PGR rescue drenches can prevent crop losses

Unfortunately, even the best growers can accidentally over-apply their PGRs. Maybe it’s a miscommunication among the production team; perhaps it’s a miscalculation by an inexperienced applicator. Too much of a growth regulator like uniconazole or paclobutrazol stalls out plants, resulting in missed sales windows or in the worst case, discarding an entire crop. But now, growers have a tool to help address the issue.

Fine Americas has revealed that in addition to functioning as a plant growth regulator, its Fresco product also works great in crop rescue situations. For example, if a grower overapplies paclobutrazol, uniconazole or other PGRs, a Fresco drench can help snap plants out of the delayed flowering and growth that follows.

As little as a single drench can save a crop. If you don’t see expanding leaves and stem elongation after five days, consider a second application.

The bottom line: Fresco, a combination PGR — with both the active ingredients BA (benzyladenine) and GA (gibberellic acid) — can kickstart stalled young plants, along with its known ability to encourage plants to grow and form structure.

That means that rather than sacrificing a whole production cycle, growers could be able to save their crops.

Fresco is registered for most ornamentals, such as chrysanthemums, gardenias, azaleas, hydrangeas, poinsettias, petunias, marigolds and others.