WE have started our tree production. I have read over the production guide lines on the Ecke page. I have just a few questions:
1) To increase elongation, is it common practice to use fascination? When and what rate?
2) How many internodes will prestige produce before it splits?

Thank-you
Mark

Hi Mark -

Using Fascination on trees has become more of a common practice but many growers are still relying on scheduling to achieve their desired heights.

Fascination does require some trialing because different cultivars and varying conditions in greenhouses will produce different results. For stem elongation applications should be made before the start of short days. The recommended rate during the early season is 3 ppm. With a one-time application at 3 ppm you can expect an extra inch of growth. During the vegetative growth phase it is important to keep the rate low so the result is not a stretched, leggy tree. Follow up applications at the low rate can be made at 7-10 day intervals at the low rate as needed until the desired height is achieved. The key here is trialing; we can't stress that enough- especially if you have never worked with a Gibberellic acid product before.

Regarding Prestige and splitting - your questions refers to what we call the long-day-leaf-count. This is the total number of leaves that a cultivar produces before it splits. Susceptible cultivars have a much lower count (12-15) while more resistant cultivars have a much higher count. In our studies we have not seen splitting on Prestige until 38-40 nodes are produced.