2.
Many varieties showed very little difference between 3 and 5 plants per pot. Varieties like Coleus Talavera™ Moondust and Geranium Calliope® Large Dark Red grew nearly identically with 3-5 plants per pot throughout the entire growing season.
3 plants
4 plants
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3 plants 4 plants
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3.
Planting 4 plants in our 16” pots seemed to provide consistently strong results. When 5 plants are potted, they may compete for resources which may weaken those plants. If there are just 3, then they can share the fertilizer and water and grow into strong and long- lasting planters for homeowners. How many plants a grower puts in a pot can also be a function of how long they want that pot to grow before it is saleable. When timing is key for growers, 5 plants per pot will fill in more quickly and be saleable sooner. In those cases, a grower might choose more plants to get faster turns on their benches.
4.
FEATURE TRIAL: FERTILIZER RATES
Visitors often inquire about our feeding protocols. We designed this second feature trial to educate growers and retailers alike, and with our first-ever open house for homeowners this year thought they would also benefit from learning about the importance of fertilizer. This trial featured top-selling varieties across many genera at 3 different fertilizer levels: 1) Our standard daily liquid fertilizer at 150 ppm N 2) Just clear water but planted with some slow release fertilizer in the pots 3) No fertilizer and no slow release, to mimic homeowners who only ever water without feed Here’s what we found: Across all the varieties, the line that got the garden’s standard and daily feed performed the best and grew into beautiful, large plants. These results confirm what we expected: regularly fertilized plants perform better and look better for longer in the growing season. Homeowners looking to grow large, healthy, and long-lasting plants are advised to install a fertilizer injection system and feed their plants daily this way. 1.
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