Healthy House Plants – Healthy Soil

For the best house plants you should have the best possible soil for them. This may sound like a big order, but actually it isn’t. Today most home owners buy bagged soil and assume it is good. A potting mixture suitable for most house plants is a combination of loam, sand, peatmoss and/or leafmold. Loam is the name given to a soil which contains clay, sand, silt and humus. It varies from a sand loam to a clay loam, depending on the relative amounts of these two ingredients present. A medium loam is preferred, which may be obtained from arable land such as a cornfield or vegetable garden.

To do a really bang-up job in preparing soil for house plants the loam should consist of turfs cut from a rich pasture. But because the turfs should be cut in the spring and stacked for about six months prior to using the mixture and because many readers will have difficulty in obtaining it, we will forget the ideal loam for the time being. Leaf-mold, too, might present some difficulties because it takes about a year for tree leaves to decay.

The remaining ingredients are not ordinarily difficult to obtain. Horticultural peatmoss can be bought from almost any garden center or garden center. The sand should be coarse with particles ranging from 1/8 to 1/16 inch. Get it from a firm dealing in builders’ materials. If the loam is deficient in humus (ask your county agricultural agent or state experiment station), buy packaged humus to mix with it.

For cuttings, seeds and seedlings, a “lean” mixture is required. Use equal parts of loam, sand and peatmoss in accordance with the character of the loam. If it is sandy use less sand; if clay predominates increase the amount of sand. The mixture should be thoroughly mixed and then tested for acidity. For most house plants the reaction should be pH 6 to 6.5; for acid-soil plants, pH 4.5 to 5.5. If the soil reaction is too acid correct it by adding 16 to 1 ounce of pulverized limestone to each bushel. Just in case there is not enough phosphorous in the soil, mix 1-1/2 ounces of superphosphate in each bushel.

For mature plants use a “fatter” mixture such as 6 to 8 parts loam, 3 parts peatmoss, 2 of sand by bulk; plus 4 ounces of a complete fertilizer with an analysis of about 5-10-5, and 1 ounce of calcium carbonate (pulverized limestone) to each bushel. Double the amount of peatmoss for azaleas and camellias.

For plants like begonia and saintpaulia (African-violet), which revel in soil containing ample organic matter and which do not demand acid soil, it is desirable to add an additional part of leafmold or humus.

Peatmoss, vermiculite (expanded mica, available under various trade names), and sand are primarily soil conditioners. They are usually sterile in the sense that they are free from injurious organisms; hence there is no need to sterilize them. They are also sterile in that they are lacking in plant nutrients, except for peatmoss, in which, however, they are in short supply and not immediately available.

It is best to sterilize (actually it is to pasteurize) the loam – also the leaf-mold, separately, if it is used. The simplest way of doing this is to put 1 inch of water in a saucepan, bring it to a boil, put in the loam dry, cover and let simmer for a half hour. The odor of cooking soil is not pleasant so to avoid domestic trouble I would advise doing it outdoors.

The flower pots (clay or glazed – not plastic) should also be sterilized together with the drainage material (potsherds or fine gravel). Plastic pots can be washed when you do the dishes. Care should be taken to prevent contamination by storing the pasteurized soil in a container such as a new garbage pail with a tightfitting lid.

It is possible to grow house plants without using soil by putting the plants in water; or by using a sterile medium such as flowerpot chips, coarse sand, vermiculite or sphagnum moss and watering with a nutrient solution.

Flowerpot chips can be made by breaking cracked or broken porous clay pots into pieces Va inch or smaller. If you do not have a supply of suitable pots, a soft porous brick can be broken up in the same way and used instead.

Many house plants are able to get along for months, or years even, in tap water. Included in this group are English ivy, Chinese evergreen, saintpaulia, red sister cordyline and airplane-plant.

The soil-less methods are for those who have difficulty in obtaining soil and also for the adventurous who are willing to take a chance. If you do not like to putter around, it is easy to buy packaged soils, sterilized and mixed ready for use. These can be quite good, or worthless, depending on the ethics of those who mix and package them.

Preserving The Color Of Peonies

When planting Peonies plant as soon as they are obtained, being careful to set the division so that the top of the buds will be from 1-1/2 to two inches below the final soil grade after the plants are watered and have finished settling. If planted too deep you will probably get pretty foliage with a few or no blooms, and if too shallow, the buds will be exposed and are likely to get broken off by Old Shep when he serves notice on a stray cat or rabbit.

You should expect blooms from three to five eye divisions the first season. Only seven of the 60 varieties I planted in my garden a few years ago failed to bloom the first year. The plants made a splendid display of flowers the third season after planting.

Digging and dividing large, old peony clumps is no easy task, as most gardeners have learned. If the freshly-dug clump is left exposed to the air for a while, the roots will become less brittle and are more easily handled without breaking. The soil which is tightly held by the roots is best removed with a stream of water from the hose.

Do not simply cut the clump in half and plant the two peonies without removing any of the old large roots. Such divisions depend upon the old roots for nourishment and seldom bloom. The clump should be cut into smaller divisions, usually with from three to five eyes, some of the older roots removed and the others shortened to about six inches. This method stimulates the production of new roots which increases the plant’s vigor and productiveness. A stout butcher knife and a hammer are good division tools. Established plants may be fertilized in early spring with a handful of balanced plant food applied in a ring around each plant and stirred into the soil.

To Preserve Color

Most peony flowers fade in sunlight and if left to open and stand in the sun they lose much of their delicate beauty. If you wish to use peonies for display in a flower show or as a bouquet in the home, cut the flowers and let them open in the dark or at least in partial shade. Do not cut stems so long that all of the leaves are taken with the stalk. This would tend to weaken the plant.

Peonies which are properly planted and maintained are seldom bothered by diseases. The foliage is hardly ever attacked by insect pests. Plants should be carefully watched and if any disease occurs the affected parts should be removed and destroyed.

Root knot, leaf spot and botrytis blight are the three most common ailments. Root knot can be avoided by planting clean, healthy divisions in disease-free soil. New plants should not be set in an old bed where root knot has occurred. If the plants are properly spaced, very little damage is done by leaf spot.

Botrytis blight is likely to be the most serious peony disease and sometimes in orchid plants. It affects stems, buds and leaves just like in caring for orchid plants. Young stalks in early spring suddenly wilt and fall over, and young buds turn black and dry up. Later on, larger buds which become infected turn brown and fail to open up. For control, remove and destroy all infected parts as soon as they appear. Cut off all tops near the crowns in the fall and burn. If severe infestation has occurred before, remove the upper two inches of soil around the plants and replace with fresh disease-free soil.

Also as a preventive measure in the spring, spray the young shoots as soon as they appear, with Bordeaux mixture 2-2-50 or a copper fungicide mixture. Two or three successive sprays should follow at weekly intervals.

Other Garden Color Plant Perennials And Biennials

Hardy Perennials

Unlike annuals, perennials are more or less permanent, flowering annually from the same plants, and do not require to be resown or replanted each season. Seedling perennials, as a general rule, are more vigorous than plants propagated by means of divisions, cutting, etc. They need a longer period of growth to come to maturity than do the annuals, and may be sown from early spring to early autumn, according to their various requirements.

A fairly rich and well prepared seed bed should be made in a sheltered and sunny position, and the seed sown thinly in drills, watering the drills before sowing if the soil is dry.

As a rule, no further watering is necessary, but should a dry spell set in when the plants are tiny like the dwarf banana, it is wise to water them as they need it. Keep free from weeds and pests, and when large enough to handle transplant them carefully to a bed. In October, or alternatively in early spring, according to the size of plants and weather and soil conditions, move them to their permanent quarters.

Unless a large number of plants dwarf banana tree is required, the nursery bed may be dispensed with altogether, that is, provided the seedlings are well thinned out in their early stages. Indeed, an early thinning should be done in any case so as to ensure sturdy seedlings. Most perennials may also be raised in flats in a cold frame or cold house, pricking them off into other flats as soon as large enough to handle and planting them out when ready in the open border.

Some such method is advisable where a prepared seed bed cannot be made out-of-doors or where the depredations of garden pests are feared. Probably most amateur growers will find the flat treatment the most satisfactory way of raising their perennials. Unless the seedlings can be transplanted outdoors by the end of September, at the latest, it is always advisable to winter them in their boxes in a cold frame, transplanting them outdoors the following spring.

Hardy Biennials

The cultural treatment of biennials is very similar to that of the hardy perennials, but they differ from the latter in the respect that they are of little or no use after flowering once. Consequently they need replacement every season. They include such popular bedding subjects as Wallflowers, Canterbury Bells, etc. It is best to sow them in late spring or early summer, in flats in a coldframe. Transplant the seedlings to their flowering quarters before the end of September. If this cannot he done winter them in boxes in a coldframe.

Watch Summer Insects In Vegetable Gardens

Since most evergreens have completed their summer’s growth by this time they may be transplanted successfully during this month, provided they are handled quickly with proper sized balls of earth and watered thoroughly in their new locations. If the weather is hot and dry and there is no particular reason for immediate planting, a delay of planting for a few weeks until the arrival of cooler weather is recommended.

Continue to cultivate the vegetable garden to keep down weeds and conserve moisture. If you want to be sorry, just allow a heavy crop of crabgrass to cover the potato patch. At digging time, which in the heartland of America is usually about the middle of this month, you will swear you will never let it happen again. Dig potatoes in the home garden at the first signs of sprouting or rotting.

To Get Seeds Started

If seeds are sown in the garden during this hot, dry weather they will germinate more evenly and quickly and the young plants will make a better start, when a trench is made in each row and the soil is well-soaked before the seeding is done. After the water has soaked in, pull the loose soil into the trench, sow the seeds, cover and firm the soil over the seeds. A thin mulch of peat moss over the seeds will help conserve moisture and protect the young plants.

Do not relax your campaign against insect pests and plant diseases. Watch for summer insects in the vegetable garden. Do not permit the straggling survivors of crops already gathered, such as radishes, lettuce, cauliflower or cabbage, to serve as hosts for feeding insects. Either pull out the old plants and destroy them or keep them well sprayed. It is good practice to remove such plants just as soon as they have become unpalatable and then prepare the ground for a successive crop. Neglected garden space which is intended for cultivation next year should be spaded and kept free from weeds.

Rose Pneumonia

Rose plant care tips: Spray the roses like the desert rose regularly to prevent defoliation from black spot. An abundance of good foliage at the start of the fall blooming period is essential for a nice display of flowers. Rose bushes weakened by summer defoliation from black spot go into the winter with a weak constitution and are apt to succumb to “rose pneumonia” before spring.

Pick up and destroy fallen rose leaves that are probable hosts for black spot. If the faded roses are cut, placed in a paper bag and burned, a larger number of the usual bloom-infesting thrips will be destroyed and also those small, dark-brown beetles that feed down at the base of the petals.

There is much more on desert rose plant care. Drop by today at http://www.plant-care.com/new-desert-rose-adenium-ice-pink.html.

Garden Chores When Half Of Summer Is Gone

August summer is half gone and it is time now to think about the perennials, pansies, English daisies and myosotis that you want to bloom in your garden next summer. Here is where the coldframe comes in. For seed sowing the soil must be as carefully prepared as for seed pans in the greenhouse. Dig thoroughly, use liberal amounts of humus and some sand and rake the top fine and smooth. Sow the seed in shallow rows, label, cover and water. Keep the frame covered until germination starts. Shade.

When the seedlings are large enough to handle, trans-plant into flats or soil in the frame. Pansies, English daisies and forget-me-nots should be carried over winter in the frame, so space at least three inches apart. Perennials can be carried over winter in the frame also, or set out in the garden in early fall. Plants wintered in the frame need a light covering of hay during the severe winter months. Dry organic cow manure well dug in is one of the safest fertilizers, but any good one used sparingly will do.

Sow Vegetables This Month

August is the time a Northern garden can sneak in another crop. Now is the time to put in another crop of lettuce, snap beans, spinach, radishes and carrots. The carrots provide not only a fall crop, but a winter supply of fresh carrots that are far superior to stored ones. Al-low them to grow until frost. Then cover them with a six-inch mulch of leaves. Leave them in the ground and you will be able to dig fresh carrots as you need them all winter.

Head lettuce from your garden until almost Christmas can be yours, if you sow it late in August and transplant to a coldframe when large enough to handle comfortably. Protect with sash and a mat when more severe weather is due.

Strawberries and iris bulbs are easy to grow. They are rank feeders, so do not attempt to grow bulbs like iris bulbs and strawberries in poor soil or in competition with hedge or tree roots. They also need full sunlight. Dig down at least eight inches and be as generous as you can with manure, humus, or both. Add bonemeal, too.

For August planting use pot-grown strawberries. Plant 15 inches apart in rows 18 inches apart. Let the rows grow solid, but keep a path between so the plants will not be trampled when you cultivate or harvest the fruit.

Secrets For September Gardens

I advocate deep digging in the fall of the year, and where time and energy permit I highly recommend double digging. The method of double digging is as follows. First measure off with a garden line a strip 18 inches wide across the garden for the first trench to be dug.

Dig out the top soil from this first strip and remove it in a wheelbarrow to the other end of the garden, where it will be used to fill in the last trench made. Now dig over the bottom of the trench and if possible incorporate humus or rotted material, such as leaves, old manure or compost.

Such material mixed into this lower stratum of soil helps build it up into top-soil. Now measure off a second strip 18 inches wide, and turn the topsoil from it into the first trench. If manure is available put it in with the topsoil to be more readily available to plants. Use green farm manure. Digging is continued in this manner across the area to be dug. Of course double digging, as its name implies, is twice as much work, but it does build up a productive garden.

Raspberries. After frost, check over the raspberries and remove all old canes, and if the new canes are thick remove some to permit air circulation. A cane every 4 to 6 inches is sufficient. Rasp-berries grown too closely are subject to disease.

Outdoor roses. Rose plantings require well prepared soil. If the topsoil is shallow, double dig and add much manure or humus as is available. Roses are rank feeders. If the garden is wet, drainage is necessary. They like plenty of water but do not like to constantly stand in wet soil. Stone ditches can be run through the area to take off the excess water. Roses also require free circulation of air, so choose a well drained, airy spot. Order roses now, and put them in as soon as they arrive. In planting, have the graft under the soil; otherwise it will dry out and may kill the plant. Be sure to firm the plants well when planting.

Greenhouse temperature. Greenhouse temperatures become important now and should be controlled at night. If you have two houses, maintain one at 50 degrees at night and the other at 60. Many plants need a hit of extra heat and many prefer the cooler house. Drafts must be avoided because they cause mildew. From now on provide ventilation from the top of the house only.

Bulbs for potting. Narcissus, hyacinth, tulip and iris bulbs should be potted now for greenhouse forcing. Use a good soil, adding a 5-inch pot of bone-meal to a bushel of soil. Pot or flat the bulbs but keep the nose of the bulb just out of the soil. All bulbs can be planted almost touching each other. Firm them well and set the pots or flats in a trench outdoors. The trench should be about 12 inches deep. Water the bulbs thoroughly, cover them with half an inch of sand and then with the soil that was dug out to make the trench. Additional covering of leaves or hay will be required in the later fall to keep out frost and so facilitate the digging during the winter.

Chrysanthemums. The chrysanthemum flowers are in bud now and will take a lot of feeding until color shows. At this point of growing chrysanthemum plants, manure water is best. Dissolve any good garden fertilizer in water, 3 heaping tablespoons to 3 gallons of water, and water the mums with it every 5 days. If the plants are dry, water first and feed later in the day. After the chrysanthemums have been cut, store the stock plants in a frostproof frame or a very cool green-house. The frame can be frost proofed by banking leaves around it.

When the remainder of the chysanthemums have been removed, the chrysanthemum soil is excellent for growing winter flowering snapdragons, or mari-golds, stocks, leptosyne and pansies, but add some fertilizer to replace the plant food used by the mums.

Missing Out Of Fine Fall Eating?

A few years ago a neighbor welcomed our family into the neighborhood with a basket of juicy, mouth-watering sweet corn right at frost time. This put me to thinking of all the delicious eating I had missed by not growing late crops of vegetables. And when my neighbor followed up with tasty beets, beans that were a delight to snap, and crisp radishes. I could hardly wait until the next July to start planting.

Now, several seasons later, I am convinced that most gardeners miss some of their finest eating because they fail to make midsummer plantings.

You can grow excellent crops of the following vegetables for late eating:

beans, lettuce, sweet corn, beets, carrots, peas, cabbages, onions, radishes

If you have space and time, you can add broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cucumbers, Chinese cabbage, endive, kale, and spinach.

There are some problems connected with late plantings, but you can, with experience, lick them.

One is that of getting seeds to germinate and start growing vigorously during the hot, dry summer months. Attack this problem by soaking the furrow thoroughly with water before planting. Then cover the seeds (a little deeper than in the spring) with dry soil. To go all out in your attack, tamp the covered seeds lightly with the hoe and then loosen the surface with the rake or your hands.

Some gardeners also put a light covering of something like sawdust or straw over the row, regulating the depth of the mulch according to size of the seeds. You can put a heavy layer of straw, leaves, or grass clippings along each side of the row as soon as it is planted, leaving the row itself uncovered except maybe for a thin layer of straw or clippings.

You may, especially in the case of carrots and onions, even have to soak the row a few times after it is planted, but if you start this phase of the watering, continue it regularly enough to keep the ground moist until the plants break through, else a hard crust may form.

Set out plants during cloudy weather if possible, but if you have to set during sunny weather, shade the plants with something-maybe a shingle stuck into the ground.

If you use the above suggestions for getting your late garden started, you will almost always succeed. Now your second problem begins that of keeping your garden growing rapidly during the usual warm, dry summers. High quality of crops like beets and carrots depends greatly upon rapid growth.

Mulching with leaves and so on while the plants are growing will help tremendously in counteracting drought. This plus occasional watering will assure good crops. If, however, you do not mulch or water you’ll often raise much good food, for you’ll usually get rain before the plants actually suffer.

A third problem the late gardener faces is that of timing his planting and selecting the varieties that grow best. This means, for instance, that you should usually select the quick maturing and vigorous kinds. You will soon learn from experience the earliest and latest practicable dates for planting.

You may, in some cases, want to try later dates, and you’ll sometimes succeed with them. For instance, one year I pushed my “frost luck” to the extreme with sweet corn by planting on July 20. I gathered splendid ears from September, 30 to October 14, even though we had light, non-killing frosts on September 24 and 27. The two weeks of beautifully warm weather after the frosts saved the corn.

Two additional problems will confront you if you don’t prepare ahead. When I first began planting late gardens, I would invariably run out of some kinds of seeds (used them in the spring) and find it difficult to buy a few. I learned to buy more than I needed for spring planting.

Then I would run out of insecticides. I soon learned to judge how much I needed for the entire season.

I believe that once you give late gardening a real try, you will discover a delightful hobby. Raising vegetables, planting and replanting flowers under adverse conditions is a challenge to one’s skill. But with practice you can easily overcome the difficulties in planting, raising and replanting flowers.

Then when the members of your family are seated around the table eating juicy sweet corn on the cob, enjoying brittle, tasty carrot sticks, and praising you for the tender snap beans, you’ll start planning next year’s fall crop.

Planting Carnations From Seed

Planting Process

In preparing the soil for the flats to grow carnations, use two parts fresh garden soil to each one part of coarse sand and one part humus or compost. Carnations are one of the few plants which should not be potted firmly. The soil should be shaken down, but not pressed. A good method of scattering the small seeds is to use a salt shaker; then after the seeds are in place, a kitchen sifter may be used to shake just enough soil to hide the seeds. This soil should be pressed lightly. Then the pots or flats may be placed in a container of warm water for several minutes, just enough to soak the soil well, but not to run over the edge of the flat.

Plastic bags make good coverings for the flats. This provides warmth as well as proper humidity for the seedlings. If the bags do not contain holes for ventilation, punch several openings before covering the flats.

Later watering may be done through a piece of burlap to prevent washing the tiny seedlings from the soil. Plants tray be thinned by using a pair of tweezers so that other plants will not be damaged when removing unwanted growths. The flats should be reversed every day to prevent the seedlings from leaning toward the light. When four or more leaves develop, transplant the seedlings two inches apart into larger flats or small pots.

Although carnation plants, especially the new improved strains, may be lifted in the fall, cut back, and potted up for indoor winter flowering, the small greenhouse gardener will find they are impractical for indoor cultivation. For the average gardener, outdoor planting is preferable.

Permanent planting for carnations should be about six inches apart with rows at least 12 inches apart. I also do this in caladium planting. I consider planting caladium as an easy but needs so much care and preparation. This is also like permanent planting for carnations, it should be done as early as spring weather permits. It is important that the plants not be set too deeply, or stem rot may result. Soil in which carnations are planted should be moderately rich and loose, perhaps two feet deep, giving the plants ample feeding room. A copious supply of well-rotted manure or other fertilizers should be worked into the soil before the transplanting is done. The soil should be moist at the time of transplanting, but not wet. The newly set plants should be kept uniformly moist, but never over-saturated.

Beginning about eight weeks after transplanting the small plants to their permanent location, monthly applications of a commercially prepared fertilizer should be used, preferably the type which is dissolved in water and poured around the base of the plant.

Soon after transplanting the carnations permanently, pinch the plants back to about three inches in height. This pinching will develop sturdy bush-like plants. Occasionally it becomes necessary to stake a plant to prevent its spreading flowers over the ground.

Bedding carnations will bloom from seeds in six to eight months. However, growers often prefer to treat them as perennials, expecting top flower development only from the two year old plants.

As may be expected, there are certain enemies to the cultivation of carnations. However, if the seedlings are carefully protected, the plants are sturdy enough to resist most plant problems.

Carnations deserve a chance to prove their worth in the home garden. The rewards are certainly worth the minimum of care and attention required. Although it might not be feasible to plan a do-it-yourself corsage for junior’s Big Moment, at least Mom can expect a plentiful supply of fragrant flowers for the house throughout the summer.

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