CHAPTER III 

 POTTING AND GROWING ON 



THE last few days in the cutting bed should see the lights removed, 

 for these cuttings must not be encouraged to make any growth 

 save at the roots. By the time these are about J-inch long they are 

 ready for lifting and potting, and this might be done without any 

 apparent check to the young plants. See Fig. 3 . It involves the warm- 

 ing of the compost to the temperature of the house, not necessary equal 

 to the bottom heat of the propagating bed. This compost should 

 consist mainly of sandy loam chopped fine, with a slight addition 

 of leaf soil, sand, and ashes from burnt refuse as correctives. This 

 would be porous, friable, and not liable to run together and set 

 firm. The pots, too, 3-inch by preference, should be cleaned, 

 crocked, and warmed. Lift the cuttings carefully without breaking 

 the roots, shaking off most of the sand which adheres to them, 

 and pot them firmly, but not deeply, keeping them in the propagating 

 house and shading until they are well rooted through, after which 

 they should be removed to a house where the temperature ranges 

 from 50 to 55 degrees. In this house they should go through a 

 hardening regime, with the free admission of air at all favourable 

 times. Coddling at this stage, or at any succeeding stage, would 

 simply ruin their constitution, and bearing in mind what we had 

 to say above on this point, no grower will be foolish enough to 

 take risks. At this particular stage, even if at no other, the plants 

 should not be too far removed from the glass. 



We have now brought a batch of plants through their initial 

 stages ; but there are other successive batches at short intervals, 

 because the whole of the cuttings are not ready at the same time. 

 With but slight modifications to meet the changing weather, the 

 same regime may be followed, the principal modification being the 

 more effective shading of the young stock as the sun increases in 

 power. This applies not only to the cuttings while yet rooting, 

 but more especially to the newly potted cuttings, and until such 

 time as they have fairly established themselves in the 3-inch 

 pots. See Fig. 4. 



