Here Are the Answers to 
Many customers have asked me how I handle 
my Gladiolus bulbs—how I cure them so they 
look so nice and clean. One customer referred 
to the Glad bulbs I sent him as “platinum 
blondes.” Of course, we all fall down at times, 
therefore not ALL my bulbs are as blonde 
and buxom as might be desired. 
In the first place, I treat all my bulbs before 
planting with corrosive sublimate or Calo- 
green or both. This goes a long ways to insure 
freedom from disease in the new crop. 
My soil varies all the way from quite sandy 
to very heavy stiff soil. But I can usually pro¬ 
duce bright clean bulbs no matter in what soil 
they are grown. 
The secret is largely in curing. And this is 
when Colorado’s dry air and super sunshine are 
let in on the secret. During the Glad digging 
and curing season rains are almost unknown. 
Occasionally at the very end of the season we 
may get a snowstorm, but the snow soon dis¬ 
appears. 
My trays are hauled to the fields and dis¬ 
tributed at convenient places for filling them 
by the digging crew. During the day the truck 
comes along, gathers up the trays, hauls them 
to the space near the bulb house shown in this 
picture. I used to haul the bulbs in from field 
in bags, then empty into trays, but that way 
bruised the bulbs. 
Here the trays are stacked 10 high in long 
rows with a few inches of space between trays 
for free circulation of air. 
Iiook closely and you will see heavy water¬ 
proof duck blankets folded and lying on top 
of each stack of trays. During the day these 
blankets protect the top bulbs from strong 
sunshine. At night the blankets are pulled 
down so as to cover the sides and ends ot tne 
trays completely, giving full protection from 
the frosts and even quite cold weather. I have 
many of these 12 by 16-foot blankets, so if 
necessary we can put 2 to 4 thicknesses over 
the trays at night. 
No screening or grading is done until the 
bulbs have cured quite a bit, and the outer sur¬ 
face of the bulbs has become somewhat hard¬ 
ened. 
My trays, and racks in which these trays 
easily slide, are standardized. No matter where 
we want to put a tray, it always fits the rack. 
The trays are 20 inches wide and 36 Inches 
long and nearly 4 inches deep. Each tray has 
galvanized wire screen bottom—the ordinary 
40 
Some of Your Questions 
screen used for windows and doors. In mak¬ 
ing these trays all sides and ends are cut 
exactly alike, the sides 36 inches and the ends 
18 inches long. 
We use 12-penny cement-coated nails for 
nailing this frame together. The screen wire 
is drawn tight and tacked all around the bot¬ 
tom of the frame with double pointed tacks, 
driven with an automatic tacking machine. 
Then a smooth strip % inch thick and 1 *4 inch 
wide is nailed with finishing nails (sunk) clear 
around the bottom of the tray over the wire. 
Another strip is run lengthwise through the 
middle of the tray, under the screen wire. The 
two strips running lengthwise at the outer 
edges of the tray serve as runners for sliding 
in the racks. 
To make the trays still more rigid and last¬ 
ing, a block 1^4 inch square and as high as the 
sides of the tray is nailed to each corner with 
5-penny cement-coated nails. 
The racks are constructed so the trays slide 
freely, and have several inches of space be¬ 
tween trays. 
All Glad growers know the danger of mark¬ 
ing the name of a variety on one end of a tray 
and finding a different name on the other end 
if the tray has been used before and care not 
taken to erase the name used the previous sea¬ 
son. I avoid this hazard 100 per cent by paint¬ 
ing one end only of every tray—any color will 
do, but I paint mine black. We never write on 
the tray itself, but on heavy cardboard, as in 
this picture. The card is tacked on the painted 
end, never on the unpainted end; cards renewed 
as needed. 
This is just one of the precautions I take to 
avoid errors and mixtures. 
In the background is the bulb house, which 
has racks that hold 2,104 of these trays. Sim¬ 
ilar racks are in the basement of our store. 
The store racks hold 680 trays. Most Glad 
orders are filled from the racks at the store, 
though large orders may be put up in part or 
altogether from the bulb house. The store 
trays are replenished from the bulb house. 
The biOb has much additional storage 
space, for Dahlias, etc., not occupied by racks 
for Glad bulbs. The end to the right holds 3 
cars. Another garage a little farther to the 
right, but not shown in this picture, holds two 
more cars. We can drive a truck load of bulbs 
Hght into the bulb house and transfer them 
from truck to racks. 
