"October Pink" the new single that doesn’t lose its color when shaded. 
Heavy producer, clear rose pink. That’s John Jacobs, West Chicago, 
Illinois, the grower on the right. 
sets our idea of the value of 
organic matter, do not over¬ 
look its need in ordinary soil 
culture, for it seems neces¬ 
sary for the purpose of un¬ 
locking fertility in soil. Our 
soilless culture experience 
with this crop has been uni¬ 
formly successful. It inclines 
us to believe that some of 
the principles of this plan, 
light soil to begin with, that 
is more freely aerated, might 
be used in ordinary culture: 
water and feed to be applied 
as with soil. We believe that 
a reason for the freer growth 
we get in gravel is due to 
the air that is drawn in and 
out three times daily. But 
getting back to what Mums 
are generally grown in, don’t 
use old greenhouse soil un¬ 
less it is sterilized. If not in 
a position to do this, it will 
pay to wheel in fresh. While 
Mums as well as most crops 
seem to flourish in soil with 
the pH at around neutral, investigators 
generally recommend that it be slightly 
on the acid side for this crop. As soon 
after planting as we can get to it, we 
apply a top dressing of Michigan Peat. 
This assures the soil on the acid side. Do 
not use lime unless too far on the acid 
side. Spacing is important and depends 
some on varieties, but largely on whether 
two or more small flowers or one large 
one is most profitable. 
The wholesale market demand for 
standard Mums is quite generally for 
fairly large uniform flowers. Up to last 
season our standard practice was one 
flower to a plant, spaced generally 7x8 
in. The past season we spaced part of all 
varieties 7x11 in., with two to a plant: 
with most varieties a glance at both spac- 
ings would show but little difference in 
flower size, but on cutting them out, we, 
of course, got quite a few small ones, but 
one of the two on nearly every plant was 
large. This two to a plant plan would 
seem ideal for a retail grower. On the 
other hand some such growers find they 
get more returns from as much as 4-5 
small flowers than from 1-2 large ones. In 
England nearly all are grown 8-10 or 
more to a plant. For the Paris market the 
larger they are the better; so the answer 
to this question depends on your demand. 
Chances are that our average retail grower 
will want both large and small. 
The center bed in our front cover pic¬ 
ture represents Apricot Queen, two to a 
plant, quite uniformly good market size. 
To the right is Betsy Ross, same spacing 
with a larger percentage of small ones. 
There is an attractive and a limited de¬ 
mand for the great big ones and it might 
be profitable to use some of the exhibition 
kind like the Turners or Pocketts for this. 
A very nice market grade of most ane¬ 
mones are produced with about 3 flowers 
to a plant, spacing 8x8 in. Pompons vary 
in vigor. The New York type of growth 
is restricted and unprofitable unless spaced 
6x6 for rooted cuttings, topping at 6-7 in. 
and carrying up but two stems. We are 
using this close spacing for all Pompons, 
especially if used for shading. When the 
number of growths is limited to 2-3, the 
stems draw out longer because of all 
growth being concentrated in them. In 
growing Pompons for cutting, it is a real 
mistake to top several times and carry all 
growths, because some will be blind and 
weak. This close spacing calls for more 
plants but more uniform results and longer 
stems makes it profitable. 
SUPPORTS 
The most efficient way to support 
pompons is the wire and string method 
used by Carnation growers. The standards 
or large ones are sometimes tied to wire 
stakes; sometimes to three or four lines 
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