Be aware of growth regulated plants

I usually post this every year to notify people who buy annuals like Impatiens or even Petunia's to carefully look at the plants and the size of the foliage. If it looks smaller than it should look, this is not just because it is a young plant. It means the production schedule in the greenhouse made it necessary to use growth regulators or inhibitors. This is a class of chemicals which can, and often does stunt the growth of the plant indefinitely. Many annuals will come out of it, but if the plant is too far along in the six pack or 4" pot, and if these inhibitors are used the plant is stunted in a more mature point in that plants life...mature for shelf at market, that is.

So, be aware and don't buy this type of plant even if it had a million buds. It will have those buds as a response to dying or stress to reproduce.

Reply to
Jangchub
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Wouldn't switching photoperiod have the same effects?

Reply to
Father Haskell

Not as cheaply.

Reply to
Steve

In houses which total over a million sq ft under glass, what do you think? It is done with mums and poinsettia, but there are far less produced than flat packs of annuals. Also, mums and poinsettias come in as slips and most large factory greenhouse operations either grow their own or purchase plugs for annuals. Some annuals are direct seeded into flats, but that is usually limited to melons, cucumbers, and other squash.

Reply to
Jangchub

Depends on the plant, and whether you're using natural or artificial light.

Reply to
Father Haskell

Okay, so I guess my instance which was very specific to giant greenhouse operations didn't seem to enter your mind, I'll say it again with the addition of natural light situation, huge operations under glass, shipping out tractor trailers of flats day and night, with hundreds of employees and a head house operation of three to six belts with 20-30 operators planting plugs on two shifts. It is cheaper to use growth inhibitors.

The only time artificial light is used are for very limited crops which are hugely smaller than that of annual flats production of impatiens and all the ordinary plants which people fawn all over.

Reply to
Jangchub

No it doesn't. In a commercial environment it is always cheaper.

Reply to
Steve

I'll be. This explains a growth problem I have experienced.

Thanks. I've had this problem with impatiens and thought it was something *I* was doing.

Appreciations, Charlie

Reply to
Charlie

And they count on that as part of their extended sales. They want people to come and buy more packs. It's such a dirty industry and I worked for one of the worst and largest of such operations before I went back into a 5,000 foot house where I transitioned them over to organic and that took three years to be certified.

Reply to
Jangchub

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