A Comprehensive Program in Increasing Post Production Longevity of Flowering Potted Plants
LONG-LIVED FLOWERING POTTED PLANTS NEED PLANT-SPECIFIC PAMPERING
There’s ample advice in the industry on potted mums’ postproduction
care and handling. But the literature gets a little fuzzy when it comes
to more obscure pot crops such as kangaroo paws or cutting-edge cultivars
the likes of ‘Sahara Wind’ hibiscus. Pamper a plant all you want,
it won’t respond with its best performance and longest shelf life unless
it gets what it needs — in the greenhouse and outside it. And research
on plant-specific, care-and-handling practices is key. No one knows better
how important it is that the industry’s postproduction knowledge keeps
pace with plant introductions than postproduction guru Dr. Terril Nell.
Since 1996, Nell’s been leading a research team in Endowment-funded studies
pinpointing individual, flowering-potted-plant crops’ postproduction preferences.
Early in their studies, Nell and his team found that cultivar selection
and production practices (especially plant feeding) impact heavily on potted
plants’ performance outside the greenhouse. A crop’s developmental stage
on shipping, plus transport temperature and duration wield strong influences
on plant longevity, too. More specifically, the team has found that storing
potted lilies for more than 3 days is risky, while abusing display kalanchoes
with low light usually isn’t. Studies on cyclamen, gerberas, and kalanchoes
are complete. And tests on winter-flowering begonias and hydrangeas will
be concluded soon. Exacum, gloxinia, lisianthus, and hibiscus are undergoing
tests now. Over time, the team intends to evaluate each of the crops listed
in the FMA/SAF Grades and Standards guidelines and the much-used Kiplinger
guide Flowering Plants for Interiors.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT RESEARCH-PROJECT LEADER:
Dr. Terril Nell, Postproduction Physiologist, University of Florida
E-MAIL: <tan@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu>
