IPM for our Mum Operation
Welcome back. Today I’m sharing some information about our heirloom mum crop. Our mums are being grown in pots in our propagation house to protect them from late season cold temperatures.
We’ve grown mums in unheated tunnels here before. Unfortunately they are frosted (even with cover) before they really start to bloom. Our goal is to use these flowers for blooms long after the first heavy frosts this fall. They will compliment the lilies that we grow in our grow room and some greenery that we’re working on, bridging the gap between the large focal flowers we provide during the warm season and the tulips that arrive at the end of December.
Mums can be a bit needy. They are loved by aphids and thrips. They are susceptible to disease. And they tend to produce foliage that grows along the soil surface where is can host pests and disease.
Typically, I’m not interested in needy plants. I love perennials. I love bulb-born plants. But I’d really like to figure out how to make these work better for us.
Here is our IPM protocol foR POtted mums in Greenhouse Cultivation
We’re scouting daily or every other day for pests and disease and we’re removing leaves that are sitting on the surface of the plants at the same time.
Aphids tend to develop on the new growth at the tips of the plants.
Thrips are easiest to spot from the white blemished on the tops of leaves or the sooty excrement, usually on the underside of the leaves. They are very tiny - about 1/25 of a inch long.
We also remove leave that appear dead or discolored or that are resting on or very near the soil surface.
Don’t have a greenhouse? Do you have an indoor seed starting space? Or garage or basement where you can plug in some lights?
Before I had a heated greenhouse, I brought mums into my home to grow them under lights into the winter. When I was done with them for the season I cut them back and stacked them up or saved one pot of each variety for propagation in the spring.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Our pots: (azalea pots, 10 x 7 1/4 inch pots) (soil is 1/2 compost and 1/2 potting soil)
Our Plugs came from Farmer Bailey and King’s Mums (ordered last winter)