Wait... Hold the phone...

Are you referring to disbudding the side buds and secondary buds below the bud you wish to bloom? If so, this practice ABSULUTELY increases quality, and will encourage more new growth with potential flowers to take the place of the ones you cut. It also allows amuch more usable and longer stem on each flower you harvest.

Hope I'm helping, and not confusing (or being confused ;-)

Cheers!

CiCi

You were right the first time. The plants are compact and green, some with many side shoots. I'll try to get a picture next time I'm there. I'm sure that part of the problem is the high N, not that I added it. The farm where I'm growing amends the soil with horse manure and when I had it tested last winter was off the charts on N, P and K. I recently did a foliar feeding of a bloom fertilizer, no N. Not sure that does any good when the soil already has what the plant needs. But no one can tell me whether the too high nitrogen is a ratio issue or an absolute, if you follow that. So I figured a foliar feeding with no N in the mix couldn't hurt.

Nitrogen is water soluble, so I doubt much is left in the soil right now. It gets burned out pretty quickly, especially when there's a lot of organic matter using it up in the soil.

Also, the soil can be off the charts in tests, but if certain minerals (magn, iron, boran) are missing, the plants can't access them. That's supposed to be why Epson Salts added to soil or foliar feed is so successful- Magnesium helps the plant uptake other nutrients. Magn. is water-soluble, too, BTW.

So here's a picture of Honeymoon, easy to get pic at the end of the row. I've picked more than ten beautiful, big blossoms so I'm not complaining but see all that lower growth? Many of those will never mature in time to produce blossoms this year.

Bonus shot. Today's pickings. Yes, this is very small for a cut flower operation. It is sort of a proof of concept.

Many growers strip the leaves/branches 12-18 inches from the ground, to allow air circulation and avoid providing bugs nice entrance ramps to the main plant by low hanging leaves.

A couple of top show growers I talked to last month about this insist that bottom leaves are essential for the GROOMED plant to provide nutrients for growth/tuber development. I'm not so sure about that, as pot tubers thrive despite lack of foliage, but there you go. I've both stripped and not stripped, and I haven't seen an indication
that one is superior to the other. It makes the plants look more tidy,
and allows better access to soil for fertilization purposes. But it takes time, and I'm short on that, so I don't worry about it if I don't get around to it.

Always different opinions, and it's good to make up ones own mind about which to follow.

So there you go <s>