LECTURE -13

PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY OF
CHRYSANTHEMUM

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 It occupies a place of pride both as a commercial crop
and as a popular exhibition flower.
 It has a wide range of type, size and colour and also
‘forms’.
 Short day plant – ‘Photo sensitive’ (10 hours day light).
 Suitable as Cut flowers
Loose flower
Pot culture
Garland making & hair decoration
Essential oil
Sources of pyrethrum.
Background planting in borders
 Cultivars
 National Botanical Research Institute: Snowball,
Potomac, M-24, Agnishikha, Navneet yellow etc
 Indian Institute of Horticulture Research: Indira,
Neelima, Chandrakant, Chandrika, Pankaj, Rakhee etc
 Spray types: Super white, Sunbeam, Blue Marble, Red
Nero, Tuneful, Apricot Marble, Flamenco, Coral Marble
 Standard types: Snow Ball, Chandrama, Cassandra, Red
Anne, Alfred Wilson, Gay Anne
 Small-flowered for pot culture: Honeycomb, Aparajita,
Megami
 Small-flowered for cut-culture: Sujata, Nilima
 Small-flowered for garland: Birbal Sahni, Sharad
Shobha, Basanti
 Propagation
Suckers
 Suckers arise from the underground stem and these are
separated and planted in prepared nursery beds during
January for stock plants.
 Regular pinching is performed in these plants for
vigorous and profuse branching.

Terminal cuttings
 Cuttings of 5-7 cm in length are taken form healthy
stock plants in June-July.
 The basal portions of cuttings are dipped rooting
hormone (1000 ppm solution of IBA) for better rooting.
 Sometimes the lower portion of cuttings is treated with
some copper fungicide to avoid fungal growth.
 One month old well rooted cuttings are ready for
planting in the field.
Soil requirement
 Chrysanthemum with a shallow but fibrous root system
is sensitive to water-logging.
 Sandy loam soils are ideal for chrysanthemum growing.
 pH ranging between 6.2 to 6.7 is ideal.

Climatic requirement
 Light (Intensity 1.2-1.6 MJ /m2/day, Quality: 600-800
nm, Photoperiod: less than 9.5 hours).
 Temperature (night: 10-16 0C, day: 18-21 0C).
 CO2 : 500-1000 ppm
 Planting during April-May is recommended as it initiates
and flowers during September to December under South
Indian conditions.
Spacing
 Standards: 20 x 20 cm
 Sprays: 30 x 30 cm
 Pot mums: 3-5 cuttings/pot (15 cm)
Irrigation
 Chrysanthemum are to be irrigated twice a week in the
first two weeks and subsequent by at weekly intervals.
Weed control
 Weeding and hoeing are generally done manually as
and when required, normally 8-10 times yearly.
 Besides, control of weeds the soil is made loose porous
to provide aeration.

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 Manures and fertilizers
 Chrysanthemums are heavy feeders and hence they are
to be adequately manured.
 They are applied with 25 t of FYM along with 250,120,
125 kg NPK/ha.
 Half of the N and the entire quantity of P and K are to be
applied basal by just before planting.
 The other half of N is to be applied 30 days after planting
the suckers.

Staking of plants
 Staking is necessary to keep plants erect and to maintain
proper shape of plants and bloom.
 Stakes are prepared mostly from bamboo sticks.
 Staking of plants is required for vertical support of the
plants. 7
Pinching
 The operation of removal of terminal growing portion of
stem as it reduces plant height and promotes axillary
branches.
 First pinching is done when the plants reach a height of
15-20 cm with 3-4 pairs of leaves.
 Two types of pinching are performed
(a) Soft pinching
(b) Hard pinching

Disbudding and De-shooting

 Many of the standard type varieties are disbudded in
which the largest terminal bud is reserved and all auxiliary
buds are removed.
 De-shooting is practiced to reduce the number of
branches for improving the size and form of the flower.
plant 8will loose vigour and becomes weak.
De-suckering
 During the vegetative growth phase, plants grow
upward.
 New suckers continue to develop from base of plants.
 For proper and vigorous growth of plants, suckers are
removed from time to time.

Growth regulators
 GA3 50 ppm can be sprayed at 30, 45 and 60 days
after planting to increase the yield.
 Alar 50 – 150 gm/100 lit water and B 9 at 8 – 25
ml/lit of water is used twice at the growing stage

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Physiological disorders
Premature Budding
 More specifically, crop exposure to low night
temperatures, short days, drought or nutrient stress can
lead to premature budding.
 If premature budding occurs, buds should be pinched
off immediately, and adequate moisture and fertilizer
supplied
Heat delay
 Once short days begin, exposure to temperatures of
around 85° F or higher delays flowering, which is a
phenomenon known as heat delay.

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Petal burn/Sunscald
 Is prevalent on standards in flower in very warm
weather. The petals turn brown and dry up.
Blindness
 Continued growth of shoots and failure to form flower
buds when short days are started the mean night
temperature was too low.

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Harvesting
 Standards: When outer row of florets start unfurling
for distant market and for local market half opened
flowers.
 Sprays: Harvested for local market when two flowers
have opened and others have shown colour, while for
distant market when 50% flowers have shown colour.
 Loose flowers: Fully open flowers
 Pot mums: 50% buds have developed colour.

Yield
1. Main crop: 9-10 t/ha.
2. Ratoon crop: 4-5 t/ha.
3. Sprays- 1, 00,000 stems can be obtained from one ha.
Pests
• Aphids
• Thrips
• Leaf miners
• Red spider mites
• Hair caterphillars
• Nematodes

Diseases
• Wilt
• Root rot,
• Bacterial rot,
• Gray mould,
• Cercospora leaf spot
• Alternaria leaf spot
• Fusarium stem rot
• Powdery mildew
• White Rust