Vegetative Annuals and Florel
By admin | February 4, 2008
Like most growers, I use plenty of Florel this time of year and it’s one of my favorite PGR’s. Our list of crops we use it on includes verbena, geraniums, calibrichoa, petunias, fuschia, ipomoea, 
lantana, and others. If possible, I try to use Florel to replace a pinch but usually I use it to improve branching before/after a pinch and to knock off flowers. These pictures show some of our liners that are displaying the effects of our Florel applications. Note the emerging breaks on the verbena pic. Breaks from the breaks I call it and that’s what I’m looking for when we use Florel.
Topics: Florel, Geraniums, PGR, Day to day | No Comments »
Reiger Begonias
By admin | January 20, 2008
We propagate and finish a boatload of Reiger Begonias so you’re going to see me write about them a lot in the future. Right now we have a prop house full of them and we are transplanting them almost every week. We root them in a 25mm Elle arranged in a 
3 x 17-strip tray. They are ready to plant 5 weeks after sticking and transplanting is much easier with the ellepot than with other propagation media. We’ve tried loose-filled plugs, Preforma, and Jiffy-7 pots but the Ellepot system was superior.
Topics: Reiger Begonias, Ellepots, Propagation, Crops | No Comments »
Busy, busy.
By admin | January 17, 2008
I’ve been superbusy lately and haven’t been posting as much as I should. This time of the year is the busiest for propagators and the next 2-3 weeks will be our largest production weeks for our Young Plant Division. I plan to return to posting regularly very soon but in the meantime I would love to hear about what other growers are doing in their greenhouses.
Topics: Day to day | No Comments »
Zonal Geranium Liners
By admin | January 13, 2008
We are transplanting our first Zonal Geraniums this week after 5 weeks in prop in a 25mm ellepot. I’ve been hitting them with Florel and Cycocel on a regular basis and I’m feeling pretty good about 
where they are. I would like to keep the leaf petioles shorter with earlier, stronger Cycocel sprays and I need to target my Florel sprays a bit better to reach the smallest buds. These liners are scheduled for combos and will go into 6 inch pots, 3ppp, for several weeks before we pot up the combos.
Topics: Geraniums | No Comments »
Reiger Begonias
By admin | January 6, 2008
Does anybody grow reigers as a spring crop?
We grow lots of them in 4 inch, 6.5 inch and hanging baskets. We also use them in combos. They’re a great plant for spring bedding customers.
I’m looking for some good pictures of ours but I can’t find them. I’ll post them tomorrow.
Topics: Day to day | No Comments »
Young Plant Reseach Center
By admin | December 27, 2007
I heard about the Young Plant Reaseach Center at an industry conference over a year ago. It is led by Paul Fisher from the University of Florida and John Erwin from the University of Minnesota. These two researchers are among my favorites and I follow their research closely. I take in their talks when they are speaking at industry events because they always have valuable and applicable research to present. So many professors and researchesr study and speak about topics that aren’t overly useful to most growers. I remember the first time I heard the term “Facultative Long Day” and Obligate Short Day”. You should check them out if you haven’t already and support their research if possible. They and other floriculture professors/researchers are a vital part of our industry.
Topics: Day to day | No Comments »
Zonal Geranium Propagation: Dummen Survivor Series
By admin | December 23, 2007
Our first batch of Vegetative Geraniums are doing well so far. They’ve been in prop for about 10 days now and they are rooting well. We grow Dummen Geraniums and the picture below is from their Survivor Series. We propagate the cuttings using 25mm Elle’s in a strip tray that we can space to provide them with the necessary room. Crowding 
geraniums in the prop house is a bad practice that I’ve learned first-hand. Fischer has a great Culture Guide that I’ve followed for years. This culture guide is where I learned that 25-30 plants/sqft is the ideal density for unrooted zonal geraniums in propagation.
Topics: Ellepots, Geraniums, Propagation, Crops | No Comments »
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
By admin | December 21, 2007
I hope all our readers have a safe and happy holiday season. Those of us that grow plants for a living will probably have to spend some time in the greenhouse on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but that’s life for a grower. And if you’re a propagator, then the holidays are only backing up your unrooted cuttings and making us work on weekends…….at least, more than normal.
Topics: Day to day | No Comments »
Unrooted cuttings Vs. Rooted
By admin | December 20, 2007
So who roots their own and who buys in rooted liners?
As a propagation facility, we don’t have to worry about buying in liners but a lot of growers don’t have the facilities or abilities to prop their own vegetative annuals.
I’m wondering what percentage of growers buy in rooted liners vs. unrooted cuttings.
Does anyone have any data? Just curious.
Topics: Propagation, Day to day | 5 Comments »
New Logo
By admin | December 19, 2007
I have a new logo at Ask a Grower and I think it’s a beauty. A friend of ours designed it and hopefully it’s more attractive than the boring text that was the old header for the site.
I want to make the Forum look and feel more like the blog so I’ll hopefully be adding the new logo and changing the colors to match the Blog.
If you haven’t been to the Forum yet, you should check it out and add to the discussions. Just click the Forum link above.
Topics: Forum | 3 Comments »
