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VEGETABLE PLANTS IN THE HOUSE

Many persons would like to grow early vegetables. With a view to "getting the start of the season" and, incidentally, of their neighbors, they sow seed in pots and boxes in March and April and attempt to get an "early start" for plants that will form a basis of supply for family use while they are waiting for the development of the general crop from seed sown in the garden after the weather has become sufficiently warm to warrant outdoor gardening. In some instances comparative success has resulted from plants started into growth in the house, but nine times out of ten, it is safe to say, the result has been entire failure. The seedlings grow fairly well at first, but soon become weak and die. If, by chance, a few survive until conditions warrant putting them in the ground, they are so lacking in vitality that the change from indoors to outdoors is pretty sure to be the end of them.

I would never advise trying to grow plants from seed, in the house, unless the grower understands beforehand the drawbacks to plant-growth which prevail in the average dwelling, and is willing to do all he can to overcome them. Simply filling boxes or pots with earth, putting seed into them, and supplying water will not insure success.

One of the unfavorable conditions which seedling plants must struggle against is too much heat, if they are kept in the living-room. An undue amount of warmth forces them into abnormal development in the early stages of their growth, and a little later on there comes a reaction from the weakness thus brought about, and this reaction is almost invariably death to the tender plant.

Another unfavorable condition is the result of indiscriminate watering. The soil is either kept too wet or too dry. To grow good plants there must be an even supply of moisture.

A third unfortunate condition is the result of failure to give the plants a liberal supply of fresh air.

It is possible, however, to overcome these conditions and grow really good plants from seed in the living-room, but it cannot be done unless the amateur gardener is sufficiently interested in the undertaking to give his plants all the attention they need.

Instead of keeping them in the living-room—which in most instances will have a temperature of 79 or 80°—I would advise giving them place in a room opening off the sitting-room, where the temperature can be so regulated that it will not go above 65° at any time. There is far less danger of plants suffering from a low temperature than of their being injured by an excess of heat. If the room in which they are kept has snug windows, in most instances it will get all the warmth that is needed by leaving open at night the door which connects it with the living-room. If the weather is very cold, the plants can be removed, temporarily, to the living-room, or they can be covered with newspapers. Thick paper shades at the windows will do much to keep out cold and prevent draughts. Storm-sash will do this most effectively, but it interferes with giving the young plants the fresh air they need. Therefore I would prefer the shades, and depend upon removal to a warmer place on extra-cold nights.

Fresh air will be found a most important factor in the growth of seedling plants indoors. Unless it can be given it will be almost impossible to grow any plant well in the ordinary dwelling. It should be admitted to the room on every pleasant day by opening a window at the top, or a door at some distance from the plants. The fresh, cold air should be allowed to mix with the warm air in the room before it comes in contact with the plants, as a chill will often do about as much damage as a touch of frost.

Watering these plants is a matter of prime importance. Generally water is applied carelessly and irregularly—too much to-day, and none at all to-morrow. We saturate the soil with it while only enough is required to make it moist. An over-supply of water at the roots, combined with too much heat and lack of fresh air, will undermine the constitution of any plant, because such a combination excites unnatural development, and this means a lowering of the vital force to the danger-point.

I have devised a method by which I have succeeded in controlling the supply of moisture in the soil to my complete satisfaction. I use boxes about four inches deep to start my plants in. In the bottom of these boxes I put sphagnum moss. There should be at least an inch of it after it has been pressed down by the weight of the soil above. The bottom of the seed-box is bored full of small holes. Each box sets in a shallow pan of galvanized iron, on a layer of coarse gravel, which raises it enough to allow water to circulate freely under it. Water is poured into the iron pan, using enough to come up about half an inch above the bottom of the seed-box, or in contact with the moss in it, and it should be kept at this height at all times. The moss absorbs the moisture like a sponge, and the soil above constantly sucks up all that is needed to keep it in a sufficiently moist condition to meet the requirements of the plants growing in it. The absorbent qualities of the moss are such that an excessive amount of moisture is never communicated to the soil above. Thus I secure a steady and even supply, which does away entirely with the danger resulting from the application of water to the surface of the soil from watering-pot or basin.

If the temperature can be controlled in such a way that it will not vary much from 60 to 65°, if the soil can be kept moist but never wet, and fresh air can be given in generous quantity regularly, it will be found a comparatively easy matter to grow plants satisfactorily from seed in the house, and have them in such healthy condition by the time it is safe to put them out in the garden that they will average up well with the plants the professional gardener raises in hotbed and cold-frame. By the use of such plants, and such plants only, can we expect to grow early vegetables successfully.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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