you can go the monsanto route and spray grow inhibitors.

I've found foliar sprays containing Maxicrop and ThermX yucca extract work well, especially on Pelargoniums and herbs.

try googling 'grow inhibitor'

best of luck
drew

I was really hoping to avoid that route. We really only have the issue on a few cultivars. That's the problem with being a small grower. Too many varieties in one house.

what genus are we talking about here?
raising light levels, organic cytokinins, more air movement (ie air knocking them around a lil), and selective pinching truly make a huge difference.

I could never afford commercial growth inhibitors for the same reason as you, small time, large var. Plus with a 4year old barefoot lil girl running around, I'm pretty much organic in my growing anyway.
check peaceful valley farm supply for the thermX and maxicrop, and get to pinching!!!

Fans work, it is amazing what a couple of occilating fans blowing across the bench will do, shorter, sturdier and tougher, just from thinking they are growing on a windy hill...

once again, what kinda plants are you growing?

dp

Sorry there MR roots, it was the weekend and we were swamped. Had no time for the web.... I sent you and email.

As for fans ect, our houses are of professional grade, the house in question is 30x60, with all the bells and whistles. Except pad cooling (which I think is were the problem lies)

We're trying to maximize bench space in order to grow as much as possible in the space we have. Grow on temps have to be met. Hence the cooling option and maintaining the ideal grow on temp per variety which of course is not the same for each plant. We can have 60 differing plants in on house. So we can never hit the optimal grow on temp for every plant but we need to try to get to the happy medium.

Pinching does not work on all species (simply from the nature in which the plant grows) And we propegated 30,000 plants, from seed last season, looking at 40k next year (Now thatÂs a lot of pinching). How many Columbines can be placed on a 4x8 table with out over crowding. If you can keep the internode stretch to a minimum you can have more plants per table.

From my research here are the conditions the result in stretching.
Hot Days / Cold Nights
Too much Water
Plants too close together

Our irrigation is automatic so I can control that well although we can have 60 varieties in one house and they all require differing amounts of water which we can control somewhat by the zone the plant is in.
Hot Days / Cold night and controlling grow on temp. Again I believe this is our main issue. So installing pad system for cooling may be our best bet. We do grow 1st year flowering perennials from November on to spring. Which results in hot days and cold nights. Add the pad and turn up the temp at night to maintain and even grow on temp?

Plants too close. Again if we can control stretching then we can increase volume.

So I was just curious if anyone had any research material I could get my hands on to continue my education in this area. On a personal note it bugs the crap out of me to see a nice plant stretch.

with Pelargoniums, I could often keep them from streatching (and adjust flowering times) by keeping it warmer at night than during the day.

I also may have 12,000 4inch pots in one greenhouse. Once spring hits and we are frost free, half of them will go to be re-potted or moved into outdoor growing areas. This helps free up some space.

and one more way to get more free space (a grower told me this once when I just started out, and I hated this advice), Sell your plants :-) that way there is plenty more room.

Hehe we do sell quite a bit but I seem to be in love with the auto irrigation... I guess I could (Shsss don't let the wife her me) invest in outside drip irrigation.

Does my theory at least sound correct?

Any info on reduction of internode stretching will be found under the heading of growth regulation. Personally, with 30K plants, looking at 40K, when you start to complain about doing it by hand, it may very well be time to consider other methods.

uhm, by the way, if memory serves me right, most commercial growth regulators are plant hormones...forget that, I can understand why you wouldn't want to be spraying those around...enough of that already...

Years ago, when I was in college, I heard a research presentation done by a student group studying the effects of motion in reducing plant growth as an alternative to growth regulators. What they did was rig up a flexible plastic paddle hung between two bicycle tires (on rims), as wide as the bench was and ran it back and forth for half an hour twice a day. Controls were an untreated group and a group sprayed with Florel, I can't remember what the plants were.

Results were pretty favorable for the mechanical regulation.

Not sure if this helps or muddies the water.

It helps and concurs with my thoughts. We do have plenty of air circulation and have seen major improvements this year. I think my solution lies in a couple of methods.
One: Bring up the night temp and bring down the day temp. Maintain a more constant temp. Easier said then done.

Two: As Mr. Roots said get half the plant out of the house as soon as possible. Allowing for more bench space.

Did I sound like I was complaining? Surely didn't mean to come across that way. I love the work.

By the way if you google growth regulators mostly what you get is for hair.
I didnÂt know too much hair on ones head was such a problem!

i hate to mention something again....
Yucca Extract. It contains large amounts of cytokinins. Alot of the same stuff used in tissue culture to make plant tissue reproduce and branch.

peaceful valley farm supply stocks it under the title "ThermX Yucca Extract"
pricey, but not compared to B9 or Bonzai. Florel is fairly cheap and is not a terribly nasty chemical, but it does have various effects on different plants.

Mylu, I think you are going to have to view this as a situation that does not have one solution, but many which need to be used in conjunction.

dp