Fruit Cracking in Tomato

dom’ reached anthesis most rapidly, while plants of ‘Mathilde Gütges’ and ‘Merritt’s Supreme’ were the slowest to f-lower. Table 2 represents days to anthesis and not days to salable color. In general, plants were salable, based on sepal color, ≈10 days before anthesis, so subtracting 10 days from data in Table 2 gives forcing times (from start to sale) for these cultivars when a 62F (17C) minimum night temperature is maintained under our growing conditions, Our experiences suggest that cultivars of hydrangea respond differently to a given PGR treatment, so growers may have to treat every cultivar differently to achieve the same height and flower size upon forcing. Forcing time also varies significantly among cultivars. Based on rates tested, multiple applications of daminozide and uniconazole appear to be the best height control method during the summer growing season. The need for height control during forcing may partially depend on how plants were treated the previous summer. If such information can be made available to forcers, height control programs during forcing may be able to be adjusted appropriately. Perhaps the most interesting data of this study are the large differences among cultivars in final plant height and inflorescence diameter. Forcers may want to evaluate alternative cultivars. A good example is ‘Red Star’, which has a very large inflorescence but does not have a tall growth habit, as do ‘Enziandom’ and ‘Rose Supreme’. There are >100 hydrangea cultivars available, but information on crop timing, growth habit, and general culture is lacking for the majority of them. Further evaluation of less popular cultivars is needed.