Bub TSE R.. PM Mans. 
ABOUT PREMATURE BUDDING 
The symptoms: Long before the crop should normally set 
buds, each plant will throw buds—at tips, leaf axils, etc. Some- 
times cuttings will throw buds a week or two after benching. 
Some varieties are worse than others. 
The cure: To prevent premature budding, you must: 
1. Provide additional light up to May 1, 4 hours per night 
thru February, 3 hours per night thru March, 2 hours thru April. 
Use 60 Watt bulbs 4 feet apart, 3 feet above plants. 
2. Keep night temperature 50° or below as long as possible, 
preferably near 45°. 
3. Keep growth soft—plenty of water, moderate feeding. 
4. Avoid varieties susceptible to early budding. Examples: 
Blazing Gold, Legal Tender, Masterpiece, Silver Sheen, Constel- 
lation, Seneca, and hardy varieties generally. 
Naturally, the earlier you take delivery of your cuttings, the 
more apt you are to have early budding troubles. Growers order- 
ing cuttings for winter or early spring delivery (for spring and 
early summer flowering) must take special care to provide extra 
day length and cool temperatures, starting the day the cuttings 
are received. Extra susceptible varieties have even been known 
to initiate buds during long distance shipping under high temper- 
atures. 
HOW ABOUT THESE YEAR ‘ROUND 
MUMS? 
Any grower willing to follow the rules of temperature, day 
length, etc., can now flower good Mums and Pomps any month 
of the year. We devote space here to off season Mum growing, 
not because it is a research achievement, but because we believe 
there is a chance for profit in it—for both market and retail grow- 
ers. Our own experience growing for the Chicago wholesale mar- 
kets has indicated favorable reception of good off season Mums 
and Pomps—especially during the late spring and summer 
months. Furthermore, by combining accurate day length control 
with the new single stem method of growing, a new degree of 
flexibility is available to the grower. We have cut good Shasta 
Pomps and Indianapolis Mums in as little as 8 to 9 weeks after 
benching! This opens many new possibilities in rotations for the 
miscellaneous grower. 
For an example: The’time honored rotation of Mums after 
spring Snaps produces one crop of Mums or Pomps usually 
around Thanksgiving. This past season, taking ten benches that 
were cleared of Snaps by April 1, we cut a nice crop of Pomps 
and Mums in early June—then another crop in early September 
(from the same bed)—and had the beds ready for Snaps again 
by October 1. Both Pomps and Mums were grown single stem, 
and cuttings were banded—but, both the June crop and the Sep- 
tember one brought more than twice as many dollars per square 
foot return as the former one crop that hit the glutted markets 
of October and November. See Grower Talks, October 1950, 
page 6 for details. 
Cpa 
rat FOR ELE OF RA AS Ais 
WEST CHICAGO 
ILLINOIS 
For several years, some authorities have predicted that over- 
production during these “off season” periods would soon depress 
prices to an unprofitable level. There have been temporary local 
gluts during late summer, but so far, good local stock in our ex- 
perience has been on the whole well received during these 
periods. 
HOW DOES OFF SEASON FLOWERING WORK? 
Even tho lighting and shading schedules are very definite, 
most of us like to understand what is behind them. 
Here’s the theory: After benching, the plant is kept under 
conditions of day length and temperature that will keep it blind 
or vegetative—until it has developed usually around 15-18 inches 
of stem. Then, day length and temperature are changed so as to 
force it into flower—and the 18 inches of stem will normally 
stretch to 32-36 inches before cutting. By manipulating tempera- 
ture and day length, it is possible to force a Mum into flower on 
a 6-inch stem—or a 10 ft. one! Ideally, most growers like about 
32 inches of stem for market. Much more than that simply repre- 
sents wasted effort, time in the bench. 
What are the conditions that keep a Mum blind, vegetative 
(non-flowering)? Mums grown at 14 hours of day length will 
not set bud. In winter when days are normally only 10 hours long, 
the extra 4 hours are made up with electric lights. 
On the other hand, Mums grown at 11 hours of day length, 
and at minimum of 60 degrees, will set bud—quite promptly. Of 
course, if you wish to set buds on Pomps during June when days 
are normally 14 hours long, you must shorten the days by apply- 
ing black sateen cloth 5 PM to 7 AM. 
Especially in the South, conditions of climate and temperature 
make the off season Mum tables not always correct. If a grower 
finds under his own conditions that a particular crop of Mums 
flowers on 5-6-ft. stems, he may of course reduce day length 
sooner. This, of course, advances the flowering date which must 
be kept in mind too. See table, page 26. 
DETAILS OF LIGHTING, SHADE, TEMPERATURE. 
Where days must be lengthened, use 60 Watt bulbs with 
reflectors spaced 4 feet apart down the bench—and kept about 
2-3 feet above the plant tops. Turn lights on at 10 PM. Here’s 
a good table by Alex Laurie on number of hours to burn lights 
each night to keep Mums vegetative (non-flowering). 
Month No. of Hours Month No. of Hours 
August 2 January 5 
September _ 24 February 4 
October 3 March 3 
November 4 April 2) 
December y 
Now about temperature: both Mums and Pomps must be kept 
at a minimum of 60 degrees until buds are definitely formed. 
Failure to maintain 60 degrees will mean blindness on most vari- 
eties during many parts of the year. Some varieties will set bud 
Flexo-glass house Mums at West Chicago, photo August 14, 1950. This and a similar house of Pompons (without Flexo-glass) were benched May 15 (5 x 6 
no pinch), shaded June 15, and Silver Sheen (on the right) was cut August 15. Mefo (center) and Good News (left) came in 10 to 12 dava ibis The 
single stem growing brought the crop in several weeks earlier to a much better market—enough better to easily repay the cost of the extra cuttings. See page 
26. 

