B. ‘Solenia’ series’

Culture

Propagation Method

Rooted cuttings from clean stock.

Cultural Requirements

http://www.floremara.com/solenia%20growing/solenia%20growing.htm Peat Solenia® can be potted in every good quality peat. Most important, the peat must keep a good moisture level. Example for a good quality peat: 40% frozen peat 40% peat moss 15% peat moss fragments 5% clay 5.25 kg/m3 Dolokal 1 kg/m3 PG-mix Pot Size Pink and Orange: 12-14 cm. Red: 10-12 cm. Solenias® are also very suitable for growing in dishes. Pinching Red: For a good size, it is recommendable to pinch. Pink and Orange: You have to pinch for bigger pot sizes. Time: One week after potting or after three leaves appear. Temperature After potting, keep a temperature of 19 to 20 c (day and night). As soon as the plants are well rooted, you can drop the temperature to 17 to 19 c. To harden off the plants, you should keep the last two weeks of the culture at the temperature of 14 c. If the plants stretch too much, you can use the cold drop which is a drop of 3 degrees from 2 hours before sunrise until two hours after sunrise. Shading Solenia® must be grown under as much light as possible. Only at the start do you have to shade if the radiation is higher than 18000 lux (=252 W/m2 = 91 J/cm2). Artificial Lighting For lighting Solenia®, there three possibilities: 1) Assimilation lighting during the complete time of culture. The light intensity should be 2500-3000 lux. This corresponds with about 35 watt/m. The total day length should range from 16-18 hours. 2) Another method is to grow the plants under assimilation lights during the first four weeks. After that, the plants are spaced and placed in another greenhouse where real lighting is simulated by TL- or Grow lamps (about 8 watt/m2). Especially in winter, this method results in quick and healthy start of the plant. 3) The whole culture under TL- or grow lamps with eventually cyclic lighting. In that case, the lighting should be 10 minutes per half hour.

Comments

Colors in the series as of 2015: Solenia Red, Red Velvet, Light Yellow, Red Orange, Soft Pink, Dark Pink and Orange. As with all commercial series the individual colors change or are improved on a continual basis. An entire series may disappear if sufficient improvements are made in a new line of genetics and when the company removes a series from the market they also clear as much old information about the series from any web based sources. They do this to avoid confusing their customer, nothing nefarious, but it makes it difficult to see changes in series over time, so this entry is merely a place marker showing the series at this point in time 2015.

Known In Cultivation

Yes, worldwide distribution

Original Botanical Description or Link to

http://fshs.org/proceedings-o/1974-vol-87/508-512%20(WITTE).pdf http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/floriculture/hort429/Lecture/begonia.pdf