I would like to have the students work with poisettias this year and ultimately sell them for Xmas. Is it too late for this year? Any help would be appreciated. thank-you, phil knier

Philip,
As a former ag teacher myself, poinsettia production is an excellent teaching tool and a positive experience for the students.

It is too late to start your own plants from rooted cuttings. You may try to find some prefinished plants from a local grower and that would be almost as good as starting them yourself.

Good luck and let us on the Ecke site know how you are doing.

Hi Phillip -

We appreciate your interest and always like to hear when instructors are using a poinsettia crop as teaching tool.

We are getting to a point where rooted cuttings on a normal schedule probably aren’t possible to make a decent size plant or to give the students a realistic crop to work with.

There are some options to consider. There would probably still be time to use rooted cuttings in a 4" container and then light the crop to delay initiation. You could also think about growing a straight up crop that isn't pinched - again 4" would probably be best at this point but if you don't pinch the crop and transplant ASAP you wouldn't have to light with this option.

And as Tim mentioned buying in prefinished material is always an option. Please call Rebecca Siemonsma at 760-944-4060 if you would like to discuss these options further - maybe we can find something that will still work for you.

Thanks!