Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
country or overseas sea transport unless not allowed due to the presence of soil (like
potplants or beeddinplants) such as bring plants with soil into the EU from other
countries. In many Asian countries, such as the Philippines, they grow and ship
large quantities of orchids to Europe and Japan. Further the availability of cheap
land and labour and resources in India have enabled this country them to be com-
petitive in the production of orchids, Anthurium spp. and carnations (Dadlani 1995 ).
With all plant production processes a production schedule needs to worked out
to be successful. The production schedule needs to fit into the current conditions
of the production region especially if the plant is to be grown outside its home en-
vironment. The production schedule requires a detailed understanding of seasonal
conditions and managing plants to work within those conditions. The same applies
to Europe where one is adapting plants from warm temperate to tropical environ-
ments. Operational options available to meet these environmental restraints include
growing plants in heated houses for part of their life cycle during winter then taken
outdoors during summer. One example is the poinsettia (  Euphorbia pulcherrima ),
a very popular Christmas flower with 7.6 million pots produced in the United States
in 2010, 25.9 million in Germany in 2008 and 6 million in Sweden in 2010 (AIPH/
Union Feurs 2011 ) and one nursery in the United Kingdom that produces 220,000
plants a year (Daily Mail 2011 ). Poinsettias are also much sought after in Europe
because of their red bracts and green foliage with many colours and forms avail-
able on the market (Ecke et al. 2004 ; Barrett et al. 2009 ). To produce these tropical
plants in cool temperate regions relies on a production schedule in a heated glass-
house timed to achieve full display over the Christmas season. To achieve this,
softwood cuttings are taken in spring-summer. These cuttings will root in 10 to 14
days, under ideal conditions, after sticking into a propagation mix. Rooting can be
more uniform with the addition of rooting hormones such as indole-3-butyric acid.
Applying growth regulators such as paclobutrazol, chlormequat or ethephon can
retard elongation and make for more compact plants (Ecke et al. 2004 ). Grow young
plants in a warm (15-20 °C) humid environment. Pinching-back plant material may
also be necessary to maintain a compact form and combined with short days will in-
duce flowering. Plants should not be overwatered and need to be transferred out of
the glasshouse over summer, then returned to the greenhouse until Christmas in the
northern hemisphere or remain outside in the southern hemisphere until Christmas.
High light tends to intensify the colour of the bracts.
Other operational successes have been with Hydrangea paniculata, H. mac-
ropylla, H. quercifolia and H. serrata which originated from the wet tropical re-
gions of Costa Rica and Ecuador and need to be carefully managed within the cool
temperate conditions of Europe, where the severe winters may decline down to
−20 °C. Hydrangea production takes two seasons to produce a flowering plant and
is achieved over two stages. The first stage involves taking semi-hardwood cuttings
in greenhouses from April to May in the northern hemisphere. The plants are potted
on and grown outside from May to October in containers to develop plant structure,
then returned to the greenhouse over winter. The second step occurs in the following
year where plants are grown in a greenhouse to achieve early flowering (March to
May in the northern hemisphere) to set flowers over July to August before tempera-
tures drop in winter (Morel 1999 ) The plants are then ready for sale for Christmas.
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