The Perfect Plug

The nutritional program impacts all of these factors, but not in a favorably coordinated manner (Table 1). If the seedling is supplied with all of the fertilizer that it has the genetic potential to use (high rate), a totally useless plug will result. This shoot on this plug will grow too large for the surface area provided by the plug cell in which it is growing. One seedling will shade the next causing each to stretch. Lower leaves will be pale green (etiolated) from the lack of light. When the quantity of total fertilizer is greatly reduced (low rate) a smaller, desirable shoot can be produced but the time of production is usually increased and the foliar color is undesirable light. The intermediate fertilizer by Paul V. Nelson, Jin-Sheng Huang, William C. Fonteno, and Douglas A. Bailey Plug fertilization strategies