Evening star., 1950-07-09
This Week
in the
Garden
By W. n. Younemon

By W. H. Younemon
/ Carden Editor
The beetle invasion, two weeks
later than normal, should be met
with a determined, regular dust
or spray campaign. Each female
beetle, unless killed, will lay from
40 to 60 eggs.
| Weedy trees, such as sassafras
and Sumac may be killed to the
futher-most root tip by soaking
the cambium layer with mix
ture of 2,4-D and kerosene. Scrape
the bark from the parent tree
down to the white cambium layer,
tie a rag soaked in / part 2.4-D
solution and parts kerosene to
the exposed trunk. This treat
ment has the advantage of being
absorbed by the tree and destroy
ing the suckering roots, which
ordinarily live on even though the
tree may be cut to the ground.
Vegetable gardeners have plenty
of planting to do. Now is the time
for succession paintings of beans,
carrots, sweetcorn and endive. Set
out plants of broccoli, late cab
bage. Brussels sprouts and Cf you
want to try your luck) cauliflower
by the middle of July. Kohl-rabi,
Chinese cabbage and endive may
be planted as late as the first of
August. Late crop potatoes should
be planted at once if they are to
have time to mature a good sized
crop for winter use.
Sow the seeds of perennials and
biennials before the middle of
August if you would have husky
young plants for transplanting in
September.
For fall bloom 1t is time to sow
calendula seeds. This colorful an
nual seldom forms flower buds
when the temperature is above so
degrees.
Don't neglect to fertiliZe
mulched plants. The fertilizer
taken by the bacteria working on
the mulching materials is not lost;
it will become available to the
plants at a later period, in the
meantime, if fed they will not rob
the soil. A commercial fertilizer,
such as 5-10-5 or 4-12-4 may be
used for this purpose as well as
the straight nitrogen materials
such as sulphate of ammonia and
nitrate of soda.
Avoid watering the garden in
the late evening. Moist foliage is
conducive to the spread of plant
diseases. If watering at that time
of day is necessary. use one of the
devices for distributing the water
without wetting the leaves.
According to the Minnesota Ag-
ricultural Experiment Station,
DDT is the best all-around potato
insect control measure. Five per
cent DDT dust controlled the flea
beetle, leafhopper and aphids. as
whole, better than any other
single insecticide.
1t will soon be too late for ap-
plications of chemical weed killers
if optimum results are to be OBJ
tanned. They are most effective
when the plants are making rapid
growth. On mature plants 2,4-D
and others are likely to give poor
or Ineffective results.
Gladiolus thrips can be con-
trolled by busting the plants
weekly with per cent DDT.
Pansies that are becoming
"leggy" and unsightly normally
are pulled and discarded at this
season. However, if they are in
part shade or protected from sum-
mer sun they may be sheared,
fertilized and mulched to stimu-
late fall bloom.
Potassium cyanide commonly
referred to as PC is a potential
weed-killer that is worth trying
on the crab grass. Apply in the
early summer when growth is
lush and before seed forms 1t
may take second, and a third
application to take care of slow
terminating seed: the following
year further applications will be
necessary for the seed oftentimes
remains two or three years. Fol-
low the manufacturers directions
carefully. PC is poisonous
and eventually breaks down into
two fertilizers, nitrogen and
potash.
Thin out the strawberry row,
if necessary clip off the new run
ners, strawberry plants do best
when spaced about IL inches
apart. Keep them cultivated and
growing vigorously as there is a
direct correlation to the number
of leaves per plant in September
and the yield of fruit the following
, season.