OUR FAVORITE WAY TO GROW SEEDLINGS

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Blueberries love peat! Adding organic matter to heavy, mineral-laden soil is a "must" for promoting good establishment and growth of newly planted blueberries. But not all sources of organic matter are equal. According to Georgia experimenters, peat is a better soil amendment for blueberries than pine bark and far superior to sawdust. (However, two quarts of peat added to each planting hole worked just as well as four quarts did.) And Mississippi researchers have discovered that water-holding gel products are not beneficial. So use peat with blues for best results.

Stop damping-off. Damping-off, the destruction of young seedlings by soil organisms, is perhaps most commonly due to Pythium debaryanum and Rhizoctonia solani fungi. Standard recommendations for controlling the problem include using sterile growing media, applying fungicides, improving drainage and ventilation, and even watering with dilute chamomile tea. Botanists in India have announced another preventive (at least for damping-off due to R. solani): Simply add organic matter. Their research shows that adding organic materials at the rate of 1% by weight to fungus-infected growing media significantly inhibits damping-off of seedlings. Plant materials with a high carbonto-nitrogen ratio (such as straw) were most effective.

Rotate your sweet potatoes! Plan now to rotate your plots of sweet potatoes. Researchers in Louisiana report that old plant residues reduce growth of future vine cuttingsapparently by preventing proper nodulation.

Don't plant peas in compacted soil! Garden peas are very sensitive to soil conditions-yields can be greatly reduced if they are grown in compacted soil. Experiments in England suggest that recultivating a compacted seedbed to a depth of four inches before planting will restore yields to those matching loose-soil levels.

GLEANINGS

Healthy Harvest lists over 300 organizations concerned with sustainable agriculture and horticulture. It's available for $6.95 postpaid from Healthy Harvest, 1424 16th St. N.W., Suite 105, Washington, DC 20005 . . . . For an introduction to fruit growing by biodynamic methods (which use fertilizers and pesticides made from natural animal, plant, and mineral materials), take a look at the 40-page Iduna Fruit Tree Care Program: A BioDynamic Spray and Cultivation Schedule, $5.50 postpaid from Iduna, P.O. Box 1582, Sag Harbor, NY 11963 . . . . The perfect guide to help you plan for continuous bloom from early spring into fall is "Sequence of Bloom of Perennials, Biennials, and Bulbs," Cornell University Extension Information Bulletin 196 ($1.60 postpaid from Distribution Center, 7 Research Pk., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850). This bulletin is designed for use in the Northeast, but can be helpful in other areas as well .... Gardening with Children is a delightful guide to "learning while growing," and a bargain at only $3.05 (postpaid) from Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1000 Washington Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11225.

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