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Plug production has increased the finished quality and uniformity of bedding plants, making them one of the most important greenhouse crops grown. The wide range of cultural practices used by different growers to produce plugs, may influence the efficacy of plant growth regulators applied to the same crop in postplug production. Ten bedding plant species were grown from plugs obtained from two sources using different cultural practices. The plugs were transplanted to jumbo six packs and sprayed with either chlormequat/daminozide tank mix, ancymidol, or paclobutrazol at three concentrations at three times of year. The effect of each plant growth regulator varied by plant species and time of year applied. Source of plug material did have a significant effect on height and time of flowering of finished bedding plants and the use of plant growth regulators did not minimize the differences in height between sources in most cases.
Eight bedding plant species were grown from plugs obtained from two sources. The plugs were transplanted into jumbo six packs and sprayed with a solution of chlormequat/daminozide with concentrations of 1000/800, 1250/1250, or 1500/5000 mg·L-1 when new growth was ≈5 cm in height or width. Three different species were grown in the fall (Dianthus chinensis L., `Telstar Mix', Petunia ×hybrida Hort. Vilm.-Andr., `Dreams Red', and Viola ×wittrockiana Gams., `Bingo Blue'), winter [Antirrhinum majus L., `Tahiti Mix', Matthiola incana (L.) R. Br., `Midget Red', and P. × hybrida, `Dreams Mix'], and spring [Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don, `Cooler Pink', Salvia splendens F. Sellow ex Roem. & Schult., `Empire Red', and Begonia ×semperflorens-cultorum Hort., `Cocktail Mix']. The treatments significantly reduced finished plant size of all species for each season. There was a significant difference in finish size between sources for Dianthus, Antirrhinum, Matthiola, Catharanthus, Salvia, and Begonia. The efficacy of chlormequat/daminozide also differed for each source of Dianthus, Matthiola, and Begonia, but the treatments minimized the differences in finish size between sources for Petunia and Viola. Chemical names used: (2-chlorethyl) trimethylammonium chloride (chlormequat); (N-dimethylaminosuccinamic acid) (daminozide).