May, 1909 



THE CANADIAN H R T I C U L T U E I S T 



'05 



The Long Cucumber in the Cold Greenhouse 



W. H. Edwards, Brockville, Ontario 



FOR years past I have been growing 

 the long cucumber in a cold green- 

 house after the geraniums and 

 other bedding plants have been cleared 

 out. The plants are not grown for com- 

 mercial purposes but to supply the home 

 table. The method of growing, however, 

 may be interesting to the commercial 

 grower as well. 



The modus operandi is one of the most 

 simple character. The house used was 

 erected to give room for spring stock, 

 sales of which generally commence about 

 the first or second week in May, so that 

 some room is obtained on the benches 

 by, say, May 24th. The seed is sown 

 the third week in April in a cool house 

 (lowest night temperature forty-five de- 

 grees) in ordinary berry boxes, four or 

 five seeds in a box, filled with a material 

 composed of about two-thirds of decayed 

 manure (the bottom of last season's hot 

 bed preferred) and one-third .of ordinary 

 garden soil. The boxes are thoroughly 

 watered, covered with glass to prevent 

 evaporation, and kept dark till the first 

 break is apparent. The boxes are uncov- 

 ered, placed on a shelf close to the glass, 

 kept moderately wet and sprayed regu- 

 larly on bright days. 



By the second week in May the plants 

 ought to have the rough leaf well de- 

 veloped. The boxes are gone over and 

 all excepting the strongest plant in each 

 pulled up, and the boxes replaced as 

 close to the glass as possible to await 

 convenience for setting out. It should 

 be remembered that the glass has re- 

 ceived the usual summer clouding and 

 the house in which the plants are grown 

 is kept lightly shaded all the time the 

 plants occupy it. 



The hills are prepared in the follow- 

 ing manner. Four pieces of rough board 

 (anything will do that will hold a nail), 

 three feet long, ten inches wide, are nail- 

 ed together, making a bottomless box. 

 This is set four feet apart on the empty 

 spaces on the bench, on the east or north 

 side of the house. A little material, simi- 

 lar to that used in the seed boxes, is 

 placed on the bench and three of the 

 boxes (now containing one plant each) 

 are placed close together, and more of 

 the material is added so as to quite bury 

 the three boxes, and watered. 



In about a week, the fine roots will 

 show through the soil and then a good 

 liberal shovelful of the same kind is 

 added, and this repeated about every ten 

 days throughout the growing season, or 

 in all about a wheelbarrowful. This soil 

 after the cucumbers are over will be very 

 useful for various purposes. 



After the plants have commenced to 

 grow, a strong wire is pushed into the 

 soil and fastened to the sash bar, one 

 wire to each plant. The plant is trained 

 up this till it reaches the glass, say, 



three feet from the bench, and is then 

 stopped by nipping. In a few days the 

 plants will send out strong lateral shoots. 

 The best of these are selected and carried 

 up to the wires suspended from the roof, 

 and kept regularly tied with raffia but 

 not tightly ; but no more pinching is 

 done. The plants are watered daily 

 (make sure the water reaches the bottom 

 of the hill) and sprayed twice daily in 

 bright weather getting well under the 

 leaves. The squash bug is the only thing 

 that I have known to injure the plants, 

 and that only in its early stages. The 

 plants generally commence to bear in 

 about five weeks from the time of plant- 

 ing, and continue to do so until fall. 



The kind grown is a cross between 

 the common Long Green American varie- 

 ty and Rollinson's Telegraph, re-crossed 

 with Lion House, a very fine English var- 

 iety. Last year some of the fruits meas- 

 I'red twenty-six inches in length, good 

 :ipd solid, of fine flavor, free from all 



Greenhouse-Grown Cucumbers 



bitterness, almost seedless, and will keep 

 a long time after being cut. The plants 

 require no fertilization except the nat- 

 ural. 



Other kinds that I have been success- 

 ful with are Tender and True, Telegraph, 

 Blue Gown, Cardiff Castle and Lion 

 House. From the time the plants are 

 planted out on the benches, they have no 

 artificial heat hut all the ventilation pos- 

 sible, avoiding strong draughts. 



Forcing Green Onions 



Wm. Her, Berlin, Ont. 



The old method of forcing bulb onions 

 for bunching is a very uncertain way, 

 and does not prove at all profitable com- 

 pared with the new method. Plant win- 

 ter onions or Egyptian tree onions in the 

 spring or, better still, immediately after 

 ripening in August, in drills one foot 

 apart in well prepared soil. Make the 

 drill with a marker or other convenient 

 tool. I use a hand cultivator putting the 

 right and left plows close together to 



open the drill and reversing them to 

 cover the onions. Drop the onions an 

 inch or two apart just as you would 

 beans or corn and cover an inch or two 

 deep. Cultivate as other onions during 

 the summer. 



Before freezing weather dig what is 

 wanted and store in a trench or other 

 convenient place. Cover sufficiently to 

 keep out severe frost. To force, plant 

 as closely together as they will stand on 

 the bench, and in three or four weeks 

 they will be fit to bunch. To have a suc- 

 cession, plant every two weeks during 

 the winter. I have tried this method 

 with good results and would recommend 

 it to any person that forces onions. 



Fertilizers for Vegetables 



At a meeting of the Toronto branch of 

 the Ontario Vegetable Growers' Asso- 

 ciation, held in March, the address on 

 fertilizers as related to vegetable grow- 

 ing, delivered by Professor Gamble, was 

 very interesting. In it, he pointed out 

 the value of the different fertilizers to the 

 different kinds of soil, and dealt strong- 

 ly with the use of barnyard manure. 

 "Barnyard manure," said the speaker, 

 "is the best general fertilizer known. 

 It makes organic matter for the soil and 

 improves its mechanical condition. Barn- 

 yard manure contains all the elements 

 necessary to enrich the soil. In a ton of 

 manure there are from 10 to 15 pounds 

 of nitrogen ; 5 to 9 pounds of phosphoric 

 acid, and 10 to 18 pounds of potash." 

 The speaker said that land used for vege- 

 table growing required more fertilizing 

 than that used for raising grain. In this 

 connection, he pointed out that in one 

 year, a yield of 30 bushels of wheat per 

 acre would take from the soil 34 pounds 

 of nitrogen, 14.2 pounds of phosphoric 

 acid, and 9.3 pounds of potash. A yield 

 of 15 to 30 tons of cabbage per acre, on 

 the other hand, would take from the soil 

 in one year, 100 to 200 pounds of nitro- 

 g^"} 35 to 70 pounds of phosphoric acid, 

 and 135 to 270 pounds of potash. A 

 crop of potatoes, of from 100 to 200 

 bushels per acre, would take from the 

 soil ioj4 to 33 pounds of nitrogen; 10 to 

 20 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 31 to 

 62 pounds of potash. A crop of toma- 

 toes, 5 to 10 tons per acre, takes from 

 16 to 32 pounds of nitrogen, 10 to 20 

 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 27 to 54 

 pounds of potash. This shows the need 

 of fertilizers. The speaker pointed out 

 that the nitrogen in barnyard manure is 

 not as available as that in some of the 

 so-called chemical fertilizers. It is slow- 

 er in its action, because the nitrogen in 

 farm yard manure must undergo certain 

 changes before it becomes soluble. These 

 changes take place more rapidly in a 

 warm soil, and, as a result, the early 

 crop taken from the land the year the 

 manure is applied will not be as large 

 as a late crop, (e. g., early and late cab- 



