Lobelia erinus Masterpiece Blue With Eye

Culture guide

Crop Time: Spring: 12-14 weeks

Height: 30cm

Width: 40cm

Exposure: Sun – Partial shade

Best Uses: Landscape, Pot Plant

Usage
Pots, containers, baskets and landscape

Sow time
From January onwards

Sowing method
4 pellets per plug. Light is required for germination – no covering.

Germination
Optimum conditions for seedling development, beginning on the day of sowing until radicle emergence. Expect radicle emergence in 4-7 days. Humidity should be between 95-100% until day 11, then reduce to 40-60%.

Growing on
Facultative long day plant. Flowering is affected by day-length, irradiance and temperature. Under long day length above 12 hours, the plants will initiate and flower more quickly.

Media
Plug culture: pH 5.8-6.2; EC 0.5-0.75. Begin with a wet (4) for the first 10 days and on day 11 begin to dry them back slightly to moist (3).

Growing on: pH 5.8-6.2; EC 1.25-1.5. Alternate between moisture levels moist (3) and medium (2). Let plants dry back to at least a medium (2) before re-saturating to a moist (3). Extremely dry plants will have a grayish cast to the leaves. Avoid watering plants under high temperature and light when the leaf temperature is excessive. This can cause leaf burn. Providing good ventilation and horizontal airflow will help lower the humidity and dry back the media, providing oxygen to the roots.

Temperature
Plug culture: 20-22 °C for days 1-11. For irrigation use warm water above 15 °C only. After development of the roots, the temperature can be further decreased to 18-20 °C.

Growing on: After transplanting, grow at night temperatures of 13-16 °C and day temperatures of 19-22 °C. Lower temperatures may significantly reduce the growth of the plants, but result in a higher plant quality.

Fertilization
Start the first fertilization approximately two weeks after sowing to prevent deficiency symptoms. Maintain an EC < 0.7 and begin feeding with less than 100 ppm nitrogen. Increase fertilization in the second part of the plug time up to 100-175 ppm nitrogen. Feed the plants weekly with 175-225 ppm nitrogen, using a complete balanced fertilizer such as 15-5-15 or 18-11-18. Maintain an EC between 1.2 and 1.5. Avoid high ammonium and high nitrogen levels. Wetness and cold medium temperatures are a cause for iron deficiency. The roots are sensitive to high salt levels in substrate.

Stage I Starts with the radicle breaking through the testa. The roots are touching the medium. Ends with fully developed cotyledons.
Stage II Starts from fully developed cotyledons. Ends with the fully developed true leaf or true leaf pair.
Stage III Starts from the fully developed true leaf or true leaf pair and ends with 80% of the young plants being marketable.
Stage IV All young plants are ready for sale and in the process of being hardened off. This stage lasts about 7 days.

The cultural recommendations are based on results from trials conducted under Central European conditions. Different conditions in other parts of the world may lead to deviations in results achieved.