Pinching of Lagerstroemia for Use as a Potted Florist Crop

Abstract

Lagerstroemia has potential for development as a potted florist crop for early spring sales. The number and timing of pinching or number of liners per container were examined as a means of developing a more compact plant that is in proportion to the container. On 20 July 1996, either one or three rooted liners of Lagerstroemia `Victor' or `Zuni' were planted into 1500-ml (15 cm in diameter) containers in a pine bark: peat moss (3:1 v/v) substrate amended with 6 kg·m–3 MicroMax plus (Scotts Company, Inc., Marysville, Ohio). The plants were topdressed with 10 g SierraBlen 17–6–12 (Scotts Company, Inc., Marysville, Ohio) slow-release fertilizer. The liners received 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 pinches and were pinched in a complete factorial 0, 2, 4, and 6 weeks after potting. There were 32 pinching treatments with 5 replications. The plants were grown outside until 30 Sept. 1996, when they were moved into a greenhouse. Plant height, width, and a visual rating were collected 13 Nov. 1996. There was no significant difference in plant size or visual rating of `Victor' regardless of the number or timing of pinches or of the number of liners per pot. `Zuni' had significantly the best visual ratings and largest size when grown with three liners but the timing and number of pinches had no significant effect. `Victor' is a dwarf cultivar growing to only 1 m in the landscape while `Zuni' is a semi-dwarf, growing to 2.7 m.