Evaluation of different cultivars of chrysanthemum suitable for low hill conditions of Himachal Pradesh

An experiment was conducted under low hill conditions of Himachal Pradesh to evaluate 12 cultivars of Chrysanthemum including five standard types viz., Fiji Yellow, Purnima, Tata Centuary, Thaiching Queen, White Star and seven spray type namely, Ajay Baggi, Discovery, Punjab Anuradha, Surf, Nanako and White Bouquet. Among the standard type cultivars, earlier bloom (129 days) was observed in cultivar Purnima while, cv. White star took the longest period (136.66 days) to bloom. Plant height and duration of flowering were also recorded to be maximum in cv. Purnima. However, number of stems per plant and number of flowers per plant varied from 4 to 5 among all the standard type cultivars. The flower diameter was maximum in cv. Purnima (10.66 cm). Among spray type cultivars, cv. Baggi proved to be the best performer under sub tropical conditions of the state in terms of time to bloom (125 days), plant height (75.66 cm) and flower diameter (5 cm) while, duration of flowering (36.33 days) was recorded to be maximum in cv. Nanako. Number of stems per plant varied between 7 to 12 while, number of flowers per plant ranged from 19 to 55 among different spray type cultivars. In all, cv. Purnima among standard type and cv. Baggi among spray type proved to be the most suitable for cultivation under low hill zone of the state.