Abstract
The effects of soil or soilless culture of mother plants on the yield of cuttings and the quality of rooted cuttings were examined in the summer-to-autumn-flowering chrysanthemum ‘Seiun’. The yield of cuttings in soilless culture was about two times that in soil culture. Stem lengths of rooted cuttings taken from mother plants grown in soilless culture were longer and the number of leaves greater compared with those in soil culture. Especially, there was less premature budding of rooted cuttings taken from mother plants grown in soilless culture than those grown in soil culture. We also investigated the effects of cutting time, concentration of the nutrient solution, planting density, and shading treatment of mother plants cultivated in a soilless culture. The yield of cuttings grown in soilless culture was greatest for a planting density of 25.6 per m2 and with an intermediate concentration (nitrogen concentration was 142 ppm). It was clear that the stem length of rooted cuttings became shorter when cuttings from the mother plant were taken later and the concentration of nutrient solution was lower. Mother plants in the greenhouse were shaded from ambient daylight (control) using cheesecloth between June and August. The yield of cuttings taken from mother plants under the control conditions increased and the rooting of cuttings improved with increasing light intensity. The above results are considered applicable to the cultivation of mother plants of summer-to-autumn-flowering chrysanthemum.
