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Chrysanthemums can be propagated by suckers taken out of old plants by cutting and via seeds. Propagation by seeds is seldom resorted to. In order to produce healthy quality blooms, it is necessary to select only those stocks which bear first-rate healthy flowers. After the previous years flowering is over, the soil in the pot is top-dressed with a rich mixture of manure and loam. The stem, which has finished flowering, is cut down to about 2.5 cm above the soil level. The plant is well looked after till the next season. The suckers are either separated and planted to develop in a fresh potting mixture as individual plants or made into cuttings and potted by stages. For cuttings, stout terminal cuttings about 7.5 cm to 10 cm long are taken from them. The lower leaves from each cutting are removed and the upper leaves shortened in length. In North India, they are started towards the end of June or early July. The cuttings can be put into shallow boxes, beds or pots containing a mixture of two parts sand, one part well crushed and sieved leaf mould and one part loam. It would be ideal if the soil for the cuttings could be sterilised. Dipping a centimetre of the base of the cutting into a rooting hormone mixture encourages profuse rooting. Watering is done once or twice a day to keep it moist. In about three to five weeks the cuttings are ready for transplantation. The transplanting should be done preferably in the evening and potted plants should be kept in the shade for about a week and watered regularly. Once you have your own rooted cuttings or have bought them, pot them by stages i.e. first in 10 cm, then 15 cm, then 22.5 cm and finally in 30 cm pots for getting the required exhibition blooms. For convenience, you may start the rooted cuttings in 25 cm or 30 cm size with a potting mixture of two parts farm yard manure, two parts leaf mould, one part wood ashes, one part course sand, a quarter part bone-meal, one part charcoal and three parts fibrous loam. The mixture then may be passed through a one-cm mesh sieve and the course siftings used for the bottom of the pots, with the finer soil above. Potting should be done in such a way that top 2.5 cm or 4 cm is left unfilled so that top dressings of the compost can be done later on. A thin layer of oil-cake sprinkled over the soil in the pot and allowed to dissolve slowly with irrigation water is advisable in the early stages. Fortnightly applications of a weak solution of liquid manure are also good. By the end of September, the top 2.5 cm. of vacant space in the pot may be filled with a top dressing of compost. Stopping and disbudding: The first pinching is done when the plant has eight to 10 leaves. This is done by removing the terminal portion, so as to leave six to seven leaves on the plant. The laterals develop rapidly from below the cut. Small flowered chrysanthemums are allowed to grow naturally in a bushy form while the large flowered ones need disbudding to have single buds for show on the centre stem or three stems. Disbudding starts around October when several flower buds form at the end of each shoot and also in the axils of the upper leaves. Rub off all the buds except the centre ones with the finger and thumb. This should be done early when the central buds are as big as a pea. Chrysanthemums can be staked as soon as there are three shoots after pinching, and small flowered ones (except the cascade type) are to be staked on the edges of the pots. The chief troubles that the chrysanthemum grower has to face are water logging, aphids, caterpillars, chrysanthemum midge and lead miner. These can be controlled by the regular spray of 0.1 per cent captan or nicotine at intervals of 15 days. |
DATING
back to 500 B.C., the chrysanthemums (compositae family) originated in
China. It was in Japan that the varieties were considerably improved.
From small button to the giant varieties, chrysanthemums are generally
classified for show purposes as Korean, button, pompom, cascading (small
varieties) and incurved, incurving, reflexed, spider, spoon, quilled and
anemone in the large flowered sections.