Ray's Winning Gerbera Bloom Formula

So… are you Show ready? April is not that far away! Ray Bruce has shared his secret formula for getting the best blooms for Show day. Now all you need to do is DO IT!

How to get a flush of good gerbera blooms at show time – providing the weather does not go to extremes.

Members need to have a flower on as many of the gerbera plant pots for the stall as possible. The public like to choose these, rather than a plant without a bloom on it. You will take less plants home if you can do this and the Society will sell more and the public will go home happier and they tend to buy more plants. Besides this the workers on the stall can serve faster if they do not have to delve in the foliage to read what label it has on it, just pick up a flowering plant when the buyer calls out colour and points to it.

This is the program I have used for years to get the most flowers at show time on both selling and exhibiting pots.

Normally - I use NPK once a month, ½ teaspoon per 140mm pot and ½ teaspoon each side of a 200mm pot.

Nine weeks prior to the April and October Shows - I use NPK every three weeks at the above rate, this is 3 applications before the show. I also use a foliar spray called Polyfeed once every week.

Spring Show in October - follows the above fertilising program with the addition of 3-4 tablespoons (that’s correct) of Epsom Salts to a 9 litre watering can. This quantity will cover approximately 15 pots and will help the plants get moving after the winter. Epsom Salts can be bought in bulk from Macro Bros, Elders or large agricultural suppliers.

I usually get good results using the above methods, keeping in mind the weather can throw a spanner in the plan but the small cost of extra fertiliser used is well worth it for all the blooms you will get.

On average a double bloom takes 26 days after it appears above the soil level to open fully with single blooms taking approx. 18-20 days.

Please try this programme so we will have lots of flowers for exhibiting and at least 1 bloom on each gerbera plant for sale at the show.

Contribution: Ray Bruce