PROPAGATION BY GRAFTING 



33 



As soon as the graft is bound on, the stock being in a 3-inch pot 

 is plunged in the propagating bed up to its rim, this bed, you will 

 remember, being made up of coco-nut fibre heated by open hot- 

 water pipes running beneath (see Fig. 17). The heat in the bed, 

 that is, the " bottom heat," should be maintained at about 70 degrees 

 Fahrenheit, and the temperature of the frame would then approx- 

 imate 60 degrees. The pots should be plunged in straight lines 

 almost close together, the angles being all filled in with fibre, 

 and the straightness of the lines facilitates the watering, for it is 

 necessary always to water with a small pot without a rose, to pick 



GRAFTED ROSES 

 PLUNGED IN) 



COCONUT FIBRE 



SLATE COVERS 

 OPEN TROUGHS 



SCALE 1/2 IN, =HFT, 

 FIG. 17 



out the pots which actually require water, leaving the others till 

 they do, and to do it without wetting the graft and stock. Please 

 note that newly grafted stocks are not to be watered overhead, 

 certainly not until sufficient callus has formed to preclude the 

 chance of any water finding its way between the graft and stock. 



The moist heat imparted to the bed by the vapour arising from 

 the open pipes gives rise to a considerable condensation, so much so 

 that before the lights are taken off every morning the water hangs 

 on the under side in large globules. This makes the removal of 

 the lights at a comparatively early hour very essential, and to lessen 

 the time of the exposure of the bed a careful propagator carefully 

 wipes the moisture off the inner side of the lights so that he is able 



