Non-Chemical Growth Control in Protected Pot Plants

This project will further develop the technologies and approaches to enable deficit irrigation (DI) work to be scaled-up to deliver non-chemical growth control to 40,000+ poinsettia plants. Additional experiments will also provide unequivocal evidence of the benefits of precision irrigation (PI) and DI for height control, quality at dispatch and shelf-life potential of key pot and bedding species. Working with industry partners, the project will develop tools, approaches and technologies to deliver PI and DI in a range of production systems currently used by small-, medium- and large-scale protected pot and bedding growers.

• To scale-up the precision and deficit irrigation treatments to deliver non-chemical growth control to 40,000+ poinsettia at Neame Lea
• To carry out statistically robust experiments on a commercial nursery to quantify the effects of deficit irrigation on poinsettia growth, quality and shelf-life potential
• To develop precision and deficit irrigation treatments for the non-chemical growth control of pot bedding crops
• To develop technologies, tools and approaches to deliver Precision Irrigation in different growing systems (e.g. capillary matting)
• To establish criteria to objectively assess quality at dispatch, after distribution and during shelf-life for a range of poinsettia and pot bedding varieties
• To assemble a Project Exploitation Sub Group (PESG) to plan and deliver exploitation activities, and to identify opportunities for transfer of knowledge expertise and technologies between AHDB sectors