FAST CROPS POT MUM CULTURE 1967
Subject:
Pennsylvania Flower Growers #200
Abstract:
Most commercially grown pot mums are produced with 5 or 6 cuttings in a 6 inch pot. Pot mums produced by the "fast crop method" as described in Geo. J. Ball's Grower Talks 28(4) (10), 29(5) and Pennsylvania Flower Growers Bulletin 162 using only 4 cuttings have tended to be larger and more succulent than desired by many retail florists. Research results reported in Pennsylvania Flower Grower Bulletin 176 indicated that although with holding water and fertilizer at certain stages of growth helped to reduce the tendency toward over succulence it also reduced the number of flowers and therefore canceled out one of the main advantages of the fast crop method. The next approach tried was to reduce the number of cuttings to 3 and 2 per 6 inch pot. The results of this experiment have not been published but the finished products were quite satisfactory using 3 cuttings. The use of 2 cuttings produced plants with 20 to 24 flowers but with a considerable loss of symmetry giving an oval shaped appearance rather than the preferred rounded outline. A general observation has been that each leaf on a chrysanthemum stem has a potential axillary growth or break which will become a flower if given the necessary growing conditions, especially sufficient light. As the number of cuttings per pot or per unit of green house bench is reduced the remaining cuttings receive more light. The result of the additional light is that axillary branches, which would have remained small and never produced a mature flower, all grow into mature flowers.
Keywords: Axillary growth Succulence Growth Regulator General Treatments Varieties
Libraries: Floriculture