P. 
(GROWING PAINS continued from page 10) 
shade. Most ericaceous plants will grow in full sun 
or almost full shade, but young plants will make 
better progress in partial shade. They stay moist 
longer and thus will not need to be watered so often. 
Shade should not be too high. Eight or ten inches 
from the plant tops is good. If the shade is too high, 
you may have some sunburn along the edges of the 
beds on extremely bright days when the sun is hot 
early and late in the day. Shaded plants are inclined 
to grow more uprite, reaching for the sun. You may 
wish to remove the shade in early spring at the start 
of the second growing season. By that time the 
plants should have enough spread to keep the soil 
pretty much shaded, and for the ericaceous group the 
shaded soil is very desirable. 
Now comes one of the most important jobs of all,— 
the watering. Many growers have the notion that 
ericaceous plants should be kept pretty wet. That is 
not correct. Instead, these plants like moist, cool 
soil, not wet. So water them when they need it, and 
only when they need it. Many times the surface of 
peat will appear to be dry when it is really moist 
enough. Poke your finger down into it, and if only 
the surface is dry, don’t water. Watering should 
never be done while the sun it hot. ‘Good idea to 
water in the evenings, or early in the morning during 
the hottest of the summer months. Sometimes new 
growth on Rhododendrons and Pieris actually wilts 
during the heat of the day, and yet the medium is 
amply moist. They just grow a little too fast, and 
overnite they will catch up. Don’t water them just 
because such wilt appears. Check the medium first, 
and water when the medium appears to need it. 
Most of the domestic peats are very high in nitrogen. 
In fact, they are really a little too high with the 
result that your plants may go into the first winter 
a little too soft. and suffer some freeze damage. So 
sometime during late July or early August, it will be 
well to make a light application of superphosphate 
and potassium sulphate. That will, to some extent 
offset the high nitrogen. It might be mentioned that 
both of these elements are inclined to deplete in soils 
of high acidity. So these applications are perfectly 
safe procedure. 
In the first summer or fall, if you are fortunate 
enough to find a source of oak leaves, a mulch of a 
few inches of these is wonderful. Other materials 
which may be used as mulches are wood chips, 
shavings, leaves other than oak, or even sawdust, 
with oak sawdust preferred. Most of these use up 
vast quantities of nitrogen as they disintregrate, and 
nitrogen in the form of amonium sulphate should be 
added in the spring. Nitrate of soda should not be 
used, because it will raise the pH level, and thus 
upset the program. If you are unable to find any 
other satisfactory mulch material use some of the 
imported peats of poultry litter size. Don’t make the 
mulch very deep unless it is of material which will 
greatly lessen in volume as it decomposes. Five 
inches of oak leaves will likely be 11%” by spring, but 
(Continued on page 14) 
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