Remedying the Sweet Pea Blight 



WHOEVER plants sweet peas in a 

 ditch and leaves it open, to be 

 filled in as the young shoots de- 

 velop, runs the risk of losing the entire 

 crop. Last year I was induced by a pro- 

 fessional grower to try this method, with 

 the result that nearly half of my valuable 

 collection was lost. I had some beautiful 

 novelties from England and the United 

 States, and with an aching heart I saw 

 many of them die, after haying given the 

 greatest promise. This led to an investi- 

 gation, a rernedy and a resolution. 



I had planted on April 17th, with a 

 covering of about two 

 inches of good earth, the 

 remainder of the ditch be- 

 ing left open to about three 

 inches. By May 15th, 

 there was a beautiful ar- 

 ray of young shoots, and 

 I began to fill in with more 

 earth, in the gentlest man- 

 ner possible. Then came 

 the heavy rains and soon 

 my young plants were 

 standing "knee deep" in 

 water. My subsoil being 

 heavy clay, the drainage 

 was very poor. The wet 

 spell was prolonged, and 

 the water stood in the 

 trench until the earth be- 

 came almost of the consist- 

 ency of mortar. Whenever 

 possible I filled in dry earth 

 to counteract the trouble, 

 but in spite of the greatest care a number 

 of the young shoots were broken off or 

 otherwise damaged, and whenever th^ 

 sun shone strong the earth baked on top 

 and soured beneath. Consequently, when 

 my plants were about ten inches high they 

 began to turn yellow, and die. Pulling 

 these up, I found in every instance the 

 roots rotted away, and a very bad odor. 

 Nearly one-third of my plants were dead 

 before I discovered a remedy. 



The earth was sour. To counteract 

 this, I prepared lime water, by slacking 

 a lump of lime, about the size of my fist, 

 in a pail of water and letting it settle. I 

 then made an irrigating ditch close to the 

 roots of my peas, and every other day 

 for a short time, poured into it a pail of 

 lime water, being careful not to let any 

 of the lime get upon the vines or the 

 earth. Then, refilling with water the pail 

 containing the lime, I left it to saturate 

 for the next time, and about every three 

 days, for a while, repeated the treatment. 

 In about two weeks my peas were look- 

 ing quite healthy, and the blight had 

 ceased. The trench meanwhile having 

 been filled up, and the danger passed, I 

 was finally rewarded by a beautiful bloom 

 upon the remaining vines ; but the inter- 

 vening spaces made by the "blight," 



M2LX. Moineau, Toronto 



spoiled the fine appearance which I had 

 anticipated. 



From this and past experiences, I re- 

 solved that wherever the subsoil is clay, 

 the following method would be more pro- 

 fitable : Dig out the earth to the depth 

 of the subsoil, about two spades wide. 

 Fill in about six inches of well rotted 

 horse manure, and, according to accom- 

 panying diagram, dig this into the sub- 

 soil (a) a spade deep. Then lay a drain 

 pipe (b), the kind the builders call 

 "weepers" — or broken stones will do if 

 weepers are not available — over which fill 



Diagram of Sweet Pea Trench, Deicribed in Accompanying Article 



in another six inches of well rotted horse 

 manure (c). Over this place two inches 

 of good clayey loam (d), finely broken up, 

 and then sow the seed in two rows, al- 

 ternately, three inches apart, thus, 

 . Fill in the remainder 

 of the trench until a little above the sur- 

 face level, with good clayey loam (e), 

 with which equal parts of fine bone meal 

 and hard wood ashes have been care- 

 fully mixed, say about a pint to the run- 

 ning yard. When plants are on the 

 strings, say twelve or eighteen inches 

 high, hill up the earth about three inches 

 (f), leaving an irrigating ditch at each 

 side (g). This method will insure plenty 

 of moisture, and at the same time estab- 

 lish sufficient drainage to prevent "damp- 

 ing off," otherwise known as the sweet 

 pea blight. Sweet peas require an abun- 

 dance of water, but good drainage is ab- 

 solutely imperative to prevent "damping 

 olT. " After the plants are in Isud, 

 through the medium of the irrigating 

 ditch, feed them with liquid manure once 

 or twice a week. 



The following preparation is an 

 excellent fertilizer: One part nitrate of 

 potash (salt-petre), two parts of super- 

 phosphate, eighteen to twenty per cent. ; 

 two parts of sulphate of ammonia, or 



77 



two parts of nitrate of soda. Dissolve 

 half an oiince of the mixture in one gal- 

 lon of water, and apply carefully so as 

 not to allow the liquid to come in direct 

 contact with the foliage. 



For aphis and red spider, use a solu- 

 tion of "Sanitine. " This is a soft soap 

 made from linseed oil. It is one of the fin- 

 est insecticides that I have ever used. It 

 not only keeps off insects, but it leaves 

 the vines glossy and healthy. To one 

 teacupful of Sanitine, add eighteen tea- 

 cupfuls of water and boil until thorough- 

 ly dissolved; then of this, when cool, 

 take one teacupful to which add one gal- 

 lon of water. With this mixture spray 

 your vines twice a week. 



Don't forget to apply the grass mulch 

 to keep the soil from drying out. Water 

 frequently and thoroughly in dry 

 weather: 



Growing Sweet Peas 



B7 a Member of St. Catharines Horticultnral Society 



Last year, I took the advice of Mr. 

 Max Moineau, who contributed articles 

 on sweet pea culture to the January and 

 February, 1908, issues of The Canadian 

 Horticulturist, and bought those nov- 

 elties that I could secure. It was the 

 first time that I ever did this. We al- 

 ways bought them by the pint in all col- 

 ors, but we will never do so again, for 

 the separate colors are so far ahead of 

 the others. I had the grandest flowers 

 that I ever saw. I had white Spencers 

 with four on a stem and great large flow- 

 ers, but I have found out that sweet 

 peas do not like wet feet, for some were 

 planted in a low spot and they soon 

 turned yellow. 



I like striped and flecked peas by 

 themselves and not in a bouquet with 

 others. We plant all our sweet peas in a 

 trench, as Mr. Moineau described, and 

 the striped ones were filled in with chick- 

 en manure. They got no other feed all 

 summer, but they were near the back 

 door where we threw our wash water, 

 and I had to make a little drain along 

 the side of them for the water to run 

 away. They had stiff stems, with three 

 or four large flowers on a stem ; two 

 on the stem was the exception rather 

 than the rule. The foliage was bright 

 and green until the frost killed them. I 

 think that the wash water had much to 

 do with making them so beautiful. I am 

 going to try it on some more this 

 summer. 



Our garden soil is sandy, so we plant 

 everything quite deeply. We drop the 

 peas three inches apart. By planting 

 deeply, they -are not .so apt to be pulled 

 up out of the ground. I tried Mr. 

 Moineau 's plan of tying with the string 

 and like it ever so much better than wire 

 netting. The fault with wire is that you 



