238 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
April 4, 1908. 
answer the following questions. What steps 
I should take from start to finish to grow 
Mushrooms in a dark vault, and also what 
precautions to take ? 1 am anxious to make 
a trial m the small vault first shown on the 
accampahyliyg plan, where there is no drip 
and the temperature pretty even. It lays 
under a hill in a sheltered position facing 
south. One of the vaults is honeycombed 
with brick wine racks. Would these do for 
laying beds in for producing Mushrooms out 
of season? The secorad cellar is a large 
open one, like a square room, and 'has two 
windows at the one end only. Would you 
advise flat beds or slanting from the centre, 
as shown in my sketch, and where is the 
best place to get good spawn ? I have never 
attempted to grow Mushrooms before. Per¬ 
haps ycu will kindly answer me, and more 
fully than you would one with some ex¬ 
perience. (Novice, Hereford.) 
We think the best plan would be to begin 
the experiment in ithe smaller vault, making 
up a bed about 1 ft. in depth.. The plan 
is to collect horse manure as you can get it, 
and to lay it in an open shed, if possible, 
to keep off rain. Some people prepare the 
manure in the open air. In any case, when¬ 
ever you have got a sufficient quantity of 
it gathered together, you should throw >t 
up in a heap to let it ferment. Turn this 
heap, making a fresh one out of it in the 
course of two or three days, and repeat 't 
in the course of other three days. By this 
fermentation you will get rid of an excess 
of heat, when you cais proceed to make up 
a bed. Lay it on regularly and then tread 
it down firmly till it is 1 ft. in depth. You 
will require a thermometer to ascertain the 
temperature until you get experienced m the 
making up of beds. The heat will first rise 
high and then begin to sink. When it has 
sunk to go degs. or 85 degs., you can then 
spawn the bed. Break up the spawn into 
pieces about the size of a hen’s egg, and 
plant them in the manure, 4 in. to 6 in. apart. 
About a week afterwards cover the bed with 
a layer of moist soil, beating it down firmly 
on the manure with the back of the spade. 
The Mushrooms should begin to make their 
appearance in the course of four, five, dr 
six weeks. When this is the stage of the 
first bed, you can then make up another to 
give you a succession. There is a good deal 
of demand for half-grown Mushrooms, 
which are used as buttons; but unless you 
can get 'a higher price for these young ores 
it' would be "well to let the Mushrooms get 
a fair size before you gather them. The 
atmosphere of the house should be moist, so 
as to prevent the manure of the bed getting 
dry. As a rule, there is no difficulty in the 
case of vaults below -ground. If small beds 
are made up in the rack holes shown in your 
■diagram, the manure would be more liable 
to get dry, and in that case you would ha -e 
to give a watering with a fine-rosed water¬ 
ing-pot, using tepid water, just after you 
have made a gathering of Mushrooms. This 
watering is somewhat troublesome if over¬ 
done, but a little experience will enable 
you to make the manure just sufficiently 
moist to give rise to a fresh crop of Mush¬ 
rooms. In these cellars, and also in the 
rack holes, the beds should be flat. If 
these-places are underneath inhabited houses 
it would be as well to ascertain whether the 
local sanitary .authorities would permit of 
its being done before you commit yourself 
to any great expense. In ether respects we 
do not see why vou should not succeed 1 n 
growing quantities of Mushrooms _ urdei 
those conditions. Be careful to avoid get¬ 
ting manure from horses which have re¬ 
cently had medicine, as that would inierfe-re 
with the success of the Mushrooms. Be care¬ 
ful -not to allow the manure to burn, by 
turning it before this happens, by sprinklin'? 
the manure with a rosed watering-pot ’f 
necessary, and at the same time avoid get¬ 
ting the manure too wet. The temperature 
should be relatively low before the Mush¬ 
rooms are developed. Of course, no light 
is necessary for the growing of Mushrooms, 
and if you are allowed to -carry out this 
project you should commence with the small 
room or vault. You can get good -and reli¬ 
able Mushroom spawn from Messrs. Sutton 
and Sons, Reading; Messrs. Webb and Sons, 
Wordsley, Stourbridge; from Messrs. Baker, 
Ltd., Wolverhampton; or most other seeds¬ 
men who advertise in our pages. 
FRUIT. 
2750. Vines and Tomatos. 
.Can I grow a Vine (black) in an unheated 
house, 14 ft. by 8 ft., span-roof, in which 
during summer are Tomatos and where ; n 
winter I can store anythdrg which does not 
require heat? If so, will you please name 
one or two that will stand the winter here, 
and would you plant the canes on each side 
in the middle of the house, or at one end? 
(A. E. G., Lares.) 
There -are many varieties of Vine which 
you can g-row in an -unheated house, or even 
in the open air, for most Vines are hardy. 
The fruiting of them is quite -another ques¬ 
tion. You could grow Black Hamburgh and 
ripen the Grapes in an unheated house. 
Reins Olga is a tawny coloured Grape that 
will even ripen out of doors. Black Cluster 
also ripens out of doors, and fruits very 
well. The first two we consider the best, 
and you can pl-ant them in any part of the 
house where you could find it convenient. 
We think they would look better to be plan¬ 
ted on either side .of the house, at the end, 
where they would be the warmest and that 
would be the furthest' from th© door. The 
reason 'why we should advocate putting them 
to one end is to leave the other space clear 
and unshaded for the sake of the Tomatos. 
We have seen a large house with -a few 
Vines in it and Tomatos all over the fleer 
space, but while keeping the Vines suitably 
moist it hardly does justice to the Tomatos, 
which get too much shade on the one h-and 
and ar-e kept in a moist atmosphere when a 
dry one would be more suitable to their wel¬ 
fare. We presume that you get as much 
sunshine at the end of the house as in the 
middle, because this -is of importance to 
Vines. 
GARDEN ENEMIES. 
2751. Black Currant Bud IVJites. 
Having read ia( a recent issue that you 
would be glad to receive a sample of the 
Bl-ack Currant pest or big bud blight, which 
has attacked bushes rather severely in this 
neighbourhood, I herewith send you a sample 
which I have dbtained of my neighbour, 
who has about a quarter of an acre of fine 
bushes, and which bore very fine fru ; t r ast 
year. A market gardener near told me he 
had to destroy four acres of plantation owing 
to this pest last year. (W. Hotbrovy, 
Beds.) 
We are much obliged for the samples you 
sent us, and which are evidently very plen¬ 
tiful. It would be to your neighbour’s in¬ 
terest to keep them in check before they 
spread all over and destroy his bushes. We 
quite, believe that a market gairdene-r had to 
destroy four -acres of plantation. This has 
frequently been happening of late years. 
The big buds should be cut off with a knife, 
or some of the worst shoots removed alto¬ 
gether. Then another w.ay of attacking the 
mite is to dust the bushes with a mixture of 
two parts of sulphur and one pa-rt of lime 
about the time the -mites migrate from the 
old bud-s- to the young ones. This com¬ 
mences about the beginning of Jure, -and 
may continue till the end of July, so that 
a -dusting of sulphur and lime would de¬ 
stroy great numbers of the mite. Indeed 
it is the best remedy which has yet been 
discovered for this pest. 
SOILS AND MANURES. 
275 2. Soot aind S'Sil^ate of Soda. 
I have a small greenhouse, and as I have 
rio facilities for getting rain water I adopt 
the following plan : I -have a small tub 
holding about three bucketfuls of water. 
These I fill with tap water. In this I soak 
a canvas bag containing a-bout a gallon to I 
15 gallons of -soot to soften the water and 
also help as a stimulant. I add about 2 ozs. 
of nitrate of soda. This I -stir up once or 
twice a day for -the first few days, then let 
it stand and settle. The solution thus ob¬ 
tained is about the colour of fairly strong j 
tea. * I put about half a pint of this to a 
bucket of tap water every time I water the! 
plants. Is this too much, -and would it be 
better to use it stronger, say, once or twice 
a week, -rather than give the quantity 1 do 
at each watering? (H. M., Yorks.) 
You haYe -used two substances that con¬ 
tain nitrogen, the soot contains a small 
quantity of ammonia, which is nitrogen in 
a, certain state or combination*. Nitrate of 
sod-a also, of course, contains .-nitrogen. The 
quantity you use would not be too much for 
certain plants ,at particular stages of growth, 
but Ithiis, of course, will have to be left to 
your discretion. Plant’s that are strong 
growers and will t-ake plenty of feeding will 
not^ take t-he slightest harm with this fer¬ 
tiliser. It should be -applied in Ithe earlier, 
rather than the later, stages of growth, be¬ 
cause-it encourages the growth of wood and. 
leaves rather th-an flowers. Then, again, we 
should not apply it to- Tomatos until the 
plants 1 have set -at least one bunch of fruit. 
This steadies growth, ard you can -then feed. 
In th<5 case of other plants you will have 
to calculate wha-t -is the feeding capacity. 
Once a week shoul-d -re-al-ly be sufficient with 
the manure yo-u mention to most plants. 
Later in the season, when you wish the 
plants to bloom or to pass away into the 
resting stage, then you should leave off 
feeding. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
2753. London Shows. 
I am a very old subscriber to your paper, 
and therefore write to say that there is one 
thing I should like to see published as re¬ 
gards London florwer shows in youir paper, 
namely, the time when they are to be held. 
Vou notify when they are over, but no noti¬ 
fication before, and so the result -is that both 
I and numbers o-f people I know never see 
those shows, for the simple reason we do 
not know when they are to be held, nor 
whether ,in London, ror for how many days 
open. -I am only an amateur in gardening, 
the same as numbers I know who subscribe 
to yotur valuable paper, but for all that we 
should dearly like -to attend the flower 
shows, and certainly should do so if we only 
knew when, where and for how long to be 
held. If you could .help us in this matter 
by a notification of same, I should feel, 
as -all those I know, greatly obliged. (L. L. 
Wilson, Surrey.) . 
Space io very often a serious considera¬ 
tion with us in The Gardening World and 
when people do not let us know, we_ think 
it a pity to take up a deal of space wiith in¬ 
formation that is not wanted. At the same 
time we frequently get the information too 
late to be of ar\y service for the forthcoming 
number. We -go to press on Friday, when 
the matter is completely out of our nan-.. 
In .any case, you may note ftihat there is • 
exhibition of Winter Flowering Carnations 
