|
Abstract: I am going to discuss some experiments on casing soils which were brought to an end in 1939 by the outbreak of war. An account of these experiments has been published (1) and reference should be made to this account for a concise summary. Here, I propose to enlarge on those parts of the investigation which have evoked most interest. The investigation followed work on horse manure composts described in another paper (p.46), and in a sense arose from it. Growers had got into the way of using gypsum to ensure a good run of mycelium in the beds, but cropping had not come up to expectations as regularly as had been hoped. Yields were often disappointing. One grower said to me, " I thought with the use of gypsum we should be over our troubles, but it seems we have a long way to go yet." Now this sort of problem could not be tackled on one grower's place only. The causes of irregular cropping were obscure, for cultural conditions were normal and of a high standard. The compost, spawn and hygienic conditions were above reproach and the casing soil, as far as one could judge, was excellent. Visits to other growers were, therefore, arranged to see whether the problem was of widespread occurrence. Similar instances were quickly found and it seemed that low yields and irregular cropping were fairly common. At one of the places visited, beds were found to be cropping slowly and poorly, except on one section where a different casing soil had been used and here the bed was cropping heavily. At this farm the soil was efficiently sterilised before use by steam. The two soils were similar in appearance and other respects and had, in fact, been dug from the same field, though from different parts of it.
Full text download: ISMS subscribers
ISHS members & pay-per-view
Translate:
   |