GAEDEN-POTS AND POTTING. 



113 



But it is hardly necessary to suggest the clifficul- 

 t-es of perfect potting at any further length. To he 

 forewarned is to he forearmed ; and these are named 

 to prom.ote care and caution, and not to produce 

 timidity or lack of confidence, as expert and firm 

 handling are among the first qualifications for good 

 potting. 



Dibbling in. — This phrase is ahnost confineu. to 

 the insertion of cuttings. These are invariahly put 

 into hard s indy soil surfaced with silver sand, with 

 a small sharji-pointed stick from three to six inches 

 long, called a dihher, or dibhler. This tiny stick is as 



12 3 



Fig. 12.— 1, Small diblser for pricking off seedlings or put- 

 ting in cuttings ; 2, common garden dibber j 3, Po- 

 tato dibber. 



unlike as can well he to the common dihher, formed 

 of part of a spade-handle, used for planting Cabbages, 

 &c., or the foot-dibber, mostly shod with iron, used 

 for the insertion of Potatoes, or other seeds. It 

 however gives its name to the operation of inserting 

 cuttings, and is, in fact, the only possible way of 

 putting them in properly. The chief art in dibbling 

 is to make the cutting, or seedling, solid at its base. 

 Many dibble all their lives, and never leam that 

 simple art. They concentrate all their efforts on 

 making the stem or the surface firm, which the 

 first watering will do better. Make the base firm, 

 and all will be well with the cutting ; leave it loose, 

 and the very firmness of surface or of stem often 

 suspends it in the soil, leaving a vacuum at its base 

 that is fatal to its forming roots. 



ViTasMng in, or Flooding Home. — On the 



heels of the dibber comes the fine-rosed watering- 

 pot. The rose can hardly be too fine for small 

 cuttings, as a heavy shower would displace rather 

 than further solidify the cuttings. It needs con- 

 siderable patience and skill to flood cuttings in. 

 Continue to pour the water on steadily till the whole 

 surface is flooded ; then leave the pots where watered 

 8 



until the water subsides. In cases where extra 

 solidity is desired, a siii/ple mode of obtaining it is 

 to gently ta]3 the pots on the bench, keeping them 

 quite at right angles with it, just as the last of the 

 water is disappearing. This operation needs careful 

 timing and execution, as otherwise it may disturb 

 the cuttings, and do more harm than good. When 

 the pots are properly prepared and filled with the 

 right compost, surfaced with sand, the tapping while 

 wet is better dispensed with, unless done by skilful 

 hands. 



Pricking off or out. — These terms are ap- 

 plied to the removal of small seedling plants from 

 their seed-pots, pans, boxes, or beds into others, to 

 develop their strength and multiply the number of 

 their roots. It is also used for very small cuttings, 

 though not very often. In a general way, the term 

 and the practice are applicable to all plantlets that 

 need thinning, and are not sufficiently advanced to 

 have a pot or separate growing - space allotted to 

 them. Hence, all the Cabbage tribes, and such 

 vegetables as Celery, are pricked off their seed-beds 

 into others, and placed at distances of from two 

 to three or four inches apart. These are called 

 nursery-beds, as from these the plants are finally 

 transplanted into their growing quarters. This ex- 

 ample will make the meaning and the use of pricking 

 out obvious. 



The idea of nursing runs through the whole. The 

 plants support each other, and tender and delicate 

 plants, after pricking out or off, should have almost 

 as genial treatment as cuttings (see Propagation) 

 until re-established. 



As to time for pricking off, so soon as they can 

 be handled, is the usual rule for attending to this, 

 and in this case it is absolutely right, as well 

 as the very essence of common sense ; for it could 

 hardly be done earlier, if we would, and the 

 earlier it can be done the better. Another rule 

 with many plants is, so soon as they develop a third, 

 or more correctly speaking, one proper leaf ; for 

 the two cotjdedons are rather rudimentary appen- 

 dages to the embryo root and stem — that is, in 

 botanical terms, the radicle and plumule — than 

 proper leaves. That they cannot be trusted to 

 perform the functions of the latter is proved by the 

 disappearance (by withering up or falling off) of 

 the cotyledons soon after the appearance of proper 

 leaves. Hence the vital importance of waiting for 

 one or more of the latter before pricking oft' young- 

 plants. 



Important as this operation is, it may often be 

 rendered unnecessary hy thin sowing, and plants 

 specially impatient of disturbance in a young state 

 should be sown so thinly as to enable them to stand 



