Is it True?

[gunrunner]

Do companies that raise plants for sale to the public really put growth inhibitor on them?
This year I grew Betterboy from seed and also bought some from a local garden house.
The ones I grew I planted in 5 gal buckets and they were a good 2 feet taller than the ones I purchased. Both seems to produce about the same amount of fruit, but theres a big difference in total height.

Thanks
Mike

[Cole_Robbie]

Large companies like Bonnie contract out a lot of their plant-raising. So the answer could vary, depending on who gets their contracts.

[Dangit]

I can't confirm or deny the question, but the same happened to me this year. The early girls I tried to start from seed didn't sprout, so I bought some from one of the big box stores. It is a total runt compared to the other seed grown plants. It has, however, out produced every other plant I have.

Go figure.

Dangit

[Nematode]

Can't say for sure who uses what, but tall skinny plants are a real problem logistically (flop over break) and dont sell as well. Growth regulators can fix it.

[AlittleSalt]

That's why some box store tomato plants are so compact and dark green.

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by gunrunner

Do companies that raise plants for sale to the public really put growth inhibitor on them?

Yes, as confirmed to me by a former Bonnie's employee.

[digsdirt]

As a commercial grower I am not comfortable with broad generalizations about commercial growers. While Bonnie's may or may not use growth inhibitors (I have had employees tell me no) that doesn't in any way mean all or even most growers do it. It also is NOT "why some box store tomato plants are so compact and dark green" as both those characteristics are more likely a result of the lighting and temp control set-ups commercial greenhouse growers use.

And you cannot use height, even of the same variety, as a valid indicator of the use of growth hormones as it can also be explained by lighting and ambient air temps while young seedlings.

Unless a home grower has a greenhouse with fully automated temp controls and also invests in automated supplemental halide lighting set-ups the resulting plants will have little in common with commercially grown plants. That does not mean all home grown transplants are inferior. Just different. They will be taller because they are grown in warmer air temps and with less light, they will have longer internode lengths for the same reasons, and will be a lighter green in color.

Dave

[Kikaida]

The ones I acquired were obviously clone stock. Thick stems, 6-8 inches tall and covered in flowers. My seed grown looked way different at 8 inches. Seems like cloning off healthy mother plants would be a much easier way to go than starting batches from seed then inhibiting growth...

[BigVanVader]

Yes, I have seen it.

[BigVanVader]

I will add that many customers who bought plants from me and big box stores, the plants I grew are doing much better. Bigger, taller, and more fruit and while I cant say exactly why this is I assume it is because of some type of chemical that they sprayed that I did not.

[Bipetual]

I didn't notice anything unusual with the one Early Girl I bought from a big box store last year. But sometimes I get a tomato or two along with some herbs from Burpee, and something definitely seems different with those. I have no way of knowing if they use growth inhibitors or not, but the plants are oddly stunted, almost like a bonsai plant. Not that being contorted into a small shipping container would help with that. But think how difficult it would be to fit a plant into a small package without using something like that. You would have such a limited shipping window. But I wanted to replace a plant I started that died, and even though it was late in the season I still had a pretty good selection to choose from. I killed a pink tiger but was able to get a sunrise bumblebee at the last minute. So, if they did use a growth inhibitor, I guess having it be a little slow to take off isn't the end of the world, especially since those are fairly early. Not sure if I would want to try to grow a late heirloom from them, though.

[Gardeneer]

I agree with Dave.
Commercial growers provide near perfect care as far as the plants needs are concerned: Those are light, temperature, soil, air circulation, moisture and fertilzer. Their plants are not usually bigger, neither when you buy them nor later. My own plants (grown from seeds) probably are better after plant out. JMO

[Fusion_power]

Whether or not a commercial grower uses auxins, there are a few tricks a home grower can use that significantly increase fruiting potential. The first is to deliberately let the temperature get down to 45 degrees for a couple of nights. Seedlings exposed to cool temps are significantly more productive than seedlings maintained at steady temps above 60 degrees. I also deliberately withhold water from my seedlings until they begin to wilt. This induces a tropism in the seedling so that it produces a larger root system than untreated plants. This should be done twice when the seedlings are about 4 to 6 weeks old. Commercial seedlings are watered regularly. These two small tricks are enough to boost production by about 50 percent as compared to the same variety produced by a commercial operation.

Dig around on the net and you can find an article from nearly 100 years ago about the cold treatment effect. I have not seen anything that documents the moisture stress effect but have grown enough seedlings for comparison to show that it works.

[amideutch]

There is a "Sticky" in the "Starting from Seed" forum concerning the "Cold Treatment".

Ami

[digsdirt]

Thanks for re-stating that info Darrel. I know there is a sticky about it but few home growers ever seem to check it out much less use the info.

There are ways for home growers to fix/prevent most all the problems they may have with their seedlings without resorting to any of the auxins or similar products. So assuming that commercial growers must be using them to produce their seedlings simply isn't a valid assumption.

Dave