Growing Lisianthus: Everything You Need to Know

In this comprehensive video covering a key cut flower, Ball Seed’s cut flower business manager Joan Mazat and Sakata Seed America’s product technical manager Bob Croft discuss Lisianthus and share tips and tricks for selecting and producing top-quality crops. You’ll quickly realize that Bob has tremendous knowledge about and experience with Lisianthus, as he walks greenhouse growers and flower farmers through the ins and outs of the crop-from site preparation and proper classification/grouping to managing all factors of plant growth (light, water, nutrition, temperature and gas exchange) and controlling pests and diseases. Bob wraps up with harvesting protocols, post-harvest strategies and storage tips before he and Joan share some of their favorite series and why Lisianthus is a cut flower favorite.
Find more Cut Flower resources from Ball Seed: www.ballseed.com/cutflowers/

[@FlowerFarmerAmy]

This was very informative! I learned all the things I was doing "wrong" that I could correct to produce an even better crop. The flowers are just stunning. I'd like to see a chart that shows the suggested planting dates for each group, within growing zones (I'm 9A). Or by latitude or temperature of soil. I'd like to hear how to overwinter (plant in fall and & harvest in spring) lisianthus...Group 1?

[@samwallace3103]

Too fussy for me to waste the growing retail space here in growing zone 5b I give credit to those who have the patience for such a one and done crop.

[@jsunshinejull]

It's worth it! I did a tray from plugs this spring without knowing any of this. In retrospect, I'm amazed I didn't kill them ten times over in my heavy clay, heavy rains, dense planting... Yeah. My stems weren't the most amazing ever, but they were surprisingly very nice and I sold every single one to customers who came back still gushing over them for weeks. I'd say, give a small number a try if you have a few square feet to spare, just to see if it's really as hard as it sounds. I don't think it is!

[@jsunshinejull]

I would like to know if solarization is enough to combat fusarium? Does the actual high temp achieved, or the duration of high temp, change the relative success? It helps with some other things that are issues in my area, so it's what we're doing anyway, but I've heard mixed things about its efficacy with fusarium.