Raleigh, March 8—Treating sweet potatoes before bedding the roots will aid in controlling a number of diseases affecting the crop. This is done by using corrosive sublimate or bichloride of mercury.
“In the spring before bedding time, the sweet potatoes should be gone over carefully, and those showing black rot or other blemishes should be discarded,” says G.W. Fant, extension plant disease specialist at State College. “The healthy sound potatoes should then be disinfected by immersing from five to 10 minutes in the bichloride solution. This will be found a paying job on the farm this year.”
Mr. Fant advises the grower to get two or three wooden barrels since the solution corrodes metal. Have the dealer put the corrosive sublimate in 4-ounce lots. Dissolve four ounces of the material in 30 gallons of water in each barrel to be used. A small quantity of warm water may be used first as the chemical dissolves faster this way. Put the potatoes in clean burlap sacks and dip into the container from 5 to 10 minutes, not longer, then spread the roots out on a clean floor or the ground to dry. Do not dip over 4 bags of potatoes into a solution before making up a new one as it grows weaker rapidly from use.
It should be remembered that corrosive sublimate is a deadly poison if taken internally, and the potatoes are fit for bedding only after being treated. The solution, too, should be poured out where it will sink into the ground and will not collect in puddles about the yard, states Mr. Fant. The barrel might be used again after being washed thoroughly. The potatoes can be bedded any time after they are dry.
From page 4 of the Carolina Fruit and Truckers Journal, Chadbourn, N.C., March 15, 1926
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92074004/1926-03-15/ed-1/seq-2/
No comments:
Post a Comment