Grower Talks 
Published Monthly 
NoOvEMBER, 1941 By Geos) pallac: VOU a oa 
West Ciicagos ill. Leyte 40c—2 yis- Wee 
Permission is granted to reprint articles from this publication, in whole or in 
part, when credit is given. 
\4uformation Please” 
Gay aB: 
“Are you willing to Say what, according to your opinion or records, 
it costs to produce Mum cuttings 2” —Michigan. 








Gladly, why not? But they probably won't ag 
peentise CO eewenicial lack O cost. accounting and 
failure to consider all factors entering into their cost. We assume 
that first class, well rooted cuttings are referred to. If only the labor 
of making, sticking the cuttings into the sand, and watching them 
until rooted is counted, the cost will be around $5.00 per thousand, 
depending on the season and Jabor conditions. During the busy spring 
months the cost will be some higher. The next cost is that of the 
space occupied by stock plants from say Nov. until June. Only way 
to determine this ‘s to figure value of a crop that would occupy this 
space during that period. In doing this we should estimate from 50 
to 60 cents per square ft. Next cost figure is that of insecticide and 
time used applying it. Some allowance should be made for stock 
plants, for we cannot fail to annually try other varieties. Some 1in- 
direct costs that are slight but usually certain during spring propaga- 
tion is loss of cuttings thru rotting in sand, loss*thru not determining 
in the fall exactly the list of varieties you should have, and having 
them in one uniform size the day you figure on planting them. 
This item can become considerable when we figure that early propa 
gations must be potted of planted out and when planting time comes 
are in various sizes and degrees of hardness. Still another indirect 
loss is the fact that the spring months when propagation is at its 
height, we are most pressed with other work and usually something 
suffers, so, When all these factors of cost are fully allowed for, and 
we are only fooling ourselves when we dont count them, we find 
the cost of well rooted cuttings to be between $25.00 ard $30.00 
per thousand. These figures are based on the average growers setup. 
When the business of producing these cutting’s is well organized, and 
managed, and propagation is carried out on 4 large scale, the cost 1s 
of course lowered. 
“My All-Double Blue Brocade petunias are not at this time (Sept.) 
flowering nearly as free as are other variettes. Can you ex plain?’ — 
Illinois. 
I cannot definitely say why this sometimes seems to be true. The 
season it was entered in the All America trials—we noted this be- 
havior in a middle west trial ground and were somewhat scared of it, 
but it flowered almost normally well in all other All America trials 
[2] 

Above is 
a page from o 
Rae RY ka og ce a ur monthly publication “Grower Talks.” 
i ANC Ee Baer y suggesting crops that should be alks.”” We try 
ravel and other notes of interest started for each 
to growers 
