Response of Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.) Varieties to Different Covering Materials for Off Season Flower Production

Chrysanthemums are highly acceptable worldwide due to their attractive flower colour, shape and size. Keeping in view their ever increasing demand during the off season also, the investigations were carried out in the year 2019. The aim of this study was to standardize the covering material and variety suitable for off season flower production. The treatments consisted of five different varieties, viz. (Banglori Local, Yellow Delight, Reagan Emperor, Regan White and Nanako), and four covering materials (viz. tarpaulin, high-density polyethylene (HDPE), black satin cloth and 50% green shade net) along with natural photoperiod that was considered as control treatment were used. The trial was replicated thrice using factorial completely randomized design. The results revealed that among the different covering materials, the highest plant height (47.05 cm), flowers per plant (32.35), flower per shoot (9.75), with least days taken for peak flowering (140.13 days), were observed under HDPE covering material. The study concludes that HDPE was found to be the most suitable covering material for off season flower production of variety ‘Yellow Delight’.