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- October 25, 1906. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



J469 



TREATING LEAF-SPOT. 



We are sending some tips from our 

 carnation plants. They show some small 

 spots. These plants were planted in a 

 bench, in new soil, and in a new house. 

 They are growing well. We watered 

 them overhead October 14, and that 

 night the temperature fell to 35 degrees. 

 Would this account for the spots? 



A. E. & S. 



The shoots you send show plainly a 

 case of leaf -spot in its early stages, and 

 you want to get to work on it at once. 

 No doubt the heavy drop in temperature 

 when the plants were wet had much to 

 do with it, and cool nights without fire 

 heat will make it worse. In the October 

 11 issue of the Eeview I gave full in- 

 structions for eradicating this disease. 

 If, however, you have not that issue at 

 hand, then dust them thoroughly with 

 lime and sulphur in equal portions and 

 write for further instructions. 



I don't know how many subscribers 

 to the Eeview save their copies for 

 future reference, but I am sure it will 

 pay anyone to do so. Almost every 

 issue contains some useful information, 

 even for the experienced grower, to say 

 nothing of the beginner, who gets his 

 daily guidance from its pages. It is 

 not enough to simply read the paper 

 through, even if it is done ever so care- 

 fully. You can remember but a small 

 fraction of what you read, except what 

 you are able to put in practice shortly 

 after reading it. Even then you are 

 much safer if you can look it up, and 

 make sure you remember it correctly. 



The articles appearing in the columns 

 of the Eeview are written by men who 

 are experienced in the lines along which 

 they write, and are founded on expe- 

 rience and not on theory. You will find 

 treated in the numbers of a year almost 

 every important subject in the cultural 

 end of the business; and if you meet 

 with some trouble, you can usually find 

 a remedy in one of the back numbers. 

 Diseases among plants are pretty much 

 the same today as they were years ago, 

 and the treatment required is the same. 

 Of course we meet a new form of dis- 

 ease now and again, and we discover 

 new remedies for old diseases; but it 

 takes a great many years to change 

 these things so much that experiences of 

 five years ago would not stand you in 

 good stead now in case of trouble. 



Think how much it will save you to be 

 able to look up a remedy in your old 

 number, inside of an hour after you 

 discover the need of it; whereas, to 

 write for information, will require at 

 least ' a week before you have your 

 answer. In many cases it may mean the 

 saving or losing of an entire crop. 



If you will look over the pages of 

 the Eeview during the past two months, 

 you will see that my answers to in- 

 quiries are in a large majority answers 

 to leaf-spot cases. One article would 

 have answered all of them, if each 

 grower recognized the disease when it 



appeared, and it has been the same thing 

 over each year. You will find the same 

 remedies suggested for the same disease 

 in last year's numbers. 



I consider my old numbers of the 

 Eeview as the most valuable reference 

 book, in so far as practical cultural 

 knowledge is concerned, that I have in 

 my possession. So begin now to save 

 them, it will pay you well in the future. 



A. F. J. Baur. 



TO STRENGTHEN CARNATIONS. 



Can you tell me what to give my car- 

 nations to increase the size of bloom 

 and stiffen the stems? They are grow- 

 ing lots of leaf. B. H. E. 



You do not give enough data for me 

 to give you much information. I do not 

 know what you have already done for 

 your carnations, nor the conditions under 

 which they are growing. 



You say they are growing lots of leaf, 

 which I understand to mean that they 

 are growing strong. In that case, the 

 blooms ought to be of fair size at least. 

 A top dressing of bone-meal about thirty 

 pounds to a bench 5x100 feet, or a mulch 

 of half-rotted cow manure, may be 

 found quite beneficial. 



To stiffen the stems use either wood- 

 ashes or air-slaked lime. Of the ashes 

 use about half a bushel on a bench 5x 

 100, of the lime half that amount. 

 Sprinkle it on the soil and stir into the 

 soil. Then give a good watering. Ee- 



peat in four weeks, if needed. Much 

 will depend on the texture of your soil 

 as to the stiffness of the stems. A fair- 

 ly heavy soil will not need much in that 

 line with most of the leading varieties 

 of today. Liberal ventilation will help 

 the stem. A. F. J. B. 



SHORT-STEMMED CARNATIONS. 



My carnations are inclined to be short- 

 stemmed. I moved them into the house 

 about a month ago. Can I give them 

 anything to make the stems grow 

 longer? I never put any bone-meal in 

 my soil. Would that make itf 



C. F. E. 



If you planted your carnations as 

 late as the middle of September, which 

 would be a month before your letter was 

 written, then you can hardly expect to 

 cut long-stemmed blooms by this time, 

 and I can not suggest anything that will 

 lengthen them, except good culture in 

 general. The better the culture, the 

 stronger will be the growth, and, natu- 

 rally, longer stems will be the result as 

 the season advances. Bone-meal is not 

 an absolute necessity, and it will not 

 lengthen the stem, except in so far as it 

 may improve the general condition of 

 the growth. 



To get good long stems by this time, 

 you must plant early, so that the bloom- 

 ing shoot is grown entirely indoors. 

 The joints come longer than they will 

 outdoors, and a longer stem is the 

 natural result. Then, too, when you 

 transplant with a crop of blooming 

 shoots well started, it will check their 

 growth, and throw them into bud sooner 

 than was intended. You will notice this 

 by comparing your stems indoors with 

 those on the plants you left in the field. 

 As the days grow shorter you will find 

 these stems lengthening rapidly. 



A. F. J. B. 



VENTILATION. 



As we approach the short, dark days 

 of winter, ^vhen steady firing will be 

 necessary, the real importance of aj 

 thorough knowledge of the art of venti- 

 lation will become apparent. Where 

 ventilation has been practiced in an 

 intelligent manner during the summer 

 and fall, the stock will be robust and 

 the foliage of a texture fitted to undergo 

 all the vicissitudes of winter culture. 

 Even such stock soon can be spoiled by 

 careless or imprudent ventilation, and 

 where the stock has been neglected in 

 this respect during the last month, the 



utmost care and skill is required to keep 

 the stock even alive. 



The art of ventilation as practiced 

 by the most successful growers is, first, 

 uniformity qf temperature; that is, that 

 no sudden fluctuations of temperature 

 must occur either during the day or 

 night. 



If the night temperature wanted is 56 

 degrees this should be kept up at all 

 hazards, but the circulation of the air 

 must also be kept up, and this can only 

 be done by keeping a small crack of air 

 on and keeping up suflBcient movement 

 in the pipes to keep the temperature up 

 to the mark. 



During cloudy weather, when the tem- 

 perature outside does not reach the 

 freezing point, many inexperienced 

 growers, in order to save fuel, have a 

 habit of closing the houses tightly. 



