‘Tis the season! Another year of poinsettias has arrived and with it, thoughts of how to recoup more revenue on this crop that has been commoditized. One poinsettia crop that is not widely grown is the standard, single or straight-up form. These names are all synonymous for the same product — one utilizing multiple, unpinched cuttings instead of fewer or a single pinched cutting(s). While poinsettias finished from pinched cuttings are now the most common and widely grown form, poinsettias were originally grown using this multiple unpinched style.

There are several reasons why these unpinched plants are popular among both producers and consumers. First and foremost, the finished plant quality is different from pinched varieties in a few different ways. The final bract size for the unpinched plants are generally larger than those from pinched plants, and blooms also have more cyathia. If side branches are allowed to develop on unpinched cuttings, this can also result in a fuller plant, though these are removed by some producers. For these reasons, the straight-up poinsettias are often referred to as “florist quality,” for premium appearance.

In addition to plant appearance, there are also advantages aside from finished plant quality. For producers, straight-up plants have a short production time compared to the pinched forms, since the time under non-inductive long days is shorter. For example, a 6-inch container of three or four unpinched cuttings requires two to three weeks less than pinched than other varieties. The exact amount of time saved varies with container size, geographic location and cultivar vigor. However, all things equal, an unpinched poinsettia will require less bench time than the same size container finished with pinching.

For pinched poinsettias, working among the crop and handling them can result in unwanted stem breakage. When branches break off pinched plants, it not only creates a wound that can serve as an entry point for diseases and diminish plant vigor — losing branches can also render plants unsaleable. If lower branches break, plants may still be saleable, but sometimes the gaps created in canopies are too unappealing and plants are then unmarketable. With unpinched poinsettia forms, reducing breakage means less shrink and loss.

The cost for propagative material — whether unrooted or rooted cuttings — increases for unpinched poinsettias compared to the pinched form. For 6- to 6.5-inch, 7- to 7.5-inch, 8- to 8.5-inch and 10-inch containers, you will use 3-4, 4-5, 5-7, or 7-10 cuttings per container, respectively. While this does increase production costs, it doesn’t make these plants less profitable; in fact, these unpinched plants can improve your bottom line.

While the factors affecting profitability will vary with each firm, unpinched poinsettias can be a more profitable crop than pinched based on several reasons. As mentioned earlier, unpinched plants have a shorter production time, requiring less bench space. Additionally, the shorter production time will save labor, as will not having to pinch and remove leaves. When planting unpinched containers, selecting similar-sized cuttings can also simplify and reduce plant growth regulator applications, further reducing input costs. The reduced shrinkage from plants lost to stem breakage also help the bottom line. Finally, the high quality of unpinched plants with large, showy bracts can command a higher price at the wholesale and retail levels.

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Tissue culture is a primary propagation engine for new infusions of disease-free germplasm. Though commonplace for many species, a frequent challenge for tissue culture plants remains achieving high post-acclimatization (or hardening) survival and vigorous growth. While each tissue culture method used (micropropagation, organogenesis, embryogenesis or embryo rescue) has its quirks, the need is the same once removed from jar or tub and transplanted: Keep them alive and get the root and shoot growing rapidly.

The plant’s in vitro existence in the lab is physiologically a fat and lazy one if protocols are reasonably optimized. A tissue culture vessel is a closed, protective cocoon. It creates a near-saturated humidified environment (>95% RH), without air movement, and where light levels are generally moderate and controlled. Lastly, nutrients and water are freely provided for plant uptake via a semi-solid medium.

The ex vitro hardening process requires plants to adjust to much wider and more rapid swings in environmental conditions. This must be carefully managed by greenhouse and nursery growers in a stepwise manner. While vigorous species can manage this process with seeming ease, other species and sometimes specific cultivars can be much more challenged and require slower and/or longer periods of adjustment.

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Plant quality

The natural tendency when problems arise is to focus on the acclimatization environment. Is it too dry, too wet, too bright, too warm or too cold? Most often the plant quality coming from the lab largely determines the outcome well before the plants are ever exposed to the external environment.

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Quality at the lab

Development of cultural methods for a new cultivar or species from tissue culture often poses the eternal “chicken or egg” question. When early greenhouse outcomes are poor, “is it the greenhouse or the lab’s fault”?

The best method of resolution from the seemingly circular discussion is for the lab and greenhouse to collaborate. A useful first question can be, “What is the range in morphology that is currently coming to the greenhouse/acclimatization space?” If it is highly variable or not tracked, this suggests an opportunity for all involved to learn and to test. This can be done by planting plants with similar morphology and observing the result under current acclimatization conditions. If a morphotype is failing at a high frequency, and for obvious reasons (lack of general size, lack of foliage, lack of roots, hyperhydricity, contamination), then lab protocols need to improve and/or transplant specifications need to be made more stringent. Often the short-term answer (albeit painful) is to not ship or transplant low-quality material. While this is obvious for plant survival, it can also substantively impact final deliverable yield due to insufficient growth. This downstream loss can be very significant and costly. Understanding the full downstream cost implications of poor tissue culture stock often justify significant investments in process and infrastructure in the lab and acclimatization stages.

“Green plant with roots” is not a specification unless most everything transplanted survives and grows well.

Transplant selection at the greenhouse

“Green plant with roots” is not a specification unless most everything transplanted survives and grows well. In most cases, additional objective criteria are required: root length, stem length, leaf number, longest leaf length, etc. Note that there are at least two aspects of “the shoot”: the stem and the foliage. Length and caliper of the stem is critical during transplant, and is the conduit for water, sugar and nutrition transport. The foliage likewise can be broken down into the number of leaves, leaf size and net foliar surface area. The sum of plant foliar surface area largely determines the growth rate potential in well-rooted situations. Leaf and shoot characteristics tend to be broadly correlated, but not always, and particularly coming from artificial environments.

While the presence of a root is generally positive, there are some important caveats. Allowing roots to extend much past soil matrix depth can result in decline on the root-to-shoot ratio that can cause physiological stress if root trimming is severe.

Secondly, longer roots that are more vascularized (brittle) at their base are more prone to damage and challenging to transplant. For these reasons, planning for expected rooting duration in the lab schedule is very important, but should also not be set in stone. The lab should always visually verify a batch has attained transplant specifications before it is transferred to acclimatization. Finally, timely inspection and real-time feedback by greenhouse staff provides a final opportunity to catch issues for correction in the next production batch.

The ex vitro hardening process must be carefully managed by growers in a stepwise manner.

Despite best efforts, sometimes long roots just cannot be avoided. Root growth in some species or cultivars are just strongly favored over shoots in vitro. In this case other factors such as transplant media volume, soil media components and transplant method may need to be altered. This will be further discussed in the next installment of the series.

A plant is ultimately the sum of its parts, and because of this transplant decisions are made on plants, not individual plant parts. Use of large photo examples is a critical quality control tool for aiding transplanter decision-making. Photographs should have a sense of scale and display “ideal,” “minimally acceptable” and “clearly unacceptable” plants. Several examples of each category should be present. During routine discussion with staff, these pictures can be a very useful tool to help guide discussions and provide a common frame of reference and institutional memory of standards.

Frequent and well-communicated training and quality control feedback along the transplant line cannot be overemphasized. While it is obvious to provide feedback to new workers, experienced staff and management also benefit. Drift in acceptable quality can occur very slowly as lots from the lab can evolve over weeks and months without anyone taking notice until plant outcomes begin to mysteriously change. Discussion about quality supports both workers and management balance the competing goals of achieving high transplant rate versus maintaining transplant quality. In the final analysis, the combination of clear specifications, training and feedback will greatly improve the odds of greenhouse benches being filled with uniform, high-vigor trays that come from tissue culture origin.

The author is a technical sales advisor for Quick Plug.

Julie Iferd has been a “tree hugger and nature lover” for as long as she can remember. After growing up on a dairy farm in South Dakota, she studied natural resource management at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, with plans to work in park service. But as soon as she took a horticulture class, she found her true passion for plants inside the greenhouse — and promptly changed her major.

“I just enjoy growing flowers. It suited me better than the other classes I was taking,” says Iferd, who finished her horticulture degree at the University of Minnesota in 2002, while working for a local garden center.

Now, instead of hugging trees, Iferd concentrates on growing flowers. She oversees the production of annuals, perennials, mums and poinsettias at Catoctin Mountain Growers in Keymar, Maryland, which serves customers like Walmart, Sam’s Club and several grocery chains and landscapers.

“I enjoy growing large quantities of great-looking product,” says Iferd, who began working as a section grower at Catoctin right after college and advanced to the role of head grower a few years later. “When I can look over acres of finished material that looks fantastic, it makes me happy and proud. It’s wonderful to work in this industry with genuinely good people who share a passion for plants.”

Continuing education

As head grower at Catoctin Mountain Growers, Iferd manages 17 acres under glass and 15 acres of outdoor production. Her growing team consists of four section growers, with the support of summer interns and assistance from the production staff. One of Iferd’s priorities is maintaining open lines of communication with the entire team to keep them all focused on plant health.

At the beginning of the week, Iferd walks the entire crop with her section growers to evaluate their priorities for the week. Any time a new crop enters a grower’s section, Iferd goes over the plant’s basic requirements, watering preferences and potential pitfalls like certain pests or diseases to watch out for. She advises them on how to monitor and identify specific issues throughout the year, and she takes careful notes of any issues they report. Since some of her growers have been at Catoctin Mountain Growers for 15 years, they bring a lot of experience and knowledge to each growing season, which benefits the overall operation.

Besides maintaining an ongoing dialogue with growers about the issues they’re seeing day to day, Iferd also encourages continuing education. When possible, she sends growers to industry events like Cultivate, MANTS and Chesapeake Green, the Maryland Nursery Landscape and Greenhouse Association’s annual symposium. Several breeders and suppliers also offer training to keep her team on the leading edge.

“It’s important to keep them growing and passionate about what they do,” Iferd says.

Optimizing efficiency

Finding labor is an increasing challenge at many greenhouses, including Catoctin Mountain Growers. So Iferd and her team work to optimize efficiencies by streamlining each step of the production process.

“Profit margins are always shrinking because costs are always rising,” Iferd says. “So we focus on producing quality crops with a focus on reducing costs. We look at our production methods and see how those can be improved to save money, time and labor.”

It starts with “picking good genetics that can save time by growing quickly or have the right growth habit to reduce plant growth regulators,” says Iferd, who helps select and trial new plant varieties. “The right genetics can save labor by not needing to be pinched, or they can have disease resistance, which saves money on chemicals.”

Profit margins are always shrinking because costs are always rising,” Iferd says. “So we focus on producing quality crops with a focus on reducing costs.”

One notable labor-saving decision at Catoctin Mountain Growers has been sticking unrooted cuttings directly into final containers, which eliminates the step of transplanting liners.

“When you direct stick, it takes a lot more space because the final container is much larger than the plug trays,” Iferd says. “Because it takes up so much space, all of the growers get a hand in propagating, as opposed to having one person propagating all the liners. This makes all of our growers better propagators and significantly reduces our hours by saving labor through the spring. It improves plant quality as well, and generally reduces overall production time.”

With a creative approach to streamlining the growing operation, combined with continuous training and education initiatives, Iferd amplifies her team’s abilities to produce plant material that meets the company’s high standards.

The author is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to Greenhouse Management magazine.

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Being on television or even appearing in a YouTube video can be intimidating. The thought of hundreds, thousands or even millions (should your video go viral) of people watching you cancause some to struggle to be themselves when the lights and cameras go on. But appearing in television segments can help attract more people to buy plants, therefore supporting the entire green industry supply chain. Consider tag-teaming television appearances with your independent garden center or landscape contractor customers.

How can someone with no previous experience on camera prepare themselves to take the next step in promoting their knowledge? Or if you have experience, how can you take it to the next level? Ryan McEnaney, who regularly appears in local TV segments in the Twin Cities as Bailey’s public relations and communications specialist, shares his key tips you can use when preparing for an on-camera segment.

1. Know your audience

“Do you know who watches the show on which you’ll be appearing? Is it a Saturday morning news program or a regional lifestyle show? Knowing who’s digesting the information will help you determine what to talk about with the hosts,” McEnaney says.

McEnaney suggests a Saturday morning news show to showcase tactical tips and tricks segments such as when to prune, top five new plants for spring, choosing the right plants for a shaded area, among others.

An afternoon lifestyle show would be a great chance to showcase how-to projects like building a hydrangea wreath, cutting flowers from the garden for a beautiful arrangement or drying flowers for the fall/winter tablescape, McEnaney says.

2. Rely on customers and social media for topics

When considering what topics to use for your segment, it may be as simple as looking at what your customers are saying or sharing on social media. McEnaney says that when he comes up with topics for TV or video for the web, he reviews the company’s Facebook page and email inbox, as well as comments on social media posts.

“When you’re trying to come up with topics, don’t stress out over it,” McEnaney says. “Go with what people are already asking you. If you’re seeing a trend in customer questions in person or online, start there.

“If you’ve had five people asking on Facebook about how to prune a hydrangea, then it’s a relevant topic that’s worth pitching to a TV producer. When you’re pitching, be sure to tell them that it’s a question you get over and over in your business; that’ll help lock in your pitch and get it picked up.”

Taking these steps can make for great TV that helps connect with your audience. McEnaney says if you’re doing that, you’ll get asked to come back.

3. Be prepared and know your material

Once you land your segment, your preparation will be the key to your success.

“While you’ll work with the producers to outline the segment, the host(s) will ask you questions off the cuff,” McEnaney says. “Since you’ll likely be involved in topic selection for each segment, be sure you choose material that you’re comfortable with and that you can react to on your feet.”

By preparing accordingly and answering each question asked accurately, the TV segment showcases your expertise on the topic and, in turn, drives business to your company, he says.

4. Look your best

Just as you prepare your topic for your TV segment, you must also prepare your personal appearance. McEnaney says that women and men shouldn’t be afraid of a little powder on their face.

“The studio lights add shine, so be sure to put on a little powder beforehand so you look your very best,” McEnaney says. “Remember that you’re not only representing yourself, but your company, and this will make you look professional and put together.”

McEnaney suggests either a translucent powder (that you can get cheaply at almost any drugstore), or if you’re going to be a regular on TV, invest in mattifying primer.

5. Be yourself

When you walk into the studio, don’t forget who you are. McEnaney says to not get intimidated by local TV celebrities, cameras or the lights.

“You’re the expert, so be confident and excited to share whatever topic you’re discussing,” McEnaney says. “If you’re feeling nervous, ask a friend or colleague to have a high-level conversation about your topic the day before. Don’t make it an interview, but just a normal conversation. It’ll help you put together your talking points in concise sound bites.”

Another option is to write out your top three to five points, but not to memorize them.

“You want to be prepared, but not scripted,” McEnaney says. “Even though it’s on TV, these segments are really just conversations between yourself and the host or other guests.”