INC. 
"FLOWER SEEDS FOR FLORISTS 
WINTER PEA EXPERIMENTS 
L AST summer we carried out extensive 
experiments to determine the best 
method of treating our soil for grow¬ 
ing winter peas. Among the sterilizing 
trials both steam and drenching with hot 
water were used with both old and fresh 
soil. We were surprised to note the best 
results with old soil thoroughly saturated 
with hot water. This was piped direct 
from blow-off of our steam boiler. There 
was no root rot at all in the hot water 
treated beds; infection of this rot in ad¬ 
joining beds was clearly evidenced by 
lack of vigor or free growth that character¬ 
izes any disturbance at the roots. This 
question is complicated some by the fact 
that most soils differ but in our experience 
we have repeatedly noted, with various 
crops, the value of hot water treatment for 
soils. 
We lost the name of the grower who sent in 
this striking photo. 
Another result of these experiments dem¬ 
onstrated that peas in active full growth 
will stand more water in the lower soil 
than we have been accustomed to use. 
The freer growth that follows will drop buds some, but the total results from such 
growth greatly exceeds that from vines unnecessarily hardened to prevent bud drop. 
But here again conditions differ. Some clay soils seem to hold water all winter and 
to add it freely will soon run the vines without flowers to the roof. It seems clear that 
under our conditions the lower soil to a depth of 18-24 in. should be kept wet 
enough to accumulate water when a hole is dug into it. 
About planting dates, if sown in our latitude early in July we get a nice crop begin¬ 
ning late in September, but care is necessary to get them through so much hot weather. 
The soil must be neither too dry nor wet and a fairly heavy shade maintained. A 
safer sowing date is August 1. This leaves these cool temperature plants but 6 weeks 
of hot weather to endure and they enter the winter in better shape. In sowing seed 
during summer do so in fairly moist soil, about an inch deep and apply no water until 
we II up. The combination of high, or low temperature and wet soil encourages rot 
that destroys perfectly sound seed. We found that formaldehyde or semesan mixed 
with soil gave a 100% stand of peas while in the same soil without treatment the 
seed rotted nearly 100%. However, we find its use unnecessary in well drain ed 
fresh soil, if no water is applied until after the seed is well germinated. 
