20 



The Florists^ Review 



NOVBltBBB 28, 1918. 



FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 



By^iTTrtitTrtitTriitT^ffififflrfiiff^ig^g^iff^i^^ 



MUSZmOOMS. 



A Profitable Crop. 



The prices of mushrooms have held up 

 extremely well during the present year 

 and the crop has proved profitable to 

 the growers. At this time, when every- 

 one with greenhouses is planning to grow 

 some food crops, mushrooms are well 

 worthy of consideration, provided the 

 necessary manure is available. They 

 can be grown successfully under green- 

 house benches, in cellars, caves and 

 sheds. I have in mind at this time a 

 mushroom bed made in the cellar of a 

 residence. It is placed not far from a 

 hot water heater, which is not by any 

 means the ideal location for such a bed, 

 but it produced 600 pounds of mush- 

 rooms last winter. No expert cared for 

 this bed, but it was made with well pre- 

 pared manure, well tamped and covered 

 with cloths, which were sprayed over 

 twice daily to offset the arid atmosphere 

 of the cellar. None of the mushrooms 

 sold below 75 cents per pound and the 

 bulk of them brought $1 to $1.50 per 

 pound. 



Splendid crops of mushrooms can be 

 grown below carnation benches and, 

 when the crop has spent itself, the ma- 

 nure makes an ideal mulch for the car- 

 nations just at the time they need it. 

 Any bench surface in a violet house is 

 equally adaptable for mushroom culture, 

 for, while the ideal temperature for 

 them in winter is 55 degrees, they will 

 produce, although more slowly, in a 

 lower temperature and will give a heavy 

 crop as the days lengthen. 



Mushroom Beds in Storage Houses. 



It will not harm a mushroom bed if 

 it becomes frozen solid. Some growers 

 have the idea that frost will ruin a bed 

 of mushrooms, but having had beds 

 frozen almost solid for weeks at a time 

 and having always had heavy crops 

 when the temperature advanced, I con- 

 sider that the damage-from-frost theory 

 has been effectively exploded. I also 

 have spawned beds in cold storage 

 housed in late October. In these the 

 winter minimum has often fallen to 30 

 degrees or lower, for days at a time. 

 These beds have never failed to pro- 

 duce heavily, commencing about May 

 15 and continuing until September, a 

 period during which mushrooms realize 

 the highest prices of the year. In such 

 storage houses it is necessary to close 

 the windows tightly and in summer pro- 

 tect tlicm with wooden shutters, also 

 keeping the doors shut tightly and ven- 

 tilating only during cool nights. If 

 these details are attended to, splendid 

 crops, free from insects, can be had 

 through the hottest weather. In such 

 storage houses bods may also be made up 

 in mid-August to produce a crop from 

 the end of September onward. 



Preparing the Beds. 



Ordinarily mushroom beds are made 

 up in the fall, November being a good 

 month for this work. A supply of fresh 

 horse manure from grain-fed horses is 

 absolutely necessary. Some growers 



prefer to throw out the more strawy 

 material, retaining merely the droppings, 

 but just as good results may be had 

 when the straw is included. A good 

 way is to dump the manure under cover 

 of an open shed and give it two or three 

 turnings, until the rank heat subsides. 

 Any portions which are dry are damp- 

 ened with the hose while the pile is 

 being turned. An addition of one-fourth 

 or one-fifth as much pasture loam as 

 manure, well mixed, will prevent vio- 

 lent heating and will at the same time 

 make the beds hold their heat better 

 when made up. 



Manure is in the proper condi- 

 tion as regards moisture when it can 

 be squeezed together into a ball with 

 the hand without exuding moisture. In 

 making up the beds, do not dump all 

 the manure in at once, but put it on in 

 layers, tramping or pounding the layers 

 separately. The harder a bed is firmed, 

 the better it will retain heat and the 

 longer it will produce profitably. An 

 average depth of nine inches is about 

 right for level beds. "Where they are 

 made up on the floor of a cellar, I pre- 

 fer rounded beds with a depth of fifteen 

 to eighteen inches in the center. These 

 need not be more than thirty inches 

 wide, with a narrow path between them. 

 The rounded beds give a greater spawn- 

 ing and mushroom-producing surface 

 than level ones. 



BLEACHINQ WITLOOF CHICORY. 



Please tell me how to bleach Witloof 

 chicory and how to store the roots up 

 to the time of bleaching. 



A. J. H.— 111. 



Dig the roots up now. Cut off the 

 tops, but not too close to the roots. Store 



them in sand or loam on a cellar floor 

 until wanted for forcing. The roots can 

 be successfully forced in a warm, dark 

 cellar or in a mushroom house. They 

 can be cut back to flve or six inches in 

 length before they are planted in loam, 

 spent hops or old tanbark. Below green- 

 house benches is a suitable forcing place 

 also. Plant the roots, water them and 

 cover with a foot or more of spent hops, 

 sawdust, or any other light mulch. 

 Some box arrangement is necessary to 

 hold in the loam and covering. Com- 

 plete darkness is essential for the proper 

 blanching of the tops. The shoots, like 

 cos lettuce, will push up through the 

 light mulch, which can be removed care- 

 fully from one end and the tops cut off. 

 I prefer a light covering to a heavier 

 one, such as is occasionally recom- 

 mended. A fairly warm house is best, 

 not below 55 degrees at night. 



C. W. 



Oxford, O. — The Oxford Betreat 

 greenhouses exhibited some chrysanthe- 

 mums recently in the window of the 

 Oxford National bank, which for size 

 and exquisite coloring are said to have 

 surpassed anything in this line hereto- 

 fore grown at this range. 



Saginaw, Mich. — J. B. Goetz Sons 

 have grown 10,000 flowers of their new 

 anemone chrysanthemum, named Sun- 

 shine, by the disbudding process, pro- 

 ducing one flower to the stem. They 

 have another house in which the plants 

 were not disbudded, the flowers being 

 produced in clusters, but they do not 

 think these are so good as the disbudded 

 ones. Shipments have been made to 

 several markets, including Cleveland, 

 Cincinnati and Chicago, and the demand 

 has been so strong that they wish they 

 had a much larger quantity. Sunshine 

 is golden yellow, with a large, high, 

 anemone-like center and several rows of 

 ray petals. The stems are stiff and the 

 foliage small. The keeping quality is 

 one of the good points claimed for it. 

 J. Fred Goetz, who looks after the green- 

 house end of the business, is preparing 

 to disseminate the variety in the spring. 



MUM STOCK PLANTS. 



Look over the mum stock and see that 

 all desirable sorts, if intended to be 

 kept for another year, are correctly 

 labeled. Do not put tliem V)clow a bench 

 or in any out-of-tlie-way place. The 

 ideal location for them is a bench in a 

 violet house or other cold house, where 

 they will make an abundance of fine, 

 succulent cuttings, so that you can start 

 at once to increase your stock of spe- 

 cially good varieties. In addition to the 

 standard single-stem chrysanthemums, 

 there has been a larger call than ever 

 this season for pompons, singles and un- 

 disbudded sprays of the larger-flowcrod 

 varieties of mums. This lias been a 

 most favorable season for n'ums out- 

 doors, with an almost complete absence 

 of frost until the middle of November. 

 Not only pompons and singles but a 



number of Japanese varieties have 

 bloomed abundantly. As the pompons 

 are not always reliably hardy, it would 

 be well to lift clumps of them before 

 the ground freezes up and store them in 

 coldframes or in a cool greenhouse for 

 the winter. 



CARRYING OVER MUMS. 



"We have two houses of chrysanthe- 

 mums which we planned to stop heating 

 as soon as the mums are cut. Is this 

 stock hardy enough to withstand the 

 cold? Could it be started again and 

 would it yield good crops? If so, kindly 

 advise treatment. Some of the mums 

 are in raised benches and others in 

 ground beds. H. & P. — Mich. 



"We understand that when the houses 

 of mums are cut, you wish to leave the 



