Evaluation of chrysanthemum (Dendranthema grandiflora Tzvelev.) germplasm in winter season under Delhi conditions

Twenty genotypes of chrysanthemum (Dendranthema grandiflora Tzvelev.) namely, Ajay, Flirt, Kundan, Maghi, Neelima, Pink Cloud, Poornima, PC-10, PC-39, PC-29, PC-10-2, PC-8, PC-28, Snowball, Shyamal, Snow Don, Yellow Bangla, Thai Chin Queen, Tata Centenary, and White Prolific were evaluated for different characters suitable for cut flower and other purposes at the Research Farm of the Division of Floriculture and Landscaping, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, during winter season of 2004–2005 and 2005–2006. The results revealed that all the genotypes differed significantly with respect to growth and flowering parameters. Cultivar Tata Centenary recorded the maximum plant height (124.00 cm) followed by cv. Snow Don (123.99 cm) and Snow Ball (71.83 cm), respectively. Cultivar Yellow Bangla recorded maximum number of branches per plant (20.16) while minimum (3.16) was in PC-39. The maximum number of days taken for first flower bud appearance (83.50) and number of ray florets per flower (287.99) was recorded by cv. Thai Chin Queen; while flower diameter (10.58 cm) was recorded maximum by cv. Snow Don. PC-8 was found to be early flowering which took 79.49 day while cv. Poonam took 113.49 day for first flowering. The maximum number of flowers per plant (56.50) was obtained by PC-28 followed by White Prolific (52.16) and PC-10 (51.83) and minimum (10.33) by Kundan. The maximum duration of flowering on plant (56.83 day) was recorded by cv. Flirt and maximum fresh weight of single flower (10.24 g) was recorded by cv. Thai Chin Queen On the basis of morphological characters Thai Chin Queen Tata Centenary Snow Ball and Snow Don can be grouped as cut flower genotypes while remainine could be grouped as pot mum decorative and loose flower eenotypes