OCTOBER, and once again another show season draws to a close
and to assemble the few articles that have arrived for publication
in Impact. I know t'he magazine will be just great this year because
many people have come forward with promises of articles after
incessant pleas from Doug.
Elsewhere in the magazine you will see I have written an article
on my experiments and experiences propagating under artificial
conditions. A number of people came to see the installation during
the year, most of them shook their heads in disbelief. The initial
teething problems consisted mainly of positioning the electronic
leaf sensor which tells the controller whether or not to start
a new mist cycle. After chasing my tail for three months I managed
to find the ideal location for the sensor head. The whole installation
has been a complete success and this coming season I will be able
to find out exactly what the running costs are going to be. The
nearest estimate is that there will be a 60% reduction in electricity
costs compared with our normal method of propagating i.e. in a
glasshouse.
I reared somewhere in the region of 2,000 dahlias, 40 boxes of
bedding plants, chrysanthemums, tomatoes and cucumber. The majority
of the dahlias that were rooted around Christmas had their tops
removed and rooted, some varieties had their tops rooted three
times but most were rooted twice. Since the whole exercise was
an experiment most of the rooted cuttings ended up on the compost
heap.
Like so many other growers I was tempted to buy in some of the
new varieties that had been praised so highly in the pages of
Impact. The first plants to arrive were twenty Superfine, these
were absolutely dreadful looking things. The cuttings had been
rooted in extremely hot conditions and were very soft, some were
20 cm tall and as thick as your finger, all this trying to survive
in a one inch cell. I made the mistake of trying to pot them on
into three inch pots, what I should have done was to split them
up and try and root the pieces myself Needless to say most of
them perished, but before they did I took some leaf cuttings and
managed to propagate them.
Next disappointment was Cream Delight, the plants seemed fine
but after they had been in three inch pots for about three weeks
they started to form buds and continued doing this right through
the season. I am told I must have given them a severe check to
have caused this to happen but unfortunately I am none the wiser
as to what I did wrong. The plants went through the system alongside
the other 2,000. Best plants we received this year came from Mrs.
Porter, they looked more like something you would rear yourself
On 17th May I lost most of my Moonlights, Pastelles, Albino and
B. J. Beauty when we had severe ground frost. That upset my planting
arrangements and so I ended up planting a number of second rate
plants. It was very cold during most of May and so I decided to
pull down my covers and try and warm up the soil a little before
planting. The first week in June arrived and dad and I planted
out 250 mediums, 180 small cactus and a further 200 made up of
miniatures and small decorative. Despite the continuing cold weather
the plants got off to a good start due to the soil being warmed
prior to planting. Doug and I stopped at the same time last year
and he ended up two weeks ahead of me so this year I decided to
try and move my stopping date forward by 10 days. We only live
a few miles apart and yet there is a two week difference between
our respective sites. Of course it was impossible to stop some
varieties because they had not made sufficient growth to enable
the required number of breaks per plant.
The show calendar was turned upside down this year, a number of
Societies had changed their show dates for reasons best known
to themselves. First outing for me was the Glasgow Evergreen followed
by a few local shows. Everyone was complaining about the late
season and that translated into fewer exhibits on the show bench.
Here, the temperature on a good day was 60 F. but the problem
was the night temperature which fell by some 30 degrees, it was
enough to make me think about growing chrysanths instead of dahlias.
Sunday 4th September and it was all hands to the fore to erect
the staging at the Albert Hall in Stirling. Monday 5th, arrived
at the Albert Hall at 10 o'clock in the evening and started to
sort out my blooms. This was to be my first attempt at the six
vase class of medium flowered, and at the same time using Oasis
instead of moss for the first time. With help from Tom Melrose,
John Buchanan and John Wallace I managed to enter the six vase
medium, three vase miniature and the Sandy Brown.. .what happened
is now history.
There was no discernable difference between the plants this year
propagated under artificial conditions and the plants reared last
year using conventional means. Neither was there any difference
in the blooms produced. The propagation had been a huge success
with a capital 'S. The plants grew away strongiy and did not require
any additional feeding till they reached bud stage when they were
given Chempak No 4.
Living in an extremely damp area I should have switched on my
fans at the beginning of September but I waited till I saw the
first spots appear which was too late. The fans do help a lot
in reducing spotting... another lesson learned. No drastic plans
for next year, I will try and grow a few small cactus for show
rather than the compost heap. Many thanks once again to everyone
who helped me throughout the season.