Beginners should in all cases, if possible, obtain a supply of plants,
from a proved sort, by dividing the root. Raising from seed is an
after, and an amateur practice. The first object with every man is to
supply his family with this esculent, and not to experiment with new
sorts. Let him buy or beg from garden or nursery, enough buds to
establish a bed, of some kind already known to be good.
The _best_ season of the year for dividing the root is in the spring;
the next best is in late autumn; and the worst in midsummer—as we have
abundantly ascertained by experiment. The reason is plain. Like bulbs,
and tubers, the root of the pie-plant stores up in itself during one
season, a supply of organizable matter enough to enable it to start
off the next season, without any dependence upon the soil. Dahlias,
potatoes, onions, turnips, cabbages, etc., it is well known, are able
to grow for a considerable time, in the spring, without any connection
with the soil; being sustained by that supply which they had treasured
up within themselves the previous autumn. When this is exhausted, they
will die, if they have not been put in connection with food from
without. When pie-plant is divided in the spring, it is full of the
material of life, and a bud cut off from the main root with a portion
of the root attached, has a supply of food until new roots are
emitted, which in good soil and weather will be in about a week. There
is the same vitality in autumn, and the only reason why it is not so
good for transplanting as spring, is the risk that the buds and roots
will rot off during the winter. A uniform winter will scarcely injure
one in a hundred, but constant changes, freezing and thawing, will
weaken, if not destroy many of them. When, however, it is necessary to
divide and transplant in the fall, cover the bed full four inches deep
with coarse, strong manure. Although great care will enable one to
transplant a section of the root in midsummer, yet we have found that
when no more attention is paid than in spring, nine plants are lost
out of ten. The reason is obvious. There is no reserved treasure of
sap in the root in summer, such as gives it vitality in spring or
autumn. If for any reason we _must_ take up a root in summer, let
every possible fibre be saved, the plant well watered and sheltered
until it begins to grow again.
RAISING FROM SEED.—The origination of new varieties of fruits, flowers
and esculent vegetables is one of the greatest rewards of gardening.
Almost every seed of the pie-plant will produce a variety. We have
thought ourselves repaid for trouble if one in fifty seedling plants
were worth saving. It requires a full two years’ trial to improve a
sort. Of fifty plants, say twenty-five may be rejected peremptorily
the first season, the petioles being mere wires. Of the other
twenty-five, one or two will give great promise, and the others will
be doubtful. Let them be transplanted in the spring of the second
season, into very mellow, rich, deep loam, full three feet apart every
way, and here they may stand until the owner is fully satisfied, by
the trial of one or more seasons, which are good and which inferior.
In marking seedling plants, the cultivator should bear in mind that
there are _two_ kinds required, viz. a very early sort, and one for
the later and main supply. If a plant has small stalks, and is _late_
too, reject it of course. If it be very _early_, it may be valuable
even if quite small. Some sorts are fit for plucking five or six weeks
before others; we have a variety which comes forward almost the moment
the frost leaves the ground in the spring, or in warm spells in
winter.
In selecting a late sort from your seedlings, several qualities must
be consulted. The plant should manifest an indisposition to go to
seed; should be apt to throw out an _abundance_ of leaves, to supply
those taken off; the petioles should be large; the meat rich and
substantial. There is great difference between one sort and another in
the amount of sugar required, in the delicacy of flavor, and in the
property of stewing to a pulp, without wasting away.
A good variety of pie-plant, then, should be a vigorous grower,
prolific, large in the stalk, not apt to flower, of a sprightly acid
without any earthy or woody taste, not stewing away more than
one-third when cooked, and not requiring too much sugar.
We have observed in our trials that seedlings having smooth leaves,
with the upper surface varnished and glossy, are seldom good; while
every plant which we have thought worth keeping, had the upper surface
of its leaves of a deep, dull, lack-lustre green.
FORMATION OF A BED.—Select a strong and rich loam. Let it be spaded
full two feet deep. If the subsoil has never been worked, and is clay,
or gravel, a large supply of old manure should be mixed with it. Our
working-method is this: Mark off the square, begin on one side, lay
out a full spadeful of the top-soil clear across the bed; lay four or
five inches of manure in the trench, and then spade it down a full
twelve inches deep; beginning again by the side of the first trench,
put the top-soil of the second into the first; add manure and spade as
before; and so across the bed. The surface-soil thrown out of the
first trench may be wheeled down and put into the _last_ one. This
process will leave the bed much higher than it was; let it stand one
or two weeks to settle. If the bed is prepared in autumn it will be
better, and in the spring it may be half-spaded again before planting.
Mark out, by line, rows three feet apart, and set your plants in the
rows three feet from plant to plant, if of the large kind, and two
feet, if of the small. Very large varieties require four feet every
way. Tho buds should be left just below the surface of the soil.
AFTER CULTURE.—Through the summer keep the surface mellow and free
from weeds. In the fall of the year, when the leaves show signs of
falling, form a compost heap of fine charcoal, if you can get it from
blacksmith’s or elsewhere, vegetable mold, ashes, and very old manure.
Spread and spade in a good coat of this, spading lightly near to the
plants and deeply between them. When frost destroys the tops wholly,
cover the bed with coarse, strong manure about four inches deep,
smooth it down, and let it remain thus. The next spring stir the
surface smartly with a rake, and no further care will be required
except to pluck out any weeds that grow through the summer.
GATHERING.—Leaves are constantly springing from the centre. Of course
the full-grown ones will be on the outside. These should be harvested,
leaving the inside ones to mature. By going regularly over your bed,
and taking in turn the outside leaves, a bed may be used till July
without the slightest injury. Other fruit, after that time, usually
displaces pie-plant and leaves it to rest the remainder of the year.
The leaf-stalks should not be _cut_ off. Slide the hand down as near
as possible to the root, and give the stalk a backward and sidewise
wrench and it will be detached at a joint or articulation, and no
stump will be left to rot and injure the root—we usually cut off the
leaves on the spot, leaving them about the root, both for shade to the
ground and for manure.
* * * * *
PRESERVE YOUR POT-PLANTS.—We warn ladies having pot-plants designed
for winter-wear, to be prudent _beforehand_, or some frosty night will
cut every tender plant left out, and _then_ prudence will be good for
nothing. Every one who pretends to keep parlor plants should own a
_thermometer_. If at sundown or at nine o’clock it stands anywhere
near forty degrees, your plants are in danger. Sometimes it will fall,
in one night, from fifty degrees to below thirty-two degrees, which
last is the freezing point.