92 



HOKTICULTURE 



July 18, 1914 



FERTILIZER EXPERIMENTS 



At tbe Floricultural Expciiiiifiit Station, 

 University of Illinois. By F. W. Mun- 

 cie, in Charge of Fertilizer Ex- 

 periments, 

 (Continued from page SS^) 



2. The Effect of Topping Back Carna- 

 tions on the Total Production and 



Time of Maximum Production. 



The carnations (Rosette and White 

 Perfection) on account of delay in 

 erection of the new greenhouses were 

 set in later than usual, Aug. 12. They 

 were topped back at this time. On 

 Sept. 12, one-half of the house (360 

 plants) was topped back while the 

 crop of short-stemmed flowers was left 

 on the other half. The results of these 

 two methods of culture are as fol- 

 lows: 



(1) The new growth on the topped 

 sections began producing flowers 

 nearly equal in number to the produc- 

 tion from the sections not topped 

 about the twenty-fifth of November. 

 Previous to this time 761 flowers from 

 Rosette had been secured from the 

 sections not topped, in excess of those 

 from the topped section. At $l.nO per 

 100. the profit per 1000 sq. ft. of bench 

 space would amount to $42.20. From 

 the White Perfection sections 1172 

 flowers were picked in excess of those 



-from the topped plants. At the same 

 rate these would net a profit of $65.20 

 per 1000 sq. ft. of bench space. 



(2) It might be worth while to top 

 hack in order to produce a larger crop 

 or to control the time of the large 

 crop later, and this has been consid- 

 ered in the data. The data show that 

 up to the present time the usual varia- 

 tion does not exceed 5 flowers weekly. 

 In each variety the untopped sections 

 have fallen below the topped sections 

 in production, for one week, to a 

 noticeable extent, about .30 flowers. 

 Otherwise the production still runs 

 parallel. Each set of plants came in- 

 to maximum crop at the same time 

 and the production dropped similarly 

 •with each. There are indications, 

 however, that the later crop will not 

 fall at the same time. Further study 

 of this interesting phase of carnation 

 growing will be made as the season 

 progresses. A suggestion has been 

 made to me that these results would 

 he secured only with a variety of the 

 "tree" type which has no great ten- 

 dency to stool out even when topped 

 hack. Probably a larger production 

 would follow in after weeks a topping 

 hack of this type of plant. 



3, The Relationship Between Cloudy 



Weather and Splitting in 

 Carnations. 



A record has been kept of the week- 

 ly production of flowers in the carna- 

 tion house. By comparison with the 

 weekly amounts of sunshine as re- 

 corded by the Agricultural Experiment 

 Station (Agronomy Department) a 

 method is found of determining 

 whether any parallel increase in per- 

 centage of flowers with split calyces 

 and in hours of cloudy weather, ex- 

 ists. The year is not yet far enough 

 advanced to allow very considerable 

 data to be on hand, but the results so 

 far indicate that a period of cloudy 

 weather does have the effect of pro- 

 ducing a larger percentage of splits, 

 during the following weeks. During 

 the last three months of 1913. a period 



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of bright weather extending from Oc- 

 tober 13 till Novetnber 10 was follow- 

 ed by a period of cloudy weather from 

 that "date till December 8. The per- 

 centage of splits during the period of 

 Oct. 27 till Dec. 1 averaged less than 

 five, while during the following five 

 weeks the percentage averaged more 

 nearly 25. 



In the report last March, figures 

 were given to show that commercial 

 fertilizers applied in moderate quanti- 

 ties did not cause splitting. It is evi- 

 dent that location of the true cause 

 of splitting will remove it from the list 

 of things to be feared when any 

 change of cultural methods is contem- 

 plated by the grower. 



4. Effects of Overfeeding Carnations. 

 Variation in the application of large 

 amounts of different kinds of fertilizer 

 to carnations has brought verj^ inter- 

 esting results. On Dec. 3 dried blood, 

 ammonium sulphate, potassium sul- 

 phate a soluble phosphate (disodium 

 phosphate) and for comparison and be- 

 cause commercial sulphate of potash 

 contains 20 per cent of it, common salt 

 at the rate of something over 25 lbs. 

 per 100 sq. ft. of bench space were 

 applied to the varieties White Perfec- 

 tion and White Enchantress, a single 

 chemical being applied to a section. 

 The results were quite different with 

 the different chemicals. Those plants 

 treated with dried blood, potassium 

 sulphate, or sodium sulphate showed 

 no signs of injury, and even now, 

 when a further application of 5 lbs. 

 each has been made, no effect is seen 

 excepting in a softness of the flower, 

 a drooping of the stems, and a general 

 retardation of growth, very similar in 

 all cases. In the case of those plants 

 to which salt was applied, plasmolysis 

 occurred within three days, the plants 

 falling over on account of weakness 

 at or near the crown. The general 

 appearance of the foliage did not 

 change excepting that the chlorophyll 

 gradually and uniformly disappeared 

 and by this time most of the plants 

 are dead. WHiere sulphate of am- 

 monia was applied, injury which 

 rapidly became very marked was no- 

 ticed within two weeks after applica- 

 tion, but the appearance of the foliage 

 indicated a distinct toxic effect char- 

 acteristic of this fertilizer. Instead of 

 a falling over at the crown, the first 

 sign of injury was a browning of the 

 tips of the sepals. Later this extend- 

 ed down the juncture between the 

 sepals, causing them to part, and re- 

 sulting in the formation of a split 

 flower. Flowers fully open and half 

 to full grown buds showed a charac- 

 teristic weakness just above that node 

 second or third below the flower, 

 where the color disappeared, the cells 

 collapsed, causing the stem to bend 

 over sharply at this point. The 

 leaves exhibited a characteristic 

 white spotting due to the collapse of 

 the chlorophyll bearing cells beneath 

 the epidermis at these places, while 



the remainder of the leaf retained its 

 normal green color. Injury is more 

 marked where lime has been applied, 

 and is worse in the White Enchant- 

 ress than White Perfection. 



These details are given here because 

 it does not seem possible to detect in- 

 jury to the carnation before overfeed- 

 ing is rather serious and because, the 

 symptoms being speciflc, it at least is 

 possible by watching these symptoms 

 to avoid a repetition of over-feeding 

 by the particular fertilizer which 

 caused the trouble. 



The comparative solubility of these 

 fertilizers is approximately ; 



Ammonium sulphate, 71 parts to 100 of 

 water. 



Salt, 36 parts to 100 of water. 



Potassium sulphate, 9 parts to 100 of 

 water. 



Sodium phosphate, 7 parts to 100 of 

 water. 



Acid phosphate, 4 parts to 100 of water. 



The degree of injury evidently bears 

 a relation to the solubility, as is seen, 

 but in addition ammonium sulphate, 

 and as described in the report last 

 year sulphate of potash in the later 

 stages must have a definite toxic ac- 

 tion peculiar to themselves. The ap- 

 parent beneflt this year from the large 

 amounts of acid phosphate applied to 

 the varieties Rosette and White Per- 



Continueei on Page <J4 



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