102 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



The farther you keep pipes away from the bottom or sides of 

 benches the better for the plants in them. 



You can never have too many shutofT valves in your pipes. 

 They will be appreciated in case of a breakdown, or if the pipes are 

 not all required during a warm spell they can be partly cut out, to 

 be turned on again when it gets cold. 



A too large boiler may eat up more coal than necessary, but you 

 are out more money by having to f6rce a boiler that is too small. 

 With most plants it isn't nearly as important just how hot or cold 

 you keep them, as it is how evenly you can maintain the temperature 

 they require. 



There is always a way to find out just what heating system, what 

 kind of boiler, and the amount of piping one requires in order to 

 maintain a certain temperature. The man who starts into business 

 today makes a big mistake in going ahead without knowing just 

 what he is doing. 



WATERING PLANTS INDOORS 



WATERING plants growing in pots or in a bench requires care- 

 ful attention, for the plants are entirely dependent upon you 

 for the right amount necessary to encourage a healthy growth. When 

 out in the open the roots have a chance to go down into the soil 

 and look for moisture if necessary, and they usually do it. You 

 can lift a tender annual and find that its hair-like roots have grown 

 right into a hard, rock-like clay soil and wonder how it was possible. 

 That same plant in a 4-in. pot on a bench has no chance to do so. 

 It is absolutely dependent on some one to supply the moisture ' 

 necessary, as the roots are confined within the sides of the little 

 pot. And the same almost holds good with the plants in a bench 

 with only four or five inches of soil. 



Now with most plants grown by the average retail grower it 

 is just a matter of keeping the soil fairly moist at all times and 

 when applying the water of disturbing the plants as little as possible. 

 Just how to do this, one has to find out for himself. You can show 

 a man how to hold the hose, how to place the forefinger over the 

 opening, how to move himself and the arm that holds the hose so 

 as to distribute the water evenly, instead of squirting it twenty 

 feet from where he stands. But in order to do all this rightly the 

 man has to learn through experience. 



You can tell when a bench of Carnations is in want of water 

 by examining it. Get your fingers down into the soil and find out 

 its exact condition; you cannot always tell by the appearance of 

 the surface. Don't water soil that is wet nor ever let a lot of stock 

 suffer in soil that is dry. To give soil in pots or in a bench a chance 



