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Chrysanthemums - Getting Started as a Novice:

If your experience with 'mums' has been buying them at the store, the next logical step is to find a reputable grower.  There is no substitute for experience in getting a good start, and this means you can be growing great flowers earlier.  You may wish to take advantage of the 'growing tips' at CCDS meetings, or check out the 'Links' we have provided.

Chrysanthemums - Selecting Earlies from your stock:   (By Al Dormer & Roy Fox)

The selection process really starts at show time, when you can determine bloom quality.  This is a good time to select the blooms which you believe will be potential winners, and tag them for 'Show Stock' for the following year. 

When plants have passed their flowering period, they are cut back to within 12" of the ground level allowing the sap to go back into the root system.  A resting period should now take place and it is not necessary to dig them up until there is a possibility of a hard frost.  Three weeks rest in temperatures below 45 F is necessary to allow the plants to vernalize, which in essence giving the plant a very short 'winter-dormancy' period.  This is a vital step to ensure a plant which will properly bloom.

  After this period, wash all the remaining soil off the stools, and dip the roots into a pail of hot water for five minutes to remove or kill any pests which may be present.  During this process, I add a little fungicide to the water

Chrysanthemums - Starting your plants from 'Stools':

At the end of November, prepare your growing-box with a bed of soil compost & bottom heat, and plant the stools in this compost.  Do not water!  Just spray the stools every day with warm water, and shoots will appear.  When these shoots are two inches in length, you remove them from the stools, and plant them into other pots for growing-on.  These shoots will become the mother plants for the next seasonal crop.

When these cuttings are established (about 4" high) we can now take the top two inches of the growing tip as our first cutting.  The mother plant will now send out side shoots which can also be harvested as cuttings.  By now we are in late January or early February.  After rooting (about 21 days) the cuttings may be placed in 3" pots and placed on the bench with a little bottom heat to continue growing.  Try to maintain heat in the greenhouse at, or just slightly less than 50 degrees F.

'Potting-on' rooted Chrysanthemum cuttings:

(Click on the pictures for a closer look)

 

 

         Rooted plants at 4 weeks in 2.5" pots on bench with bottom heat.

 

 

        2.5" potted plants growing without bottom heat at 6 weeks old

 

 

        Stock plant in 3.5" pot

 

 

        Rooted cutting in 2.5" pot

 

 

        Ready to transplant to a 5 inch pot

 

 

        Plants in 5" pot growing on

 

 

        Ready for the cold frame

 

 

        Example of cutting showing name tag

 

 

        General view of plants on staging
     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Send mail to mg.thompson@sympatico.ca with questions or comments
Last modified: 11/15/08