Today (9/6) I pinched some 8" Freedom and Prestige with 2 ppp. Some already had extremely long breaks, mostly at the base of the plants, and their internodes were 2-4" long! Some plants were very uneven with respect to their breaks. What should I do? Plnts were otherwise very healthy and were growing well. I am located in central Georgia.

Tim, I have been keeping daily notes on my crops for 3 decades and have noticed that on some years, and on certain varieties, my Poinsettias already have 1/4" sidebranches even before the pinch and on other years only very tiny buds. The years with the pre-mature side branches I take into account the earlier growth and apply my first PGR right after pinch. This may be too early for your situation but you might want to take the earlier growth into account for your PGR program....Michael Pawelek

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Thanks, Michael. You mentioned 1/4" premature breaks, but mine are much longer (several inches). They are also quite spindly which concerns me. Will they increase in girth or only in length? What PGR would you recommend at this time and at what concentration?

Tim, You will have to decide from past crops and your local weather conditions as we go into Fall which PGR program will work best for you. I tried the B-Nine/Cycocel sprays for years with poor results so I now use the early and late Paclo drenches. This far South our growing conditions require a stronger program to keep the Poinsettias in check where as further North a spray program may be adequate. Below are some recommendations posted by Dr. Barrett last year for drench and spray PGR programs where I have added some of my own language. I apologize to Dr. Barrett for re-wording some of the notes but it was done out of necessity so that I could keep the information straight in my head! I have just recently had to transfer my computer files from one computer to another and some files were changed a bit so if anyone sees any glaring mistakes please let me know so that I can change them....Michael Pawelek

GUIDELINES FOR EARLY BONZI (Paclo) DRENCH: Used between final pinch and start of color.
Effects of drench will usually last 10-30 days depending on strenght used.
The objective of early drenches is to achieve good size control with less effect on bract development compared to PGR sprays. The early drench is sometimes referred to as a low-dose drench because the rate used is much lower than late drench rates. An early drench is applied as needed using the same decision process as currently used for making spray applications. The low rate that is used does not stop elongation and only slows plant growth similar to the effect of a spray. The early drench can either replace some or all of the sprays. An
important point is that there is not a cutoff date for early drenches and they can be applied as late as the end of October. While, early drench applications are generally safer than sprays at the same time, problems can occur if too much is applied just like all PGR usage. Any of the media active growth regulators can be used for drench applications, but rates will vary depending on activity of the chemical. We will use Bonzi in these examples.

Bonzi rates for early drenches are 1/10 to 1/5 ppm (0.1 - 0.2 ppm) for medium to very vigorous varieties.
0.1 ppm rate is only 1ml. Bonzi per 10 gallons of water / 0.2ppm rate is only 2ml. Bonzi per 10 gallons of water.
You must also be careful how much solution you add to each container.
Examples: 4 ounces of solution to 6” container.
At this time, it is not suggested using this technique on low vigor varieties like Chianti and Pepride without extensive testing to determine the optimum rates.


GUIDELINES FOR LATE DRENCH: This will usually stop or greatly reduce further Poinsettia height until the end of the crop.
The objective of this procedure is to stop elongation and hold the crop at the desired size. The later the drench is applied the less it affects bract size. The rates used for the late drench are too high for earlier applications. Rate is usually 1ppm. 1 ppm rate is 1ml. Bonzi per 1 gallon of water.

In warm climates the guidelines for when to apply the late drench is…
We will use Bonzi for the late drench and 1 ppm is the standard rate in warm climates for medium vigor varieties like Freedom Red.
(1) We want the plants within 1 inch of final size.
(2) We want one bract in full color.

In cool climates the guidelines for when to apply the late drench is…
(1)The plants should be within ½ inch of final desired size and…
(2)There should be at least two bracts in full color. Remember the later it is applied,
the safer it is. In cool climates, the standard Bonzi rate for medium vigor varieties like
Freedom Red is 0.5 ppm.


GENERAL RULES/GUIDELINES FOR USING SPRAY PGRs ON POINSETTIAS: (B-Nine & Cycocel) (Bonzi)

These guidelines work fine in a perfect world; but ….. The rules were designed to reduce the risk of reducing bract size. However, they are not flexible enough to deal with all situations. A very big issue is the differences in PGR use between cool and warm climates. In warmer climates, growers use stronger chemicals, higher rates and more applications and cheating on the guidelines is safer and often required. The PGR rules largely were developed for cool climate production. The recommendations from the Ecke group (like all plant breeder/supplier companies) tend to be conservative and fit cool climate production better than warmer climates.

At some point growers often have to make a business decision – do I want a plant with large bracts that is too tall or do I want to keep height under control and have some bract size reduction. At that point there is no substitute for experience in making the PGR decision.

For WARM climates, here are some suggestions when you need to push the envelop a little.
(1)B-Nine/Cycocel sprays early:
low rate = 1,000ppm/1,000ppm
medium rate = 1,500/1,250
high rate = 2,500/1,500.
(2). After about Sept. 25 use only the low or medium rates.
(3). After Oct. 1-5 drop the B-Nine down to 750 to 1,000. Cycocel can be higher.
(4) Drop the B-Nine after Oct. 10-15.
(5) From Oct 8-15, for a strong effect with least effect on bracts use Bonzi at 3-5 ppm – if you are familiar with spraying Bonzi. (this is pushing the envelop more than a little, but works. In warm climates along the Gulf Coast, Use 5 ppm and spray volume of 3 qts/ft2).


Frequency: At the low or medium rates – if the plants are growing and more control is needed, a second or third spray at 7 day intervals is fine. For the high rate, this usually gives at least 2-3 weeks of control.

How long it takes to work:
The active ingredient starts working within a few hours, but often it is 3-5 days before the effect can be seen in terms of darker green leaves and shorter growth. As long as too much total chemical is not applied and rates are low enough, there is not a problem with applications close together (3-7 days). In fact, some operations in Holland do daily applications and sometimes 2 Cycocels in the same day. It is all a matter of how much chemical is in the plant.

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Tim
I have double pinched in the past when having long breaks,but you might want to let the ecke people respond. The problem for me when I've had long breaks at the end of the crop they are weak and tend to break off. Good luck

Tim -

It is not uncommon on certain cultivars for the lower laterals to form prior pinch. This is most often the case when a pinch is delayed. Because your lower lateral are already several inches long it makes us think that your pinched was delayed for quite some time.

Once the lower laterals begin to form, if the plants are still at a tighter spacing the shoots will begin to stretch in competition for light. Stretched, thin lower laterals will often end in stem breakage later in the crop.

What to do know that you have discovered the stretched shoots? Many growers use spot sprays of Cycocel or combinations of B-Nine Cycocel targeted at the lower laterals to slow their stretch while still allowing the new shoots forming after pinch to emerge and progress at a normal rate. Some growers also remove the lower laterals if they have been allowed to stretch. While this is taking away from the final finished display, as we mentioned earlier these shoots often break later in production and the bracts that form are often smaller and weak and don't make much of a contribution to the finished product anyway.

Hope this helps…let us know if you have further questions.

Thanks!

Michael, thanks for posting the summery of some of my postings on PGRs. I did not have all of this in one document, so I made a copy for myself. Thanks. Jim