According to the Ultra Solutions Guide, in order to program a new guinea to finish in 12 weeks, you need to avg 75 degrees, grow in a 50 cell tray for 7 weeks, then finish in any size container for 5 weeks. According to the 2008 Flower Fields Program Guide/Container programing guide we can finish a 4" New Guinea in 8 to 10 weeks and a 10" Basket New Guinea in 12 to 14 weeks with an average temperature of 68 to 72 degrees. My questions is: If I finish these Ultra New Guines in a 5" pot(coming from a 72 cell tray, 4 weeks) with an Avg temp of 70 degrees, How many weeks to finish? Also, If I finish these Ultra New Guines in a 10" Basket(coming from a 72 cell tray, 4 weeks) with an Avg temp of 70 degrees, How many weeks to finish?
The finishing times in the programming guide are an average of all the New Guineas we offer. When you look at all the NGIs we offer, there is a broad range of response times so the overall finishing time is longer than what you will see with the Ultras. The finishing times listed are also from rooted material so you should also add 4 weeks to the schedule for time in propagation.
The Ultras have all been scientifically proven to finish uniformly and finish in 12 weeks from an unrooted cutting when the temperature regime is followed. At cooler temperatures time in production will be longer but the Ultra varieties will still all flower uniformly.
Know to address your scheduling question....
Using our NGI bud meter we know that for every degree below 75F average daily temperature flowering will be delayed by two days. With that information at 70F average daily temperature finishing will be delayed by 10 days so you should add 10-14 days to your schedule for a finish of 14 weeks (10 weeks for rooted material) from an unrooted cutting for both container sizes. Finishing times are the same in 5" and 10" containers because you would be using more plants per pot in the 10" container.
Ultras take the guess work out of finishing times and allow the grower to "bench run" their crop. We have also chosen varieties to cover every color class and grouped them according to vigor.
Please let us know if this doesn't answer your questions or you need anything else. Thanks!
