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- Author or Editor: James M. Rawson x
- HortScience x
Lagerstroemia has potential for development as a potted florist crop for early spring sales. The number and timing of pinching or number of liners per container were examined as a means of developing a more compact plant that is in proportion to the container. On 20 July 1996, either one or three rooted liners of Lagerstroemia `Victor' or `Zuni' were planted into 1500-ml (15 cm in diameter) containers in a pine bark: peat moss (3:1 v/v) substrate amended with 6 kg·m–3 MicroMax plus (Scotts Company, Inc., Marysville, Ohio). The plants were topdressed with 10 g SierraBlen 17–6–12 (Scotts Company, Inc., Marysville, Ohio) slow-release fertilizer. The liners received 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 pinches and were pinched in a complete factorial 0, 2, 4, and 6 weeks after potting. There were 32 pinching treatments with 5 replications. The plants were grown outside until 30 Sept. 1996, when they were moved into a greenhouse. Plant height, width, and a visual rating were collected 13 Nov. 1996. There was no significant difference in plant size or visual rating of `Victor' regardless of the number or timing of pinches or of the number of liners per pot. `Zuni' had significantly the best visual ratings and largest size when grown with three liners but the timing and number of pinches had no significant effect. `Victor' is a dwarf cultivar growing to only 1 m in the landscape while `Zuni' is a semi-dwarf, growing to 2.7 m.
Three experiments were conducted using Lagerstroemia `Victor' and `Zuni', one on pinching, another on photoperiod, and the third with fertilizer rates. Liners were potted with either one or three liners per container. In the pinching experiment, treatments were 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 pinches at 0, 2, 4, or 6 weeks after planting. In the photoperiod experiment the plants were exposed to 0, 4, 8, or 12 weeks of short days before being moved to long days. In the fertilizer experiment the plants were fertilized at 0, 200, 400, 600, or 800 mg.L-1 nitrogen from 20-10-20 liquid feed and 0 or 6 g per container of 15-11-13 slow-release fertilizer. For both `Victor' and `Zuni', three liners per container resulted in plants that were wider and shorter than those with only one liner. Neither timing nor number of pinches significantly affected plant size. Short days prevented vegetative growth and floral development in both cultivars. `Victor' grew and flowered best after receiving 8 weeks of short days before moving to long days. `Zuni' grew and flowered best when moved directly to long days after potting. Both `Victor' and `Zuni' grew best when receiving either 200 mg·L-1 or 6 g of slow-release fertilizer.