On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 15:21:53 -0500, Dwight Sipler wrote:

Tom J wrote:

...Can't you just pinch out the tops when young to cause branching and
then use a
low nitrogen flowering fertilizer? I have the old fashion self seeding
kind in my yard and that works on them.

I pinch the tops out at least 2 or 3 times to get multiple stalks from
each plant before letting them go and don't use over a 4% nitrogen
fertilizer about once a month. I have solid masses of lavender & white
flowers. This variety still gets close to 24 inches, but that's over the
whole growing season...




That works fine for a few plants, but when you have a greenhouse full the
hand pinching is labor intensive and adds significantly to the production
cost. That's why the chemicals were developed and are widely used.


Are you sure the original poster is talking about a greenhouse full or
just a few planters? I got the impression he only wanted to control a
planter or two.