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Floricultural producers, cut flower wholesalers, mass market retailers and general retailers were surveyed to compare and contrast the industry in terms of attitudes and problems. Questions involved general business information, as well as specific crops. Overall, all four segments of the industry were neutral to negative on potted flowering plants, but were positive to neutral on bedding and foliage plants. However, producers were slightly negative concerning the postharvest life of bedding plants. While cut flower wholesalers had a positive attitude concerning cut flowers, retailers and mass marketers tended to be neutral to negative. In particular, retailers and mass marketers felt cut flowers were too expensive and too short lived. Floral preservatives were used by 81.6% of general retailers, while only 18.8% of mass market retailers used preservatives. All cut flower wholesalers used preservatives. Capital availability and market demand were the factors most limiting to expansion for producers and general retailers; mass market firms listed competition as their most limiting factor. Results from other questions will also be provided.
Narcissus L. `Music Hall', N. `Tahiti', Tulipa L. `Couleur Cardinal', and T. `White Emperor' bulbs were precooled at 5 °C for 0 or 5 weeks and planted 15, 30, or 45 cm deep (from bulb base) into raised ground beds under 0%, 30%, or 60% shade. Plant growth was monitored for two consecutive years after planting. Precooling reduced the percentage of T. `White Emperor' that flowered but did not affect flowering percentage of the other cultivars. Precooling delayed anthesis in one or both years for all cultivars. The greatest percentage of bulbs flowered when planted 15 cm deep and the 45-cm planting depth reduced flowering percentage. Increasing planting depth delayed anthesis for all cultivars. Increasing shade increased stem lengths in one or both years for all cultivars, but did not influence flowering percentage. Perennialization was low for all cultivars regardless of treatment. Cultivar differences in perennialization occurred; in year 2 up to 30% of N. `Tahiti' bulbs flowered vs. 32% for `Music Hall' and up to 30% of T. `White Emperor' bulbs flowered vs. only 22% of `Couleur Cardinal'.
The free-branching poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. ex. Klotzsch) cultivar Annette Hegg Brilliant Diamond (BD) contained a free-branching agent that was graft-transmissible to the restricted-branching cultivar Eckespoint C-1 Red (CR). CR plants were transformed by the agent regardless of whether BD plants were used as scion or stock, indicating that the agent moved basipetally and acropetally through the graft union. The agent was repeatedly transmitted to a CR plant by serial grafting with a free-branching poinsettia plant. A minimum of 10 days contact through grafting was required for BD plants to transmit the agent to CR plants. Percentage of CR plants exhibiting the free-branching characteristic increased from 0% for < 10 days of graft contact with BD plants to 100% after 30 days.
Several treatments were investigated for increasing vase life of cut `Renaissance Red' poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. ex Klotzsch.) stems. A vase life of at least 20.6 days resulted when harvested stems were placed directly into vases with 22 °C deionized water plus 200 mg·L-1 8-HQS (the standard floral solution used) and 0% to 1% sucrose without floral foam. Maturity of stems at harvest, ranging from 0 to 4 weeks after anthesis, had no effect on vase life or days to first abscised leaf. Pretreatments immediately after harvest using floral solution heated to 38 or 100 °C, or 1 or 10-min dips in isopropyl alcohol, had no effect, whereas 24 hours in 10% sucrose shortened vase life by 6.4 days and time to first abscised cyathium by 4.5 days. Stem storage at 10 °C decreased vase life, particularly when stems were stored dry (with only 0.8 days vase life after 3 weeks dry storage). Increasing duration of wet storage in floral solution from 0 to 3 weeks decreased vase life from 21.5 to 14.6 days. Placing cut stems in a vase containing floral foam decreased time to first abscised leaf by 3.7 to 11.6 days compared with no foam. A 1% to 2% sucrose concentration in the vase solution produced the longest postharvest life for stems placed in foam but had little effect on stems not placed in foam. A 4% sucrose concentration decreased vase life compared with lower sucrose concentrations regardless of the presence of foam. Holding stems in the standard floral solution increased vase life and delayed leaf abscission compared with deionized or tap water only, with further improvement when stem bases were recut every three days. Commercial floral pretreatments and holding solutions had no effect on vase life and days to first abscised cyathium but delayed leaf abscission.
Vegetative, single-stem poinsettia plants (Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. `Gutbier V-14 Glory') were allowed to develop 10, 15, or 20 nodes (nodal groups). Within each nodal group, blades from the same node position were removed, combined into one sample per node, and analyzed for nutrient content. Nutrient concentrations were found to be distributed within the plant in one of three patterns: 1) N, P, and K concentrations were higher in upper than in lower leaves; 2) Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, and B concentrations were higher in lower than in upper leaves; and 3) Cu and Zn concentrations were higher in upper and lower leaves than in middle leaves. When 10, 15, and 20 noded groups were compared, the distributional patterns were similar, but actual nutrient concentrations between groups differed. Leaf P, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, and B concentrations increased over time. However, concentrations of N, K, and Cu were highest in 43-day-old leaves and lowest in 19-day-old leaves for N and Cu and lowest in 67-day-old leaves for K.
Oklahoma floriculture producers, ornamental-horticulture retailers, mass-market retailers, and cut-flower wholesalers were surveyed to compare and contrast the industry in terms of attitudes towards their products and problems. Overall, attitudes of all four segments of the industry were neutral to negative on potted flowering plants, but were positive to neutral on bedding and foliage plants. However, producers were slightly negative concerning the postharvest life of bedding plants. While cut-flower wholesalers had a positive attitude concerning cut flowers, ornamental-horticulture retailers and mass-marketers tended to be neutral to negative. In particular, retailers and mass-marketers believed that cut flowers were too expensive and too short-lived. Floral preservatives were used by 82% of ornamental-horticulture retailers, while only 19% of mass-market retailers used preservatives. All cut-flower wholesalers used preservatives. Capital availability and market demand were the factors most limiting expansion for producers and ornamental-horticulture retailers; whereas mass-market firms listed competition as their most limiting factor.
Pineapple lily (Eucomis hybrids) has long, striking inflorescences that work well as a cut flower, but information is needed on proper production methods and postharvest handling protocols. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of bulb storage temperature and duration, production environment, planting density, and forcing temperatures on cut flower production of ‘Coral’, ‘Cream’, ‘Lavender’, and ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ pineapple lily. Stem length was greater in the greenhouse than the field and at the low planting density. Plants in the field at the low planting density had the shortest stem length for ‘Coral’ and ‘Cream’, but still produced marketable lengths of at least 30 cm. Planting density did not affect ‘Lavender’ and ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ stem length or number of marketable stems. The productivity (number of marketable stems per bulb) was affected only by planting density for ‘Coral’ and planting environment for ‘Cream’. Differences in stem quality and productivity differed for each cultivar and planting density over the next two seasons. The productivity of ‘Coral’ increased significantly from year to year, while the productivity of ‘Cream’ only significantly increased between the first and second years. The low planting density resulted in slightly more stems per bulb for ‘Coral’ over the next two seasons. Emergence after bulb storage treatments was highest in treatments where the bulbs were not lifted from the substrate and were subsequently grown at 18 °C. Bulbs grown in the warmest (18 °C) production temperature flowered soonest and had shorter stem lengths. For earliest flowering, bulbs should be stored in substrate in cool temperatures of at least 13 °C and forced at warm temperatures of at least 18 °C.
Easter lily (Lilium longiflorum Thunb. `Nellie White') bulbs were exposed to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 weeks of cold before shoot emergence; 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 weeks of long days (LD) upon shoot emergence; or a combination of cold followed by LD: 1/5 (weeks cold/weeks LD), 2/4,3/3,4/2, or 5/1. Experiments were repeated for three consecutive years. LD did not substitute equally for cold; at least 3 weeks of cold were required before LD treatments resulted in anthesis. Depending on the year, 100% of the plants flowered when treated with 3 to 6 weeks of cold alone or in combination with LD. Days to first flower anthesis from planting increased with decreasing weeks of cold in years 1 and 3, but was similar for all treatments in year 2. Decreasing weeks of cold in combination with LD, however, decreased days to anthesis in years 1 and 2, but had no effect in year 3. Regardless of LD, days from emergence to visible bud increased with decreasing weeks of cold in all years, and days to emergence from placement in the greenhouse increased with decreasing cold in years 1 and 3, but not in year 2. Increasing weeks of cold, regardless of LD, decreased leaf count, but had no effect on plant height. Flower count was unaffected by cold when combined with LD, but was significantly reduced by increasing weeks of cold.
The effects of production temperature and transplant stage on stem length and caliper of cut stems and postharvest treatments on vase life of ‘Esprit’ penstemon (Penstemon grandiflorus) were examined. Plugs transplanted with eight to nine sets of true leaves had a longer stem length (64.3 cm) at harvest than those transplanted with two to three sets (57.7 cm) or five to six sets (60.8 cm). Time to flowering from transplant shortened as production temperature increased and when transplants had a greater number of true leaves. The addition of 2% or 4% sucrose with 7 ppm isothiazolinone as a vase solution resulted in the longest vase life (9.4 days) of all treatments compared with the control (4.5 days). A holding solution increased vase life to 7.0 days for Floralife holding solution and 5.9 days for Chrysal holding solution from the 4.3 days control, although hydrating solutions and preservative brand had no effect. The use of floral foam or antiethylene agents, ethylene exposure, or sucrose pulses also had no effect on vase life. Extended cold storage lengths either wet or dry for 2 or 3 weeks caused vase life to decrease to 2.0 days when compared with 5.6 days for the unstored control and 7.6 days for 1 week storage. ‘Esprit’ penstemon may be suitable for greenhouse production and has acceptable potential as a locally grown specialty cut flower.
The effects of various postharvest treatments on cut stems of ‘Coral’ and ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ pineapple lily (Eucomis sp.) were evaluated to determine best postharvest handling practices. The use of a commercial hydrator, holding solution, or both significantly reduced vase life for ‘Coral’; the deionized (DI) water control had the longest vase life. ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ vase life was significantly reduced to 29.9 days when both a commercial hydrator and holding solution were used as compared with 50.3 days when DI water was the hydrator used with the commercial holding solution. The use of a bulb-specific preservative reduced vase life of ‘Coral’ to 43.8 days, while the DI water control had a vase life of 66.4 days, and commercial holding solution was intermediate at 56.8 days. A 10% sucrose pulse reduced vase life to 46.9 days compared with the 0% sucrose control (58.9 days) and the 20% sucrose concentration (62.5 days), which were not significantly different. The use of floral foam and/or 2% or 4% sucrose concentrations plus isothiazolinone reduced vase life significantly to an average of 11.1 days. The vase life of stems cold stored at 2 °C for 1 week (37.7 days) was not significantly different from the unstored stems (43.0 days), while longer storage times up to 3 weeks significantly reduced vase life. The use of hydrating solution pretreatments before and holding solution treatments during 4 days of cold storage had no significant effect on vase life. ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ stems harvested with 100% of the florets open had the longest vase life of 51.2 days compared with 38.4 days when 1% of the florets were open. Vase life was unaffected by exogenous ethylene exposure up to 1 ppm for 16 hours. For best postharvest quality, ‘Coral’ and ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ pineapple lily should be harvested when at least 50% of the florets are open, held in plain water without preservatives, and stored for no more than 1 week (wet or dry) at 2 °C.