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Show HOW TO SOW SEEDS INDOORS' 4S $ $ EARLY START FOR FLOWERS I HELPFUL ILLUSTRATIONS. Seed ton, . UdJP 9t&ad.y for Sowing fk SLev-e for Sereervuig. I' lllfP': Sady Jar SPfaiMng dhotinn Use of9)i&te. Diagrams showing propagation of seed. Advantage of Six Weeks May Be Had by Following Follow-ing Instructions. By PERLEY A. HILL, Secretary Amateur Gardeners' Association. Asso-ciation. B m ANY of our most beautiful an- nual flowers are seldom grown lyl because of the difficulty in starting them out of doors. The tiny seeds of petunia, nicotiana, portu-lacca, portu-lacca, stock, phlox, snapdragon and even asters have a hard time of it germinating germinat-ing in the garden, where they are subject sub-ject to so many varying conditions of moisture, heat and wind, which not only interfere with their development, ..but often bring failure. The way to overcome over-come this is to start them growing indoors in-doors in some warm, sunny window in pans or boxes. Pans are best for amateurs, ama-teurs, because they are so easily acquired ac-quired and can be used uniform in size to fit the window shelf. Preparing Seed Pan. Secure a number of two-quart pans, these are three inches in depth and ten inches in diameter and are a fine size for handling. Make three rows of holes across the bottom about one-half one-half inch apart with a nail for drainage. drain-age. Drive your nail from the inside. This insures a slight raise on the bottom bot-tom and permits air to circulate under the pan, which prevents damping. Cover the bottom of the inside with cinders the size of a hazelnut and then you are ready for the soil. Preparing the Soil. Your seed pan should be filled with .what is known as "compost," containing contain-ing two parts screened soil, one part sharp sand and one part old screened fertilizer. Get your soil from the "grass roots." That which is found immediately under the ground surface and inder grass is rich in plant nutriment. nu-triment. Never get your soil troin bare places; good soil will always be covered cov-ered with vegetation. Old "well-rotted fertilizer contains about 0V2 per cent of nitrogen, some salts of ammonia and , has excellent friable qualities. The sand should be clean and sharp, so as to insure free root movement. The sand and the fertilizer also prevent packing of the soil and allow for a free movement of air and moisture, which is vital to seed germination. This compost, com-post, with a continual temperature of 68 degrees, will germinate almost any seed you may wish to plant. Planting the Seed. FJll your pan with the compost to a loose level, then with the bottom of a tin can firm the soil to a level whii-h will be almost an inch below the top. then with a fine spray fill tho soil with as much water as it will hold. After it has drained, sow your seed thinly thin-ly and evenly on the surface. Begin at the outer edge and sow in imaginary rows, working gradually toward the center and doing your best to drop one on every half inch of surface; remembering remem-bering this rule: "Each seed is a tiny egg aud should be completely enveloped envel-oped with soil aud nnder the surface twice its own size in depth." To get the desired result it is best to screen some of the compost through a fine sieve made from window screen. Hold the sieve high above the pan and shake lightly and you can cover the seed almost al-most to perfection. After covering in this way use the dry bottom of tho tin can and press the "surface down lightly; light-ly; this brings the soil completely around the seed and makes germination easy. Cover the pan with a pane of glass leaving an air space on two edges, and set in a warm place with temperature tem-perature that does not go below 58 or above 7S degrees. The glass will draw tho moisture and keep it close, to the surface of the soil, where the seeds are, and they will germinate in most cases without the need of more water. If your pan is set in the sunshine, put a sheet of paper over the glass to prevent pre-vent too rapid evaporation. After the. plants come through remove the glass' and see that they are kept moist. Use a fine spray and water freely in the mornings onij as seedlings are' prone to "damping off " if watered in the evening. even-ing. Transplanting Important. When the seedling has made its third or fourth leaves it should be transplanted. trans-planted. The purpose of this is to interrupt in-terrupt nature in stem growth by removing re-moving the plant free from the soil. When the plant is returned to the soil nature redoubles her efforts and in getting get-ting hold of the soil again practically doubles the root system. This gives good, stalky plants with increased vitality vi-tality and prevents spindling. Use another an-other pan of compost prepared the same as before, make holes with a dibble dib-ble made from a piece of wood six inches in length and shaped like your finger, set the plant a little deeper than it came out, and then, using the dibble, firm well about the root.':. Set them about two inches apart and water freely. When the time comes to set the plants in the garden they can be lifted with a circular trowel, soil and all, without disturbing the roots and set as before, a little deeper than when they came out. Transplanting is so important im-portant among vegetables that some of our best food products, such as tomatoes, toma-toes, celery and cabbage would be. almost al-most failures without it. Among flowers flow-ers the best blooms are obtained by this process. There are exceptions to this rule, such as Shirley poppies, which cannot can-not be transplanted successfully only when very young. Annuals Are Best. One of the finest free-blooming annuals an-nuals is asters, and of these Early Wonder Won-der White blooms in June, Queen of the Market and Hohenzollern in July, Daybreak, Day-break, Eoval, Victoria, Invincible, in August; Comets, Kings, Mikado and Gregos in September; Semple's Late Blanching and Autumn Glory in October. Octo-ber. Then come such fine annuals as petunia in various colors, one and one-half one-half feet high, blooms all summer; nas-turtiimi, nas-turtiimi, yellow to red, -one fot high, blooms all summer; larkspur, blue to white, one to one and a half feet high, blooms all summer; marigold, yellow to brown, one to Ihree feet high, blooms all summer; alyssum, white, six inches high, blooms all summer; stock, various va-rious colors, one 1o one and a half feet high, blooms all summer; California poppy, yellow, one font high, blooms all summer; verbena, various colors, six inches high, blooms all summer; phlox driihinoudhi, various colors, six inches high, blooms all summer; salvia scarlet, two feet high, July to frost; cosmos, pink and white, four to six feet, August to frost; zinnia, various colors, two feet high, June to frost; snapdragon, various colors, one to two feet high, July to frost: poppies, various colors, one to two feet high, June to frost: sweet peas, various colors, three to six feet high, July to frost. |
