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Pansy Plugs
By admin | November 11, 2007
This week we will transplant our first batch of pansy plugs for our spring crop. We grew 288 plugs this year with a 6 week crop time in the plug. But I grew them cool and they will be 7 weeks old when we transplant. We have a topic started at the Ask a Grower Forum that is dedicated to pansy plug production for growers to ask questions and share info on growing pansy plugs. We struggled a little with germination on a couple of varieties but we will be fine.
We drenched the plugs with Medallion/Subdue as a preventative and we added Safari to control some pesky fungus gnat and shore fly larvae that were around.
For growth regulator, I used a 2ppm Arest spray before the cotyledons emerged to control early stretch. After we unfolded 1-2 true leaves, I used B9 sprays as our growth control. I have found that B9/Arest and B9/Cycocel tank mixes work very well for pansy plugs but since I grew these plugs cooler I didn’t need the extra control.
Topics: Pansy, Forum, Day to day |
November 15th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Have the trays pictured been patched? I never seem to get good germination with pansies even with primed seed during the winter. I have a feeling it might have to do with covering. We use a light media cover. Any tips on germinating pansies?
Doug
November 16th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Doug, you should try asking some of your questions on the Forum. That way other growers can answer them as well.
The trays in the picture were not patched but I have a few varieties that didn’t germinate as well as those.
For our pansy germination we keep the soil thoroughly moist until the radicle has emerged and then start to dry them down some. We germ at 68 degrees if possible and cover with coarse vermiculite. Be sure to keep the soil moist but not too warm for the first 5-6 days. Primed seed is very fast usually 3-4 days in my experience so your success in germination will happen in those first 3-4 days.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
Are those trays injection molded (from Dillen)? How do you sterilize them? I have used those in the past but it got to be too much work to clean them.
Doug
November 27th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Those are the injection molded trays from Dillen. We just got them this year so we haven’t had to clean them yet. We plan to purchase a steamer to sterilize our plug trays and any other plastics that we reuse.