Clever Tricks
A drop of mineral oil on corn silk will keep out worms. Apply to tip of each ear when silks begin to brown, with a medicine dropper, pump-type oil can with a long spout, or a plastic dishwashing detergent bottle. Do it a total of about three times, once every five or six days. What’s lazy about this, you wonder? When you harvest the corn, most of the silk will come off with the husk for worm-free and silk-free ears.
If you can prevent plant disease with good cultural practices, then you’ll never need to use extra time to fight them: Read the rest of this entry »
Hire your children to save the garden from Japanese beetles. Pay them a penny a bug. In the evening, when the beetles won’t fly away, the kids can tiptoe along and brush them from plant foliage into jars of kerosene. Bet they won’t even be able to count their catch! Meanwhile, you can relax with a long novel or take in the evening news.
If Japanese beetle grubs are destroying your lawn, introduce milky spore disease, a microbial attack against the larval form of this insect. A little energy invested this year is well spent. Put a teaspoon in the ground every three feet for several years’ protection. It’s death to the grubs, but leaves the earthworm population untouched. Read the rest of this entry »
Once fertilization has taken place, the energies of the plant are directed to the successful development of the next generation. The fertilized egg cells are safely protected from the vagaries of climate, or damage by passing insects, by the surrounding mass of the ovary which lies at the base of the now fading flower.
Each part of the ovary has its own role to play in the growth and development of the new seed. Despite a few basic differences, the pattern followed by the growing embryo is characteristic of all plants. At fertilization the egg is made up of a single cell, but this soon begins its growth by dividing into two identical cells. Read the rest of this entry »
Vegetative propagation involves raising plants from cuttings and by methods like layering and division.
- Division Used mainly for hardy perennials (herbaceous plants) but also for other clump-forming plants (for example, many alpines). The method is to split a complete clump into a number of smaller pieces, complete with roots and top growth or buds. Do this while plants are dormant, in autumn or early spring. Usually the centre portion of a clump is discarded, as it’s the oldest part and declining in vigour. The young vigorous outer parts are retained for replanting. With most herbaceous plants, division for replanting should be of a size which fits into the palm of your hand. Before dividing a clump shake off most of the soil from around the roots. You can split large tough clumps with an axe. The two divisions can be split further in the same way. Read the rest of this entry »
