College of Agriculture, Bhubaneswar
*Present address of the Senior author: S. K. Sen, Lecturer in Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Kalyani, P.O. Kalyani, Nadia.
Comparable rooted cuttings of chrysanthemum were treated with 2-chloroethyl trimethyl ammonium chloride, 2, 4-dichlorobenzyl tributyl phosphonium chloride,
N-dimethyl arainosuccinamic acid, Maleic hydrazide and Gibberellic acid in 20 cm pots at the stage of active growth. GA caused hyperelongation of stem and internodes and also increased leaf area and petiole length. At higher levels of GA dry matter percentage of leaf was increased. Significant reduction in plant height was observed with higher levels of MH, Cycocel and all levels of Phosfon. B-Nine only at 0.5 per cent caused growth retardation and branch number increased with B-Nine. MH, Cycocel and Phosfon treatments produced compact plants and maximum compactness was noticed with 0.1 per cent Phosfon. Flowering was accelerated by about 13 days with 50 ppm of GA, but was delayed under all levels of MH. Flower number decreased with 1,000 ppm of MH but size of flower increased. All the retardants caused delay in flowering and maximum delay in flowering was noticed with 0.1 per cent Phosfon. Cycocel and Phosfon treatments caused reduction in flower size. No significant difference in flower number, however, was noticed. B-Nine at 0.5 per cent level caused significant increase in flower production.
