Single Basal Fertilization of MEISTER (Polyolefin-coated Urea) to Cyclamen

Abstract

A capillary watering system can easily control water supply to cyclamen and can save nutrient losses by leaching. Introduction of single basal placement using MEISTER will be useful to innovate the traditional cyclamen culture. The conventional cyclamen culture using Nutricote needs double transplanting and double fertilization. In the new cyclamen culture, cyclamen seedlings (sowed on the plug tray in early January) were transplanted to 15-cm pots fertilized with MEISTER in early June. The selected MEISTER was one belonging to the sigmoid dissolution group, which showed delayed release during summer and the maximum release in early September. The new fertilization supplied N to the plants until the end of growing season. The growth of cyclamen plants on two experimental plots were compared at the flowering stage. Numbers and weight of flowers per pot and bulb weight were greater in the new culture than in the conventional culture though the total volume of leaves was less in the former. Regarding the nutrient absorption, the plants of the new culture showed lower concentrations of N and P in the leaves but higher concentrations of Ca and Mg compared to those in the conventional culture. Such nutrient uptake could contribute to preventing the occurrence of tipburn in the new culture.