'"^^^^^^rVf^^vl'^ 



Mat 11, 1006. 



The Weekly Florists^ ReviewiT 



J 507 



-rf- 



■ T 







The Easter Display of J. B. Braidwoodt Successor to Wm. dark, Colorado Springs, G>lo. 



only practical method. Keep taking them 

 oflf until enough can be had at one time. 

 This is a case where hurry cuts no ice 

 but where a little patience is sure of its 

 reward. There is little danger of getting 

 left in the matter of flowers, as once the 

 lateral shoots get growing freely and 

 attain suflBcient length they will produce 

 pistilate flowers at almost every joint. 

 Pollen bearing flowers are always plenti- 

 ful. 



The regulation of the growth by pinch- 

 ing is another matter that will require 

 frequent attention, both in cucumbers 

 and melons. Nothing much in the way 

 of rules can be laid down for pinching. 

 In regard to cucumbers, as they fruit so 

 much more abundantly than melons the 

 only thing to do is to regulate the growth 

 according to the size of the trellis and 

 prevent over-crowding. With the melons 

 the general rule is to pinch out the 

 point of the shoot two points beyond the 

 fruit and then pinch aU secondary lateral 

 shoots after they have made one joint, 

 but here again the available trellis space 

 must be taken into consideration. Bather 

 pinch closer than allow the shoots to be- 

 come thick and over-crowded. 



W. S. Cboydon. 



HEAD LETTUCE UNDER GLASS. 



Evolution of Lettuce House. 

 Head lettuce has been grown unfler 

 glass by the Boston market gardeners for 

 many years, and the success which they 

 have obtained in growing this crop offers 

 one of the best examples of skill in th3 

 management of plants. Much of the head 

 lettuce produced years ago was grown 

 under sash. Then came the large frame 

 house built of sash, which today seems 

 crude in construction and badly deficient 

 in light. Most of the lettuce houses to- 

 day are even or two-thirds span con- 

 structions and built out of light frames 

 and generally run east and west. These 



houses are usually 300 fset long, forty 

 feet wide and occasionally they are 400, 

 or in some instances 600, feet or more in 

 length. The roof glass generally em- 

 ployed is 16x24 or 16x28 inches and in 

 some modern houses 20x30 glass is em- 

 ployed. The glass now employed is much 

 larger and of superior quality to that 

 originally utilized. The tendency has been 

 in tlie growing of lettuce, as with other 

 crops, to increase the light conditions 

 by using larger glass and by the construc- 

 tion of lighter frames. 



Importance of Light. 



The importance of light to crop pro- 

 duction under glass, even at the present 

 time, is not fully appreciated by green- 

 house gardeners, and undoubtedly the 

 tendency in the future will be to increase 

 the light facilities even more. Few prac- 

 tical gardeners realize as fully as they 

 ought tQ that it is the action of sunlight 

 on plants which is responsible for the 

 bulk of the material of the plant organ- 

 ism, or that photosynthesis or carbon as- 

 similation is proportional to the intensity 

 of light. The more light you can give 

 plants between October and April the 

 more they will assimilate, and as a conse- 

 quence they will have more material to 

 furnish the necessities for growth. More- 

 over, light is a great factor in the devel- 

 opment of the texture of tissues, which 

 materially assists in rendering plants im- 

 mune from various diseases. 



Character of Soil. 



Head lettuce requires a soil containing 

 a considerable amount of the coarser con- 

 stituents, together with a large amount 

 of organic matter. The Atlantic sea coast 

 soils, termed by Prof. Whitney, truck 

 soils, are especially adapted to the 

 growth of lettuce and other market gar- 

 den crops. In these soils the clays, sUts 

 and very fine sands are subordinate to 

 the coarser constituents. Where the clay, 

 silts, etc., predominate, as is the case 



in most of our inland soils, head lettuce 

 cannot be grown so successfully. 



In the large establishments in the east, 

 the growing of lettuce under glass has 

 become well systematized. The lettuce 

 seed is usually sown in separate houses 

 devoted to this purpose. The seed 

 is sown broadcast, and covered light- 

 ly in a coarse or loose texture soil. There 

 is no selection of seed by sifting or other 

 process but it is sown as it is bought. 

 No doubt it would pay Ipttuce growers to 

 sift their seed and discard the smaller 

 ones, as they develop into inferior plants 

 and their germinating capacity is lower 

 than in larger seeds. Some space and 

 labor could be saved if the process of 

 seed selection were applied. 



Selection of Plants. 

 After the seeds have germinated and 

 their first leaves are about one inch long, 

 in which stage they are called "prick- 

 ers," they are carefully selected as re- 

 gards vigor, size and freedom from black 

 root (beginning of botrytis rot) and 

 transplanted three inches apart in special 

 houses provided with good loam. They 

 remain in this condition until they have 

 developed four to si^ inch leaves, two 

 inches or more wide and four or 'five 

 inches long, after which they are perma- 

 nently transplanted in larger houses at a 

 distance of eight inches apart, where it 

 takes from six to eight weeks, according 

 to conditions, etc., for them to head. The 

 requisite qualities that go with a first- 

 class crop are a large, firm, solid head 

 perfectly free from top burn, mildew and 

 other diseases. Besides the nature of the 

 soil, the temoerature of the house and 

 the light conditions influence the nature 

 of the produce, and the skill which let- 

 tuce growers exert in controlling these 

 factors is quite marked. 



Fertilizers. 



Commercial fertilizers are seldom if 

 ever used in greenhouses for market gar- 



