INGa Veo Oi Oh De MEAS Ss: 3 

Watering will depend entirely upon the rainfall, heat, and type of soil you are using but when 
you do water, use enough to do a good job. Three-quarters of an inch of water at least for big 
bulbs (just set a low straight-sided tin can among them before you start watering and then you 
can tell how much you are getting on.) Three-quarters of an inch, you will find, is a lot but it pays, 
especially from the time the spikes come out of the sheath until they bloom. 
Stirring of the soil is a great factor. Hoeing, scratching, cultivating, brooming, or whatever you 
want to call it, should be done often. We use lawn brooms in the planted rows on our light soil 
and cultivators between the rows. We plan to get over the piece every fourth or fifth day but if it 
has been dry once a week is enough. If it rains, or we irrigate, we try to cultivate the following 
day as soon as it dries out. 
Bulbs we ship to you we will guarantee to be absolutely free of thrips. Nevertheless, we 
always dip our bulbs before planting and suggest it to our customers because this really should 
be absolute protection. The two most popular dips are the Bichloride of Mercury (Corrosive Subli- 
mate) and the Lysol dip. Using the Bichloride of Mercury dip we soak them from 8 to 10 hours in 
a solution of one ounce to seven gallons of warm water, (preferable to keep the solution in a fairly 
warm place early in the season.) This recommendation is for bulbs with their husks on,—six to 
eight hours is sufficient for bulbs which have been peeled. Use only wooden, glass or crockery 
containers as a chemical action, weakening the solution, will take place in a metal vessel. You 
can do no harm to the bulbs with this treatment except to delay blooming about ten days. The 
Lysol dip is widely used also: 1 tablespoon of Lysol to 1 gallon of water, soaking the bulbs four 
to eight hours. This is supposed to be a highly recommended control for any diseases on bulbs. 
With both treatments we always feel it advisable to dip just preceding planting. 
You are now giving your bulbs a good start and when they are about six inches high, we 
consider it a wise move to play safe and spray them. Thrips are so hard to distinguish that a 
very few at this stage in your growth would multiply enough to make serious damage later. The 
old formula still seems to be popular: two tablespoons Arsenate of Lead, two pounds sugar (the 
cheapest kind you can buy) and three gallons of water. In the sections where the weather is often 
hot and the humidity high during the growing season, growers have some trouble with burning 
of the foliage with the Arsenate of Lead spray although it does not burn nearly as easily as Paris 
Green. The Tartar Emetic spray has been used very successfully and we use it in place of the 
Arsenate spray. The formula is: 4 pounds Tartar Emetic, 16 pounds brown sugar, to 100 gallons 
of water. For home gardens use: 3 gallons of water, 42 teaspoonsful of Tartar Emetic, and 1 2/3 
cups of brown sugar. Tartar Emetic is a standard drug also known as Antimony and Potassium 
Tartrate U.S.P. Brown sugar is usually cheaper but any sugar is equally effective or you can use 
corn syrup and molasses (three and three-quarters pints per 100 gallons.) If Tartar Emetic is not 
obtainable a suggested substitute is Salp (sodium antimony lacto phenolate) used in combination 
with the corn syrup or molasses solution at the rate of six pints per 100 gallons of spray. We think 
if one keeps all open spikes cut close there will be little damage. The thrips go to blooming spikes 
so if these are cut and removed from the field, any thrips present on the spikes, where most of them 
will be, would go out on these spikes. Any tops broken off, or worthless spikes, should also be 
kept cleaned up and removed from the field and destroyed as you then remove any thrips that 
may be present on these spikes. 
For decorative or show purposes, cut your spikes as soon as the first blossom or two opens— 
preferably in the morning before it gets too warm,—and be sure that you leave at least five leaves 
on the plant to mature the bulb. By cutting a bit cff the stem each day, and freshening the water 
of course, they will last many days. If desired for showing, and the show is nearby, cut the spikes 
as above and hold in as cool a place as available until the day of the show. If you must ship or 
carry the blooms some distance, we suggest you pack them flat in boxes. 
Do not neglect your gladiolus after they have bloomed. An occasional cultivation will be 
beneficial and if weeds are kept down the digging will be easier. We think about four to six 
weeks after blooming is a good time to start digging a variety. Be sure and cut the tops off close 
to the bulb and spread the bulbs out in low boxes to dry, preferably where air can move around 
them. It will depend on the size of the bulbs and the drying conditions on how soon they will be 
ready to clean (the old bulb should come off easily) and be sure to destroy all the old bottoms, etc. 
Now store in a cool dry place. If you use naphthalene flakes we suggest that you put in half a 
handful on pieces of paper, or small pie plates, in the boxes; cover the boxes with paper or, if you 
can put them in one big pile, cover it all with a tight cover of some kind such as canvas or several 
thicknesses of newspaper and leave for a couple of weeks. Uncover, take out the naphthalene 
flakes and store for the winter. Putting the naphthalene on paper will save taking all the bulbs 
out to get the naphthalene flakes away from the bulbs for we do not like to leave them among 
the bulbs all winter. Now the bulbs should be in good shape until planting time. 
