Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan-173 230, Himachal Pradesh, India
1Regional Horticultural Research and Training Station, Dhaulakuan – 173 001, Distt Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh, India
The present investigation was carried out at Solan to find out suitable chrysanthemum cultivars for pot mum production under natural and controlled photoperiodic conditions. The experiment was laid out on 15 cultivars/selections of chrysanthemum in a CRD (factorial) with 3 replications. Off-season flowering was induced by providing artificial short days (16 h dark period with effect from 5.00 pm to 9.00 am) starting from 31 May, 2013, by using covering material i.e. high density polyethylene (white outside and black inside), till 60–70% buds showing colour. Among different cultivars/selections under studied Pusa Anmol, Vijay, Vijay Kiran and Anmol were found suitable for pot mum production under both conditions. These cultivars produced the most suitable pot mums with earliest flowering, optimum height, increased flower size, enhanced duration of flowering and compact growth under controlled photoperiod. Therefore, Pusa Anmol, Vijay, Vijay Kiran and Anmol can be recommended for pot mum production in low hills conditions of Himachal Pradesh.
Chrysanthemum, pot mum, photoperiodic control, growth, flowering
