

22 



The Florists' Review 



March 19, 1914. 



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,WORK AT ILLINOIS FLORISTS' 

 Mr EXPERIMENT STATION at 





FLORICULTURE AT ILLINOIS. 



[Keport made to the Illinois State Florists' As- 

 sociation at Danville. March 10. 1014, b.v H. B. 

 Dorner, professor of floriculture of the University 

 of Illinois.] 



The work in floriculture has made 

 considerable progress during the last 

 year. The work has been hindered some- 

 what by the necessity of moving the 

 houses from the west side of the 

 campus to the new location on the east 

 side. This move was made necessary 

 by a change in the campus plans so as 

 to provide a location for the new ar- 

 mory and a drill field. 



The move was made during the last 

 summer and the work is now finished 

 except for grading about the buildings. 

 The range as now completed consists 

 of eight houses, covering an area of 

 28,000 square feet. The four houses 

 moved from the old site are of semi- 

 iron construction, while the four new 

 houses, which have been added, are of 

 iron frame construction. In addition 

 to the glass range, a new service build- 

 ing was also constructed. The latter 

 is a two-story building with basement, 

 and provides potting rooms, laborato- 

 ries, storage rooms and offices for the 

 floricultural work. 



The first experiments on roses and 

 carnations were completed last year and 

 two circulars are now in process of 

 preparation. It is hoped that these will 

 soon go to press and be ready for dis- 

 tribution at an early date. The delay 

 in publication has been due to the ne- 

 cessity of making a careful study of 

 the great amount of data collected. 

 Other experiments, approved by your 

 advisory committee, are now being car- 

 ried on and the results will be published 

 in other circulars. 



Work of Students. 



J There are now eleven students regis- 

 tered in the 4-year course in floricul- 

 ture, who are working for the profes- 

 sional degree of bachelor of science in 

 floriculture. In addition to these there 

 are a number from other departments 

 taking courses offered by this division. 

 There are now registered seventy-three 

 students in plant propagation, eight in 

 greenhouse management, four in floral 

 decoration and thirty-one in amateur 

 floriculture. During the last semester 

 eighteen took greenhouse construction, 

 fifteen garden flowers, three commercial 

 crops and forty-four amateur floricul- 

 ture. 



Last year two students graduated 

 from the division and are now located 

 on coipmercial places. M. B. Bebb is 

 now in charge of 30,000 square feet of 

 glass in Muskogee, Okla. W. K. Palmer 

 is with the F. Dorner & Sons Co., of 

 La Fayette, Ind. One student will re- 

 ceive his degree this coming June. 



A. H. Nehrling, who was formerly 

 associated in the work, left at the end 

 of the last semester to take charge of 

 the floricultural work at Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College, at Amherst. 



It gives me great pleasure to report 

 that work is progressing nicely, and 

 that Illinois has not only the largest 

 enrollment of students specializing in 

 floriculture, but also the largest and 

 best equipped range of glass for ex- 

 perimental and instructional work. 



CARNATION DISEASES. 



[Report of Geo. L. Peltier, floricultural patholo- 

 gist, University of Illinois, Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, Urbana, 111., prepai-ed for presen- 

 tation to the Illinois State Florists' Association, 

 March 11, 1914.] 



Most of our attention this year has 

 been concentrated on stem rot of the 

 carnation caused by the fungus rhizoc- 

 tonia. The records from the soil ster- 

 ilization experiments by steam and 

 formalin are valuable, not only from 

 the fact that it will practically control 

 •serious cases of stem rot in the house, 

 but it will give us, primarily, data 

 whit'h will show whether sterilized soil 

 will produce as large a quantity and 

 as good a quality of flowers as un- 

 treated soils. 



The experiments to test whether an 

 acid or dlkaline soil is more favoralble 

 to stem rot gave some interesting re- 

 sults and tend to show that an alka- 

 line soil will retard the growth of the 

 fungus to a large extent. A series of 

 experiments which were carried on to 

 find out if the fungus was introduced 

 into the greenhouse through the soil or 

 manure gave negative results, no plants 

 dying in any of the sections. The same 

 general experiments are being con- 

 ducted at present and will be repeated 

 next year, so that three years' data 

 will then be available, from which it is 

 hoped that rather conclusive results 

 will be obtained regarding methods for 

 the control of this most serious disease 

 of carnations. 



Temperature Affects Stem Rot. 



The most striking results of our ex- 

 periments of the last year was the ef- 

 fect of temperature on the growth and 

 development of the fungus. The three 

 most critical periods in the life of the 

 plant in the house are when the plants 

 are benched in August, when steam is 

 turned on in the fall and finally when 

 the steam is turned off in the spring 

 and the temperature rises rapidly. It is 

 clearly seen that these periods all de- 

 pend to a large extent on the tempera- 

 ture. The death rate of the plants in 

 the house was marked at these periods 

 and a curve would show that the maxi- 

 mum death rate was reached at these 

 points. Of course it is hard to control 

 the temperature at these points, but 

 with careful attention to ventilation 

 and cultural conditions these periods 

 may be tided over without serious in- 

 jury. 



Due to the protracted drought dur- 

 ing the middle of last summer, a num- 

 ber of experiments in the field gave no 

 results whatever. From observations 

 made during the summer little or no 



stem rot was seen in the fields, due, no 

 doubt, to a large extent to the long 

 dry spell that was general throughout 

 the state. 



The same fungus that causes the stem 

 rot of carnations was found on several 

 species of dianthi, a number of peren- 

 r.ials and on weeds. Experiments show 

 that with a few exceptions they are 

 probably all the same form and similar 

 to the fungus causing stem rot of car- 

 nations. This condition makes it all 

 the more difficult to devise means for 

 controlling this disease. 



Branch Rot. 



Branch rot is due to a species of 

 fusarium, which seems to work in the 

 interior of the stem and to cause the 

 death of the larger branches and often 

 the main stem. The stem and branches 

 when attacked by this fungus gradu- 

 ally wilt and cause the leaves to turn a 

 yellowish green. This yellowing or dy- 

 ing of the branch is rapid compared 

 with stem rot. In the branch rot the 

 stem remains firm after death, although 

 wilted and shriveled, and the bark does 

 not slough off, while the tissue beneath 

 remains firm. 



The fungus may attack the plant at 

 any time during its life. The method 

 by which the fungus obtains entrance 

 into the plant stem has not been defi- 

 nitely determined, but it doubtless gains 

 entrance through a wound or by first 

 establishing itself upon dead or in- 

 active tissue and then penetrating the 

 living tissue. At every stage in the 

 growth of the carnation there is more 

 or less idle tissue upon it. The outer 

 leaves of the cutting die soon after the 

 cutting is put in, and if these leaves 

 are at all moist, they afford an excel- 

 lent means of entrance for the fungus 

 into the tender tissues. The plant itself 

 may be injured in numerous ways, all 

 of which afford an opportunity for the 

 diseased organism to enter the plant. 

 The fungus is not likely to cause injury 

 to a sound plant through soil infection. 

 However, it is undoubtedly truly para- 

 sitic at times. 



Attacks Plants in Cutting Bench. 



One source of the disease seems to be 

 in the cutting bench. The fungus easily 

 attacks the cut surfaces, causing them 

 to lose their color and dry up, the cut- 

 tings finally yellowing and dying. The 

 drying up of the leaves progresses 

 downward until it reaches the stem. 

 Here the fungus infects the stem and 

 causes the rotting off of the cutting at 

 the surface of the ground. 



In many cases only the outer leaves 

 are attacked, but sometimes the young 

 Ipaves would dry up and die. The 

 fungus always produces a slimy, wet 

 rot, which is quite characteristic. Large 

 areas four and five feet long have been 

 seen in which all the cuttings have 

 rotted off, due to the fungus. To pre- 



[CoDtlnued on pafre S2.] 



