THE RESPONSE OF SEEDLING GERANIUMS TO SELECTED FERTILITY LEVELS
Subject:
Pennsylvania Flower Growers #204
Abstract:
Introduction In the past few years there has been a great deal of interest in the production of geraniums from seed. Much of this interest has been aroused by the introduction of the "Nittany Lion Red" geranium by the Plant Breeding section of the Department of Horticulture at The Pennsylvania State University. This in bred, and others which are under development, has provided the researcher with plants which are genetically uniform and nearly identical groups of plants with which to work. This is very important in evaluating the results of any tests such as fertility levels, water applications, soil mixtures, and other environmental studies. The following experiment was formulated be cause of the interest in growing inbred geraniums from seed and in automating greenhouse production. Objectives The objectives in this experiment were to determine the water and fertility levels necessary to produce a crop of geraniums from seed. This experiment also was used to delineate the direction of future experiments. To provide automated production, a slow release coated fertilizer was used with two watering schedules superimposed on several fertility levels. With these two types of treatments, a crop of geran iums theoretically could be grown in a media which contained sufficient nutrients to supply the plant for an entire crop cycle, and once placed on the bench with the watering system installed would not have to be touched until the time of sale
Keywords: Fresh weight Environmental Production of geraniums Plant Breeding Procedure
Libraries: Floriculture