Nutrition: This week I took the EC readings and PH levels on my ‘Miramar’ mums and ‘Avendia’ geraniums. The EC readings on my mums were extremely high at over 5. The mums appeared healthy despite these readings. The ph for the mums was 6, thus in range of what the ph should be. The geraniums had an average EC reading of 2.16. This is only slightly higher then what the EC readings should be but still in the normal range. The average ph for the geraniums was 6.1 again in the normal range of what the PH levels should be.

Growth: The Tango Red Zonal Geraniums grew 2 cm this week as well as the Sophie Cascade Ivy geraniums. My ‘Miramar’ mums grew 5 cm this week and my Snapdragons grew 2 cm this week as well. All of my plants seem to be growing healthy with no problems.

Cultural Treatments: This week my plants were prayed with Marithon and Banrot to prevent insect infestation and fugal problems.

My geraniums were sprayed with Florel spray which is suppose to branch and delay flowering so the geraniums will have multiple flowers in the end.

My mums were pinched this week at the seventh node to promote branching and then put back into night lighting for another week.

The snapdragons were tied in a string grid to prevent further breaking once my snapdragons become established.

The pot onion chives this week were watered with regular distilled water this week.

The most interesting thing I learned this week was the pinching of the mums to promote branching. It is amazing how removing part of a plant can actually promote a fuller, healthier plant in the end. It will be neat to see how they turn out.

Nutrition: This was the first week I checked the EC/PH readings for my Sophie Ivy Geraniums and Easter lillies. The EC level for the Easter lillies averaged .83. This is a little low to the normal levels yet my Easter lillies appear to be doing okay. The average PH reading for my Easter Lillies was 5.86, which again was a little low. The Ivy Geraniums Ph averaged 5.95 which is within the normal range. However, the EC levels were at 3.25 which was a little high. This could be because the EC machine was a little off as the geraniums appear to be growing fine.

Growth: My ‘Miramar” Chrysanthemums grew 1/2 an inch over the past week. Though this appears to be slow they didnt seem to have any problems and appeared healthy overall.

Cultural treatment: This week we put tomato cages around our snap dragons to aid in thier support as they mature and grown bigger. By doing this, I can make sure that the fragile stems will be less likely to break due to wind or accidental tampering damage.

This week I removed all of the flower buds from both the geraniums and ivy geraniums. By doing this, it promotes more vegitative growth which the plant will put its energy in leading to a healthier plant rather than the plant having to put all its energy into flowering. This will also help my geraniums be more rounded and flower more towards the end.

This week all of my plants were watered with clear distilled water because they were treated just before lab this week.

I beleive the most interesting thing covered this week was the counting of the Easter lilly leaf to determine when it was going to bud. During the demonstration, it was determined that our Easter Lillies were unfolding 1.3 leaves per day when they needed to be unfolding 1.5 leaves per day. In order to get our leaves to unfold by Easter weekend, we can turn up the temperature a little which will help us be right on schedule. I found that it was neat how you can determine when the Easter Lillies will bloom by counting the leaves unfolded and the ones yet to unfold.

Growth:

This was the first week in lab. When I measured the chrysanthemums the ‘Roanoke’ measured 13 cm tall and 25.5 cm wide. The ‘Miramar’ chrysanthemums measured 12 cm tall and 27 cm wide.

There were two differant types of geraniums used, ‘Tango Red’ and ‘Avendia Mosaic Red’. The ‘Tango Red’ geraniums were 13.5 cm tall and 19 cm wide. The ‘Avendia Mosaic Red’ geraniums measured 14 cm tall and 18 cm wide.

The next crop used was the Easter Lilly. When measured it was 15 cm tall and 21.5 cm wide.

The last crop used this week was the Pot ivy geranium. When measured is stood 14 cm tall and 29 cm wide.

Cultural Treatments: The Pot zonal geraniums, Pot ivy geraniums, and Easter Lillies were all spaced on 12-inch centers on my bench. The chrysanthemums required that they have night interuption lighting from 10pm-2am st stay vegitative and thus were placed on a black cloth bench.

The Pot mums were planted in a Promix Bx media and all cuttings were observed to make sure they were the same height before planting. The cuttings were placed at an angle evenly spaced around the pot. The chrysanthemums were watered in with 300 ppm 20-10-20 and later was increased to 400 ppm 20-10-20.

The Pot zonal geraniums were also planted in a ProMix BX media. I removed all flower buds so they would grow a better shape. The Pot zonal geraniums were watered in with 200 ppm 15-16-17.

The ivy geraniums were made sure to all be of the same height before they were planted as well. I placed an insert in the bottom of the pot before adding media so that the plant could hold and be properly watered. The ivy geraniums were watered in with 200 ppm 15-16-17.

The Easter lillies were watered in with a 15-0-15 solution.

The most interesting thing I learned this week was how to properly fertilize all of the crops. Before this lab, I did not understand completely how differant plants needed to be fertigated with differant levels of fertilizer or that fertilizer could be added to the water to fertigate the crops. I am interested in how well my plants will be flowering over the next month.

My name is Jamie Hicks and I am a Senior Horticulture- Landscape Design major from Baytown, Texas. I love all outdoor activities but mostly surfing, jet skiing, and snow boarding. Once I graduate in May, I plan to work for a high end residential landscape design company designing beautiful, creative landscapes for my clients. I plan to do this for a while and eventually my ultimate goal is to design landscapes for hotels, resorts, and spas all over the nation. Most importantly, I am one of the proudest members of the class of 2008. Whoop!