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Plant propagators must take two technological critical decisions: the plug-cell size and the growing medium, both of which have been mentioned as abiotic stress sources for bedding pot plants. However, only a few recent reports on bedding pot plants have simultaneously included limiting and non-limiting plug cell volumes and growing medium during nursery. The aim of this work was to assess the nursery performance of Impatiens walleriana seedlings grown in four plug cell volumes and four growing media with significant differences in both physical and chemical properties. Plants were sprayed or not with an early and single benzyl aminopurine (BAP) dose, aiming to understand how they interact on determining biomass accumulation at the pot transplant stage. The hypothesis tested was that, both plug cell volume and growing medium, must be seen as additive abiotic stress sources, which can be partially overridden by exogenous cytokinin supply. The main result was that, in I. walleriana seedlings, the abiotic stress imposed by the growing medium quality during nursery had a higher effect on biomass accumulation (on both fresh and dry base), leaf area expansion and photo assimilates partitioning than plug cell volume and constitute an interactive process associated with cytokinin synthesis. From a grower´s point of view, one expensive option to avoid root restriction is to use high quality growing media and increase the plug cell volume. In contrast, a single 100 mg L-1 BAP spray can partially override the root restriction symptoms related to abiotic stresses. The novelty of this work is related to the fact that growing media quality would be a more limited factor than plug cell volume for I. walleriana seedlings during nursery.

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Higher bedding plant yields per unit greenhouse area was reaching through two grower´s currently decision-making: plug cell volume during nursery and growing media quality for both nursery and pot cycle. With the goal of maximizing bedding plant yield to identify the main limiting factor at the pot stage, we evaluated Impatiens walleriana yield to the end of the pot growth stage when four different pre-transplant cell volume and four pre or post-transplant growing media with different physical properties were used. The hypothesis tested was that only one of the potentially negative stress source (pre-transplant cell volume or growing medium quality) is the main responsible for decreasing biomass accumulation at the post-transplant pot growing cycle. The experimental design was a randomised factorial with three blocks of five single-pot replications of each treatment combination (plug cell volume × growing medium × pre- and post-transplant).The main result was that, in I. walleriana seedlings, the combining abiotic stresses imposed by both the growing medium quality and nursery plug cell volume defined biomass accumulation (on a fresh and dry base), leaf area expanded and photo assimilates partitioned as opposed to a previous report, which indicate that that growing media quality would be a more limited factor than plug cell volume for I. walleriana seedlings during nursery.

In ornamental plants, the need to optimize nursery management has led to a tendency to decrease plug cell tray volume. However, in ornamental plants such as Impatiens walleriana, a lower plug cell volume can negatively affect leaf area expansion and biomass accumulation during the pre-transplant cycle. Because these results have been associated with a decrease in root growth, a floating system where roots come out of the plug cell has been proposed. The aim of this work was to describe pre-transplant biomass accumulation in plants from different plug cell volumes and the response to two propagation systems: media-based plug cell trays and floating system. The relationship found between plug cell volume and growth in both the media-based and floating systems is in agreement with that found in previous reports. With respect to the traditional media-based system, the floating system showed higher leaf area expansion, as a result of higher leaf appearance rate and relative leaf area expansion. Higher fresh and dry weight accumulation were estimated through the relative growth rate (RGR), with a strong relationship with the capacity of photo assimilate production (net assimilation rate) and RGR. However, all these changes cannot be exclusively associated with a higher root growth in the floating system. Our experiments validate the positive results in favor of the use of a floating system and also shows the physiological mechanisms involved.

Although much is known about the production of bedding plants, including Impatiens walleriana, little has been documented on their post-production performance. Thus, the aim of this work was to understand how pre-transplant crop management related to root restrictions imposed by plug cell volume and substrate quality affects the post-production performance related to biomass accumulation. To this end, we tested four plug cell volumes, as well as four growing media with significantly different physical and chemical properties, during nursery and pot culture. We also evaluated the difference between use and nonuse of synthetic cytokinin spray (benzyl aminopurine, BAP), a proven stress alleviator. Our novelty data validated the previous hypothesis and showed that plant quality and garden performance are dependent on these potential stress sources. The physiological mechanisms involved included differences in leaf area expansion (estimated mainly by relative leaf area expansion rate) and differences in CO2 fixation capacity (estimated by net assimilation rate). The sum of these responses determined significant differences in total fresh and dry weight during pot culture, which were amplified when plants were transplanted to a field bed. Spraying plants with synthetic cytokinin early during nursery allowed overriding of most root restriction abiotic stresses related to plug cell volume and growing media; therefore, synthetic cytokinin constitutes a tool to improve the yield of bedding plants (at the grower's level) and garden performance.