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Poinsettia Propagation IPM/Disease Control
By admin | June 29, 2007
Whenever you propagate any unrooted cuttings, disease and insect control play a big role in a growers success or failure. For poinsettias, there are a few things that I always do to help ensure a successful poinsettia prop season. As far as insects are concerned, I am only worried agout fungus gnats. If you’ve ever propagated poinsettias, you know that fungus gnat larvae absolutely love poinsettia cuttings. I have seen them make swiss cheese out of an unrooted poinsettia cutting and they can cause reduced uniformity, slower rooting and even death. My preferred method of control is to use Citation® insect growth regulator to keep the fungus gnat larvae under control. Citation comes in 2.66oz water soluble packets which I dissolve into a gallon of water and drench at a ratio of 1:100. This works very well for direct sticking but can also be used with liner production. With yellow sticky cards we monitor the adult fungus gnat populations and treat accordingly. As for disease control, we use a preventative fungicide application after sticking. I typically spray either MedallionTm, Daconil Weather StikTM, or 
. Any of these three chemicals will give us good control over botrytis, but daconil and medallion will give rhizoctonia control as well. I always add Capsil™ to either medallion or decree sprays to improve the efficacy of the chemicals and also to evenly distribute the moisture on the leaves of the poinsettia cuttings. Constant monitoring will allow us to react quickly when problems arise and I’m sure a few will. We often see a few rotten leaves that were damaged in transport or packaging and they quickly become infected with disease under propagation conditions. Preventative fungicides will help to combat this problem but immediate removal of any damaged leaves will prevent the spread of any problems. So far we are in really good shape, but it’s early.
Topics: Poinsettias, IPM, Day to day |
October 19th, 2007 at 10:49 am
last Christmas season I received three very beautiful large poinsettias. After the holiday period, I placed them in the ground. Apparently all conditions were perfect because they have grown well. I’ve topped them a couple times during the summer but stopped with October. Yesterday the lawn fertilization/pesticide people came and did shrubs around my house. I was not present so I’m not certain what was used but…today, I see the top leaves of all three poinsettias curling up. The following pesticides are listed on my work order: Manor .0375 oz/gal, Merit .25 oz per gal, Permethrin .05% Can you tell me what I can do to save these poinsettias? I hosed them down as soon as I noticed the leaves curling at the top. Can I pinch off these leaves and will I still be successful with bracks..To my knowledge, these poinsettias did not have gnats or any troubling pests. These pesticide people just “go for it” without knowledge of individual plants. Can you advise me? Friday, Oct. 19, 2007 Thank you
October 19th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Where do you live Sande?
If you pinch back the plants now you won’t get any bracts for the Christmas season. I’ll look into the pesticides but Merit wouldn’t be the problem.