Lets talk about hosta's under lights

9 years ago

I have been wondering about growing some bare root hosta's I am getting under lights for the latter part of the winter to maybe 'boost' them into next year.

I seen another poster growing seedlings but that is a little different than growing larger hosta's under lights. I do understand I need to give them a bare minimum of a 40 day dormancy.

My question is does anybody grow larger hostas under lights during the winter weather? If so how does/did it work for you?

FWIW I have LOTS of lights.

Might be the late night but I am contemplating trying this...

Thanks for entertaining me.

SCG

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Comments (7)

bkay2000
9 years ago
I heard something about growing mature hosta year round. I think it was something Rob Mortko was either doing or contemplating doing. I never heard anything else about it. The idea was to give the hosta 40 days of cold, then put in the green house. Then 40 days of cold again. That way, you would get 2 years growth in one.

A longer growing season doesn't translate to more growth. Our season goes from March to November and still, nothing grows much after it blooms. Mine have finished blooming, so they kind of hang out with some dying back early and some waiting for the first freeze.

Interesting discussion.

bk
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
what she said..

and i will add... they grow some hosta in FL as annuals... but w/o the requisite dormancy.. they eventually peter out .. how long.. i dont know ...

i suggest you do it small scale.. experiment... and keep us posted....

do two straight thru ...

let the rest go dormant..

pull 2 more into the lights from dormancy in jan ...

and pull 2 more in feb...

and 2 more in march ...

and see how it all works out ...

one other thought.. i used to buy plants n march.. forced early for sale at hosta college .... which in essence extended my MI season.. probably as long as bkays... and they simply petered out and went dormant early .... but i was pretty much a newb back then.. i probably could have done better ...

ken
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SouthCountryGuy Zone 4b-5 SE BC
Original Author
9 years ago
That is very interesting information. I was kind of wondering why the upper half of North America was more conducive to hosta growing. In no way did I imagine that it was due them needing a shorter growing season. Kind of remind me of lettuce.....

The next question would be, and I am sure different with each cultivar, how long would you consider a 'season'? Of course in general.

Unfortunately I don't locally have access to hosta's from any place other than were I got HVX. Yet I am so intrigued by this I may have to put an order in for some companion plants and get the vendor to ship me a bunch of cheap hosta's to play with.

Enablers!

SCG
bkay2000
9 years ago
Why don't you email Rob and see if he can give you more info, if it's something that interests you. His website is listed below.

He's also on Facebook, so you may want to connect with him there. (I don't do facebook, so can't help more.)

bk

Here is a link that might be useful: Rob Mortko site
Steve Massachusetts
9 years ago
SCG,

Different species of Hosta come from different climates and thus are native to different growing seasons. Plantaginea is from Southern China and has a long growing season. That's why it blooms so late in the year (August). Other species or hybrids like Tokudama and Sieboldiana are from colder climates and have shorter growing seasons. They tend to flower earlier (June).

Generally speaking you can use flowering time as a guide to how long the native growing season for a Hosta might be. Keep in mind that the flowering time for cultivars will be in between the time of where the species would be. So with Halcyon which is a hybrid of a late flowering species (tardiflora) and an early flowering plant (sieboldiana), it's in the middle of the two. It blooms in late July and August.

So if you are going to try to grow a plant under lights in order to extend the season, use a plant that typically has a longer growing season than the one you have in Zone 4.

Steve
SouthCountryGuy Zone 4b-5 SE BC
Original Author
9 years ago
bkay2000

Thanks for the link I will contact them and see what they say. I will update this thread with anything new I learn.

SCG
SouthCountryGuy Zone 4b-5 SE BC
Original Author
9 years ago
Steve,

Great info. Thanks. One more question, how long do you think a plant would like from flowering till going dormant?

If I can find some clean hosta's this late in the season I am going to give this a go and see what I can do.

SCG

Lets talk about hosta's under lights

Comments (7)

bkay2000

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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Lets talk about hosta's under lights

Comments (7)

bkay2000

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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SouthCountryGuy Zone 4b-5 SE BC
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