Sprout

“ In favorable circumstances sprouting will give a gain of four to six days, but in many cases dry seed will be fully as early. A long sprout is liable to be broken off in sowing, or killed by cold, after it is in the ground. A sprout just showing will endure several nights' freezing if there is some warm sun in the day-time. One way to sprout is to spread the seed thinly on cotton cloth, and roll it up inside of woolen cloth, keep it in a warm place, and dip in warm water every day. ”

“ The sprout from the bud which is left grows up and becomes the stem of a tree, and throws out its laterals somewhat higher than the tree grown from a nursery plant. The stump generally produces its first crop a little out of season; for planting up failures stumps give the least trouble. ”

“ Taking the Crop.—"The blanched sprouts should be cut when they are from three to six inches in length, and while stiff, crisp, and compact. They should not be left till they are drawn up so as to bend, or hang down. The soil or other material used for excluding the light should be carefully removed, so as to expose the stem of the sprout; and the latter should be cut just below the base of the petioles or leaf-stem, and just enough to keep these attached."—Thomp.
The Sea-kale season continues about six weeks. "Cutting too much will finally destroy the plants. ”

“ It is a common notion that trees grown from suckers sprout or sucker worse than those grown from seeds. Layers are also extensively employed for the propagation of the plum. Strong stools (page 35) are grown, and the long and strong shoots are covered in spring throughout their length—the tips only being exposed—and every bud will produce a plant. Strong shoots of vigorous sorts will give plants strong enough the first fall to be removed into nursery rows. ”

“ One day a tiny seed, blown by the wind or carried by a bird, finds lodgment high in one of its forks. Germinating in a bed of vegetable mould, the seed produces a sprout. After a time the nourishment of the mould becomes insufficient for its needs, and then it begins to run down the tree. As it descends it throws out lateral tendrils; these in turn develop transverse tendrils, and soon all of them diverge to encircle the tree. ”

“ It watches the planting, then sneaks in at night and digs up the trees. If seeds are put in, it digs them up and bites them in two, and if the trees should sprout it pulls the sprouts out of the ground and breaks them up and throws them away. ”

“ Fig. 2.more then an Inch, and many upon a Branch, according to its length, and they grew so, that if the lower Sprout be on the left side of the Branch, the next above is on the right, and so to the end, not sprouting by pairs.
At the end of each Sprout are generally four sprigs, two at the Extremity, and one on each side, just under it. At the first sprouting of these from the Branch to the Sprig where the leaves grow, they are full of little short white hairs, which wear off as the leaves grow, and then they are smooth as the Branch. ”

“ Therefore, to gather the fruit, the stalk with apparent ruthlessness is cut down. But, there are always from two to five young sprouts at the base, from 2 feet to 5 feet in height, which, in succession, take the place of the parent stem. ”

“ The young plants are about this time taken from the seed-bed, their tops and roots trimmed, and then planted in the field by making holes in the ground with the fingers and placing four or five sprouts in each of them; in this tedious labor the poor women are employed, whilst the males are lounging in their houses or in the shade of the trees. ”

“ It is a common statement that seeds can never revive if allowed to become thoroughly dry after they have begun to sprout. This is an error. Wheat, oats, buckwheat, maize, pea, onion, radish and other seeds have been experimented upon in this direction, and they are found to re-germinate readily, even if allowed to become thoroughly dry and brittle after sprouting is well progressed. They will even re-germinate several times. ”

“ We know that each spring, as the sap rises in your veins, you put forth afresh lush green sprouts symmetrically from the buds at your growing points; and that if these sprouts were permitted to develop equally and evenly in every direction, you would have grown from the first as normally and formally as a spruce-fir or a puzzle-monkey. But not for us are such joys. We must grow as the tempests and the hail-storms permit us. Soon after you have begun each year to put forth your tender green shoots comes a frost—a nipping frost—whirled along on the wide wings of some angry sou’wester. ”

“ Budding Large Trees
Cut back early the same as for grafting, cover all cuts with grafting wax, let all sprouts grow until time to bud, which is usually August 1 to September 1. Thin out the small, weaker sprouts and bud three or four of the largest ones, setting the bud four to six inches from where the sprout comes out of the stub. Use the patch bud, wrap carefully with waxed cloth, using muslin dipped in melted beeswax, the strips of cloth three-sixteenths to one-fourth inch wide. ”

“ The element of hazard, therefore, is too great in northerly areas to justify sowing the seed thus. But on the bench lands of the mountain valleys there may be instances in which the seed may be sown so late in the autumn that it will not sprout before winter sets in, but lies in the soil ready to utilize the moisture, so all important in those areas, as soon as the earliest growth begins in the spring. ”

“ Four lily stalks did their white honours wed
To make a coronal; and round him grew
All tendrils green, of every bloom and hue,
Together intertwin’d and trammel’d fresh:
The vine of glossy sprout; the ivy mesh,
Shading its Ethiop berries; ”

“ Some care is requisite in planting out the sets, particularly in covering; for, if the soil is applied too rudely, the sprouts, which separate very easily from the tubers, are exceedingly liable to be broken off, and the set destroyed for early use. If severe cold or frosty weather occurs, the plants should be protected by straw, or any convenient, light material, placed along the drills or on the hills. ”

“ If a layer of soil near the surface of the ground be unusually rich and moist, the rootlets in growth are spread almost wholly along that layer, while in any other case they descend. The tendrils of vines find points for attachment an inch or two from their stems; in cellars and caverns the feeble sprouts grow toward the light which they seem to feel is their life. ”

“ If the top is too dense, the new growth can only continue in the top and outer portions of the tree where sunlight can penetrate. When an adventitious bud does start in the center of the tree it immediately makes a strong vigorous growth to reach the sunlight far above. Such a growth is called a water sprout. If the trees are kept so pruned that the shadow on the ground during the greater part of the day is mottled with sunlight while the trees are in full leaf, the small growth may be maintained in the center and the bearing surface greatly increased. ”

“ Dig a hole, a foot and a half deep; fill it with very light, loose, and rich, soil; and drive in a stake, a yard and a half high, to which, to tie the future plants. Then set in the root, so that it shall be an inch below the soil, where the sprout starts. When the plants are two feet high, tie them to the stakes, and take off some of the lower side-shoots. Continue to tie them, as their growth advances. If the roots are planted in the open borders, without any previous growth, it should be done as early as the first of May, and they should be covered from the frosts. ”

“ Beech and chestnut trees and others of the broad-leaved type reproduce by means of sprouts as well as by seed. Generally, the young stumps of broad-leaved trees produce more sprouts than the stumps of older trees which have stood for some time. ”

“ When the seed are planted in the places where the tree is to grow, it is thought to have some advantages; yet the almost universal custom is to transplant from a nursery the rundas or young sprouts when they have remained for one year, and thus the stand is perhaps rendered more certain and uniform. ”

“ The red raspberries do it in a different way. They send out runners, too, but they are from the roots, and when the sprouts come up, we call them suckers. Many kinds of plants have suckers, and there are some kinds of trees sprout so badly that they cannot be used for shade."
"What a lot of ways there are for plants to start!" said Davy.
[299]
"Suppose we try to think of as many as we can," said the Chief Gardener. "You begin, Prue."
"Seeds and roots and bend-overs and stuck-ins," said Prue. "That's four."
A BLACK RASPBERRY VINE PREPARING TO SPREAD
Davy and the Chief Gardener laughed. ”

“ The sprouts growing all round the old stump, when loaded with fruit will bend and rest on the ground in every direction, without injuring any of them, for many years, all of them being rooted in the ground, as tho' they had been planted. ”

“ The tall, stout stems, large, 193pale leaves, dull pink clustered flowers which appear in July, and later the puffy pods filled with the silky-tufted seeds beloved of imaginative children, are familiar to nearly everyone who spends a portion of the year in the country. The young sprouts are said to make an excellent pot-herb; the silky hairs of the seed-pods have been used for the stuffing of pillows and mattresses, and can be mixed with flax or wool and woven to advantage; while paper has been manufactured from the stout stalks. ”

“ After the farm woodland is logged, a new stand of young trees will develop from seeds or sprouts from the stumps. Farmers find that it is profitable to harrow the ground in the cut-over woodlands to aid natural reproduction, or to turn hogs into the timber tract to rustle a living as these animals aid in scattering the seed under favorable circumstances. It is also noteworthy that the most vigorous sprouts come from the clean, well-cut stumps from which the trees were cut during the late fall, winter or early spring before the sap begins to flow. ”

“ Keep this simple principle in mind: there is a given amount of root-power; if this cannot be expended in making young sprouts all over the ground, it goes to produce a few strong fruit-bearing canes in the hill. In other words, you restrict the whole force of the plant to the precise work required—the giving of berries. As the original plants grow older, they will show a constantly decreasing tendency to throw up new shoots, but as long as they continue to grow, let only those survive which are designed to bear the following season. ”

“ It may save the reader from making miscalculations. The person who imagines that a Big Tree sprout is bigger than other kinds of sprouts is quite mistaken. It is the ordinary thing; it makes no show, it compels no notice, it hasn't a detectible quality in it that entitles it to attention, or suggests the future giant its sap is suckling. That is the kind of sprout Mrs. ”

“ Those who have been accustomed to treat Sprouts and Kales on one uniform rough plan will be surprised at the result of the routine we now recommend. The plants will button from the ground line to the top, and the buttons will set so closely that, once taken off, it will be impossible to replace them. Moderate-sized, spherical, close, grass-green Sprouts are everywhere esteemed, and there is nothing in the season more attractive in the markets. ”

“ After a while the cloth is removed, and the seed is found to have sprouted, and an inch or so of the stem and the first green leaves are seen to be sprouting from the earth. The illusion is perfect, and the onlookers are more taken up with gazing in wonder at the miraculous growth and discussing it one with another than with critically examining the seed and the sprouting plant. ”

“ The cherry, plum, pear and apple trees, in a diseased condition, will often throw up numerous and thrifty sprouts that will offer to an inexperienced cultivator inviting temptations to multiply his stock at a rapid rate with little labor. ”

“ Strong roots may throw very good-sized sprouts, but don’t be tempted to gather them, for their removal will stimulate the plant to throw up more stalks than its age warrants, and the result will be either death or a weakly, unprofitable existence for several seasons. ”

“ Those grown on rather hard land are better for winter; being less succulent, they endure cold better. Cut them off for use whenever you choose. They do not head like cabbage; they have full bunches of curled leaves. Cut off so as to include all, not over eight inches long. In winter, after having been pretty well exposed to the frost, they are very fine. Set out the stumps early in spring, and they will yield a profusion of delicious sprouts. ”

“ They should be examined, and if union—indicated by the full, plump condition of the buds or the commencement of growth—has taken place, the wrappings should be removed. If growth has started, the stock should be cut off or lopped just above the insertion of the bud, in the case of budded trees. From time to time the trees should be examined, and all sprouts which might rob the bud of sap, thereby preventing its growth, should be rubbed off. ”

“ They can be snapped off rapidly, and where the quantity is considerable they should be sorted into sizes. The season of use will be greatly prolonged, and the tendency of the Sprouts to burst be lessened, if the head is cut last of all. ”

“ Now, when they shall have sprouted up so high as a fingers length, you must leave in your said Pots two of the biggest and strongest stalks or sprouts, and pluck up the others, lest they should impede each others growth; and you must let them have room enough in the Pot to grow. ”