CARNATIONS — THEIR PESTS AND DISEASES. 



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CARNATIONS— THEIR PESTS AND DISEASES. 

 By Montagu C. Allwood, F.R.H.S. 



[Read September 6, 1919 ; Mr. A. Gaskell in the Chair.] 



I intend to consider the subject of my lecture this afternoon more 

 from a practical than a scientific standpoint. Some scientific 

 men who lack a practical grower's experience may not entirely agree 

 with some of the methods we employ, but the proof of the pudding 

 is in the eating : our methods have proved effective almost without 

 exception, and to be employed by a large commercial firm such as 

 ours they must be economical. I, of course, have a great advantage 

 in being associated with a large firm who cultivate Carnations by the 

 acre under glass, as well as in the open, and where an expert is employed 

 at the head of every department who is thorough master of his section 

 of Carnation cultivation. I believe that there is no Carnation pest 

 or disease which we have not mastered, and, furthermore, I believe 

 that if others follow out our methods of cultivation, they will not be 

 seriously troubled with disease upon their Carnations, no matter 

 whether they are grown under glass or in the open. 



The two main factors in having healthy Carnations is to start 

 with a clean, selected healthy, stock, and only to propagate correct 

 cuttings and layers (see fig. 35). Just any sort of stock-cutting or layers 

 (see fig. 36) will not do, and, moreover, when once a Carnation plant 

 has become weak or unhealthy it is almost impossible to restore its 

 health, particularly so in the case of perpetual-growing varieties, simply 

 because they have no resting or dormant period to recuperate their 

 health : furthermore, all perpetual-flowering varieties deteriorate in 

 time, and their constitution can only be preserved by selection. 



The second essential in good Carnation cultivation is the use of 

 a correct fertilizer. I will go so far as to say that more Carnations are 

 spoilt annually owing to the use of improper fertilizers than from any 

 pest or disease. Half the highly concentrated fertilizers used upon 

 Carnations simply act as a stimulant and undermine the constitution 

 of the entire stock. A Carnation, to preserve its constitution, must 

 have an evenly-balanced slow-acting organic food, one that develops 

 all parts of the plant. If you endeavour to develop a flower 

 abnormally, say for show purposes, at the expense of the plant, then 

 your stock becomes ruined. An organic food in comparison with a 

 chemical stimulant is like the body-building and lasting qualities 

 of a beef steak to a whisky and soda. Excess of nitrogen in a highly 

 concentrated fertilizer has ruined thousands upon thousands of 

 Carnations. 



