August Part 2 – A summary of the preceding months.
February saw the start of the growing season for me when all tubers were
planted and introduced to bottom heat. This was no different to any
other year as far as starting up was concerned other than the fact that
I had decided the previous year to have a “dabble” with pot plants
during 2019. For those who know me well it would have come as no
surprise that I would put my own slant on proceedings and possibly do
something “outside of the box”.
All of my tubers were started in pots (cuttings in 1 litre and adults in
1.5 litre) and it was my intention to grow all of the pot plants
“forward facing/180 degrees” made up of single, double and triple
tubers, with the triple tubers being of two different cultivars. My
reasoning behind restricting the number of tubers to a maximum of three
per pot was simply that I felt that any greater number would only lead
to problems later in the growing season such as the stretching of the
basal stems, stem rot, botrytis and so on. Again, for the same reasons
and when using cutting tubers only one basal stem would be selected from
each tuber to be grown on. I was hoping to use a number of the adult
tubers as three stem plants but it soon became obvious that very few
would fit the bill. Indeed, I only managed to select two for this
purpose and used another one for a double stem pot. For some unknown
reason all of my tubers failed to produce the volume of basal stems that
I would normally have expected and this played a great part in reducing
the availability of plants grown from adult tubers.
The next stage was to pick a number of plants produced from my cutting
tubers. These were selected by size and in pairs or trios trying to
obtain “twins or triplets” so to speak. This was a simple task as the
vast majority of my cutting tubers tend to start at the same time. In
order to maintain a level playing field I also ensured that the chosen
stems were at the same stage of their development as those on the adult
plants.
Second pot. All selected plants were then potted directly into 7.5 litre
pots (the biggest pot that I had) and moved from a peat based compost
into my own soil based compost. The reason for using this size of pot
was simple, you cannon fit two or more 1 litre pots into anything
smaller. Up until this stage the cutting tubers were ahead in the
“easiest to select” category, however, due to the size of pot now being
used the adult tubers levelled things up by winning the “easiest
to grow” category as initially they were the easier to manage in the
larger pot. From there on in there was no significant difference in the
management of the pot plants other than the pots with three stems two
different cultivars. The pots containing a single adult tuber, those
containing two cutting tubers and those containing three cutting tubers
(same cultivar) all grew at the same rate and in the same manner. The
two pots containing three cutting tubers (two cultivars) were a
different story. I knew from the start that to obtain the end result
that I wanted meant that I had to control the manner of growth of the
front plant in each pot. Without doing so, these pots in my opinion for
various reasons would not have been worthy of growing. These two pots
were now ahead in the “degree of difficulty” category, in fact one did
not make the grade and was at a later stage discarded. The remaining pot
stayed in front and ultimately, I only managed to obtain two thirds of
the plant that I had aimed for. As viewed from the front I was pleased
with the left-hand side, the top and the centre of the pot. The
right-hand side was a different matter as the “plant” occupying that
area had twisted during the season and ended up displaying its blooms
more to the top and side as opposed to the top and front (entirely my
fault and lessons learnt). Also, because there were less buds selected
on that “plant” they grew into slightly larger blooms.
In conclusion, and in my opinion, there is no difference in the degree
of cultural proficiency required to grow a pot plant from one tuber than
there is from two or more tubers of the same cultivar. The only
difference in using more than one tuber is that you are able to ensure
that the stems are positioned correctly within the pot and facing in the
required direction. In addition, and more importantly you can produce a
viable tuber (cutting tuber) in year one rather than having to wait
several years before it is of a suitable size to produce a show quality
plant. The obvious drawback when producing a pot plant “forward
facing/180 degrees) from a single tuber be it adult or cutting is that a
far greater number of tubers must be started in order to achieve plants
with the required number and placement of the stems.
Without doubt the pot plant requiring the greatest degree of skill was
the one containing three tubers/two cultivars provided that the grower
wished to obtain the type of effect that I was after. As for the
positioning of the blooms from the top of the pot to the top of the
plant then that was achieved by using three stems (see photograph of pot
plants - back row second and fourth from the left) but I would
anticipate that it could also be achieved when growing two stems by
obtaining side shoots on side shoots thus ensuring that more bud is
formed at the lower levels of the plant. This method of displaying the
blooms is slightly different to the majority of pots being shown today
and I would appreciate any constructive feedback.
For those of you among us who do not show then hopefully this diary has
provided you with an insight into my approach to pot plant growing.
Lastly, I would like to thank Brian Simmons for all his help and
assistance during the production of this diary and for all of the work
that he puts in behind the scene in keeping the NBS out there as having
one of the best horticultural web sites available.
I will end my diary with three photographs. The first one features a new
cultivar to me which I was given last year for propagation purposes. I
have to admit that it looks “mighty fine” and has produced a nice bloom
both in colour and form. The two remaining photographs show the proceeds
of my experiment in pot plant growing shown as a multi pot exhibit
within my greenhouse. To give you an idea of scale the pots used are 12
litre pots.
I have enjoyed growing these pots and it is my intention to grow more in
the future. The number of tubers allowed in a pot is now under
discussion by the NBS and I have no doubt that the outcome will be
published in due course.
Ian Donaldson
