14 



The Florists^ Review 



Pebrdaby 20, 1913. 



TOO COOL FOE FEENS. 



Last fall I planted a house of Boston 

 ferns. On account of boiler trouble, I 

 cannot get the temperature above 45 

 degrees on cold nights and the ferns 

 seem to be off color. At present they 

 are about 4-inch plants, but I shall leave 

 them in the bench until the end of May. 

 What would be the best way to give 

 them the dark green foliage? "Would 

 fresh cow manure be all right for feed- 

 ing, and what is the best way to use it? 



W. B. W. 



The low night temperature is doubt- 

 less the cause of these ferns losing col- 

 or, and the best way to bring the 

 color back would be to increase the 

 temperature to 55 to 60 degrees at 

 night. Feeding with eow manure under 

 such conditions is likely to result in 

 souring the soil and thus causing more 

 trouble. If you cannot increase the 

 piping so as to raise the temperature, 

 could you not increase the height of the 

 chimney in order to make your boiler 

 more eiBfectivef W. H. T. 



FEENS IN POTS. 



"What amount of manure should be 

 used in the potting soil for ferns? 

 "What temperature should they have? 

 "Will they do better in partial shade or 

 in full sunshine? J. A. M. 



The quantity of manure to be used 

 in fern soil depends on the species of 

 ferns to be grown. For example, one 

 part in four of soil, if the manure is 

 well rotted, may be used for Boston 

 ferns, but if the soil is intended for 

 small ferns for ferneries it is not ad- 

 visable to use 80 much, else the Soil 

 may be soured or the plants may grow 

 too coarse. A night temperature of 58 to 

 60 degrees, with a day temperature of 70 

 degrees in sunny weather, will answer 

 for ordinary ferns. At this season no 

 shading is needed, but in summer a 

 light shading is helpful to the plants. 



W. H. T. 



CUTWOEMS ON FEENS. 



We should like to get some informa- 

 tion, regarding a cutworm that works on 

 our ferns during the summer and fall. 

 We had the worst siege of them last 

 summer that we have had in twenty 

 years; they got beyond our control and 

 did hundreds of dollars' worth of dam- 

 age. We tried Paris green and other 

 poisons mixed with meal. We tried 

 spraying with tobacco juice to keep 

 them down. We tried hand-picking, 

 which was of course effective in a way, 

 but we failed to keep them down. 



We should like to be able to use 

 gas, as we notice it will destroy all 

 insects. Wo are rather inclined to 

 think this would injure ferns, but 

 should like to get your opinion. We 

 ipxow our ferns in one house and we 



can close this house so that it will be 

 entirely shut off from the others. We 

 should prefer a spray of some kind, but 

 what we want is something effective, 

 other than hand-picking, if possible. 

 This is a serious trouble with us and 

 has caused heavy losses. E. C. K. 



Treatment with hydrocyanic gas 

 would kill the worms, but would most 

 likely injure the ferns to a greater or 

 less extent, according to the strength 

 of the gas, and I do not like to ad- 

 vise it for this purpose. 



Spraying with Nico-fume liquid, used 

 in a one-to-300 solution, will gradu- 

 ally clean out these pests, for this 

 solution will kill all the worms it 

 reaches. The spraying should be done 

 toward evening, at intervals of one 

 week. W. H. T. 



NAME OF FEEN. 



Please tell me the name of the fern 

 a frond of which I enclose. C. P. N. 



The fern in question is one of the 

 forms of Pteris cretica. W. K. T. 



FOBMULAS FOB LIQUID MANUEE. 



I have just erected a 2,000-galloa 

 tank for liquid manure and should like 

 to obtain, from one of your experts, all 

 the formulas for making liquid manures 

 that I can get. I have a 600-gallon 

 tank on the ground, in which I should 

 like to mix the manures or chemicals 

 first, diluting them afterward in the 

 2,000-gallon tank. Would the 600-gal- 

 lon tank be large enough to hold enough 

 of the mixture to dilute 2,000 gallons? 

 Would 300 pounds of sheep manure, 

 soaked in this tank three days, be 

 strong enough to dilute 2,000 gallons, 

 or should it be emptied into the large 

 tank, refilled on the same manure, and 

 emptied the second time? 



I want to know the quantity of raw 

 material it will take to make 2,000 gal- 

 lons of liquid. I can get sheep, horse, 

 cow, chicken, pigeon and hog manures, 

 lime, potato phosphate, bone and other 

 phosphates, and if there are others that 

 are available I should like to get them. 

 My specialties are smilax, plumosus, 

 Sprengeri and adiantum, with bedding 

 and vegetable plants in the spring. 



B. J. P. 



In making liquid from barnyard 

 manure it is more a question of how 

 strong it can be made without choking 

 the pumps than a question of how much 

 the plants will stand without injury. 

 I am giving herewith a table that shows 

 the analysis of the different barnyard 

 manures and the amounts required to 

 equal SOO pounds of sheep manure in 

 nitrogen, which is the main fertilizer 

 to be taken into consideration in liquid 

 manures and the one that is soonest 

 exhausted in the soil. The amounts 

 mentioned are enough for a light appli- 



cation for about 4,000 feet of bench^ 

 though after the liquid has been used 

 for a time and the days have become 

 longer, twice the specified amounts 

 would not be too much. 



A 600-gallon. tank would be quite 

 large enough to dissolve that quantity 

 in before it is diluted in the 2,000-gal- 

 lon tank; or, if needed, twice that 

 amount of manure could be dissdlred, 

 if well screened before being run off 

 into the larger tank. 



The table shows the number ot 

 pounds of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 

 potash contained in the quantity of 

 fresh manure or fertilizer mentioned. 

 If dried manure is used, the amount of 

 phosphoric acid and potash will be 

 greater, though a large amount of am- 

 monia will be evaporated in drying the 

 manure and the actual amount of nitro- 

 gen may not be larger in the dry than 

 in the fresh manure. 



Nitrogen, Phos. Acid, Potash, 



Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. 



300 sheep manure 2.5 .69 2.0 



800 cattle manure 2.7 1.3 3.2 



1.50 poultry manure 2.45 2.3 1.25 



600 hog manure 2.7 1.2 3.8 



400 horse manure 2.3 1.1 2.0 



20 nitrate of soda 3.1 .. .. 



10 muriate or sulphate 



of potash . . 4.5 



Any of the foregoing amounts would 

 make a liquid of nearly equal strength. 

 To double the strength of any of these^ 

 it would be a good idea to take the 

 amount mentioned of any of the barn- 

 yard manures and add twenty pounds of 

 nitrate of soda and ten pounds of 

 muriate or sulphate of potash, and per- 

 haps some acid phosphate, though the 

 latter is usually added to the soil in 

 the shape of bone meal. These added 

 chemicals would not only dissolve the 

 nitrate of soda and potash, but would 

 also act on the manure and make it 

 more soluble. y W. J. Keimel. 



CHBISTMAS AZALEAS. 



Under the auspices of the Ghent Hor- 

 ticultural Exchange an exhibition of 

 azaleas in bloom was held in Ghent at 

 Christmas, partly with the object of 

 demonstrating the best varieties to 

 force for Christmas trade. An exhibi- 

 tion at that time of the year is some- 

 thing new for the Ghent nursery trade 

 and the result surpassed in every re- 

 spect the expectations of the promoters. 



Azalea Indica running from the best 

 whites to the brightest reds were on 

 view, including commercial varieties 

 and a lot of very nice novelties from 

 J. B. Haerena and H. Wille, at Somer- 

 gem. These included a large pure white 

 of camellia form, a delicate light pink 

 about the same in color as Bhododen- 

 dron Pink Pearl, and a crimson, a 

 strong, large flower, a beauty in the 

 real meaning of the word. An exceed- 

 inly fine lot of Azalea Mrs. John Haer- 

 ens, new, was shown by the same ex- 

 hibitors, a brilliant crimeon flowed* 

 which made a wonderful effect. A sim- 

 ilar nice lot, exhibited by G. "Vervaet, Mt. 

 St. Amand, including Verva?neana, Phar- 

 ailde Mathilde and President Oswald 

 de Kerchove, all flowered perfectly. 

 Messrs. J. B. Haerens and H. Wille ob- 

 tained six first prizes. 



The aims of this exhibition were to 

 acquaint the azalea growers with the 

 names of the best forcing varieties and 

 to show how they have to grow and pre- 

 pare azaleas for early forcing and thus 

 avoid the too frequent claims from buy- 

 ers abroad on account of bad or unripe 

 wood. Azaleas must be prepared for 

 early forcing. This is the work of the 



