(74) Winter Greenhouse Performance and Photoperiod Responses of 51 Cultivars of Seed-grown Trailing Petunias

Abstract

Long days are known to hasten flowering of Petunia hybrida. However, breeding of modern standard-type petunia cultivars has reduced this response. With the introduction of new genetics involved in the creation of trailing-type petunias, many cultivars have been observed to have a strong photoperiodic response to the point that it is an issue for late winter or early spring flowering cropping cycles. In order to characterize this photoperiodic response in modern seed-grown trailing-type petunia cultivars, seed of 51 cultivars of trailing petunias (Petunia hybrida) were sown in November in 288 plug trays. When established about 4 weeks later, uniform plants were selected and transplanted individually to 15-cm pots. Plants were exposed to either natural days or a 4-hour night interruption using incandescent light from 2200 to 0200 HR each day until flowering. A minimum night temperature of 17 °C was maintained. Days to first flower from sowing ranged from 72 to 117 days. Generally, the night interruption treatment hastened flowering. However, the degree of hastening ranged from 4 and 5 days for `Ramblin' Burgundy Chrome' and `Ramblin' Lilac Glo', respectively, to 27 and 32 days for `Tidal Wave Cherry' and `Tidal Wave Hot Pink', respectively. Effects of night interruption treatment on plant architecture will also be presented.