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OCTOBBB 7, 1920 



The Florists' Review 



15 





A Heavy Crop of Sweet Peas at the Height of the Season in a House at Glen Ellyn. 



mainder. The hard ones will promptly 

 swell if the outer covering is broken 

 with a sharp knife without disturbing 

 the eye of the seed. 



Sowing the Seed. 



Sweet pea seed may be drilled directly 

 in permanent quarters or sown thickly 

 in a well prepared seed bed and trans- 

 planted, pr potted if the bed is not 

 ready. A pound of seed will drill ap- 

 proximately 400 feet. By the trans- 

 planting method, if the plants are set 

 about two inches apart, the same quan- 

 tity of seed will easily reach twice as 

 far. In drilling, some of the seed will 

 rot or plants will damp off after getting 

 through, making it necessary to sow 

 thickly to allow for such loss. Thinning 

 out after the plants are up will do for 

 low-priced seed, but those "good old 

 days," when we could better afford to 

 be indifferent about results, are gone. 



For early crops, the plants should 

 stand two or three inches aj^rt in the 

 row. The late stock does not have time 

 to grow so large and should be planted 

 one to two inches apart. 



During warm weather the seedlings 

 must be potted or planted in permanent 

 quarters within two weeks from the 

 date of sowing, but in cooler weather 

 four to six weeks may elapse. About a 

 week or ten days will be gained by 

 potting to 2-inch pots. If allowed to 

 harden up in the pots, they will never 

 make good plants. 



Sweet peas are planted in rows from 

 one to five feet apart, according to the 

 date of planting. The early planting 

 produces lateral growths freely if the 

 spacing is liberal, while stock planted 

 as late as March flowers from terminal 

 growths only and there are but one or 

 two of these to a plant. 



The planting can be done either cross- 

 wise or lengthwise of the bed. We find 

 the work of picking and supporting de- 

 cidedly easier with the lengthwise rows. 

 On the other hand, figures show a few 

 more flowers can be picked if the same 

 length of row is run across the bed. 

 With our 6-foot beds we prefer the 

 long rows for early work, planting two 

 rows in the 6-foot bed. In 5-foot beds 

 the spacing of lengthwise rows would 

 be difficult to arrange. With these beds, 

 therefore, we use cross rows, spacing 

 them three feet apart, but reducing this 

 to one foot for the latest planting. The 

 fact that growers are about evenly di- 

 vided with reference to these planting 

 systems would indicate that there is 

 really little difference and that the plan 

 to be used should be determined by the 

 local arrangement of house and beds. 



In Big, IVIodeim Houses. 



Unless a profitable catch crop is grown 

 between them, I have found the spac- 

 ing of rows five feet apart does not pay. 

 I have seen growers with modern, wide 

 houses disregard the beds entirely, 

 • planting on the open ground across the 



house. If the drainage is well provided 

 for, I see no reason why this should 

 not be an ideal plan. It might not be 

 so convenient for the handling of the 

 small crops that are sometimes) grown 

 between peas or between crops of peas, 

 but this is a small matter if an improve- 

 ment in handling the main crop is at 

 stake. Where this plan is used I should 

 suggest spacing the rows four feet apart, 

 leaving a wide walk through the center 

 of the house. 



With our regulation beds we run steam 

 pipes along both edges, as we find it 

 necessary to use these in damp weather, 

 especially in late spring, when a pro- 

 longed spell of soft weather might pro- 

 duce flowers that would go to pieces in 

 a day or two. All that can be done to 

 avoid such a result is to have' steam well 

 distributed through the house and give 

 all air possible. Where the cross-row 

 system is used in a modern house, this 

 distribution of steam could be provided 

 for easily. ' 



Planting in Hot Weather. 



Before planting a bed in hot weather, 

 the soil should be thoroughly soaked. 

 After the surface is dry enough to 

 handle and the planting is finished and 

 watered, the top soil should be raked to 

 conserve the moisture, making it un- 

 necessary to do any further watering 

 for a week or ten days. As the surface 

 soil becomes dry, light syringing is 

 necessary to kieep down spider, which 



