L Cooperative Extension Service Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 Vol. 1 No. 1 Edited by Allen Hammer August, 1973 CONTENTS PAGE To begin again: The floriculturists at Purdue 1 New Hydrangea Production Technique 2 T. C. Weiler and L. C. Lopes Floral Foam Characteristics 4 Tom Weiler A Greenhouse for Selling Part I 8 Ransom Blakeley, Allen Hammer and Philip Carpenter The Way I See It 8 Allen Hammer 7&? <~
: ->> To begin again; L This will start a new series of newsletters from Purdue to the floricultural industry in Indiana. Your comments, suggestions, and criticisms will be most appreciated. The newsletter is for the entire industry--grower, retailer and wholesaler. We hope that you will spend a few minutes to read the entire bulletin. The Floriculturist at Purdue Many of you have met and talked with the two floriculturists in the Depart ment of Horticulture at Purdue, but maybe you would like to know their backgrounds, P. Allen Hammer, Extension-Research Floriculturist He was born in Raleigh, North Carolina (28 years old, although ID still required in most bars) and grew up in Cary, North Carolina. In June 1967, he received a Bachelor of Science degree from North Carolina State University, working under Dr. Roy Larson. He received a Master of Science degree from Cornell University in August, 1967, working under Dr. James Boodley. In March, 1973 he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Cornell University, working under Dr. Robert Langhans. His research has included capillary watering, environmental studies with roses, computer applications in floriculture and mathematical approaches to describing the effect of enviroments on plant growth. He joined the United States Army Reserve in 1969 and was on active duty June-October, 1969, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. At present he holds the rank of Staff Sergeant with the status of instructor. He and his wife, Sarah, live in West Lafayette. Their hobbies include travel and the great outdoors. While in Ithaca, they made several backpacking trips in the Adirondack Mountains. Tom Weiler -- Research -- Teaching Floriculturist Born and raised in Wisconsin, he received a B.S. degree in Horticulture in 1964 at the University of Wisconsin, then went to Cornell University and received an M.S. (1967) and a Ph.D. (1969) in Floriculture. He joined the Purdue staff in August, 1969, and he has been teaching floriculture and experimenting with Easter and species lilies, Salvia and hydrangeas in association with his graduate students, Chu-huei Lai and Luiz Carlos Lopes. New Hydrangea Production Technique? T. C. Weiler and L. C. Lopes The 9 to 11 month production schedule for potted hydrangeas is costly and includes development of a plant from a cutting, cold treatment, and forcing (2). Mr. Norman Yock, Oregon Propagating Co., Brookings, contributed the cuttings for our stock plants. 2 Assistant Professor of Floriculture and Graduate Research Assistant, Purdue University
We have worked with the effect of daylength on the life cycle of the crop and believe it is possible to produce hydrangea plants in 4 to 6 months, cutting to flowering plant, by eliminating pinching, long inflorescence initiation periods, leaf-drop treatment, and cold storage. Previous studies (4, 5, 8) and our present work indicate long daylengths delay the formation of the inflorescence, and in a 24 hour daylength (8 hours sunlight plus 20 ft. c. lighting for 16 hours) we found that plants continue to grow and do not display the vegetative and inflorescence dormancy previously thought to be characteristic of the crop and broken by cold treatment (3, 4, 7, 8, 9) or gibberellic acid (9). In 8 to 12 hour daylengths the plants were dormant. For example, 'Merveille1, with a inflorescence bud present but never given a leaf drop or cold treatment, flowered in about 50 days in a 70 F green house under a 24 hour daylength. The new production scheme requires the use of 24 hour daylengths to develop stock plants for cuttings and during propagation and the growth of the plant, short days to initiate inflorescences, and, again, 24 hour daylengths during forcing. For small trials for Easter flowering we speculate the following schedule may work in a 65 to 70 F greenhouse. We do not know how the crop responds to daylength at other temperatures. Single-Stem (Unpinched) Production at 70 F Dates for 1974 Week Easter Production Procedure 0 Nov. 28 take cuttings leaving 2 nodes on the stock from vegetative, 24 hour light grown plants and mist propagate 3 Dec. 19 transplant rooted cuttings and/or remove from mist bench and put in 24 hour daylength 7 Jan. 16 place in short days (natural short days can be used if there is no stray light) 13 Feb. 27 return to 24 hour daylength 20 April 10 plants in flower 20.5 April 14 Easter The promotion of inflorescence formation by short days was prominent in all cultivars tested ('Dundalk,1 'Kuhnert,* 'Merveille,' 'Rose Supreme,1 'Sister Therese1), although there may be some differences between cultivars as Piringer and Stuart (5) suggest. To develop plants receptive to the short day inflorescence inductive treatment, the crop must be grown vigorously, with warm temperatures and high light flux, or grown for a long time before treatment (6). Warm-forced plants are shorter than plants forced in cooler conditions, so the schedule above may be best used to produce plants in 4-inch pots. Furuta and Martin (1) suggested that eliminating pinching would shorten considerably the production cycle. Eventually, we hope to learn enough about hydrangea to be able to suggest a production schedule for a 3-bloom, 6-inch pot, using 3 single-stemmed plants.
c Note that the above schedule requires 5 months and could be developed for flot7ering at any time of the year. With later refinements we hope to reduce that production time by at least another month and determine what the seasonal differences in production time are. Presumably some cultivar forcing characteristics will be observed with the new method. For example, 'Mercille' will probably remain an early forcing type compared to 'Rose supreme.' Literature Cited 1. Furuta, T. and W. C. Martin, Jr. 1963. Propagation of hydrangeas for spring flowering. Flor. E-cch. 139 (16): 12, 50. 2. Jung, R. 1964. The status of hydrangea growing today. Flor. Rev. 135 (3486): 13-14, 35-37, 40. 3. Link, C. B. and J. B. Shanks. 1954. Studies of the factors involved in terminating the rest period of hydrangeas. Proc. Amor. Soc. Hort. Sci. 64: 519-525. 4. Piringer, A. A. and N. W. Stuart. 1955. Responses of hydrangea to photoperiod. Proc. Amer. Soc. IT"rt. Sci. 65: 446-454. 5. Piringer, A. A. and N. W. Stuart. 1958. Effects of supplemental light source and length of photoperiod on growth and flowering of hydrangeas in the greenhouse. Proc. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 71: 579-584 6. Ray, S. 1946. Reduction of blindness in hydrangeas. Proc. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 47: 501-52 7. Shanks, J. B. and C. B. Lin1':. 1951. Some studies on the effects of temperature and photoperiod on growth and flower formation in hydrangea. Prcc. Ar.y»r. Soc. Fort. Sci. 58: 357-366 8. Stuart, N W. 1951. Greenhouse hydrangeas. Flor. Rev. 109 (2813): 37-40. 9. Stuart, N. W. and H. M. C»they. 1961. Control of growth and flowering of Chryscnthervra morif-»1 ium and rydra.ngea imcrophlla by gibberellin. Proc. 15th Int. Hort. Cgngr. 2: 391-399. Floral Foam Characteristics Tom Weiler A recent Michigan State study by Carpppfer and EvaId (1) compared various f?.oral foams for their ability to sustain rose? in the vase. The investigators used blocks of Oasis, Filfast, Hydra-foam, Niagara, and Quickee which were wetted with Roselife solution. Assistant Professor of Floriculture, Purdue University
They placed 18 inch roses in vertical foam blocks at various distances from the solution reservoir at the base of the block and found that in Niagara, Hydrafoam, or Oasis, stems 8 inches above the solutions lasted as long as or longer than roses in a vase. Roses in Quickee or Filfast 8 inches above the solution level deteriorated more quickly than in the vase (Figure 1). The manufacturer of Filfast recommends submerging the foam in vase water. In that case (0 inches from solution level (Figure 1) the vase life was quite adequate. CO ta O oj H J to 12 10 8 6 4 Niagara Hydra-foam Oasis In Vase (Control) Quickee Filfast Distance from Solution Reservoir (Inches) Figure 1. The vase lives of roses placed in foam blocks at 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8 inches above a 'Roselife' solution reservoir (1). The effectiveness of foams in promoting flower vase life depends on: 1. the amount of available water along the vertical profile of the portion of the block out of solution. 2. whether or not the block is in contact with a water reservoir. As in soils (2), water content under these conditions (out-of water vertical profile of floral foam blocks with a water table at the base) is related to the size of the pores. Few and/or larger pores in blocks do not sustain sufficient water capillarity at a distance from the water reservoir to provide enough water to stems distant from the water reservoir, but m?.y be easily filled when sub merged; whereas foam blocks with many and/or smaller pores provide capillaries of a size to support sufficient movement of water to the flowers, but may be slow to fill when submerged.