Mabch 19, 1014. 



The Florists' Review 



23 



FESTILIZEB EXPERIMENTS. 



[Report of F. W. Muncle, In charge of fertilizer 

 experiments at the Floricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion, Urbana, 111., prepared for presentation to 

 the Illinois State Florists' Association, March 11, 

 1914.] 



Experiments in regard to the advisa- 

 bility of fertilizing with acid phos- 

 phate which have been completed have 

 shown that dried blood, supplying ni- 

 trogen to the plant, has resulted in an 

 increase in the number of flowers with- 

 out causing a deterioration in the qual- 

 ity in the culture of carnations and 

 roses, in case the amount applied is 

 not so excessive as to result in injury 

 from overfeeding. Appbpations of acid 

 phosphate and sulphate of potash have 

 not given beneficial results when ap- 

 plied alone. The conclusion seems to 

 be that nitrogen is the element most 

 necessary to apply. 



During the present year a test has 

 been made to see whether acid phos- 

 phate, when applied together with am- 

 ple amounts of a nitrogenous fertiliser, 

 would cause a further increase in pro- 

 duction. For this purpose the amount 

 of nitrogenous fertilizer (sulphate of 

 ammonia in this case) has been kept 

 the same in all sections, but ample 

 enough to supply the plant, eight 

 pounds to date for carnations, ten 

 pounds for roses. The quantities of acid 

 phosphate have been varied from none 

 to forty-three pounds on carnations and 

 to 100 pounds on roses per hundred 

 square feet; six sections, each contain- 

 ing successively larger quantities of 

 acid phosphate, constituting the experi- 

 ment. As would be expected from an 

 experiment extending over only six 

 months, the results are not yet con- 

 clusive, but results to the present date 

 may be given. 



CARNATIONS (120 Plants). 

 Lbs. acid 



Phosphate Blooms 



per 100 Blooms on on White 



84]. ft. Rosette Perfection 



0.0 fS55 683 



2.6 525 692 



6.8 664 664 



10.6 673 ■ 665 



21.3 560 6,34 



42.6 614 684 



Average 663.6 670.8 



ROSES (96 Plants). 

 Pounds 

 PhoR- Blooms Blooms 



phate on Richmond on KiUarner 



per 100 Own- Own- 



•q. ft. Root Grafted Root Grafted 



0.0 480 564 394 479 



6.6 494 585 431 516 



13.3 485 625 430 592 



26.6 471 646 440 597 



63.3 409 606 458 !542 



106.6 486 002 432 532 



Average 485.8 604.6 430.8 539.6 



The inconsistencies here may be due 

 to the short duration of the experi- 

 ment, or, as seems quite likely, to the 

 fact that the soil af the experiment 

 station is fairly rich, and does not need 

 fertilizers until later in the year, when 

 the stock of available food in the soil 

 has become comparatively exhausted. 

 An observation that sections both of 

 roses and carnations which have re- 

 ceived no fertilizer during the fall and 

 winter seem to be in excellent condi- 

 tion would point out that the well 

 known adage about "not feeding until 

 the turn of the year" is worth in- 

 vestigating. 



Topping Back Carnations. 



The carnations. Rosette and White 

 Perfection, on account of delay in 

 erection of the new greenhouses were 

 set in later than usual, August 12. They 

 were topped back at this time. Sep- 

 tember 12, one-half of the house (360 



New Wabao Rose Mrs. Moorfield Storey. 



plants) was topped back, while the 

 crop of short-stemmed flowers was left 

 on the other half. The results of these 

 two methods of culture are as follows: 



(1) The new growth on the topped 

 sections began producing flowers nearly 

 equal in number to the production from 

 the sections not topped, about Novem- 

 ber 25. Previous to this time 761 flow- 

 ers from Rosette had been secured 

 from the sections not topped in excess 

 of those from the topped sections. At 

 $1 per hundred, the profit per thou- 

 sand square feet of bench space would 

 amount to $42.20. From the White 

 Perfection sections 1,172 flowers were 

 picked in excess of those from the 

 topped plants. At the same rate these 

 would net a profit of $65.20 per thou- 

 sand square feet of bench space. 



(2) It might be worth while to top 

 back in order to produce a larger crop 

 or to control the time of the large 

 crop later, and this has been consid- 

 ered in the data. The data show that 

 up to the present time the usual varia- 

 tion does not exceed five flowers week- 

 ly. In each variety the untopped sec- 

 tions have fallen below the topped sec- 

 tions in production, for one week, to 

 a noticeable extent, about thirty flow- 

 ers. Otherwise the production still runs 

 parallel. Each set of plants came into 

 maximum crop at the same time and 

 the production dropped similarly with 

 each. There are indications, however, 

 that the later crop will not fall at the 

 same time. Further study of this in- 

 teresting phase of carnation growing 

 will be made as the season progresses. 

 A suggestion has been made to me that 

 these results would be secured only 

 with a variety of the "tree" type 

 which has no great tendency to stool 

 out, even when topped back. Probably 

 a larger production would follow after 

 a topping back of this type of plant. 



Cloudy Weather and Split Carnations. 



A record has been kept of the weekly 

 production of flowers in the carnation 

 house. By comparison with the weekly 

 amounts of sunshine as recorded by 

 the agronomy department of the Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station a method 

 is found of determining whether any 

 parallel increase in percentage of flow- 

 ers with split calyxes and in hours of 

 cloudy weather exists. The year is 

 not yet far enough advanced to allow 

 considerable data to be on hand, but 

 the results so far indicate that a pe- 

 riod of cloudy weather does have the 

 effect of producing a larger percentage 

 of splits during the following weeks. 

 During the last three months of 1913 

 a period of bright weather extending 

 from October 13 till November 10 was 

 followed by a period of cloudy weather 

 from that date till December 8. The 

 percentage of splits during the period 

 of October 27 till December 1 averaged 

 less than five, while during the follow- 

 ing weeks the percentage averaged 

 more nearly twenty-five. 



In the report last March, figures were 

 given to show that commercial fertil- 

 izers applied in moderate quantities did 

 not cause splitting. It is evident that 

 location of the true cause of splitting 

 will remove it from the list of things 

 to be feared when any change of cul- 

 tural methods is contemplated by the 

 grower. 



Effects of Overfeeding Carnations. 



Variation in the application of large 

 amounts of different kinds of fertilizer 

 to carnations has brought interesting 

 results. December 3 dried blood, am- 

 monium sulphate, potassium sulphate, 

 a soluble phosphate (disodium phos- 

 phate) and, for comparison and because 

 commercial sulphate of potash contains 

 [Continued on page 44.] 



