The 2011 ASHS Annual Conference

Poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. ex Klotzsch) are prized for their colorful bracts and long keeping quality under indoor conditions.  However, along with the long display life comes the maintenance issue of repeated waterings that can be labor intensive.  Two experiments were conducted to determine whether using cellulosic water (CW) could extend the days to wilt and intervals between waterings under simulated home/office conditions.  In both experiments uniform plants were watered to container capacity.  Pots were then left untreated or treated with one of two rates of CW (Solidwater, Ecos, Sanford, FL).  The gel was applied to the surface of the soilless growing medium.  In the first experiment, plants of cultivar Advent Red grown in 16.5‑cm pots were treated with 0, 150, or 300 g of CW gel.  In the second experiment, Prestige Early Red plants grown in 15.2‑cm pots received 0, 125, or 250 g of gel.  Pots were weighed and monitored for wilt daily.  When a plant first wilted the pot was rewatered to container capacity, retreated with CW at the same rate as the first application and monitored until it wilted a second time.  The days to wilt response was positively linear for both wiltings in both experiments.  ANCOVA indicated that the slopes of the regression lines for wilt 1 and wilt 2 were not different for the two experiments.  Days to wilt/time between waterings increased by over three days for each 100 g of CW applied to the pots during both wilt 1 (y = 20.7 + 0.034 x, R² = 0.637) and wilt 2 (y = 17.6 + 0.0301 x, R² = 0.715).  These results show that cellulosic water can be used to supply supplemental water and extend the time to wilt/watering interval of potted poinsettias held in interiorscapes.