414 



Gardening for Amateurs 



or seed pans. If porous pots or pans are 

 used it may be necessary to keep the pots 

 plunged in a bed of moist fibre or moss to 

 prevent too great loss of moisture ; a piece 

 of glass is placed on top for the same pur- 

 pose, as it is bad for seedlings to be watered 

 too frequently ; watering cools the soil, 

 and soon renders it too acid for the tiny 

 roots of young plants. Turn the glass 

 every morning so as to allow all the water 

 which collects on it being dissipated and 

 prevent damping off. Composts are made 

 up in the same manner as for the frame, 

 and plenty of drainage should always be 

 allowed for ; greenhouse composts should 

 be sterilised. Great care must be exercised 

 in hardening off ; remove the plants to the 

 coolest part of the house, give them plenty 

 of air, yet avoid draughts, and after they 

 have been in these conditions for a time 

 take them to the frame and harden off 

 gradually in the usual way. 



Treatment of Seedlings. When seed- 

 lings burst through the soil they generally 

 have one or two seed-leaves, or cotyledons, 

 as they are called ; after that come the 

 true leaves of the plant. When the true 

 leaves begin to appear plants must be kept 

 as near the glass as possible, in order to 

 prevent their getting " drawn," i.e. to keep 

 them from growing a long stem and becom- 

 ing thin and lanky. Watering must also 

 be carried out with care ; the soil must not 

 get dry and caked, nor yet be too moist, 

 and air should be given freely. 



Transplanting. Seedlings are trans- 

 planted as soon as a pair of true leaves are 

 grown, or even before that. The usual 

 way to do this is to cut a V-shaped notch in 

 a wooden label, to lift the tiny plants gently 

 with this, then to drop them in a suitable 

 hole in fresh soil, small seedlings 1 inch 

 apart, the largest 3 inches distant from each 

 other. This should always be done before 

 plants are removed from the original con- 

 ditions of their birth, i.e. from the hot- 

 house or the frame ; they must be care- 

 fully shaded until well established in their 

 new position, after which they can be 

 placed near the glass or hardened off. Seed- 

 lings grown in the open should not be 

 transplanted until large enough to handle, 

 and then only when the soil is moist. 



Chipping Seeds and Soaking Them. 



The chipping of seeds has come to be much 

 practised nowadays. A small piece of the 

 outer skin is removed with a sharp knife 

 or a file, care being taken to keep back from 

 the " eye " of the seed. I don't advise 

 the practice, because germs of disease and 

 fungi spores can enter too easily. Soak the 

 seeds for at least a day in water, or until 

 the seed covering turns soft, then plant them 

 in the seed drills ; this is much safer and, 

 in my opinion, a much better plan. 



Mice and Seeds. To keep mice and 

 other pests from eating the seeds dust 

 them with dry lead paint before placing 

 them in the soil. Some gardeners also 

 advise that large seeds like peas and beans 

 should be steeped for five or ten minutes 

 in paraffin oil and then dusted with red 

 lead. 



Seeds and Diseases. Seeds often carry 

 the spores of fungoid diseases or the germs 

 of bacterial troubles, which, under favour- 

 able conditions, will attack the new crop. 

 A good preventive is to steep the seeds for 

 a few hours in water coloured to a deep 

 pink with potassium permanganate ; one 

 pennyworth of the crystals will make 50 to 

 100 gals, of the solution, so the preventive 

 remedy is a cheap one. 



INCREASING PLANTS BY CUTTINGS 

 It is found advisable in horticulture to 

 raise many plants from cuttings. A cutting 

 may be taken from a branch of some plant, 

 from a leaf, or in some cases from a root, 

 all of which, under favourable conditions, 

 will produce roots and so furnish a new 

 plant. Seeds may produce " sports " or 

 variations of the qualities of the parent 

 variety ; but the cuttings, as a general 

 rule, rarely produce a plant in any way dif- 

 ferent from that off which it was taken. 



Hard-wooded Cuttings. These are 

 generally " struck " or rooted without 

 leaves, although evergreens and heaths are 

 propagated by cuttings on which the foliage 

 is retained. A nice shoot should be re- 

 moved from the plant, severed close to a 

 joint, and the leaves and buds, if any, 

 removed from the bottom 2 or 3 inches with 

 a sharp knife. Sometimes a " heel " is 

 kept on ; in that case the whole shoot is 



