By Bed TOBA MUMS 
One very practical way to mechanize Mum watering. Such 
overhead lines as these with fishtail nozzles can be spaced 
every 15 feet; eliminate hone watering except on crops in 
lower. 
March) and on the earlier flowering varieties. To prevent it: 
1. Keep plants cool as possible, not over a 50° house. 
2. Apply lights 2 hours nightly thru September, 3 hours 
thru October, 4 hours thru November, 5 hours thru December 
and January, 4 hours thru February, 3 hours thru March, and 
2 hours thru April—starting the day you receive the cuttings. 
3. Keep growth soft as possible—ample water, adequate 
feeding. 
Worst varieties for early budding: Blazing Gold, Legal 
Tender, Masterpiece, Silver Sheen, Constellation, Seneca and 
the hardy varieties as a class. 
The Feeding Program. In general, we apply no nitrate or 
potash either before benching or after till they have made 
several inches of new growth. Once they have started, we give 
them a light application of a balanced liquid fertilizer every 
several weeks in summer and fall, less often in dark weather. 
Sandy soils require more feeding. Occasional soil tests are of 
real help in use of fertilizers. We like to keep nitrates, potash, 
and phosphates all in the medium range. 
About pH: slightly acid (pH 6.8) to neutral is about right 
for Mums in our experience. In applying sulfur sprays to the 
foliage, you will eventually get enough on the soil to start 
driving the pH down. Tests will show this, and it can be 
quickly corrected with lime. 
Mulching Mums. Mums will respond very nicely to a half 
inch or so mulch of peat, especially during the warm months. 
It saves watering, seems to keep the surface soil from getting 
too hard. When the crop is out, you can plow this peat 
right into the soil where it will help the next crop, too. 
“Taking” (or leaving!) the Bud—on Big Mums. In late 
summer you will find one of two types of growing tips on 
the plants: 
1. CROWN. A flowering bud surrounded by non-flower- 
ing vegetative shoots. 
2. TERMINAL. A flowering bud surrounded by flowering 
buds. 
Early Mums will usually throw a crown bud in August. 
This is usually removed and one of the vegetative side shoots 
“selected” or left to grow on. All other shoots are removed. 
Some plants may produce another crown which may again be 
discarded in favor of a non-flowering shoot. Sooner or later, 
all plants produce a terminal from which you must select the 
best bud—to produce the flower. 
On early varieties it’s safest to remove all crowns up to 
August 20. Early crowns are O.K. on some shaded Mums. On 
28 
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WEST CHICAGO 
ILLINOIS 
mid-season sorts, terminals are safer. Final bud should have 
been selected by September 1-10; on late ones a month later. 
Your experience is the best guide. Keep notes. 
On single stemmed or unpinched crops of standard (big) 
Mums, always leave the center one of the first cluster of buds 
to appear. If the side buds surrounding this bud are not re- 
moved promptly, they will rapidly grow beyond the center 
bud. You will then have to leave one of the stronger side 
buds and remove the center one—and you will have a “dog 
leg” stem. Unpinched Mum crops must be checked over twice 
a week without fail to avoid this loss. 
Cutting the flowers. One big point: start as the bench 1s just 
a bit on the too green side, and cut regularly every day so that 
the whole bench will be off before any part of it ts old. Old 
or pickled flowers will be older yet when they reach the 
market—worth little or nothing. 
Spacing—crops that are to be pinched (both Mums and 
Pomps) are normally spaced 7x8 or near to that. On this 
spacing, Pomps are usually pruned to leave the three strongest 
stems, big Mums the best two (or three depending on your 
market). 
Supports—W hy Three When One Does It? Years ago, the 
style was to grow Mums or Pomps 4-6 ft. tall or more and 
provide 2, 3 or even 4 layers of wire and cross strings. Mums 
were strung individually to an over-head wire—or staked. 
We find it perfectly practical, and a great economy in time 
and material, to support both Mums and Pomps with a single 
layer of wire-string. This assumes proper scheduling of the 
crop so that it will not exceed 3-314 ft. in height. It also 
requires that this one layer of wire-string be capable of being 
raised weekly as the crop grows. If the plant is anchored at 
the ground, and at it’s top, what can it do but stand up 
straight? 
The end supports on our beds are of inch pipe. The inter- 
mediate supports on down the bench are spaced every 17 ft.; 
uprights are 1x2 and cross members are 1x1. Wires are 
stapled down to the 1x1. The 1x1 is fastened to the up- 
right 1x2 by tying it with binder twine. To insure against 
it’s slipping down, we drive a 2” nail below the 1x1 and 
only part way in so it can be raised weekly. See photo on 
next page. 
In our early trials with this one layer support idea, we had 
one fine bench of Illini Snowdrift that tipped over on its 
side! Since then we have strengthened the supports, put them 
closer—and had no further trouble. By the way, we got the 
Snowdrift back up on its feet without any serious injury. 
Liquid feeding seems to give better response than the 
same mater.al applied dry. Weak but regular appli- 
cations can be meade as you water (without loss of 
pressure) with the Smith pump (above) or the Delta 
dispenser. 
