Growing Niles Peas.

How shall I plant and handle a crop of Niles peas?

Niles peas are hardy and will make a good crop on any good soil, if planted early in the season so as to make the main part of their growth before the heat of the summer comes on.  Under garden conditions they can, of course, be grown all summer.

Transplanting Lettuce.

I have lettuce plants that have been transplanted to head.  Occasionally I find a head that has withered away and upon examining it find it rotted away at the stem.  Can you suggest a remedy for it?

Your lettuce plants are destroyed by the “damping, off” fungus.  It would be preventable by reducing the amount of moisture until the transplanted plant had opportunity to re-establish itself in the soil and thus come into condition to take water.  The chance of it could also be reduced by using a certain amount of sand in connection with the soil, unless it is already very sandy, and by a shallow covering of sand on the surface around the plants after they are reset, in order to prevent too great accumulation of moisture.

Handling Winter Melons.

Give particulars regarding harvesting, storaging, and shipment of winter melons.  How do you harvest and pack them for distant market?

There is no particular system in the handling of winter melons.  They are gathered into piles on ground where water will not gather and covered with the trash of the vines on which they grow.  They will keep for months in this way, as our autumn temperatures do not freeze them.  Other growers collect them in open sheds shaded from sun and rain, and still others put them into barns or shallow cellars under buildings, etc.  The melons are very durable and seem disposed to keep in any old way.  The melons are shipped in large packing cases with slat sides, or in the smaller slat crates that are used for summer cantaloupes.  No packing is used, generally.  If it seemed necessary, a little clean straw would be sufficient.

Ripe Melons.

How can I tell when a watermelon is fully ripe?  What is the method used by growers in picking for commercial shipping?

Gently press the sides of a melon and if it crackles a little bit, all right; if it makes no sound then go to another.  Commercial pickers look at the little spiral between the melon and the nearest leaf.  If it is withered they pick the melon, if fresh, pass it until next picking.

Growing Onion Seed and Sets.

Will you give localities of the leading production of onion seed or dry sets in your State?

Onion seed is grown in several parts of the State, largely in the Santa Clara valley adjacent to the city of San Jose.  Onion sets are largely produced in Orange county, near Los Angeles, for eastern shipment, for which purpose they are grown under contract.

Ripening Onions.

I am raising some onions from bottom sets and as they are growing nicely and are beginning to swell at the bulb some advise me to cut the tops off and some advise me to bend them over or tramp them down.