July 28, 1921 



The Florists^ Review 



21 



PROGRESS OF THE BATTLE. 



Through th«^ courtesy of John K. 

 Andre, of Doylestown, Pa., The Review 

 is enabled to give the condition of the 

 battle with the rose beetle in the east. 

 Mr. Andre supplied the federal author- 

 ities with a laboratory. In one of his 

 greenhouses at Doylestown, I'rofesaor 

 (J. A. Weigel and his assistant, B. V. 

 Doucette, have been industriously work- 

 ing for the last five months. Mr. Andre 

 believes that it would greatly encour- 

 age the Department of Agriculture at 

 Washington in their efforts to help ex- 

 terminate the rose beetle and other 

 pests from greenhouses were they to 

 know that the florists of the country 

 appreciate what thoj|i>, are doing. He 

 asked that the growers who are inter- 

 ested support the na^nal government 

 in their work, not h^ contributions — 

 money is not requinad — but by their 

 interest; by eomin^Borward, telling 

 what they know, telfflrg all their trou- 

 bles and, in any way that they choose, 

 showing that they are interested. Mr. 

 .\ndre is firmly convinced that, given 

 this encouragement, the United States 

 government will in time find a way to 

 exterminate the rose beetle from green- 

 houses. 



Here are the facts: 



Professor Weigel and his assistant, 

 Mr. Doucette, have been exi)erimenting 

 with 800 rose plants of the variety 

 Double White Killarney in a green- 

 liouse on the establishment of John E. 

 Andre, Doylestown, Pa. They have 

 taken infini.te pains and gathered many 

 interesting facts and figures. Their 

 research leads them to the conclusion 

 that the beetle must be met by different 

 methods at different stages of the bat- 

 tle. They believe that when rose plants 

 are dried off and cut back in the sum 

 mer is the time to use hydrocyanic acid 

 gas, and that the use of this gas is 

 without danger to the plants at that 

 time and is certain death to nil the 

 beetles above ground. They believe 

 that the so-called Bordeaux mixtures 

 are repellent; that is, that when the 

 young growth is kejit sprayed with ar- 

 senate of lead, j)yrox or any other form 

 of Paris green, the bug will go else- 

 where; that tlie success of this treat- 

 ment depends on keeping the young 

 growth covered with the solution. They 

 believe that unleaehed wood ashes and 

 tobacco dust used separately and alter- 

 nately every five days are of doubtful 

 value. This is a modification of their 

 view of a year ago. They believe that 

 there are great possibilities in pnra- 



chloride of benzine, a chemical salt used 

 on the soil. Their attentioii was at- 

 tracted to this chemical ^It by the 

 success that had attended its use in 

 destroying the beech borer. Their ef- 

 forts with this chemical salt have not 

 yet l)een fully rewarded by success. 

 Its destructiveness to the beetle is 

 proved, but it must be so modified that 

 it will not endangt^r the vitality of the 

 plants. 



This in brief is the result of the five 

 irioiitlis' work in Mr. Andre's green- 

 iiouse at Doylestown as given by Pro- 

 fessor Weigel on the afternoon of .July 

 19, 1921, Just before he returned to 

 VV:ishingt(»n, D. V. Phil. 



ROSE MIDOE CONQUERED. 



[ am writing to give you an experi- 

 ence tliat we had with the rose midge. 

 In June, 1920, our rose houses became 



full of rose midge, which spoiled our crop 

 to such an extent that we could not cut 

 any roses till September. The men cut 

 oft' all the stems that were infested 

 with the midge, burned the stalks, 

 cleaned under the benches ami sprayed 

 with nicotine solution every day, but 

 this did not stop the midge. As it be- 

 came warm early this year, the midge 

 started in our houses in April and, to 

 tell the truth, we were saying, "Good 

 bye, rose crop." But here is the way 

 we handled Mr. Midge. The first thing 

 we did was to order a couple of extra 

 sprayer.s^ Then we started after the 

 fly. Every morning, after cutting the 

 roses, we would close the ventilators 

 tightly ia the rose houses, load our 

 sprayers with water and nicotine solu- 

 tion and spray throughout all the 

 houses. We woubl then leave the ven- 

 tilators closed for about an hour, watch 

 ing from the outside at the gable end 

 of the houses, so th.at the roses would 

 not burn. Then we would open the win- 

 dows and sjiray the roses with cold 

 water. By continuing this treatment 

 for three weeks and cutting off all the- 

 infested stems and burning them, we 

 rid ourselves of the midge. At [iresent 

 there is not a sign of the midge in our 

 rose houses. 



1 have written thisKtt that rose grow- 

 ers may try this remedy if troubled with 

 the midge, because i spent many sleep- 

 less niglits worrying and wondering 

 when we would cut roses. At present 

 we have ten large houses planted witli 

 roses. (ieorge H. Jennings. 



X.i. 



TOO MUCH WATER. 



[ have sent as samples two geranium 

 leaves which are turning yellow. 1 

 had the plants in fine condition, wh<'n 

 all at once the leaves began turning yel- 

 low and dropping, until some i)lants 

 had no leaves at ail. Will vou tell nie 

 the cause of this? (.. A. R.— O. 



the geranium sent is beginning to rot 

 .it the roots. J. H. H.— Neb. 



It is (juite probable that the strength 

 of these j)l;ints w.'is weakened by exces- 

 sive w.'itering. This sometimes hapi>ens 

 tow.'ird the eiul of the season, when the 

 jilants hjive been held in the sami> pots 

 for a longtime and th(> watering is done 

 in the heat of the dav. M. P. 



GERANIUM ROOTS ROT. 



I ,im sending you ii geranium nnd 

 sliould like to know what is the trou 

 ble th;it has made unsalable most of our 

 stock of this size. They do well until 

 they are sliifted the last time, into 

 314-inch or 4-inch pots. Then, .after 

 a short time, the roots begin rotting, 

 the leaves fall off and the ])lants ;ire 

 unsalable. Last year we had the s;ime 

 trouble and lost most of our large 

 stock. Our water comes from a 27.">- 

 foot well and is quite hard. Could that 

 be the trouble* You will notice that 



It is entirely probable that these 

 [il.-nits were overpotted; consequently, 

 the soil became sour before the roots 

 could ]iro])erly assimilate it. There is 

 ••ilso a chance that the water contains 

 sonic mineral which shows its effect 

 move as the iilants become older and 

 riper. I should try to investigiite this 

 theorv l)v using rain water on a liatch 

 of plants'. M. P. 



TROUBLED WITH FUNGUS. 



We are sending you by parcel jiost 

 two Poitevine geranium plants. Can 

 you tell us what is the trouble with 

 them ? Tlie leaves, you will notice, have 

 little black specks on them. 



H. W. A.— X. Y. 



These geraniums were planted to noti' 

 the effect of changed conditions. They 

 have not become any worse and the 

 affected parts have entirely dried up. 

 One of the plants has started into new 

 growth. It is fjuite likely that tlif 

 ]il;iiits jire affected by fungi from 

 some local cause. It would be advisable 

 as an experiment to spray them with 

 Pyrox, maile by the Bowker Chemical 

 Co. I have found this a good fnngicidi'. 



