FERNS 



FERNS 



1211 



by applying some of it to a piece of glass while adding 

 the whitening) ; thoroughly mix and apply to outside of 

 glass with a soft brush of the same width as glass. 

 This shading, by the addition of more or less linseed 

 oil, may be made to stay on houses up to one year. If 

 properly applied in spring, it will be just right during 

 the hot days of summer, and in the fall and winter, 

 when more light is gradually required, the frosts gradu- 

 ally will have reduced the shading, thus admitting 

 more light at the necessary time. 



Much time, annoyance and expense will be saved by 

 a careful arrangement of the workshop, or potting-room, 

 a thing which in most cases is totally neglected. It 

 should be so built that potting-benches are about 3 feet 

 above the floor and 5 feet wide. They may be perma- 

 nently constructed of substantial material, in order that 

 a number of pots of different sizes can be conveniently 

 stored, and that potting material can be thrown from 

 cart or wagon directly onto potting-benches. By an 

 improper arrangement of workshop great expense, loss 

 of time and material are incurred by having to handle 

 material repeatedly in small quantities. 



Propagation by means of spores. 



To grow ferns from spores successfully, it is advisable 

 to sterilize soil on which they are to be sown, which 

 can best be done by subjecting it to a high temperature 

 by means of steam under a pressure of ten to fif- 

 teen pounds; and for this purpose a properly equipped 

 workshop should be provided with a tight box about 3 

 by 3 by 8 feet or larger if an uncommonly large number 

 of ferns is to be grown. It should be fitted with a 

 grating made of 2-inch laths spaced 1 inch apart 

 and placed 2 inches from bottom of the box. This 

 grating may be covered with burlap, and if a %-inch 

 steam pipe is fitted between bottom of box and grating, 

 and connected to highest point of steam boiler (to 

 insure getting perfectly dry steam), the soil is ready 

 to be sterilized. After having cooled off, the soil is in 

 practically the same condition as before so far as moist- 

 ure, friableness, and the like are concerned, and this 

 cannot be said of soil that has been sterilized by burn- 

 ing and by other methods. This steaming process will 

 effectually destroy all forms of life in the soil and leave 

 it for the use of spores alone. In most localities, the 

 water used for moistening spores is impure and full of 

 the spores of low forms of plant life, which are very 

 destructive to the prothalli of ferns. To prevent this, 

 the workshop should be provided with a receptacle in 

 which the water intended for use on ferns while in the 

 prothallus state can be raised to a boiling temperature, 

 which will effectually destroy all spores that may be 

 present in the water. This is best done by leading a 

 1-inch steam-pipe to within 6 inches of the bottom of 

 the receptacle and turning on a reasonable pressure 

 of steam. If boiled twelve hours before intended for 

 use, it will be cool enough to be applied, and will be 

 pure. A fern workshop should also be provided with a 

 dry closet, having a number of shelves about 12 inches 

 apart, for storing fern-spores. 



In beginning the cultivation of ferns, it is advisable 

 to purchase the spores from some reliable firm which 

 makes fern-growing a specialty, until a sufficient num- 

 ber of stock plants can be grown to supply spores for 

 home demand. Spores will do about equally well in 

 pots or pans. Pans 12 inches square and 4 inches deep 

 are used for that purpose, as also are the 6-inch com- 

 mon flower-pots. The 12-inch pans should be supplied 

 with IV-j inches and the 6-inch pots with 3 inches of 

 coal cinders for drainage. Soil for sowing spores on is 

 best composed of five parts, in the proportions of two 

 parts good garden soil, two parts of finely screened peat 

 and one of sharp clean propagating sand. Leaf -mold 

 may be used instead of peat, if easier to procure. This 

 soil should be thoroughly sterilized, as already directed. 

 The spore-pots should be filled with the soil to within 



w 



1488. A fern pan. 



% inch of the top; press firmly. The rest of the pots 

 should be filled with the same composition after it has 

 been passed through a screen of about J'g-inch mesh, then 

 made absolutely level, firmly pressed and thoroughly 

 watered with sterilized water. Three or four hours 

 after watering will be the best time to sow spores. The 

 spores should be thinly scattered over the surface of 

 the soil, a quantity that can be held on a surface of 

 % square inch being abundant to sow one 12-inch pan. 

 Spores should not be covered with soil. Immediately 

 after sowing, the sash of the propagating-frame should 

 be tightly closed and kept so until spores show signs of 

 germination, when a small quantity of air should be 

 given and gradually increased, so that by the time 

 the first small fronds have made their appearance they 

 may have been sufficiently hardened off to have the 

 sash removed entirely. In sowing spores, great care 

 will be necessary to prevent them from getting mixed, 

 fern-spores being very minute and so light that the 

 slightest movement of air will carry them long dis- 

 tances. While sowing spores, all spore-pots should be 

 kept tightly covered. Being kept in a very close and 



humid atmosphere after 

 sowing, the spores should 

 not require any watering 

 for one or two weeks, by 

 which time they will 

 have sufficiently settled 

 not to be dislodged by 

 a very gentle overhead 

 watering, which should 

 be given whenever soil 

 shows the least sign of 

 being dry. Sterilized 

 water should be used 

 until after the first 

 delicate fronds have been formed. As soon as the first 

 little fronds have made their appearance, care should 

 be taken to weed out all undesirable varieties, which, 

 even with the very best of care, will occasionally 

 creep in. A temperature of 65 F. should be main- 

 tained in the propagating-house. 



As soon as the first small fronds are evenly formed 

 all over the surface of the pot, the little plants should 

 be transferred in clumps of four or five plants each, to 

 well-drained pans (Fig. 1488) or boxes filled with soil 

 composed of one-half rich garden soil and one-half 

 peat or leaf-mold, finely screened. In transplanting, 

 great care should be exercised not to cover the remain- 

 ing prothalli, but to have them just level with the sur- 

 face of the soil. The clumps of plants should be kept 

 as loose as possible, as this will give each individual 

 plantlet a better chance to form the necessary number 

 of rootlets, and it will, later on, also be easier to separate 

 the plants. Boxes for transplanting ferns are most 

 convenient when 4 inches deep, 14 inches wide and 22 

 inches long. These boxes will hold about 200 plants 

 placed about 1 inch apart. As soon as the little plants 

 have formed two or three fronds each, they should be 

 separated and transplanted singly into boxes similarly- 

 prepared as before, where they may remain until 

 sufficiently strong to be potted into 2- or 2J^-inch 

 pots. 



Times of sowing fern-spores are the first weeks of 

 March, July and October. When making three sow- 

 ings a year, and allowing a sufficiently longer time for 

 slower-growing varieties, a constant supply of plants will 

 be assured. In calculating on time of sowing spores of 

 commercial varieties of ferns, it will be helpful to 

 divide them into two classes, as some varieties are con- 

 siderably slower of growth and will consequently have 

 to be sown earlier, in order to be ready for sale at the 

 same time as the more rapid-growing ones. The follow- 

 ing popular commercial kinds will require from nine 

 to ten months between times of sowing and potting. 

 The names are those that the plants bear in the trade: 



