With spring on the way, many greenhouse sections and greenhouses are filling up with a wide array of crop types, including annual bedding plants, herbaceous perennials, vegetable and herbs transplants, and tropical plants, most with conflicting environmental and cultural requirements (Fig. 1). Almost all greenhouse and retail garden center businesses produce flats or containers with a single-species and hanging baskets and decorative patio planters with mixes of multispecies. The diverse selection of plant material, containers, and combination planters growing side-by-side for a few weeks, like annual bedding plants or longer-term crops like hanging baskets, can lead to growing difficulties that affect overall plant quality and aesthetic appeal. Growers can prevent these growing difficulties by grouping crops to accommodate their environmental and cultural requirements, which can lead to success this production season.
Air Temperature
In the hierarchy of grouping greenhouse crops, growers can first start by assessing environmental responses such as air temperature. Greenhouse crops can be grouped into three temperature-response categories: cold-tolerant, cold-temperate, and cold-sensitive. These categories are based on base temperatures or the temperature at which a plant stops growing and developing.
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Ideally, growers should strive to separate crops by their base temperature and grow in greenhouses under different temperature set points. This strategy is advantageous for crop scheduling, lowering heating costs, and maintaining crop quality; however, it may not be feasible for all greenhouse and retail garden center businesses due to space constraints and environmental control systems.