26 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



M^CH 21, 1912. 



A FOEMULA FOK THRIPS. 



"What is a good method of keeping 

 thrips off carnations after planting 

 them outdoors? Some time ago the 

 following was recommended to me for 

 thrips, for inside use: One pound of 

 Paris green, one pound of brown sugar 

 and twenty gallons of water. Isn't this 

 pretty strong? Was 200 gallons of 

 water intended? R. E. M. 



The formula recommended to you is 

 correct and, if applied with a very 

 fine spray, will not injure your plants. 

 Be sure that the solution is even, as 

 the Paris green does not mix with water 

 readily. The brown sugar will help to 

 do that, however. A, F. J, B. 



FIT FOB PROPAGATION? 



Today I am sending you some shoots 

 of carnations and should like to know 

 whether they are affected with stig- 

 monose. If so, are they too much af- 

 fected to be propagated from ? S. H. 



The specimens forwarded were slight- 

 ly affected with stigmonose, but unless 

 the growth shows more than these 

 shoots do, I would not hesitate to 

 propagate from the plants, avoiding 

 those which show more spots than 

 others. If you can get enough shoots 

 which are entirely free from these 

 spots, it will, of course, be wise to 

 use them. It is getting a trifle late to 

 put in carnation cuttings for best re- 

 sults, but if the cuttings are strong 

 and they receive proper care, they will 

 make fair stock. I do not know what 

 variety these specimens are, but if you 

 bought new stock you would probably 

 get cuttings with as much or more of 

 this disease in them than yours have. 

 It is almost impossible to find any con- 

 siderable amount of stock of a few of 

 the older varieties which is entirely free 

 from this disease. A. F. J. B. 



STIGMONOSE AND FAIEY RING. 



Under separate cover I am mailing 

 you samples of Lady Bountiful stems, 

 which are affected with disease. There 

 seem to be two different diseases. 

 Please tell whether I am correct or not. 

 I call one a fungous disease and the 

 other bacteria. Any information will 

 be greatly appreciated. F. A. C. 



There are two distinct diseases on the 

 specimens forwarded, namely, stig- 

 monose and fairy ring. The fairy ring 

 is a fungous disease and will need vig- 

 orous action without delay, or you will 



suffer great damage from it. Spray 

 your plants heavily with Bordeaux 

 mixture, after first picking off all the 

 affected leaves. After a week wash 

 them off with the hose, and apply an- 

 other dose as soon as the plants have 

 dried off somewhat. The stigmonose 

 you can eradicate only through the se- 

 lection of your cuttings. Take only 

 such as show no traces of these light 

 spots and in a few seasons you will 

 have your stock clean, providing you 

 keep a\^ay the same agents that intro- 

 duced the disease this time. 



A. F. J. B. 



INSECT APPARENTLY HARMLESS. 



On the soil in my benches and pots 

 I find hundreds of small ' ' hoppers ' ' of 

 a dark slate color. They are about the 

 size of thrips, but plumper and wing- 

 less. The eggs seem to be at the sur- 

 face of the soil. The microscope does 

 not reveal any punctures in the plants. 

 Fumigation does not seem to affect 

 them. What are they and are they in- 

 jurious? They are most abundant 

 where the soil contains the most 

 manure. R. E. M. 



I am not acquainted with the insects 

 which you describe. If you can see 

 no damage done by them, I would not 

 worry over their presence. Possibly a 

 dressing of pulverized tobacco would 

 destroy them. A. F. J. B. 



STIGMONOSE. 



Knowing that you answer questions 

 for those who are in trouble, I am tak- 

 ing the liberty of sending you some 

 leaves of Enchantress carnations. You 

 will see they are dried up at the ends. 

 I can not find any red spider, but I do 

 see an occasional green fly. It seems 

 to me, however, that the green flies 

 would have to be quite plentiful to 

 cause this trouble, as it appears here 

 and there all over two benches in one 

 house. This house is 20x100, three- 

 quarter span, with the long span to the 

 south. It is five feet high to the gut- 

 ters, and boarded. The ventilators are 

 hinged to the ridge, and on bright days 

 they could not be opened wide enough 

 on account of drafts, so the temperature 

 would sometimes run to 75 or 80 de- 

 grees. The soil is a clay loam, mixed 

 with rotted cow manure, and was 

 mulched with rotted cow manure about 

 February 15. H. G. A. 



stock as to whether you can safely 

 propagate from it for next season. 

 When the tip of a leaf dries up, it is 

 because the disease has spread across 

 the entire breadth of the leaf and shut 

 off the sap from the end of the leaf. 

 The green fly is most likely the agent 

 which inoculated the plants with the 

 disease. A. F, J. B. 



DETERIORATION OF STOCK. 



I am sending under separate cover 

 three Bassett carnations and one White 

 Lawson. Why do about one-third of 

 the blooms in the Bassett bench come 

 striped and of poor color, like the 

 sample? Would too much radiation 

 under this bench, necessitating heavy 

 watering, cause this? If so, does the 

 dryness or the moisture cause the poor 

 color? The- soil is the same as on 

 other benches in the same house, 

 where the stock is doing finely. We 

 keep the temperature at 48 to 52 de- 

 grees at night and ventilate freely 

 during warm days. We gave the Bas- 

 setts some soot, with no effect. Among 

 our White Lawson, White Enchant- 

 ress and White Perfection we have,, 

 however, about one bloom in fifty af- 

 fected in the same way as this one. 

 The outside petals seem to be soft and 

 of no substance, drying up before the 

 rest of the flower matures. The carna- 

 tion does not close up, as in the case of 

 thrips. We have examined them closely 

 and can find no cause. L. A. H. 



The specimens were affected with 

 stigmonose, and it is just a question of 

 how much stigmonose there is in your 



The specimens forwarded did not 

 reach me, but from your description of 

 your trouble I judge that it is caused 

 by deterioration of the variety. O. P. 

 Bassett is quite susceptible to stig- 

 monose, and we found the same trouble 

 with it when we grew it. Unless the 

 variety does better with you in the way 

 of freedom in flowering than with most 

 of the growers who tried it, I would 

 advise you to discard it and get a 

 better one. A. F. J. B. 



DISEASE STUDIES AT URBANA. 



[A paper by W. H. Anderson, assistant In^ 

 ftoi-icultural pathology at the Illinois Experiment 

 Station, continued from The Review of March 14.] 



A Disease of Enchantress. 



One disease, the cause of which is 

 not yet known, has been especially de- 

 structive to the foliage of the Pink 

 Enchantress in the station greenhouse. 

 On the leaves of many of these plants 

 pale green areas, circular in form, vary- 

 ing from 1/16-inch to ^-inch, were first 

 observed some weeks ago. These areas 

 became more sharply defined and turned 

 to a yellowish green and finally to a 



