Planting Marigolds

This article was written by Geoff Langford for The Orchardist in 1992, when he the National Berryfruit Specialist with MAF. Strawberry growers will soon be getting their bare-root runners from the propagators, and his advice is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago.

“Planting Marigolds” may seem a strange title for a berryfruit column but I have been concerned for some time about the high rate of losses with strawberry plants after planting out.  Our system of plant production varies from most other countries in that our strawberry plant nurseries are located in areas blessed with a very mild climate.  This gives excellent runner performance and as a result means that plant costs are relatively low by overseas standards especially considering the small scale of operation.  I recently heard a price quoted for Aptos in Australia which was $A600/1000.  This contrasts with less than $NZ200 in New Zealand for the same variety. [The runners in NZ are still considerably less expensive than those in Australia, about half the price]

However as our plants are grown in these warmer climates, they usually do not go fully dormant and so handling, transporting, and planting of these plants is more akin to how a gardener would deal with a plant like marigolds.  The art of successfully transplanting marigolds revolves around keeping them cool and moist and taking great care with plant handling to minimise the amount of root loss.  Also the time between lifting and planting should be minimised.

When planting the plants out, conditions are critical.  Ideal conditions are a cool overcast day with a warm shower after planting.  Soil conditions should be moist without being over wet.  Given these conditions, plants will establish very well and plants will continue to grow with little disruption.  Good plant performance will then result.

One of the big problem areas has been in the South Island where plants are dug in North Island nurseries in late April to early May and then sent south for planting.  Many of the conditions for planting marigolds are not satisfied.  The plant is soft and still actively growing.  Delays caused by the transport requirements, causes water loss and weakens the plant.  Storage conditions are often less than ideal and drying out or heating up of tightly wrapped bundles is common.  Soil temperatures are cold and frosts are not unusual.  The plant never gets a chance in these conditions to get established and subsequently dies.

It is advised to plant promptly upon receiving runners. Also, repack big bins into smaller containers that can be fully cooled and kept moist while they’re waiting to be planted.

Levin Horticultural Research Centre some years ago did some planting date trials with Tioga and showed that in warmer climates, the best results were achieved from early planting.  This is understandable if the plant can get established and make some growth into the autumn and at the same time initiate more flowers.  In the South I believe it is better to allow as much initiation as possible to occur in the runner bed and then to dig later when the plants are near dormant.  Late planting with day-neutral varieties has advantages.  As long as they get sufficient winter chilling, the plants grow away with less first crop which allows the plant without the cropping stress to produce more vegetation earlier.  This in turn allows more flower initiation which leads to heavier crops later and the lighter crop earlier is more than made up with the heavier, later crop.  Some trials I did with Aptos a few years ago showed this very distinctly.

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