Most potted plants produced today are chemically growth regulated in order to reach the desired shape for a commercial product. The intense use of chemical growth retardants in horticulture and within agriculture and the restrictions introduced in recent years on the use of chemical growth regulation reflects a need for developing new methods for efficient growth regulation without any environmental impact. Experiments with genetically and ecologically widely differing plant species have shown that reducing P availability by 10-20 fold, using a P buffer technique, is a new and promising method for growth regulation of ornamental plants.
Figure 1. Reduced P availability as a method to growth regulate Aster novi belgii (left). Plants grown with standard high P (right) needed growth regulation.
Figure 2. Growing Pansy with low P throughout the production time resulted in a too strong growth regulation (left). In the dynamic P treatment (middle) the same low P buffer as in 'low P' treatment was used. However, adding 3 times higher P with the irrigation water during propagation (middle) resulted in a sufficient growth regulation and high quality plants.
If you have any questions, please contact:
Danish Institute of Agricultural Science
Kirstinebjergvej 10
DK - 5792 Aarslev
Dr. Conny Wang Hansen
Phone: +45 (0) 63 904-212
Fax: +45 (0) 63 904-390
