Flower Forcing: A Review

Abstract

In the modern floricultural industry, scheduling plant production is essential due to fluctuating market demands. Flower forcing, which stimulates flowering at specific dates or during off-season periods, is a key technique employed. The manipulated flowering dates resulting from flower forcing may deviate from the plant's natural schedule, occurring either earlier or later than the standard flowering dates. This can be achieved by adjusting factors affecting flowering such as temperature, photoperiod, and irradiance etc. Implementation of special practices like pruning, leaf trimming, dormancy breaking helps in forcing operation in certain plants. Utilization of chemicals such as plant hormones like gibberellin and ethylene, growth retardants and some fertilizers also play an important role in forcing. Employing mechanical methods can be considered as a sustainable and environment friendly practice. Advancements in plant physiology, photomorphogenesis, metabolism, and greenhouse technologies have led to the development of multiple strategies to finely regulate the rate of plant growth and development across various crops.