USE OF POT PLANT MECHANIZATION TECHNIQUES TO PRODUCE SHORT STEMMED CUTFLOWERS FOR SUPERMARKET BOUQUETS

Production techniques for selected cutflowers have been developed that could utilize pot plant mechanization techniques.
Plants were grown in 6 cm pots with an integrated stem support, progressively spaced in prespaced forms on ebb and flood benches and grown under 24 hr supplemental lighting at 100 μ mol m^-2s^-1. Single stem greenhouse roses, ‘Sonia’ and ‘Samantha’, grown from single node cuttings, were propagated and harvested in less than 7 weeks; 80% of the stems exceeded 35 cm.
Zinnia ‘Cherry Ruffles’, bachelor button ‘Blue Boy’ and Carthamus tinctorius were harvested 4–5 weeks after seed was sown.
Single stem snapdragon ‘Frontier Yellow’ and single stem godetia ‘Grace Shell Pink’, ‘Grace Rose Pink’ and ‘Grace Salmon’ required 6–7 weeks and 8–9 weeks from sowing to flowering, respectively.
Single stem chrysanthemums ‘Hopscotch’ and ‘Sophisticate’ were propagated in 14–16 days from single node cuttings under 24 hr HPS lighting at 60 μ mol m^-2s^-1. Rooted plants were placed directly into short days and flowers with stem lengths of 30 to 40 cm were harvested 8–9 weeks later.
A mechanized production system to produce short stemmed cutflowers for the market niche of supermarket bouquets is proposed.

Symposium on Bedding and Pot Plant Culture

Robert G. Anderson

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1990.272.47