Performance of different cultivars of chrysanthemum on growth and flowering

Introduction

Floriculture is fast emerging major venture in world scenario. Many kinds of ornamental plants are grown for domestic and international trade in developed and developing countries. Today floriculture is recognized as a lucrative profession with much higher potential for returns per unit area than field crops and even some other horticultural crops. (Singh et al., 2009) [7] . Chrysanthemum (Dendranthema grandiflora L.) is often called mums or chrysanths is the genus (Chrysanthemum) consisting approximately 30 species of perennial flowering plants belongs to the family Asteraceae. Genus Dendranthema has basic chromosome No. n=9 and Dendranthema grandiflora is hexaploid innature, i.e. 2n=54. Which is native to Asia and north-eastern Europe. Chrysanthemum derived from Greek word "Chrysos" means golden and 'anthos' means flower. (Carter, 1980) [2] .

Chrysanthemum is becoming attractive to the growers as well as users, as it has great potential for local and export market. Chrysanthemum flowers have high worth and price because of its diverse shapes, sizes, forms and of course distinction in its flower colour. The foremost use of small flowered chrysanthemum is for making venis, garlands and also in sacred offerings (Bohra and Kumar 2014) [1] . To maximize the yield and enhance the quality of flowers. It is need to evaluate the different cultivar for Rajnandgaon (C.G.) region.

Materials and Methods

The field experiment was conducted during Rabi 2023 at Pt. K.L.S. College of Horticulture & Research Station, Rajnandgaon (C.G.). The soil type was sandy loam with pH 6.5. The trial was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications. Well-rotted FYM was incorporated during land preparation. Cutting of different cultivars were transplanted at a spacing of 45x30 cm. Standard agronomic practices were followed for irrigation, weeding etc. Growth and floral parameters were recorded. Growth parameters recorded included plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf length, stem diameters, plant spread, number of primary branches, and number of secondary branches.

Floral parameters recorded included days to first flower bud initiation, days to fully opened flower from bud emergence, flower diameter, fresh flower weight, and dry flower weight. The data collected was statistically analysed by ANOVA and critical difference was calculated at 5% level of significance to compare the treatments.

Results

The data regarding performance of different cultivars of chrysanthemum on growth and flowering has been presented in Table 1 and2.

Growth parameters

The data pertaining to the vegetative growth of chrysanthemum cultivars are present in table 1. maximum plant height (63.90 cm), Number of leaves per plant (92.47), Leaf length (6.34 cm), Stem diameter (2.50 cm), Plant spread (E-W) (25.16 cm), Plant spread (N-S) (25.22 cm), Number of primary and secondary branches (17.00 and 22.93) was observed in Snow Ball at 90 DAT. variation in plant height among chrysanthemum cultivars can be attributed to both genetic and environmental factors. Genetically, cultivars like Snow Ball have greater potential for vigorous growth. However, expression of genetic potential also depends on favourable growing conditions like sunlight, temperature, soil nutrition etc. Optimum environment allows the genetic makeup of a cultivar to fully manifest resulting in maximum plant height. Similar result was also found by Suvija et al. (2016) [6] , Prabhu et al. (2018) [4] and Nag et al. (2022) [3] in chrysanthemum.

Floral parameters

The data pertaining to the flowering growth of chrysanthemum cultivars are present in table 2. The significantly minimum days to first flower bud initiation (61.93 days), days to fully opened flower from bud emergence (16.86 days) was recorded in Snow Ball. Variations in the number of days taken to initiate first flower buds among chrysanthemum cultivars could be attributed to both genetic and environmental factors. While the innate flowering potential of early cultivars like 'Snow Ball' led to earlier budding compared to late genotypes such as 'Pompon', prevailing climatic conditions also likely influenced this trait. Similar results were also observed by Siddiqua et al. ( 2018)) [8] in chrysanthemum. The significantly highest flower diameter (7.28 cm), fresh flower weight (15.77 g) and dry flower weight (6.80 g) was recorded in the Pompon. Flower diameter varied significantly between chrysanthemum cultivars due to genetic differences controlling floral organ size and development. Cultivars with pompom flowers like Pompon produced the largest blooms, while snowball-type had the smallest decorative blooms suitable for different uses. Similar results were reported by Roopa et al. (2018) [5] and Thakur et al. (2018) [9] in chrysanthemum.

Conclusion

The study evaluated the growth and flowering parameters of different chrysanthemum varieties. Snow Ball was found to perform best for growth parameters like plant height, number of leaves and branches. It recorded highest values at par with S.L. (Andra Reffad) and Sonar Bangla for plant height. Mean while, floral parameters like days to first flower bud initiation and flower opening were maximum in Snow Ball. However, Pompon variety excelled with larger flower diameter and higher fresh and dry flower weight.