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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Cut Flowers

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  • From: Etienne Goyer <etienne.goyer AT outlands.ca>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Cut Flowers
  • Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:46:32 -0400

On 11-10-11 07:14 PM, Beth Spaugh wrote:
> Etienne - I am an hour south of Montreal. My standards are ProCut Orange and
> Sunbright sunflower (first planting transplanted), blue horizon ageratum,
> white and blue statice started early to transplant (I did flowers before
> starting veggies since they tend to be smaller young and I had limited
> space, so February inside and they bloomed by August), zinnias from
> transplant first planting, cinnamon basil, dianthus from early plugs but
> best varieties tend to be pelleted not OG approved. Brown-eyed susans, but
> the small sunflowers hold up better and work.

Thanks for the input, Beth! I am actually not around Montréal anymore,
I am now 500 miles away north-east, on the Atlantic sea front. The
climate is quite different here from the one around Montréal: the
springs are long and very cold, and the season only really start in
June. The temp never gets really high in the summer (rarely gets above
30C/85F), which is nice for the farmer but not ideal for heat-loving
crops such as zinnias.

I did Pro-Cut Orange this summer too, and I am quite satisfied with the
resulting blooms. However, I had about 20% germination rate from an
early June planting (soil was too cold), and sellable blooms in
mid-August. Perhaps a combination of transplant, IRT plastic and
low-tunnel would help cranking them in July, but I have to run the
number first because I am not sure that would be profitable. That being
said, I am going to give it another shot in 2012, because 2011 was not a
very representative season climate-wise.

As an aside, one problem I had with sunflower is that most of the ones I
had actually got flattened by a wind storm in early August, shortly
before I could harvest them. And then, those that made it all bloomed
the same week! I really need to consider successive planting of
sunflower in the future, and making sure they are protected from wind.





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