This may get a little long-winded but please bear with me--our greenhouse needs your HELP. We transplanted rooted poinsettia cuttings into 1801 trays about the first of April and applied a preventative fungicide drench a week or so later. All was good. A few weeks later plants were beautiful and were pinched. Now the problems begin. The new growth on most of the plants is very tightly curled and deformed. It is not variety specific. The plants nearest the door to the greenhouse are not affected nearly as much...hence my thought that "bad air" is the culprit. This is by far not my area of expertise, I am mostly involved in the production end of the business, but anyone can walk in that particular greenhouse and see that there is a BIG problem. A short backstory of this particular greenhouse: It is a small (maybe 40X120, poly) greenhouse heated with a natural-gas boiler and is generally used for propagation. Early last fall we were behind on our 6" program and direct-stuck cuttings in there. They started out OK, then they began to twist and deform. The entire crop was pitched and it was blamed on "someone" spraying our appling "something" that they shouldn't have and that was that. We then lost a crop of primrose and a crop of kalanchoes, they just didn't do anything. Blamed on bad growing. Then 2 crops of cyclamen did the same thing. All new growth was deformed. Most of them were pitched and the ones that were kept came out of it somewhat after a very long time (and being moved to another greenhouse). No cause was determined. The greenhouse was shut down for the winter and reopened in the very early spring. Plug trays of annuals did just fine in there and showed no sign of any problems. We have been rooting garden mums, pot mums and kalanchoes in there for the past month or so and there doesn't seem to be a problem with any of these crops. The owner seems to have no clue as to what is happening and is burying his head in the sand when it comes to this issue. My opinion is that these need to come out of there now to avoid further disaster. These are all of our stock plants, about 2000, and unless they come out of this quickly, there won't be many cuttings. Just a few more things. This greenhouse has a unique smell. Not a stinky smelly but kind of tangy one. Since this area is used mostly for prop this time of year there isn't a lot of air movement. Insects are not a problem and no sprays have been used on the points. They get a weekly feeding of 250 ppm 20-10-20. I hope that someone can give me some information to at least start with. As I said...growing is not my role in the business, but it is heartbreaking to see this crop continually get worse and no one is doing anything about it. Thaks for listening to what has turned out to be a very long story and any help will certainly be appreciated. Deb
Air pollution can cause problems on a poinsettia crop (and others) so we would suggest having the heaters serviced to make sure they are firing properly. Herbicides would also be something to think about. It would not be something that was applied directly to the crop but maybe something that was used in the greenhouse months prior. Certain herbicides can volatize for a very long time when greenhouse conditions are right. When you mention the fact that the greenhouse has a different smell, it makes us think you need to go back and look at any herbicides that have been used in or around the greenhouse since you first started having problems. Hope this helps.......
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Posts: 1856 | Location: Encinitas, CA USA | Registered: Thu March 20 2003
Deb, Could you give some more information as to what pH range you keep your media and what form(if any) of water acidification you might use to compensate for water alkalinity? I've seen some crops over the years that have had some really curled and deformed newer leaves, sometimes due to an improper pH causing little to no calcium uptake and another time due to phosphoric acid being used in a mist system. Michael Pawelek Pecan Hill Nursery
