

662 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



AuocST 25, 1904. 



CEREUS GRANDIFLORUS. 



The accompanying illustration is a re- 

 production of a photograph from T. 

 Grossenbach, of the Stertzing floral es- 

 tablishment at Maplewood, Mo. It 

 shows two well developed flowers of the 

 night blooming cereus, C, grandiflorus.. 

 The plant is several years old and this 

 year produced seven nowers each meas- 

 uring from seven to eight inches across. 



Vegetable Forcing. 



p. O'Mara, in a discussion on polli- 

 nation at the St. Louis convention of 

 the S. A. F., spoke of the method em- 

 ployed by a tomato grower of his ac- 

 quaintance to secure an early crop in- 

 doors. He is in the habit of preserving 

 the last flowers produced on outdoor vines, 

 tying up the branches in paper bags, 

 and using the pollen to fertilize the first 

 flowers produced under glass, which are 

 themselves deficient in pollen. Mr. 

 O'Mara said the pollen keeps six weeks 

 or two months with the bags hung in a 

 dry place. 



LETTUCE UNDER GLASS. 



Please give me a little information 

 about lettuce under glass. What time 

 should the seed be sown to get the crop 

 off by January 1 to 15? Will four inches 

 of soil do? Will the soil that has been 

 prepared for carnations produce a good 

 crop? What variety of lettuce is the 

 best for market? Does lettuce require as 

 much or more water than carnations? 



E. C. L. 



If seeds are sown at the end of Sep- 

 tember or first of October they ought, 



in ten weeks from time of sowing but 

 that was during the spring months, when 

 the days were getting longer and bright- 

 er as the crop matured, but at the sea- 

 son you intend to grow this crop the 

 opposite conditions prevail; hence the 

 crop will require rather more time to 

 attain the mature stage. 



Lettuce can be grown in four inches 

 of soil but this is rather too shallow, as 

 the scil is apt to dry out too fast, mak- 

 ing it hard to maintain an even moist- 

 ure at the roots. They are far easier 

 grown in solid beds than in raised 

 benches, because, in the first place, they 

 do better where the soil is a few degrees 

 cooler than the overhead temperature, 

 and, in the second place, there is much 

 less danger of extremes in the moisture 

 of the soil, making the plants more sus- 

 ceptible to the attacks of the several 

 fungous diseases to which they are often 

 an easy prey, even under the most favor- 

 able conditions and with the best of 

 care. 



I have grown good lettuce in benches 

 by plaeing about two inches of thor- 

 oughly rotted manure in the bottom of 

 the bench and filling up over this with 

 about three inches of soil. The manure, 

 acting as a moisture conserving element, 

 eliminated the danger of fluctuation and 

 enabled us to maintain a more even moist- 

 ure in the soil with less frequent appli- 

 cations of water than where soil alone 

 was used. 



I don't know what your carnation soil 

 consists of, but as a rule the compost 

 used for carnations is made rather rich- 

 er than is really needed for lettuce. In 

 these a good deal of damping is often 

 caused by having too much manure in 

 the soil. If your soil is a free, friable 

 loam of good quality, little or no man- 

 ure would be required if the, bench is 

 filled with manure in the bottom as rec- 



Cereus Graodif lorus. 



under favorable conditions, to be ready 

 for the time specified, about three 

 months being required at that season 

 from time of sowing until the crop is 

 at its best. We have had lettuce mature 



ommended above. If light, of course, a 

 little would be needed and if stiff and 

 heavy it could be lightened by some good 

 old manure from the horse stables. A 

 free, sandy loam is the best suited for 



lettuce grown indoors. Such a loam re- 

 quires to be moderately enriched. For 

 this purpose there is nothing better than 

 moderately decomposed barnyard man- 

 ure. I have never had satisfactory re- 

 sults from the use of chemical fertiliz- 

 et9i 



Regarding variety, head lettuce is in- 

 variably preferred. Of this the best we 

 have tried is a variety known as Glass 

 House. It is of the Boston Market type 

 and probably a selection from this old 

 variety. Some still prefer the old Bos- 

 ton Market but Glass House embodies 

 all its good qualities and is less suscep- 

 tible to disease. If a head lettuce is 

 not essential. Grand Rapids is the easi- 

 est grower and produces more weight 

 p?r foot of bench than any variety I 

 know. 



Generally speaking, lettuce does not 

 require so much water as carnations, but 

 it must be even more judiciously ap- 

 plied, their softer nature rendering them 

 more susceptible to injury through ex- 

 cessive dryness or inactivity of the roots 

 should the soil be overcharged with wa- 

 ter. Sub-irrigation has been found ben- 

 eficial, but good lettuce can be grown 

 by watering in the old way if judicious 

 care is exercised in its application. 



The regrulation of the atmospheric 

 moisture is one of the most important 

 points in the cultivation of lettuce under 

 glass. Growing, as they do, at a right 

 temperature of from 40 to 45 degrees, 

 so little artificial heat is required that 

 there is little danger of the atmosphere 

 being too dry unless during very bright 

 weather. The trouble, especially during 

 the dull winter days, is to get the atmos- 

 phere dry enough to prevent condensa- 

 tion settling on the foliage during the 

 night when the house is closed. This 

 condensation is one of the principal 

 agencies in the development of fungus 

 diseases. As a preventive against this 

 watering should be done in the morning 

 and, if possible, on bright days only, 

 when sufficient air can be admitted to 

 dry up the moisture before time to close 

 the house down. W. S. Croydon. 



TOMATOES. 



About August 20 we begin sowing 

 seed for our first lot of tomatoes. This 

 brings the ripe fruit in at the holidays, 

 which is about as soon as many care to 

 pay the price for greenhouse tomatoes. 

 In private gardens, where a continuous 

 supply is often called for, seed requires 

 to be sown earlier than this, but with 

 the commercial grower the idea of a 

 continuous supply does not count; the 

 point is to strike the market when the 

 best price is likely to be obtained. 

 ■ Regarding varieties, I think it is a 

 good plan to try some of the new ones 

 every year or two, as they come out. 

 Go somewhat slowly at first, until you 

 are satisfied that you have something 

 worth growing. Do not consign some of 

 the good old varieties to back-number- 

 hood simply l>eoause you have some- 

 thing with a big name. Though it has 

 succeeded with others, it may not suc- 

 ceed so well with you. Tomatoes are 

 not like roses, carnations, etc., which 

 are liable to deteriorate in the course of 

 a few years. The tomato, being taken 

 from seed, is practically a new plant 

 every year. The others being propa- 

 gated from cuttings, are but parts of an 

 old plant which, being subjected to the 

 weakening inflyence of culture under 

 artificial conditions year after year, 

 lose both in strength and ^igor. When 



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