Some Conclusions reached after doing various experiments and studies about Alstroemeria Environmental Requirements.

Click on Topics of Interest:

Temperature:

Daylength:

Heat and water-stress affect dormancy

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Alstroemeria species and hybrids

Temperature:

As mentioned on the planting information page, all varieties are reported to have a rhizome-chilling requirement for inflorescence and floret initiation (but we have found exceptions).

Moderate temperatures prevent rhizome dormancy in some selections and have no effect on flower initiation. Optimum soil/air temperatures are 60-65°F, but this may vary with cultivar. High soil temperatures, somewhere above 70°F, induce rhizome dormancy. Species remain dormant after the early summer bloom. Most hybrids, after major spring and early summer bloom produce a few flowers again in September and October.

Inflorescence quality, color, floret number and size, are best when air temperatures average 60 to 75° F.

Daylength:

Supplemental lighting to extend the daylength in winter and early spring promotes earlier flowering in greenhouses. Extra lighting does not increase the overall number of flowering stems. Use low intensity incandescent lighting, from 10 PM to 2 AM, providing about 10 ft candles of increasing daylength.

Heat and water stress affect dormancy.

There may be more than one kind of growth-dormancy-flowering pattern in Alstroemeria hybrids and species:

We find that water-stress induces dormancy.

Summer dormant rhizomes for almost all hybrids begin growth even in mid summer if they are divided. The rhizomes initiate new roots and shoots as soon as they are replanted and then go dormant again if the temperatures remain high. For several species, including A. ligtu, A. pelegrina and A. revoluta (see species description on last page) dormancy is broken only by 1 month of chilling at 45-50° F. Some of these same species may not become dormant at temperatures averaging 65 F. This seems to be true of other species as well.

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