growth retardant

[umvoti]

Does anyone know of a growth retardant for hanging baskets, particularly Petunias? Needed to stop the plant bolting but to flower profusely.

Would appreciate a direct e-mail - please.

Harold. C.

[animaux]

There are chemicals. One I can think of, but which are available only to commercial greenhouses with licensed pesticide operators on hand are:

Bonsai

[Dwight Sipler]

There are several chemicals that are used to control growth: e.g. Florel, Bonzi, B-Nine and Sumagic (I believe these are all trade names). Florel is one of the oldest ones and it works by maintaining the plant in a vegetative state (non-flowering) while the plant is being treated. This encourages branching and helps to keep the internodes short for a bushier plant. I haven't used the others, but there are different modes of operation, particularly in the newer regulators.

However, Florel won't really control petunias once you stop treating them so they can flower. Your best bet is to change the variety of petunia you are growing to one with a more compact habit.

[Tom J]

Can't you just pinch out the tops when young to cause branching and then use a low nitrogen flowering fertilizer? I have the old fashion self seeding kind in my yard and that works on them.

I pinch the tops out at least 2 or 3 times to get multiple stalks from each plant before letting them go and don't use over a 4% nitrogen fertilizer about once a month. I have solid masses of lavender & white flowers. This variety still gets close to 24 inches, but that's over the whole growing season.

Tom J

[Dwight Sipler]

That works fine for a few plants, but when you have a greenhouse full the hand pinching is labor intensive and adds significantly to the production cost. That's why the chemicals were developed and are widely used.

[C]

Can you pinch back the plant? Wouldn't this make it bushier and perhaps flower more?

[C]

Are you sure the original poster is talking about a greenhouse full or just a few planters? I got the impression he only wanted to control a planter or two.

[Dwight Sipler]

I saw no information in the original post regarding quantity. It could be either way. The original post asked specifically about a growth retardant. I was actually responding to a later post suggesting Bonzi.

[C]

No problem. Just wondering.

[animaux]

Not always. I worked in a greenhouse operation which had millions of square feet under glass. We propagated millions and millions of mums each year and we hand pinched them all. King buds had to come out and no chemical growth retardant could do that.

[B & J]

As an added thought, petunias are extremely easy to start from tip cuttings. When the old plant begins looking ratty, I take cuttings and throw away the old plant when the cuttings root.

John

[animaux]

You would have the same results if you just cut the petunia back. I did something this year I never did before. The reason was wanting to see how this new variety of petunia would do in a greenhouse setting over winter. They are "Wave" petunias, but their millionbells type and white with dark vein throats. Well, they are looking better than anything. I cut them back, almost to the nub and they are setting up buds now.

I am also trying this with tomatoes. All winter I've been eating 'Roma,' 'Brandywine,' and 'Sweet Million.' I have cut the plants way back and I will plant them after danger of frost has passed. I will be interested to see what happens. They are all putting up beautiful new growth.

Victoria-off on a tangent, but it's early and my mind is wandering.

[Frogleg]

Look up pruning and pinching back. Or artificial flowers.

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