16 



The Florists^ Review 



Sbptembku 11, 1919. 



in succession without injury, but if re- 

 peated too often the plants will have a 

 si<5kly look which, in sweet pea lan- 

 guage, means ' ' Stop. ' ' With good air 

 they will soon emerge from this condi- 

 tion and attain a fine, healthy appear- 

 ance. If a house is absolutely clean at 

 the time picking commences it will hard- 

 ly be necessary to fumigate the rest of 

 the crop. If this has to be resorted to, 

 the crop should be picked clean and be 

 given a day or two to air out before 

 picking commences again, as blooms per- 

 meated with tobacco smoke are offen- 



sive. 



Ked Spider and Bud Drop. 



Eed spider infests plants that come in 

 direct contact with the dry heat em- 

 anating from steam pipes. Where the 

 plants are kept a distance of three feet 

 from these, red spider will scarcely ever 

 show themselves. Many growers have 

 heating pipes suspended from columns 

 supporting the rows. It would be an im- 

 possibility to keep such vines clean; a 

 house just large enough to be heated 

 from the sides reduces the chances of 

 red spider to a minimum, as the front 

 and back rows are three feet away from 

 these vines and the heat from these rises 

 upward and circulates the air in the 

 house, just as hot water circulates in 

 the heating system, so that the hot air 

 is "consumed" by the air of the green- 

 house before the plants are touched. 



Bud drop can be brought about at 

 will. It is caused by the atmosphere of 

 the house being overcharged with cold 

 moisture. Anyone who has had expe- 

 rience knows the minute he enters a 

 sweet pea house if the conditions for 

 bud drop exist. The trouble is more apt 

 to come in spells of cloudy weather. In 

 cloudy weather the vines, through the 

 absence of light, and by our keeping up 

 a flowering temperature, make a tender 

 growth. The buds are also tender, and 

 if they are to stick, the atmosphere must 

 be sweet and buoyant. In such times 

 the manipulation of the steam pipes and 

 the ventilators is the only means of 

 combating the trouble. Ventilation 

 should be given with great care, so as to 

 prevent too sudden changes; the ven- 

 tilators should be opened gradually and 

 the heating pipes gradually shut off. In 

 cloudy spells they should be kept rather 

 on the warm than on the cool side. I 

 prefer a temperature of 67 degrees on 

 bright days, and 58 degrees to 60 de- 

 grees on dull days, with a night temper- 

 ature of 50 degrees to 52 degrees. 



No Danger In Low Temperature. 



I have not seen any bad results from 

 the temperature dropping to 45 degrees 

 or 46 degrees in zero weather. I think 

 it is much better for the plants if it goes 

 down to 46 degrees, for keeping the 

 temperature up to 50 degrees in zero 

 weather means too much artificial heat, 

 and the vines become thin and exhaust 

 themselves. I believe the condition pro- 

 duced by the shutting off of steam pipes 

 without proper attention to the ventila- 

 tion is bad for the healthy growth of the 

 plants. But the principal cause of bud 

 drop is in the afternoon, when the house 

 is closed up to hold what is advisable 

 of the sun's heat. This heat is allowed 

 to chill as the temperature drops. 

 Enough pipes should be turned in good 

 season so the atmosphere will never get 

 damp and sticky, but slowly fall to the 

 desired temperature for the night. I 

 have had no case of bud dropping for 

 mauy years, but it keeps a man contin- 



ually on the job attending to ventilation 

 and steam pipes. Many miles are trod- 

 den each day in the month of March, es- 

 pecially when the sun is in and out. 

 Along in April, when the days are long 

 and the sun runs high, the peas can be 

 grown much cooler without* having bud 

 drop. The absence of light in mid- 

 winter, while keeping up a flowering 

 temperature, makes the hardest time 

 for the grower. 



Tying and Staking. 



The best method of tying and stak- 

 ing is to run a wire lengthwise of the 

 house directly over the row, ten feet, 

 if possible, from the ground. This should 

 be held in place by cross-wires at inter- 

 vals of eight or ten feet. While the 

 plants are small, short bamboo canos 

 that are practically worn out, about two 

 to three feet long, are inserted every 

 three feet in the center of the row. Com- 

 mence at one end with a ball of white 

 cotton string and run out horizontally 

 along the^sides of the row, going around 



the stakes and making a tie at every five 

 or six stakes to prevent slackening. 

 When the plants have reached the top 

 of the stakes insert a longer and 

 stronger stake every eight feet and tie 

 the top to the overhead wire. A cypress 

 stake, one inch square, is good for this 

 purpose, or two or three long bamboo 

 canes tied together make a neat arrange- 

 ment. 



Pinching the shoots I believe is en- 

 tirely unnecessary with the Spencer 

 type of sweet peas. The only thing I 

 see about it is that it makes the vines 

 grow all to top, while the quality of the 

 blooms is not increased, the amount of 

 flowering shoots is greatly diminished, 

 giving a correspondingly light crop, and 

 what flowers are produced are so high 

 up that it is harder to reach them; con- 

 sequently the time consumed in picking 

 is much more than if the blossoms were 

 within easy reach. This type of pea, 

 if given sufficient space all over, will 

 bloom as freely one foot from the 

 ground as ten feet. 



T 



SEED IMPORTS FOR THIRD QUARTER OF LAST FISCAL YEAR. 



HE following are the imports of seeds, with the rates of duty collected thereon, 

 for the third quarter of the government's last fiscal year, as reported by the 

 S. Department of Commerce: 



