The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-04-09
WHAT THE PLANT DOCTOR SAID.

They had spared no expense for
that plant window. They spent at
least twelve or fifteen dollars buying
the choicest, newest plants. They
potted them, the summer through.
Asparagus Sprengeri was yellow and
sere. The Boston fern had not
grown an inch the wonderful Acaly
pha Sanderi and Ruella Makoyana
that we're to have turned the neigh
bors green with envy, had barely
life left in their ragged selves the
amarvllis had rotted, the ADDITIONS,
begonias and fuchsias had died, and
the weeping lantana wept out. Not
one geranium or rose in six was
alive. As for the rest of this much
hoped for collection, a few had
grown a little, and the rest seemed
at a complete standstill.
They sent for the plant doctor,
the woman for whom everything
grew. and who could coax leaves and
flowers out of the most refractory
plant alive. At least so her
friends said. She asked no ques-
lions, but she picked up n pot
after another and stirred the earth
about the plant roots.
81 can tell you the trouble, " said
she "The plants were all right
when you got them you have show
cred the foliage and kept it clean,
and there are no insects on them. So
far they. are all right. But the roots
+ all wrong, as is the case with
nine-tenths of unthrifty plants. You
have not used good earth. 1t is hard
and poor, and some of it has angle
worms in it. Darwin may preach
until doomsday about earth worms
developing fertility in the soil, but
every practical plant grower knows
they are ruinous to pOtted plants.
Then again you have filled some of
the pots to the level rim with soil,
SO that the water runs off as you
shower your plants, and the roots
dry and parch out for lack Ct water,
though you have watered your
plants c~opiously every day"
Chow do 1 know that you have
watered your plants freely every
day? Because those pots that hap
pened not to filed level full of dirt,
are suffering as much from water
surfeit as the others are from water
thirst. The soil is actually sOured
in some of these pots, and if you
look closely you can see the thin,
greenish moss that develops only on
water sick earth. Such soil delelOps
q poison that kills and rOts the root
growing it it. That is what killed
your geraniums and primroses. You
notice if you take Il bit Of the dirt
between your fingers that it has a
dead, putty-like feeling, and really
it is not much better fitted for feed
ing the hungry roots of plants than
a potful of putty would be"
"Now if these were my plans I
would turn them carefully out of
their pots, and pick off all the hard,
outside dirt beyond the ball of earth
that the roots bind togethe, Have
your new potting compost ready,
three parts good mellow loan, one
part clean, nice sand, one part old
rotted anu we'll pulveri2ed. AL
most any plant will thrive in This
mixture which is rich, light and
+ Put an inch of broken
crockery in the bottom of the pot
for drainage, an inch of compost
over it, hen your plant in it's old
ball of dirt, after which the half
inch of space between the plant and
the pot should be filed with this
prepared potting earth. Firm the
copost we'll around the old ball of
earth that contains the roots, or