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MABCH 6, 1913. 



The Florists' Review 



I less liable to stem-rot than a plant 

 ! breaking just at, or slightly below, the 

 ground. The reason is obvious. The 

 branches of a plant forking at the sur- 

 face of the ground are easily broken off 

 in different ways. They generally break 

 at the base, so there is exposed a wound, 

 through which fungi can easily enter. 

 The wound is later covered with soil, 

 and so it is an easy matter for the 

 fungus Rhizoctonia to enter the exposed 

 tissue and produce stem-rot. A large 

 number of plants examined show that 

 in the majority of cases the fungus 

 gains entrance through a wound of this 

 kind. 



(3) Cultivating too deep and throw- 

 ing the soil up around the plants also 

 produces a condition more favorable to 

 Rhizoctonia. Great care should be exer- 

 cised not to injure any of the plants 

 with the cultivator. 



(4) If stem-rot is present in a carna- 

 tion field all dead or wilted plants 

 should be pulled up as soon as noticed 

 and the soil surrounding the plant should 

 be soaked with a fungicide, preferably 

 formalin. It can be applied in the dilu- 

 tion of 1:200. Formalin is desirable in 

 this work, as it will kill the mycelium 

 of the fungus Rhizoctonia in the 

 ground, it is inexpensive, the fumes 

 escape from the soil quickly and it does 

 not injure the soil in any way. 



Sterilizing Soil. 



Concerning the work in the green- 

 house, only general statements can be 

 made at this time. A number of agents 

 for sterilizing the soil were tried, in- 

 cluding steam, and a number of fungi- 

 cides. The experiments were conducted 

 in the following manner: The soil was 

 first infected with soil cultures of the 

 fungus Rhizoctonia grown, in the labora- 

 tory, and then half of it was sterilized, 

 the other half being left as a check. In 

 the steam sterilized bench no plants 

 have died, while in the bench infected 

 with Rhizoctonia and not sterilized the 

 loss due to stem-rot is sixty per cent. 

 The fungicides, Bordeaux mixture, cop- 

 per sulphate and sulphuric acid, all gave 

 poor results. Formalin applied at the 

 rate of 1:200 and the soil allowed to dry 

 for a week has given excellent results, 

 none of the plants being diseased up to 

 this date. The application of limestone 

 also appears to retard the growth of 

 Rhizoctonia. Next year we will confine 

 all our efforts to steam sterilized soil, 

 the formalin treatment, and the appli- 

 cation of limestone. 



Steam sterilized soil appears to have 

 one serious disadvantage, mainly that 

 the growth of plants is slightly retarded 

 tor the first two or three weeks. There 

 seems to be no satisfactory explanation 

 tor this phenomenon. 



Steam sterilized sand has been use5 

 ror cuttings in the experimental work 

 '^"^ has proven satisfactory. To date 

 no Khizoctonia has been found in any 

 or the carnation cutting beds at 

 station and it is doubtful that 

 aisease is carried in this manner, 



seems more probable, then, that 



Plants are first attacked in the field, 

 ih^ ^^ ™^° ^^^« stated before, it is of 

 ine utmost importance to know whether 

 strains of Rhizoctonia infecting various 



K i' '° ^}^ fi^ld are also able to attack 

 the carnation plants. 

 +li« ^! ? t^® ™08* important factors in 

 xne control of stem-rot in the greenhouse 

 nla^fc '^^^^^^^ selection of carnation 

 Lasf foTi^° brought in from the field. 

 »i laii every plant that showed any 



the 



the 



It 



the 



"WHO'S WHO-AND WHY" 



HUGH WILL. 



WHAT will Hjighl Hugh will see to it that every one who attends the 

 S. A. F. conlvention next August has just the best tifne ever. For Hugh 

 Will, smiling Hugh, with the twinkles in the wrinkles 'round his eyes, is chair- 

 man of the big, buly committee that has charge of the entertainment features, and 

 already is hard at work. Mr. Will also is a member of the finance committee, the 

 committee on transportation and, as you might guess from the twinkle, of the 

 committee on convention sports. There isn't anything he isn't in. He is president 

 of the Minnesota State Florists' Association and of practically all the trade 

 societies. In business he is one of the three brothers who own the largest range 

 of glass in the Twin Cities, operating it under the corporate name of Will Bros. 

 Co. They are cut flower growers primarily, although a considerable quantity of 

 other material is grown for the Minneapolis market and for the shipping trade 

 through the nortlifwest. 



signs of disease, as well as all unhealthy 

 or damaged plants, was examined. As 

 a result only a few plants have been 

 lost on account of this disease. This 

 matter of selecting plants is, therefore, 

 an important factor in the control of 

 this disease. 



If occasionally a plant is killed by 

 Rhizoctonia in the greenhouse it should 

 be pulled up immediately and the soil 

 drenched with a solution of formalin. 

 A fresh plant should not be put in 

 until the soil is dry and it should re- 

 ceive careful treatment. Four plantd 

 replaced in the sRme place have been 

 seen to die, in eadh case for the simple 

 reason that they received the same 

 treatment as the surrounding plants, 

 which were strong and healthy and had 

 been growing for some time, and that 

 the fungus was stjll present in the soil. 

 The problem of the control of the wet 

 stem-rot is far froin being complete, but 



experiments give some encouragement 

 so that in the near future a method of 

 control will probably be found for this 

 serious disease. 



Dry Stem-Bot. 



Another disease which causes more or 

 less loss to growers of carnations is the 

 so-called dry stem-rot, which I suggest 

 be called branch wilt, to distinguish it 

 more sharply from the wet stem-rot, due 

 to Rhizoctonia. This branch wilt is due 

 to a species of the fungus Fusarium. 



This fungus has never been seen to 

 attack a healthy growing carnation 

 plant. It gains entrance to the tissue 

 of the part in each case through wounds 

 and cuts on the plant. The spores, which 

 are everywhere in the soil and air of the 

 house are able to germinate in a drop of 

 water, so that if the plants are wet and 

 a flower is cut the spore will germinate 



