You will know how to keep mums from blooming too early if you understand what factors affect their blooming. Unlike other flowers, mums or chrysanthemums are prone to premature budding, making their finishing short and initiating flower buds before even the reproductive stage. This can be stressful for gardeners because it affects productivity, and the plants will not perform well.
The good news is that mums are relatively easy to grow, and their optimal conditions are easy to meet, especially in a controlled environment like a greenhouse. Their hardiness zones are from 5 to 9, making them one of the hardiest flowers to cultivate. However, the best time for them to bloom in the fall, so take the time to understand their blooming factors and keep them from doing it prematurely.
Learn How To Keep Mums From Blooming Too Early
The main reasons for the early blooming or premature budding of mums are temperature, day period, and maintenance. As you can notice, these factors are straightforward to control, especially with a greenhouse. This is also the reason why commercial manufacturers grow flowers indoors.
Temperature
Exposure to extreme conditions like high temperatures, excessive rain, and low relative humidity can cause mums to bloom early. Therefore, indoor cultivation of these flowers can protect them from these conditions and maintain optimal requirements instead. This is also the same reason why it’s not best to plant or even transplant chrysanthemums outside too early because the cold temperatures outdoors will inevitably trigger early flowering.
The plants will end up finishing too short, especially during the vegetative phase. The excessive rain can also damage the roots, and low relative humidity causes stress, which are both causes of premature budding in mums. If you’re using a greenhouse, what are the optimal conditions for mums?
The recommended temperatures for mums are from 65 to 70°F, while the relative humidity should be 70 to 90%. But what about the timing for transferring mums outdoors without encouraging blooming too early? This will depend on your location’s climate, but generally, be on the lookout for mums being exposed to harsh weather.
Day period
Manipulating the day period is also another way to keep mums from blooming too early. For example, having 4 hours of night interruption will maintain the plants in their vegetative phase. And if you are in the deep south, light your cuttings in propagation year-round.
Using Florel can also help in delaying the flowering, depending on your varieties. Apply it a week after transplanting or when the mums are fully rooted. However, gardeners recommend using lighting and temperature to prevent premature budding because of the various limitations with Florel.
Maintenance
As previously discussed, the temperature and light both affect the time when mums bloom. However, maintenance also plays a role in premature budding. The stress from heat or root loss from harsh weather is preventable by misting the plants.
Keeping mums well hydrated until they are 60% of their final size will prevent early blooming. Additionally, low fertility will also restrict your plants’ vegetative growth, pushing them into reproduction before reaching the ideal size. Therefore, keeping mums well-fed after transplanting should promote vegetative growth and overcome premature budding.
Experts recommend a phosphorus-rich fertilizer, especially when you just transplanted chrysanthemums. This will promote rooting and encourage them to grow and develop lateral breaks instead of undergoing reproduction. However, be wary of control-release fertilizers because high salt also halts plant growth and causes stress on your plants.
If you notice that your mums indeed start blooming too early, you can pinch flower buds and apply fertilizer. When done early enough, you shouldn’t experience a significant delay in their growth.
Why Is It A Problem When Mums Bloom Too Early?
It’s a gardener’s headache to see mums blooming too early, but why do we have to prevent premature budding plants? Let’s say that you are growing mums for commercial use. If they bloomed too early, then you’ll also be too early from your target sales date.
It can also be stressful when some mums reach budding earlier than others, especially when you have a schedule. If the plants cease growth earlier than necessary, you’ll end up with dead flowers and lower quality. Even if they don’t die, you have a smaller plant with short stems without even developing leaves.
Remember that mums are known for having a beautiful round growth, and premature budding will cause a lopsided shape instead. The good news is that proper knowledge of mums’ conditions and growing them in a controlled environment in a greenhouse should prevent them from blooming too early.
Conclusion
If you want to achieve high-quality, healthy, and rounded mums, it’s vital to prevent premature budding. Learning how to keep mums from blooming too early is quite simple in the sense that you understand three factors that affect the flowers’ budding. They are temperature, day period, and proper maintenance.
These considerations are all easy to control in the greenhouse. You have to understand that cold temperature, harsh weather, low humidity, lighting, and even insufficient water and fertilizer contribute to premature budding. In the greenhouse, you can maintain the optimal indoor conditions so the mums don’t undergo stress that can encourage them to bloom early.
If they are well-watered and fed, they will also continue to grow instead of quickly experiencing the reproductive phase.