GARDENING NOTES

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2550, 10 July 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

GARDENING NOTES

PBEPARING FOR NEXT YEAR’S POTATOES. This is an awkward season for gardening because it is a time of year when there are not many things that can bo planted with much hope of good results. Cabbages planted now' will be m danger of going to seed. If any are put in the choice should be for some of the small, quick-maturing varieties. Broccoli plants, of Last-of-All variety, if planted now, should be ripe next September. If leek plants can be Purchased and some are desired in the garden, it will bo worth while setting

some out. Seeds may be sown of Golden Ban turnip, silver beet, and stump-rooted carrot. Broad beans may be sown at all times of the year, remembering that in the wet weather of winter tho seeds will rot if the ground be not well drained. Broad beaus make the best of all tho quick-growing shelters for the more tender, plants, and this is. a good time to sow this crop where winter shelter will be wanted. Diseases and even insect attacks are often due to the sickly state of some of the plants. If sickly-lookmg plants be always pulled out whenever noticed, the pests will not often appear on tho others.... SOME GOOD POTATOES.

4s this is the time of year to begin thinking of next season’s potato crop, some notes on the subject may bo useful. To those who are willing to take special care to prepare their seed may purchase supplies during next month. These potatoes should bo first “greened” in the sun to harden them, and ensure their sprouting later on, and' then be stored in shallow boxes in single layers, eye ends upwards, in a cool, light store, to sprout during cold weather, A successful Wellington gardener recommends the following selection of varieties in order of earliness: —

Earlv Puritan, the first. Fluke, good early potatp. Lord Roberts, good cropper, good eater. / , , , Princess Victoria, fiat, oval potato, Victor Rose (red), somewhat kidneyslmoed, and has deep eyes. ' Up-to-Date, the popular market sort. Duke of Cornwall, heavy cropper. Mr. Davis, of ICarori, who had an interesting display of potatoes at tiro ICarori flower show, supplies some valuable notes', from which are taken trie following:— - . , “Sound tubers, egg-sized, should be selected and left to- green in the sun, which seems to set up some chemical action that strengthens their constitution. When well greened and dryod, pack them in shallow boxes with the eyes upwards. Gradually durin» the winter a shoot or two as stout one’s little finger will develop. When planted later on with these shoots uninjured, very rapid growth follows and a heavy crop. If the weather is unfavorable at the time intended for planting, the work may be delayed till later, and yet the crop be just as early as from unsprouted tubers set sooner. Mr. V 7 right, principal of the Glasgow Agricultural College, says that crops from seed which have been planted in boxes were increased by two tons £>cwt. per acre. ’ Late ripening potatoes benefit more from sprouting than those which ripen earlier.' -CHANGE OF SEED. “Frequent changes of seed ensure heavier and healthiest crops. Always a seed from a colder district. If, before planting, a small part of the blind end of cadi set be cut off tliat will serve two purposes. It will ensure decay of the set after planting, without ivhieh the crop would be small, and it will enable one to see if the sot is diseased. “Immature potatoes (dug v/hen their foliage was still green) are more prolific as seed than, those which have been fully ripe when dug. “The ground should, if possible, bo prepared in the autumn. If stable manure is to be used, this should be dug m then, and oats should be sown. The oat crop will take off the newness of the manure) which might otherwise cause fungoid growth in. the potato ground* and in the spring the oats may lie either cut or dug in. The potatoes then planted should give a heavy crop. It is a good plan to sow oats in all vacant land ni autumn. It provides a valuable crop of green growth to be dug into the ground in spring.