ISHS Acta Horticulturae 813: VI International Symposium on New Floricultural Crops
TOWARDS NOVEL AUTUMN CROPS |
| Author: | C. Ottosen |
| Keywords: | ornamentals, user interaction, annuals, flowering, patio plants |
| Abstract:
The autumn is bursting with natural flowers in the gardens, but there is a limited number of species available for commercial production of both indoor or patio plants. Bushes or small trees in containers often cover this niche being mainly produced as hardy nursery stock, while the number of annual and perennial species is limited. Besides the year round crops, there are surprisingly few species available for the autumn market for production in greenhouses. The aim of the project was to select and develop this potentially large niche for ornamental potted plants to be sold between the end of July and mid September. This will target both home coming holidaymakers, which might wish to revive their patio plants for the autumn and the many owners of patios and conservatories, which want to see something new with the changing seasons. The focus was on plant material, which could be propagation initiated around Mothers Day, under normal greenhouse climate with as little chemical growth regulation as possible and therefore, making the production as sus-tainable as possible. The project was based on a stepwise development work, where a phase 1 was based on screening of plant material collected from nurseries, private collectors and seed companies mainly from Europe. A total of 120 species and culti-vars were collected, which was further propagated and subjected to an early screen-ing by growers, before a systematic propagation and management of growing condi-tions was made. A production plan was set up for 30-40 species, which was evaluated by growers, wholesale and sales to ensure that the species in question suiting current trends and production systems. The second screening phase aimed at pinpointing a realistic production niche for especially an array of Agastache, Salvia and other herb like species, where the production methods in greenhouse was developed and compared to partial out door production. The systematic screening technique can act as en open source method for single growers, groups of growers or compa-nies to target specific production niches. | |
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