News Letter 
June, 1951 
Dear Friends: 
An interesting crop of questions this 
month. 
. I have a violet which is thick in the 
center. It will not bloom. I have looked and 
cannot see any bugs of any kind. Mrs. E.L, 
Florida. 
A. You probably have an infestation of 
cyclamen mite. These little bugs are so tiny 
that it takes a powerful glass to see them at 
all. Repeated sprayings (every week or ten 
days) with nicotine sulphate have been known 
to clean up an infestation. Sodium selenate 
is also a good treatment, IF the plant isn’t too 
far gone. 
Q. Can you buy glass-wick so you can make 
clay pots self-watering? If so, where. Most of 
the glasswick pots are plastic or ceramic, don’t 
clay pots do as well? Do they take a different 
soil mixture? Mrs. R.S., Iowa. 
A. Have never tried to buy this, but surely 
you could find it at a seed store or garden-supply 
house someplace. If not, a thin strip of cotton 
cloth will produce the same result though it will 
rot out in time. Certainly, clay pots can be used 
this way. You’d probably need a larger wick with 
a clay pot than with a plastic or ceramic pot, 
though, because of the larger area of moisture loss 
due to the porous nature of the clay pots. Or do 
I make myself clear? If you’ve ever lost a plant 
because your wick was too large, you’ll know darn 
well what I’m talking about. You have to adjust 
the wick to the moisture needs of the plant, other- 
wise you'll keep your plant too wet or too dry. 
Soil mixture doesn’t matter particularly, but the 
size of the wick most definitely does. 
Q. Do violets need an acid soil? What kind 
of fertilizer? How often should they be watered? 
Mrs. T.M., Michigan. 
A. No, violets don’t need an acid soil. They 
will do well unless the soil is very, very acid, or 
very, very alkaline. Anything somewhere in the 
middle seems to suit them all right. Any kind of 
fertilizer that’s handy will do for violets. They 
‘soe, be watered when the soil feels dry to the 
ouch. 
Q. My violets grow to a lovely size and de- 
velop lovely big flowers and then just when they 
are seemingly at their best, the leaves begin to get 
limp and the flowers hang over and no matter 
what I do they eventually die. What’s wrong? 
Mrs. E.O., Michigan. 
(Copyright, June, 1951, by Russell Gray) 
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