food and to the active functioning of the roots of plants. One may often find after a thunderstorm has beaten down the soil that a spell of hot sunshine will harden the surface. Small young plants then seem! to stand still, instead of maintaining good growth. Run the hoe along between the plants, loosening the soil to the depth of an inch or two and within a couple of days the plants seem to jump forward, and their leaves assume a brighter green. That is the direct result of the hoeing which lets in the air that is so necessary.

There is still another reason why hoeing is extremely helpful. It breaks the surface soil into small particles; these dry quickly, to lie like a loose covering over the firmer soil beneath. This is called a dust mulch.

THE CARROT HOW TO GROW IT ON HEAVY GROUND. Those who have difficulty in growing carrots on heavy soil should dig the ground deeply, for no matter what methods are pursued afterwards, they are useless without deep digging. Work in several buckets of sand as the digging proceeds, taking care to distribute the sand evenly. Prepare the drills for the seeds by making them 2in deep. Fill these to the required depth with sand, sprinkle a layer of sand over the seed and finally rake the soil over as usual. To keep the carrot fly at bay. sprinkle sand impregnated with kerosene between the rows and it is claimed by old gardeners that the carrots are never attacked by fly while using this.

MARROW MOSAIC WATCH OUT FOR IT. Should you at any time during the next few months, notice that the marrow or pumpkin plants are looking sickly, with leaves that show a mottled light and dark colouring, and a blistered puckered appearance, pull them up and burn them immediately. These are the symptoms of marrow mosaic which may spread to healthy plants. There is no cure for the disease and it is a wise plan to get rid of the plants at once.