462 Eeadicating Gall Mite (Bio Bud). l-\ug., 



be in about a month. Gradual hardening should follow and the 

 frame should eventually be lifted off to ripen the wood fully. 

 The cuttings strike freely in small pots, from which they can 

 be planted out when rooted to grow. 



In the aatumn the plants from the frames can be planted 

 in a nursery, cutting back slightly to induce the basal* buds 

 to break strongly. By this method clean-stcck bushes are 

 provided for furnishing cuttings for the usual method of pro- 

 pagation, or they can be used for planting in fields direct from 

 the frames. Major Evans Lombe tested these young plants 

 at Marlingford under field conditions with good yearling plants 

 raised from ripe wood. The plants from soft cuttings started 

 growing earlier, and are now the larger plants. The photo- 

 graph (Fig. 2) illustrates plants raised by Major Evans Lombe. 

 The root system developed by the soft cuttings is a notable 

 feature of this method. 



Large numbers of cuttings can be taken from established 

 bushes without detriment to the crop. The side shoots should 

 be taken, leaving the terminals for producing the following 

 season's fruiting w^ood. Although April and May are the best 

 months for striking quantitiesof cuttings, the soft growing points 

 of the shoots will strike through the growing season, but it is not 

 advisable after August. If the wood has begun to harden 

 there is a danger of the buds containing " mites," which have 

 a preference for the terminal bud. and during June and July are 

 found in large numbers on infected bushes at the apical ends of 

 the shoots, and between the leaf stalk bases and developing 

 buds. 



Propagating from soft cuttings offers a means of rapidly in- 

 creasing varieties of which stocks are low, and offers possibilities 

 of raising clean stock in plants subject to perennial diseases. Bed 

 nnd white currant bushes are not uncommonly tainted with 

 the same gall mite that infects black currants, and this should 

 not be overlooked as a possible sonrce of re-infection to clean 

 stock. 



