Vegetative Mutagenesis Studies in Chrysanthemum

An experiment entitled “Vegetative mutagenesis studies in chrysanthemum” was carried out at the Horticulture Farm, University Department of Horticulture, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola during the year 2012–13 (VM₁ generation). The experiment of VM₁ generation was laid out in completely randomized design with three replications and ten treatments viz. 0.4, 0.8, 1.2, 1.6, 2.0 and 2.4 K_R doses of gamma rays and 0.75, 1.00, 1.25% doses of EMS and control respectively. The result indicates that, the treatment of rooted cuttings of chrysanthemum with the gamma rays and EMS showed significantly reduces the survival of plant, plant height, plant spread, branches plant⁻¹, leaves plant⁻¹, leaf length⁻¹, leaf width⁻¹, petiole length⁻¹, chlorophyll index andleafarea. The highest dose of gamma rays (2.4K_R) and EMS (1.25%) significantly reduced the vegetative characters of the chrysanthemum plant when compared with other treatments. The promising mutants viz. dwarf plant mutant and faded mutant could be induced withthe2.4K_R dosesof gamma rays and 1.25% doses of EMS.