GUIDEBOOK FOR 1940 
Page 35 
During the bud to bloom stage is the one 
time it is desirable to keep the ground definite¬ 
ly on the wet side. Next to impossible in 
well drained location to get it too wet at this 
stage. Naturally, if the soil be wet and soft 
and high winds come, some tall and heavy 
plants may go over, bulb tilting in the soil and 
tearing roots, if permitted. We consider it 
advisable to use some method of staking if 
the soil is kept extremely wet at this stage. 
We use some 6 ft. steel stakes, Xe inch diameter 
and rubber bands. The stakes are incon¬ 
spicuous and if blooms are cut can be readily 
moved to other spikes throughout the season. 
After the peak of bloom season, if weather 
becomes extremely hot and there appears 
any tendency of the stems to soften somewhat, 
this extra watering may be concluded and 
very shallow cultivation continued through 
the balance of the blooming season if you can 
still get in among the plants to do so. 
Whatever general fertilizing method may 
be used, a “shot in the arm’’ type may be 
used on a few or all plants just as the early 
buds begin to form in the stalks. Use a 
handful of dried blood meal for about 5 to 10 
plants or a handful of ammonium sulphate 
to about 10 to 15 plants, scratching it in 
several inches away from the plants. Soak 
the ground heavily the day before so that the 
plant will be saturated and in strong growing 
condition, thus withstanding a shock which 
might otherwise burn off the rootlets, turn the 
foliage yellow and stop further growth. This 
will increase the size of the florets and the 
length of the spike. 
Above formulas are maximum. Many 
would consider them extreme. We do not 
remotely approach these extremes ourselves as 
our aim is a bulb crop and the blooms inci¬ 
dental. But a large number of our customers 
have used these methods with highly gratify¬ 
ing results. 
Particularly in hot weather, spikes which 
are cut when but one or two florets are open, 
fill out with more open at a time when bloom¬ 
ed indoors in the light but not sunlight, away 
from any breeze, making better exhibition 
spikes and preventing any fading of color such 
as is sometimes found in some of the finest 
orange scarlets, as well as preventing wilting 
of varieties without strong substance. Cut 
stem slantwise to provide larger drinking area 
and place in water at once to avoid air pockets 
in stem. Allow three or four leaves to remain 
on the plant to mature the new bulb which is 
hardly half grown when spike is cut. At least 
six more weeks are needed to mature the bulb, 
except where blooms are from large bulbs of 
very late sorts, or where blooms arrive at 
late season from young planting stock. 
DON’TS ON DIGGING 
Do not leave part of stem on bulb, cut 
close and burn the tops. 
Do not leave bulbs to dry where frosts can 
reach. 
Do not pile deeply. Quick drying (not in 
hot sunlight) is extremely important to pre¬ 
vent spread of diseases in storage. 
Do not remove roots and old bulb for some 
weeks unless old bulb is soft or shows decay. 
Wait until they separate with ease and 
without tearing the new root base.. This 
waiting period is the most desirable time for 
sprinkling your bulbs lightly with napthalene 
flakes. See paragraph on that subject. 
INSECT PESTS AND BULB DISEASES 
This subject, fortunately, has again be¬ 
come relatively unimportant to the well in¬ 
formed, who have learned that simple, pre¬ 
ventive measures are better than compli¬ 
cated and sometimes ineffective curative 
measures. 
Likely, your bulbs are clean and need none 
of these treatments, but we are presenting 
this information for those who may need it. 
Inspect your bulbs before planting. If 
doubtful looking, remove entire husk, though 
the husk does function to ward off from the 
planted bulb frost, fungus diseases, grubs 
and wire worms. 
We proceed with our subject under sub 
titles. 
FUSARIUM YELLOWS 
FUNGUS DISEASE 
We discuss this subject because so many 
buyers of planting stocks (and blooming 
sizes) order in stocks from different localities, 
basing their purchases largely on attractive 
price. When such price has been made possi¬ 
ble by neglect of proper field rotation and 
lack of scientific bulb treatments, such in¬ 
tensive culture often results in your receiving 
bulbs which develop a core rot as the storage 
season progresses. If you do not discover 
this eating away of the bulb tissue where the 
roots must emerge, if at all, and plant this 
fungus infected bulb, the stem of the plant 
will wither, tips of leaves begin to turn yellow 
and die back. Progressive!}", the entire plant 
is affected and eventually dies. Unless this 
plant and the surrounding soil is removed, 
the fungus will rapidly spread in the soil. 
The following year this location will be un¬ 
safe either for your or our sound bulbs. 
In certain areas of intensive gladiolus 
cultivation this subject is so serious that, 
eventually, a mass exodus from the locality 
may be the only solution. Very fortunately, 
Ohio growers, as yet, have little or no ex¬ 
perience with the disease. 
Not so serious are various types of scab 
and dry rot that only produce localized lesions 
on the bulb, which can be gouged out, or the 
organisms that cause these can be starved 
out by rotation of planting location or the 
corrosive sublimate treatment. 
