Trial: Annual
Year Trialed: 2005Good Qualities
Rich, intense bicolor (5); Great stems, vigorous growth; Thick stems, bloomed over a month - held up well in heat (85 degrees); Bloomed much earlier than my usual 'Spring Giants'; Long sturdy stems, where left in field, produced second flush in fall; Productive, good recovery after hot summer.Problems
Too short/ small heads (2); Not as tall as 'Overture Orange'; Pinched them - wouldn't do this again; Prefer central great stem and the auxillaries seem better then also; Bloomed at about 8 inches before croaking - apparently don't like weeks of 90F+ - this was not the summer to try winter types in the field in summer.Trial Data
| Yield (stems/plant) | Stem Length (inches) | Market Appreciation Rating¹ | Repeat Again Rating¹ | Ease of Cultivation Rating¹ | Average Spacing (in2) | Average Postharvest Life (days) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale | Retail | Consumer | |||||||
| Average | 6.9 | 16.9 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 164 | 6.6 |
| Range of Responses | 0-15 | 12-21 | 1-5 | 1-5 | 1-5 | 1-5 | 3-5 | 36-432 | 4-8.5 |
¹1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the best. Market ratings are based on sales to wholesalers, retailers, or final consumers direct.
Comments
Better than white; General comments on trial (Zone 5, applied to all snaps varieties trialed): Trial grown outdoors on green plastic mulch (Solar mulch), trickle irrigation, 4 rows on a 9 x 9 inch spacing, one layer of Hortinova netting put up shortly after transplanting, season was hot most of the summer, but moderated into the fall, and did not frost until late October - during the summer heat, all varieties stopped producing flower heads, but the Group II varieties resumed production in mid-September, yielding about one third of their total production then.