problem with new cross seedling :)

[Louis]

Hi, I hope some can offer some suggestions or ideas on my problem.

I crossed Tigerama with Moonstruck last year and have a nice healthy seedling that is about 4 feet high and nice and full. It is having the same problem that I had with the Mother Tigerama plant. That is, dropping buds that are about to open.


I had the mother plant for a couple of years and only had a few open blooms, most all fell off as they were about to open.

This new seedling has had three buds that came close to opening and then fell off, one of them this morning. As I do a post mortem on the bloom, it looks spectacular.

It has a deep red throat and a bright golden petals.

Is there something that I can do to encourage it to keep the blooms and not abort them?

Charlie???

Louis

[farmer d]

Hi Louis,

I would be patient and wait it out as this just might be how this cross starts out.

Just an observation I have made with many of my plants when they first start to bloom they will usually drop at least the first 3 or more blooms right before they open too.  Most recently Electric Orange dropped it's first ever bud just before opening in January and my Some Like It Hot must have dropped at least a half dozen in the beginning.  Since then it has become a budding machine and every single one opens without problem.  I have noticed this with most of my CVs since starting out in 2010.

Darren

[Charlie]

Lou, a typical scenario would be for the plant to experience something it reacts to as stress, causing it to produce a hormone called abscissic acid that signals the buds to drop. Could be the only stressor at the time is the new buds, sort of a circular thing. In any case, not much you can do about it other than look for obvious stressors such as too wet, too dry, too hot, too cold, etc. and fix them. If none are apparent then you just have to wait it out and see what the plant does.

Good luck, sounds like it could be a pretty one.

Charlie

[Louis]

hi charlie, it does looks to be a nice one.

Patience will prevail.

Darren, thanks for your input.

Louis