HOTBEDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1941, Page 8

HOTBEDS

HOW TO MAKE THEM. One of the simplest methods of heating a frame is to stand it on a. hotbed. This is prepared by mixing fresh stable manure and dead leaves in about equal proportions, building these into a stock about two feet in height and standing the frame on top. Another, and in some ways, a better method, is to excavate a hole about 18 inches deep and one foot wider and longer than the frame. Fill this with the manure, and build up another six Inches above it and finally place the frame on top. In either case, the manure should be fresh and it should be trodden down firmly and evenly all over. As the mass ferments, it will generate a good deal of heat which will be trapped in the frame and enable seedlings to be raised or cuttings to be rooted much earlier than would be possible in an unheated frame. For the first three or four days after the bed is made the heat is usually fierce. It is not wise to sow anything until this first stage of fermentation is finished and the temperature subsides to a more reasonable level. Plunge a thermometer into the decomposing heap every day and when it registers about 75 degrees sow without delay. Seeds may either be sown in boxes or direct into soil spread over the surface of the bed. If the former method is used it will be necessary to. spread a few inches of soil, over the manure to prevent the boxes coming into contact with it.