How to deal with mums these days.....

[rafique]

Dear members its my third year trying to grow mums but yet not able to get the blooms like in
nurseries, there may be some tips to do this instead of panting, forgeting and waiting for blooms in season...
the important factors could be the plantation care and pinching timing(schedule).....

I am uploading cuurent status to get advice about what to do now .....................
the plants are still in pots and i think need to spread in open shady space(which yet is occupied by cinarerias plants for at leat one month more)..
may i keep the pants in same pots till that time ?
any other thing which should be considered right now?

would be obliged for suggestions..

regards

[dragoonsers]

Mums should've been blooming. They bloom from end of dec till about march end. The trigger for bloom is the shortening day length, ie. in winters, day ends around 5 and hence it triggers blooming. Mums do wonderfully in pots. Some tips:

-In summers, place pots in some shade-not too much sun
-Plants grow like crazy in summers- keep them well fertilized with lots of khad
-As soon as winters approach, stop the khad and feed them with low N- but high P and K fertilizer
-FULL SUN in the winter months!

That is all you need to do! Right now, i doubt they will bloom because day length in increasing. What you can do, is repot them in larger pots, and give them sun!

[AhmadIrfan]

I have tried growing mums many times, i am also trying this year, i had the roots separated and moved to ground in beds close to each other they are growing well for now after my petunia ends will move them to their permanent place in the open sun, they are prone to allot of diseases how do you deal with that??

[Farhan Ahmed]

I did not have much problem previous year except the biggest of all .......you will have to keep them, feed them, have a place for them till next December without any reward ....lol

Pest/Diseases
They are prone to aphids but only when budding(what i experienced)
Bottom leaves browning....i don't know why,may be heat but close to bloom time they became fine.

Care
This is the time for separating them, i hope you have separated the babies.....
You can pinch them when they are about a foot(what i did) to make them bushy

[M Farooq]

Dear members its my third year trying to grow mums but yet not able to get the blooms like in
nurseries, there may be some tips to do this instead of panting, forgeting and waiting for blooms in season...
the important factors could be the plantation care and pinching timing(schedule).....

I am uploading cuurent status to get advice about what to do now .....................the plants are still in pots and i think need to spread in open shady space(which yet is occupied by cinarerias plants for at leat one month more)..may i keep the pants in same pots till that time ? any other thing which should be considered right now? would be obliged for suggestions..

Do you grow them in full sun in winter? Chrysanthemums don't like shady places in winter, and probably will not bloom. They just grow taller in shady places searching for light (etiolation).

Some has done nice experiments to see what induces flowering in mums. I think professional nurseries play with lights to induce profuse blooming at the right time which we cannot do easily at home. See the following experiments (link below).

1.A 16 hr Day + an 8hr Night yields only vegetative (leafy) growth.

2.An 8 hr Day + a 16 hr Night results in flowering.

3.An 8 hr Day + an 8hr Night + 10 seconds of Light + 8hr Night yields only vegetative growth (i.e. interrupting the long night stops flowering).

4.An 8 hr Day + 10s Dark + 8hr Day + 8hr Night still yields only vegetative growth. (i.e. interrupting the long day does nothing).

5.An 8 hr Day + 8hr Night + 10 seconds of Red light + 8hr Night yields only vegetative growth (i.e. interrupting the long night with red light stops flowering as well.)

6.An 8 hr Day + 8hr Night + 10 seconds of far red light + 8hr Night produces flowers (i.e. interrupting the night with far red light still leads to flowering).

http://www.chrysanthemumsvancouver.com/ ... riodic.php

Regards,

Farooq

[rafique]

I usually plant them in place where they receive two to three hours of sun of dont give in fertilizer till october. in october pinch and give light sprinkle granular doses of 20 20 20( this year i tried with heavy feed accidently which cause the leaf burn but those plants still gave flowers). they give good flowers
but not as well as good as they do in nurserires

Now thing to resovle is the pinching ? i do pinch once but i think it require pinching more than once to shpe the umbrella like flowers....

if it require pinching more than once then what would be the time to pinch?

Thanks you every one i am grateful for all and looking forward for more .............i will also try to get out some the information from lawerenc garden malis(if they agree to share)..while googling in parallel ............................
thanks you all for vluable inputs.
regards

[Farhan Ahmed]

Other than pinching......babies are not separated that is why in displays mums appear more bushy. It is more than one plant.

[rafique]

Separated the babies in March...then first pinched in april when the height of plant was about 8-10 inch.



Below is the current status. Plants would be ready for second pinch in next week.
They are placed in full sun these days.Not feeding any thing except regular watering.


I am following these steps first time, not sure it would be success or failure but there would be a learning for me.

[Farhan Ahmed]

You are doing just fine