GBG Note No. 9

The tuberous rooted begonia (Begonia x tuberhybrida) is propagated by tubers or seed and sold as a bedding plant, hanging basket or potted plant. The Nonstop series was introduced during the 1970s by Benary Seeds of Germany as the first cultivars of tuberous begonia propagated by seeds. In addition to the Nonstop series, many other seed propagated cultivars are available and produced commercially today. The group of seed propagated tuberous begonias is still however, commonly referred to as the Non-Stops.

The moderate summer temperatures and long days of Alaska are suitable climatic conditions for growing tuberous begonias. Nonstop begonias as well as many other bedding plants are often treated with growth regulators to maintain a compact growth habit during early development. Shorter plants are easier to handle during marketing and transplanting. Some of these growth regulators continue to affect the growth and development after transplanting outdoors. Cycocel (chlormequat), B-Nine (daminozide), Bonzi (paclobutrazol), Sumagic (uniconazole), Cutless (flurprimidol) and Bayleton 25WP (triadimefon) are studied for their ability to control plant height in the Nonstop type cultivars 'Yellow Spirit' (Benary Seeds) and 'Yellow Midnight Beauty' (Ball Seed Co.). Bayleton is a fungicide used for powdery mildew control that also has growth regulator effects. The application rates used were 1,000 parts per million (ppm) active ingredient (a.i.) Cycocel, 3,000 PPM a.i. B-Nine, 10 PPM a.i. Bonzi, 2.5 PPM a.i. Sumagic, 15 PPM a.i. Cutless and 150 mg/liter Bayleton. Control plants were sprayed with the same volume of water (3 ml per plant) as the volume used to apply growth regulators to plants.

'Spirit' was seeded on January 22 and were treated on April 10. 'Midnight Beauty' was seeded on February 26 and treated with growth regulators on May 13. Plants of the original cultivar Nonstop Mixture' (Benary Seeds) are planted around the 'Midnight Beauty' and 'Spirit' plants. All plants were planted outside on June 9.

GBG Notes

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This page was last modified on September 27, 2006 by GBG web editor