Success with Dipladenia ft. Dr. Jamie Gibson from Syngenta Flowers

In this episode of Tech On Demand brought to you by GrowerTalks, host Bill Calkins is joined by Dr. Jamie Gibson, technical lead for Syngenta Flowers, for a deep dive into dipladenia. If you’re listening in real time, plans for 2024 are most likely being made and if you’re like a lot of growers that means you’re looking to add tropical plants to the mix for next year. We’ve seen a lot of interest in Dipladenia recently—for many reasons—and new breeding and introductions are helping drive the category by helping you produce amazing crops that fit different sizes, profiles and uses.

 

In this episode, Jamie explains how important it is to start dipladenia with the end in mind. This means you should know your target dates to ship and sell, as well as what the end use of the crop is intended to be. As mentioned, new breeding is allowing for careful selection, both with inputs (URC, callused URC, liner, enhanced liner and prefinished), as well as plant profile and habit (from mixed container components to vigorous stand-alone specimens). If you have a plan, you can find a dipladenia to fit it.

 

Once you know the goal, it’s time to dial in a production plan. Jamie walks you through this piece of the puzzle from propagation from the different forms through finish, with special attention paid to start times and cultural management. He discusses ideal greenhouse environment, nutrition, pest and disease control, pinching and trimming, PGRs and even post-harvest recommendation.

 

One part of this presentation that you’ll want to pay close attention to is the “recipe” Jamie shares for the final 10 weeks of production. These final weeks of a long crop can make or break your success and sell-through.

 

The Syngenta Flowers team has put a lot of time and trialing into dipladenia and much of what they learned went into the launch and support of their new collection called Madinia, which includes three types—Petite, a medium-vigor size and Maximo— all with core colors.

 

Resources discussed in the podcast episode:

 

Syngenta Flowers Dipladenia Madinia Landing Page—FULL RESOURCES AND COMBINATION VIDEOS: https://www.syngentaflowers-us.com/webcast/dipladenia