Had a customer comment that he would have liked to see more foliage towards the base of his finished Prestige plants...there could be several factors involved: late spacing, hard cuttings, etc. Do you have any comments specific to Prestige?

Hi John -

You are right; there are all lot of factors that could contribute to loss of foliage at the base of the plant, and not just specific to Prestige.

Because of the lengthy crop time on a poinsettia crop it isn't unusual for the oldest leaves to abscise but this can be exaggerated by certain stresses such as moisture stress, nutrient stress, high soluble salts, or disease. Close spacing also reduces the amount of light the leaves in the lower canopy receive, they aren't able to photosynthesize, the leaves yellow, and fall. This is common on larger container sizes or if there too many branches for the plant to support and the canopy is very dense.

Poor branching is another issue that could reduce the amount of foliage at the base of the plant. There are several factors that contribute to poor branching, again not specific to Prestige. Factors that can contribute to poor branching could be no growth regulating, poor pinching techniques (too high), tight spacing, low light in the vegetative growth phase, environmental stresses at the time of pinch (high heat, low relative humidity, high light), or hard cuttings. Poor branching can be a problem on any poinsettia variety and it hasn't been our experience that Prestige is any more sensitive to the factors or stresses that could contribute.

Hope this is helpful. Please let your customer know if they have any further concerns or questions to be sure to let us know. They can post questions here on the bulletin board or call our tech help line at 760-944-4060. Thanks!