MABCH 6. 1913. 



The Florists^ Review 



Side View Showing Alteraatc Glass and Shade. View of the Completed Greenhouse. 



Unusual Greenliouce Erected by E. E. Stone, Dickinson, Texas, to Meet Needs of Warm Climate. 



■with weeders are made, making a total 

 application per 100 square feet of bench 

 space of: Dried blood, eight pounds; 

 acid phosphate, two pounds; potassium 

 sulphate, two pounds. 



Splitting and Stem Strength. 



The results indicate no danger of caus- 

 ing splitting by treatment with commer- 

 cial fertilizers. In the variety White - 

 Enchantress, 97.1 per cent of the flowers 

 in each case were those with perfect 

 calyces; in the variety White Perfection 

 87 per cent of the flowers had perfect 

 calyces when grown with natural manures 

 and 94.7 per cent when grown with com- 

 mercial fertilizers. We may safely con- 

 clude from these data that the use of 

 commercial fertilizers will not lead to an 

 aLiiornial percentage of splits. 



In order to determine the effects of 

 commercial fertilizers upon the strength 

 of stems, flowers were gauged as first, 

 second or third, according to their stem 

 strength, first indicating the normal con- 

 dition and third an excessive weakness. 

 With White Enchantress, treatment with 

 natural manures produced flowers, 78 per 

 cent of which were classed as first; with 

 commercial fertilizers, 76.8 per cent, 

 while in the variety White Perfection the 

 percentages are 89.7 per cent and 98 per 

 cent respectively. Clearly then, the use 

 of commercial fertilizers will not lead to 

 weakness in stems. 



Keeping Quality of Flowers. 

 Eecords were kept in 1909-*0 and 1911- 

 1^, as well as during the present year, 

 to determine whether raising flowers with 

 commercial fertilizers injures their keep- 

 ing quality. Records were taken upon 

 some hundreds of them, in a room at 

 aoout oO degrees, the water being changed 



Withnnf fi 1'*^^"^ Clipping the stems, 

 v^imout the burden of too many figures, 



low !^^^" ^^ ^^y ^^ summarized as fol- 



■ M] Excessive feeding tends to dimin- 

 •fL i 'seeping qualities of the flowers. 

 ™ ■ ^^ ^^^^ ™08t quickly with an 

 excessive application of dried blood, am- 

 "^^"'"'"..sulphate or some other nitrogen- 

 ous fertilizer. 



thi"2 ^° '^^ ^^^^^ follows the use of 

 imL.TT^u "^ commercial fertilizer as 

 indicated above. 



Relative Ease of Application. 



t)lanf«"f° experiment outlined above, the 

 fed fl.i-^''*^'^ "^'^^^ natural manures were 

 niulctn? i*'^" y^^"- ^itl^ three light 

 wHh fh- . '^'^^P "'«°"^e «°<J i° addition 

 ^ thirteen applications of liquid ma- 



nure, 13.5 gallons . being used each time 

 for each 100 square feet of bench space. 

 Thus the total number of fertilizer appli- 

 cations made was sixteen; on the other 

 hand, after the beginning of the season, 

 only three applications of a fertilizer 

 (dried blood) were made. The latter 

 treatment no doubt would result in a con- 

 siderable saving of time and labor. 



Overfeeding. 



As favorable as the results indicate 

 commercial fertilizers to be for the pro- 

 duction of a satisfactory number of 

 flowers of good quality, too- much em- 

 phasis cannot be laid upon the care 

 with which they must be used, and the 

 danger of overfeeding in case they are 

 applied in uncertain quantities or too 

 often. The experiment station feels 

 that it ought not to recommend the use 

 of these materials unless the grower 

 uses a balance for weighing out the fer- 

 tilizers according to the amounts indi- 

 cated above, and unless they are not 

 applied oftener than indicated. The 

 danger from overfeeding is peculiar in 

 that it does not manifest itself imme- 

 diately in case the excessive applica- 

 tions are made in the fall of the year; 

 and because no warning is given in the 

 color or shape of the foliage in ad- 

 vance of the deterioration of the 

 flowers. 



These points are well illustrated by 

 the following experiment carried out 

 during the present year. Four sec- 

 tions containing forty plants each were 

 used for this experiment, the first to 

 receive a weekly application of one 

 pound of dried blood, the second and 

 third to receive one pound of acid phos- 

 phate and potassium sulphate, respec- 

 tively; while the fourth received the 

 "normal" treatment as outlined in the 

 previous experiment. No signs of over- 

 feeding were noticeable in any of the 

 sections up until about the first part of 

 January. The plants looked healthy 

 and the flowers were normal. During 

 that period the production was as fol- 

 lows: Excess dried blood, 264; excess 

 acid phosphate, 256; excess potassium 

 sulphate, 238; normal, 219. 



These figures would lead to the con- 

 clusion that the weekly application of 

 dried blood was superior to the treat- 

 ment called normal, for forty-five addi- 

 tional flowers, more than one per plant, 

 were produced during this time. Of 

 these 89.7 per cent, or 237, had perfect 

 calyces, while under the "normal" 



treatment only 84 per cent had perfect 

 calyces. The size of flower and length 

 of stem were about the same. Soon 

 after the turn of the year, however, 

 signs of overfeeding became noticeable. 

 The petals became crinkled in appear- 

 ance, and were easily browned if wa- 

 tered overhead. In a fortnight the 

 flowers in the sections thus heavily fed 

 became affected to such a degree that 

 hardly a salable flower could be found. 

 The first sign was on the petals and 

 when this sign was shown the flowers 

 were ruined. 



The injury, for an application of 

 equal weights of dried blood, acid phos- 

 phate and potassium sulphate, was 

 greatest on the plants which received 

 the extra applications of potassium sul- 

 phate, and on these sections at present 

 growth has practically stopped and the 

 flowers are ruined. 



It is possible that the reason underly- 

 ing this behavior of the plants is that 

 in the fall of the year the sunlight is 

 the limiting factor of plant growth. 

 Then whatever excess of plant food is 

 applied lies unused by the plant in the 

 soil. When the days become longer and 

 the sunlight more intense, after the new 

 year, this material is absorbed by the 

 plant with very harmful results. No 

 injury has been noticed as yet upon 

 the plants fed large amounts of acid 

 phosphate, possibly due to the fact that 

 acid phosphate is only half soluble, 

 possibly to the nature of the chemical. 



The following table listing the con- 

 tent of various fertilizing materials 

 illustrates the great strength of com- 

 mercial fertilizers compared even with 

 a powerful natural manure such as 

 sheep manure. 



Composition of fertilizers in pounds 



per ton: Phos- Po- 



Nltro- phor- tas- 



Name. Kind. gen. us. sium. 



Horse Manure Solid 11.2 .3 1.6 



Liquid 30.4 Trace 14. 



Cow Manure Solid 8.8 1. .6 



Liquid 21. Trace 21. 



Sheep Manure Solid 14.4 3.8 .. 



Liquid 26.2 .2 .. 



Dried Blood 280 



Sodium Nitrate 310 



Ammonium Sulphate.. 400 



Acid Phosphate ... 125 



Potassium Sulphate. . . ... ... 850 



From the foregoing experiment and 



from these data, emphasis once more 



should be placed upon the necessity of 



using chemicals accurately weighed and 



applied not oftener than four times per 



year, if the weights recommended are 



used. Experiments have demonstrated 



that on the soil at Urbana, an applica- 



