•TOBEK 28, 1909. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



n 



DT THRIPS, BUT LEAF-SPOT. 



111(1 something working on my car- 

 II biuls which I take to be thrips. 

 i-i house I have carnations, Aspara- 

 S[)rcngori, Chinese and obconica 

 iDses and geraniums. Would I'unii- 

 tr with hydrocyanic gas injure any 

 ic above plants? 



.>re are several cigar shops in my 

 and 1 can get all the tobacco stems 

 lit free. Would any of these plants 

 ilected by fumigating with tobacco 

 -? Also let me know if I could 

 ■ a liquid of tobacco stems to use as 

 lay to exterminate these pests, and 

 it should be prepared. G. C. H. 



i,c specimens forwarded showed no 

 M.s of thrips, but had several spots of 

 !i .ommon leaf-spot disease. This is no 

 .1 l.t what your trouble is. To rid your 

 ;, 'its of this disease, you must adopt 

 .; ' .rent methods than you suggest in 



V • letter. Pick oil' all the spotted 



ir ,,,'s. Then spiay your plants with Bor- 

 H. , ix mixture, as directed on the cans. 

 |i:M tlie walks and under the benches 

 w.\i lime. Paint one of the steam pipes 

 ui h a mixture of lime, sulphur and 

 w.drv. Give all the ventilation possible 

 :iih1 keep your plants in a vigorous 

 u'-wth. They Mill soon outgrow the 

 ii-nl)le if these suggestions are followed 

 ..■■fully. 



\one of the plants you mention will 

 '. injured by hydrocyanic acid gas, 

 - M'lld you have occasion to use it, pro- 

 M iing, of course, that you do not make 

 1 '00 strong. But it is not needed in 

 - case. 



i.'cgarding the tobacco stems, my ad- 



-■■ would be not to use them. It is not 



'luestion of the cost of tobacco stems. 



* can get free of cost all we could use, 



' ' would not think of using them for 



' iiiigating or for spraying. No up-to- 



■u: grower would think of using them 



' this purpose. When used for fumi- 



ting, the smoke takes the brilliancy out 



all the colored plants. It leaves a 



k, offensive odor in the house, which 



'ctained by all the blooms for at least 



' days, making the blooms unsalable. 



nn fumigating, the houses must be 



-od up tight, often causing the tem- 



ature to run up too high, and this, 



'•n coupled with the strong tobacco 



"ke, will often burn tender growth. 



Vcars ago we used to make a liquid 



' spraying by steeping the stems in 



' water. This liquid, however, will 



in both foliage and blooms, and is not 



isfaetory. 



''ontrast this with the nicotine prep- 



dions offered nowadays. These, when 



'uted properly in clear water, make a 



raying material which will not spot the 



I'itest flower or injure the most delicate 



:if (except violets; never put them on 



ilets). You can spray early in the 



"ruing, either before or after picking 



■c flowers, preferably after, and no 



loms are made unsalable thereby. 



Spraying can be done regularly, and 



all insects kept in subjection. Tiiis 

 could not be done formerly, with the to- 

 bacco stem fumigating. In those days 

 it would be put off from day to day on 

 account of having to cut blooms, until 

 the grower would wake up to find his 

 plants carried away by the pests. 



We would indeed be sorry to have to 

 go back to using tobacco stems for fumi- 



A. F. J. B. 



tlu'iii grow there during the summer, ex- 

 j)osed to the dpeii. and then early in the 

 fall put on til." glass. We think* by this 

 |d;:n we can cdntrol conditions better, 

 tor ii we liave excessively rainy weather, 

 as we did hist summer, the lu'iiches will 

 dry out faster than the lield, and if it 

 is dry we can use the hose. This plan 

 will save considcMalile work in the fall 

 in planting into tiie hou.^e Jrom the field! 

 We propose to prepare a sod and manure 

 compost at once and have it ready for 

 the benches by the time frost is over in 

 the spring. 



What do you think of this plan. In 

 answering, you must renu'inlier that here, 

 in North Carolina, we have pretty hot 

 v.eatlier in the summer. ]{. E. Q. 



gating. 



A BED OF SHASTA. 



The accompanying illustration shows a 

 bed of the new white carnation, Shasta, 

 in the greenhouses of Baur & Smith, In- 

 dianapolis. A ppint of interest to grow- 

 ers will be that the picture shows the 

 style of solid bed that has replaced 

 raised benches in this establishment. The 

 plank walls are filled in with cinders to 

 a height that brings the stock up to a 

 level where it is easier to work than it 

 would be on the ground, and the usual 

 amount of soil is used on top of the 

 cinders, which provide the drainage. 



The bed illustrated was planted dur- 

 ing the first week of August and contains 

 1,800 plants. The photograpli was made 

 October 1. This bed is being grown for 

 blooms, not for cuttings. There is an- 

 other house on the place in which 8,000 

 plants are being grown for cuttings. 

 Propagation will begin about November 

 1. It is stated that over 40,000 cuttings 

 already have been sold. 



STARTED IN A ROOFLESS HOUSE. 



We are thinking of erecting a carnation 

 house next summer, about 120x75 feet, and 

 think of pwtting up the frameAvork and 

 benches early in the spring, but not put- 

 ting the glass on until fall. Our idea 

 is to plant the young carnations directly 

 into the benches in the spring and let 



After considering your case carefully, 

 I believe I would nuxlify your plan some- 

 what. To begin with, you nuist bear in 

 mind that if you plant your carnations 

 where they are to flower, 'the proposition 

 is quite a different one than where you 

 are to transplant them during the early 

 fall or Slimmer. In this case it will mat- 

 ter but little how fast they grow or how 

 large the plants are by 'fall; in fact, 

 the larger they are, the better. It will 

 not matter even if they should be some- 

 what softer than you would want to have 

 them in case you had to lift them. The 

 fact that you will not need to disturb 

 the roots makes all the difforenee in the 

 world. 



If your soil has a good natural ilrain- 

 age I hardly think that it could rain 

 enough to injure your plants, barring 

 storms, etc. On the other hand, you 

 must take into consideration that a raised 

 bench will dry out much faster in the 

 open than it will inside a greenhouse. 

 You woulil have trouble in keeping them 

 watered enough to get a gooil, strong 

 growth. 



So, taking all the^e tilings into consid- 

 eration, I would advise you to construct 

 your beds as we do (uiis heri\ which 

 would prove safe from either too much 

 rain or too much drying out. 



If you prefer to use cniK-rete, which 

 is used so much these days in greenhouse 

 construction, you can build up side walls 

 three inclies thick and eighteen inches 

 high. It would be better to make them 



■'■sat 



Bench of Carnation Shasta at Baur & Smith's. 



