_ A fast wrap for pot Mums. 
| It’s a paper “cylinder” 
| slightly cone-shaped. The 
; cone is simply slid up over 
the plant from below. A 
wrap like this is fast to 
apply and will eliminate to 
some extent the need for 
|| tying. Bill Beyer holding 
the plant. 
(Continued from page 33) 
of plants in a handful of soil, and that takes some 
watching. Highlights: 
1. Humus: one fourth either peat or manure 
(better yet, a mixture). We steam the soil— 
a year’s supply at a time. 
2. Feeding: Phosphate added dry as peat-ma- 
nure is mixed. Nitrate and potash applied week- 
ly (in summer) as a liquid feed. Use same rates 
with 25-0-25 as for cut mums. Some excellent 
pot mum specialists feed every 3 days! 
3. Water—be sure there’s good drainage, then 
keep them well watered, especially as they get 
larger. That may mean every day in hot weather. 
If pots are set on muddy soil, it stops up drain 
holes. 
In potting don’t fill the pot clear full. Leaving 
an inch will catch more water—reduce frequency 
of watering. 
Disbudding 
In most sections, competition demands that the 
10 or 12 stems on a pot mum be disbudded to one 
flower per stem; also side shoots are removed down 
the stem. Exception: the garden varieties, or any 
pomps grown as a pot mum. They just won’t make 
a bigger flower, even when disbudded. 
TROUBLES—A FEW OF THE MOST COMMON 
1. Uneven bud set? 
The same problem as with cut mums (page 
9). For winter-spring crops, we find 65° 
nights gives much more even bud set and de- 
velopment than 60°. Good quality, too. 
2. Lower leaves dry up—why? 
Several reasons. One very common one is foliar 
nematode or foliage diseases. See page /. 
Oo 0 ( Pet Jiu ° 
WEST CHICAGO 
HUNDIS 
Generally they are worse on outdoor grown 
plants. 
Two other reasons: overcrowding and under- 
feeding. Under good care, the leaves should 
stay on, and stay green clear to the bottom. 
Poor drainage seems to affect them, too. 
3. Can’‘t get over 1 or 2 breaks per cutting 
As with any plant, the three main requirements 
for generous and prompt breaking are plenty of 
nitrate and potash, plenty of water, and ample 
sunlight (meaning generous spacing) . 
Varieties differ—Bonnaffon is good, Blazing 
Gold only fair. We put one more cutting per 
pot of poor breakers. 
A good, soft cutting will always break better 
than a hard, wiry one. 
4. Flowers rot as they open 
Much the same story as with cut Mums—page 
7. Several pot mum growers report good con- 
trol with Parzate dust—every 3 days. Some 
shade on glass in hot weather helps. 
ABOUT SINGLE STEM POT MUMS 
We don’t recommend to any grower that he go 
over 100% to single stem pot mums. But there are 
some angles to them that may fit your trade. The 
pros and cons as we see them: 
Let’s put down the disadvantages first. Mainly 
it’s more cuttings—probably seven to a 6” pot 
against five for the same plant pinched. Net loss: 
two cuttings. 
On the credit side: 
1. Large, showy blooms—Indianapolis White, 
for example, makes fine large, showy blooms 
that would average 3 to 1% larger than the 
same variety pinched. They’re really quite strik- 
ing. It’s a deluxe plant, but still finished in a 
six. Individual flowers ran 52 to 6 inches in 
our trials. If competition in pot mums is hot on 
your heels, perhaps this is a way to ‘have the 
best’’. 
2. Ordinarily, no pinch plants do not require 
tying. They are almost always short, and hav- 
ing more plants per pot than pinched plants, 
tend to stand up better. 
3. No more problem of getting enough breaks 
per plant. Indianapolis is bad on this, but nice 
grown “no pinch”. 
4. You save several weeks time on the bench— 
and the labor of pinching and tying, too, of 
course. 
Here’s How: 
Plant 5-7 cuttings per 6” pot; give 4 long days 
then shade (or lights off). Do not pinch.. Salable 
pot plant in 92-10 weeks. Dark Indianapolis 
Yellow and Indianapolis White are best for this 
treatment! 
Use only varieties that are normally quite short 
growers. 
35 
