Not sure where to ask this question?

[greenpassion]

I was just reading about the care of the peace lily, and one of the sites talked about how commercial growers use a growth hormone called Gibberelllic acid to get the plants to produce high numbers and large blooms. Does anyone know if this is used on the orchids that we find in big box stores? (sorry to use the word ORCHIDS in this forum!)

[jkofferdahl]

While I can't answer that question, I CAN say that I don't like growth hormones. All you need to see is what HGH does to people. There are natural substances which feed your plants and allow them to grow normally - fertilizers and KelpMax (OK, both are chemically produced, I agree).

Most orchid growers over-fertilize their plants in hoipes of great things. In my opinion, even following the fertilize weekly, weakly proscribes too much feeding.

[greenpassion]

I agree I do use kelp max, but I was just curious along the lines of wondering how messed with are the plants that people buy from the big box stores

[estación seca]

Plant hormones may affect different plants differently. Gibberelic acid (GA), in most plants, causes elongation of developing stems between nodes. Some dwarfed plants, like the Bonanza peach, lack GA. You can see the distance from leaf cluster to leaf cluster is very much shorter on this variety than other peaches. If you spray a Bonanza peach with GA as it grows, it produces normal growth.

GA stimulates sprouting in some, but not all, seeds.

I don't know what effect it might have on orchids. Most plants use different chemical signals to trigger blooming. Not all plants respond to the same chemicals. For example, ethylene gas triggers flowering in the pineapple family. This gas is given off by ripening bananas and apples. Some people have placed ripening bananas or apples on top of their bromeliads to induce flowering.

Commercial growers do everything they can to get plants marketable as fast as possible. Zeit ist geld. They often regard their treatment practices as trade secrets which give them a competitive advantage. It seems likely huge growers have figured out how to trigger mass blooming of their plants, but they may not speak up.

[jkofferdahl]

Originally Posted by greenpassion

I agree I do use kelp max, but I was just curious along the lines of wondering how messed with are the plants that people buy from the big box stores

In that case - many of these plants have been forced through growth to first bloom through various means. My personal biggest concern with them is that they may, after the blooms on the plant when purchased, take up to 18 months before they're ready to again bloom. I personally don't buy plants from the Big Boxes because I prefer to know what's been done with the plants.

[greenpassion]

Originally Posted by jkofferdahl

In that case - many of these plants have been forced through growth to first bloom through various means. My personal biggest concern with them is that they may, after the blooms on the plant when purchased, take up to 18 months before they're ready to again bloom. I personally don't buy plants from the Big Boxes because I prefer to know what's been done with the plants.

Exactly!! And E.S, your knowledge amazes me

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by greenpassion

Exactly!! And E.S, your knowledge amazes me

I have read a lot throughout my life, and I think about what I read. Anybody can do this.

[camille1585]

From having visited a huge commercial Phal nursery in the Netherlands during my studies, I remember the grower telling us that growth and flowering/flower quality can be entirely manipulated using precise temperature and light regimes. It is accurate to the point of being able to chose exactly when the plants should start producing spikes, and induce double spikes in most plants. The temperature/light is different for the growth phase, spike induction phase and finishing off phase.

Growers in countries without such modern greenhouse facilities can use gibberillic acid instead, it will speed up flowering and ensure high flower quality in the absence of such precise temperature control. But the biggest user of gibberilin is the sugarcane and grape industry. It leads to elongated sugarcane plants (=more cane so more sugar), and in grapes it massively increases the size of the grapes, particularly in the seedless types for eating. Same for apples, GA is used on some varieties to increase fruit size.

But in many horticulture crops growers actually want to block gibberillic acid production in the plant. As mentioned earlier, GA mostly promotes cell elongation and thus long internode lengths. In many crops, compactness is a highly desired characteristic (market demands). So the plants are treated with anti-gibberillin PGRs, such as Bonzi or Cycocel. Pansies, geraniums, chrysanthemums... are almost always treated with such chemicals, as are Poinsettia, mainly in Europe (unlike in the USA, European consumers prefer small compact poinsettia). The list of plants treated with anti-gibberillin chemicals is mind boggling.

[Ray]

I am going to have to pick a bone with John about "chemically produced" KelpMax. To me, retired from a career in the chemical industry, that phrase suggests it is "put together" from other chemical constituents, reacted to form the final product. It is not.

After rinsing salt water off of the kelp, it is placed in a vacuum chamber, where the cells "explode", releasing their juices, which contain all of the various ingredients. It is then diluted with pure water, and a tiny bit of preservative is added to prevent degradation.

KelpMax contains auxins, cytokinins, gibberellic acid, brassinosteroids, abscisic acid, and a whole slew of other ingredients, all of which occur naturally in plants.

When we apply it to plants, we are really doing nothing more than affecting the balance of what is already present, and it is sometimes that "new ratio" that has the effect.

For example, (and I am recalling from old reading), cytokinins flow up from the roots, and auxins flow down from the shoot growth in a plant, and the rates at which that happens can affect relative concentrations. In small trees, for example, where the travel distances are small, the relative concentrations are such that it may grow as a single shoot, becoming the trunk. As the tree gets bigger, the flow of cytokinins takes longer to reach the upper-most growth, so the auxin concentration up there is greater, and that "trunk" begins to form branches. As that growth continues, and the ratio shifts even more, branching is more and more pronounced.

[Optimist]

Right, I was going to also say that Kelp (Max, or not) contains growth hormones. Growth hormones are also found in everything naturally. Obviously, chemicals are chemicals, but hormones are hormones too. (Sorry, it is too early in the morning).