The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-04-21
NEW VEGETABLE FROM JAPAN.
Experiments With lido Indicate That 1t
Is Both a Welcome Addition to the
Tabla and Fasv to Raise

For persons who like novelties in
their food and in their gardens, an inter-
esting field for experiment is offered by
the new Japanese vegetable, udo. Nur-
serymen have grown the udo under the
name of aralia cordate for ornamental
purposes, for twenty years or more, but
as vegetable it is still comparatively
unknown. On rich soil it grows to n
height of 10 feet or more, producing
very ornamental mass of large green
leaves and, in the late summer, long
loose flower clusters, sometimes three
feet in length. In appearance it is much
like larger variety of the spikenard or
petty morel, native of our woodlands.
The banched shoots of the udo have
a characteristic flavor. Properly pre-
pared they are delicious-or so the au-
thor of bulletin "a, Just published by
the t.. s. department of agriculture nm
der the title of Experiments with
lido, the New Japanese Vegetable" has
found them. The plant requires little
care and with the same space devoted to
it, yields approximately the same
amount of food for the table as aspara-
gus and is ready for use at about the
same time in the spring. After the first
frost it dies down each autumn to come
up again in the spring, much as aspora-
gus and rhubarb do. A patch of it can
be forced each spring for at least six
years and probably much longer. The
flowers attract bees and flies in such
numbers that field of it is usually
humming with insects. As honey plant,
therefore, the udo deserves the atton-
ton of beekeepers.
Udo-growing is not yet sufficiently
general in this country for the most in
expensive methods of cultivation to
have been worked out, and conditions in
America are so different from those in
Japan that little benefit can be derived
from the experience of Oriental grow
ers 1t is, however. reasonable to as
sumo that the cultivation of the uio
presents few difficulties. 1t is adapt ID
to wide range of climate, as is shown
by the fact that it grows all over
Japan, but no part of Japan suffers
from drought. In this country the udo
has done best in moist regions, in par
ticular in New England, the Atlantic
states as far south as the Carolinas, in
the rainy region of Puget Sound and in
the trucking sections of California.
Where greenhouses or cold frames are
available, the seed should be planted IN
March or April-one- fourth Of an inch
deep in soil that consists of equal parts
of loan, mold and sand. As soon as
the plants are three or four inches high,
they can be planted out in the ground
or potted and set out later. Thereafter
the udo needs little attention. It's roots
spread with extraordinary rapidity
through loose solitude is not recon-
mended for poor, dry land-and the
crowns soon become at least a foot
across. Three and half or four feet
is therefore not too great a distance to
allow between plants.
Perhaps the greatest difficulty con-
nected with the cultivation Of the udo
is the blanehing of the shoots. 1t is
these that are regarded as the real deli
cacy, for the favor of the stems when
green has a certain rankness which is
unpleasant to most palates. Various
methods of blanching the early shoots
have therefore been experimental with.
In California excellent results have been
obtained by moulding up the earth in
the early spring over each plant much
as is done with asparagus. Elsewhere,
however, the late frosts make the soil
too cold and the shoots are slow in COM
ing through