Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-05-18
Weekly Suggestions For
Vegetable Growers

Society, New Brunswick)
Many growers not only plant twice
as many seed as is necessary, but what
is worse they hate to thin out the seed
lings of carrots, beets, turnips, radishes,
ETC., so that each plant will be able to
develop to good size. Dairymen plant
their fodder corn thlckly and nothing
but stalks develop. The growers of
onion sets SOW the ordinary onion seed
SO thickly that only the very little
onions grow because they are too close
for larger development. Therefore,
there are cases when it is an advantage
to have the seedlings quite thick, but
such cases are few.
ASPARAGUS
Young asparagus fields which are
too young to be cut for market are fire.
quently severely infested with the aspar-
agus beetles aud slugs at this time of
year. If these slugs are knocked onto
the ground in midday, when the sun
is shining and the soil hot, they die
before they can return to the plants.
This is a simple method when it is not
convenient to spray the plants with a
poison
STRAWBERRIES
The indications are hal the New
Jersey strawberry crop will be short
this year; therefore, anyone who has a
planting to pick this year should make
them produce as much as possible. A
good mulch of straw, hay, lawn clip.
pings or n between the rows will
Increase the quantity and quality pro-
duced. Some mulch materials may
contain much weed seed; therefore,
that material should only be used OF
hat part of the berry field which is to
be plowed up this summer. If plants
have just been set for a new patch they
should not be mulched and, further
more, the blossoms should be picked
off so that the plant may US e its
strength TO produce new plants during
the summer.
BLIGHT AND BORDEAUX
Several vegetable crops euch as canta-
loupes, cucumbers celery, carrots, toma-
Toes and eggplants, are subject to attack
by some form of blight. Bordeaux
mixture is a very effective spray solu-
ton to chek the developments of these
destructive plant diseases. 1t is a well
known fact that wherever the crop has
ideal growing conditions it is not so
subject to diseases. Therefore, the fol-
lowing questions should be considered:
Does the soil need lime, is it thoroughly
and properly enriched, are the insects
kept off at all times, and do the plants
or vines need a quick acting stimulant,
such ss nitrate of soda, to help them
~raaizisin their vigor towards the end
of the growing season. By carefully
considering these points, spraying with
Bordeaux mixture will be much more
satisfactory and may be unnecessary.
WEEDS AND Work
Many amateur vegetable growers
believe that weeds mean work. This
may be true to a certain extent, but If
the soil is stirred after every rain, weeds
will never get started between the rows.
The incest time to pull them out from
between the onions. carrots, beets, ETC.,
is when the weeds are about an inch
high. At that time they pull easily
but if we wait their roots quickly become
so large that our seedlings may be in-
iured unless we hold down the soil
around a weed with one hand while
we pull out the weed with the other.
RHUBARB
This is one of our most reliable early
spring crops. Everyone relishes il
when made into a pie or dessert but
the roots will become exhausted If we
pull its leaves excessively. tits equally
as important that the seed stalks should
be broken out of every plant Just as soon
as they appear because these would
draw most heavily upon the plant.
ONIONS
Green onions from sets are being used
at the present time. If they were left
long enough they would probably pro-
duce large onions by July first. The
larger sets will sometimes develop a
seed stalk in the plant and unless this
is broken out the onion itself will not
develop.
-oCo-
Lutheran Services