Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
rate this answer
Friday - June 22, 2007
From: Vineland Station, ON
Region: Canada
Topic: General Botany
Title: Inducing flowering out of season
Answered by: Joe Marcus
QUESTION:
We are currently conducting research on insect transmission of a plant virus to flowering weeds. Is there a process to trick biennials into flowering in their first year?ANSWER:
There probably isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to your question since all biennials are not created equally. However, in general biennials begin growing one year - often in late summer or fall - and typically form a basal rosette. In late winter or spring of the following year, they flower. Bud initiation is typically dependent on accumulated hours of cold temperatures. When the plant has been exposed to enough hours of cold temperatures, the plant will initiate flower bud development. When the weather warms sufficiently, the plant will produce flowers, often on a tall flowering stalk.
Nurserymen have long taken advantage of some plants' response to cold temperature bud initiation to induce flowering out of season. Valentines Day tulips are a good example of this practice, though tulips are not technically biennials. In practice, greenhouse growers accomplish this feat by keeping vegetative-stage plants in in cold storage for a predetermined period of time and removing them to a growing area a specified number of days before they are to be marketed.
For your experiments, if biennial seeds were started early enough in the year to allow for sufficient time (along with other required conditions) to grow the necessary basal rosette, then the plants were placed in cold storage for long enough to accumulate the chilling hours necessary to induce bud initiation, then the plants were removed from cold storage and placed back in a growing area, it would be possible to complete a biennial's growth cycle in one year. Some trial and error might be required to determine the optimal mix of pre-chilling, chilling and post-chilling days and other conditions necessary for success.
More General Botany Questions
USDA Hardiness Zone of Rancho Bernardo, CA
October 01, 2009 - What plant zone is Poway, Rancho Bernardo CA?
view the full question and answer
Water-saving strategies of drought-tolerant plants
April 04, 2014 - Although "drought tolerant" plants are fairly well documented, it's clear that many different strategies are responsible, such as a huge root system (like Mesquite). I'm interested in learning the...
view the full question and answer
Use of native non-vascular plants from Pisgah Forest NC
February 11, 2011 - Dear Mr. Smarty Plants, Some of the smartest native plants around to use as horticultural choices don't require any chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides; tolerate extreme weather including ...
view the full question and answer
Smarty Plants on Science Fair projects
September 13, 2005 - I would like to know what kind of plants can grow in two weeks? Please answer quickly so I can do my Science Fair project.
view the full question and answer
Why plants grow in very hot or very cold areas from Edison NJ
October 06, 2013 - Why can some plants grow where very cold or very hot?
view the full question and answer
Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today. |