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

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.

Not always. I worked in a greenhouse operation which had millions of square
feet under glass. We propagated millions and millions of mums each year and we
hand pinched them all. King buds had to come out and no chemical growth
retardant could do that.