• Check your cuttings upon arrival. All boxes should be opened immediately and placed in the cooler at 40℉. Cuttings should be inspected for disease, insect, cold or heat damage the same day so you can notify us of any problems immediately. Normally, garden mum cuttings store very well in the cooler, but we advise you to stick your cuttings within 24 hours from arrival or as soon as possible.
• You should be receiving all cuttings in vegetative stage without any visible flower buds. Occasionally you might notice some cuttings with small terminal crown buds. That is expected on some varieties and it is an indication of self-pinching process in garden mums. Those crown buds should never develop into regular buds or become prematurely reproductive if you maintain proper environment in propagation area.
• Our cuttings will be arriving without a rooting hormone. You can dip cuttings in a rooting hormone containing IBA, but there is no strong evidence that this will speed up or make the rooting process more uniform. Garden mum cuttings should be rooted and transplantable within 14-19 days from stick depending on the plug size and type of growing media used.

Figure 1. Gediflora cuttings in glue plugs, 16 days after stick
• Gediflora cuttings are 1.5” long so after sticking 0.5” into the soil, cuttings will have some room to grow and finish 1.5-1.75” tall, measuring from the soil level of the liner.

Figure 2. Correct sticking depth
• We recommend using 2500ppm spray of B-9 within one week from stick to keep the internodes from stretching. It is best to spray PGRs in the afternoon after the mist is turned off.
• We always recommend the use of “mum lighting” during propagation, 10 foot candles or more of incandescent light at plant level. Keep in mind that garden mum cuttings should never remain in darkness for longer than 7 hours continuously so the night interruption from 10pm to 2am works best to prevent premature bud initiation.
• Garden mum cuttings will root best when rooting media temperature is maintained at 70-72℉. A temperature below 65℉ will slow the rooting process significantly and could cause premature bud setting.
• Our cuttings will root well in most types of growing media. We prefer using glue plugs which are ready for transplanting 3-4 days faster than in loose-fill trays. Ideally, the growing media and tray size should be such so the cuttings are fully rooted and transplantable within 16 days after stick.

Figure 3. Perfect Gediflora plug size with well-developed roots
• It is important to stick cuttings in the moist media and develop proper mist schedule in propagation. The mist frequency and duration will depend on light level, temperature and humidity so any type of a VPD based controller will be better than regular irrigation box. Ideally, the amount of mist applied should be sufficient to keep the leaves moist at all times but without much excess going into the soil and causing leaching. The propagation area should feel warm, humidity should be high and air movement reduced to minimum. You should gradually reduce amount of mist and turn it off as soon as roots are well developed and able to keep plants from excessive wilting. Too much mist and low light after root initiation will result in decreased quality and stretching.
• The rooting could be done with clear water and occasional feeding with 150ppm of well balanced fertilizer with micronutrients. Some growers use constant feed from calcium nitrate through the mist at a very low concentration of nitrogen (50ppm) with very good results. Each time you apply fertilizer containing phosphorus we recommend to rinse foliage with clear water to avoid tip burn.

Figure 4. Tip burn from misting with feed containing phosphorus
• You can root cuttings in the plug trays or directly in the final pots. It is very important that you always stick cuttings in the center of the cell or final pot to prevent lopsided growth. When sticking directly in the final pots we recommend that the tip of the cutting is leveled with the rim of the pot to prevent plants from getting wobbly in later stages.

Figure 5. Correct sticking in the center vs. off-center
• It is not necessary to use Florel on our varieties like Staviski and Jasoda if you maintain proper temperature and lights, when plugs are used for indoor production. You should consider using Florel in propagation to prevent premature budding if plugs will be planted directly outside and night temperatures are below 65℉. Spray 500ppm Florel 10 days after stick and again before transplanting outside.
• Maintain clean propagation area at all times. It is proved that sanitary conditions produce better quality liners.

We would like to focus specifically on proper planting techniques and help you to avoid some common mistakes that are made at the start of the season.

Even with the best genetics from Gediflora you have to treat your starting plant material properly to achieve the best uniformity and quality. Keep in mind that you will most likely determine how successful you crop is at the time of transplanting.

It is best to use cuttings that are no longer than 1.5” or plugs that are 14-18 days old from sticking and 1.5” tall from the soil level.

Figure 1. Ideal size of the rooted cutting, 1.5" tall from the soil level.

We recommend that you don’t overfill your pots with soil, any excess will most likely spill on the floor and become a breeding ground for insects and diseases. The soil level should be even with the top of the container and will eventually settle down at first watering.

We recommend that you plant Gediflora garden mums very deep. The tip of the cutting should be positioned even with the rim of the pot after planting. It applies to both rooted and unrooted cuttings.

Figure 2. Deep transplanting of rooted cuttings. The tip of the cutting is leveled with the rim of the pot.

Figure 3. Deep planting (left) vs shallow planting (right) of unrooted cuttings. Direct stick.

It is expected to see the bottom leaves to be covered with soil after deep planting. You shouldn’t be concerned about any tissue rot at that point, the bottom shoots will emerge from the soil very quickly and provide support for the entire plant.

Figure 4. Deep transplanting, bottom leaves will be covered after first watering.

Figure 5. Bottom shoots emerging from the soil 1 week after planting and forming support for the entire plant.

The deep planting will prevent plants from getting wobbly and developing mushroom like shape without any foliage at the base. Such plants are very unattractive and most likely will not sell. Plants that are planted deep will less likely require any PGR applications, are less expensive to produce and will have better sell-through at retail.

It is also very important that you transplant exactly in the center of the pot.

Figure 6. Off-center planting (left) will cause lopsided growth in finish stages.

Figure 7. Deep, center planting (left) vs shallow, off-center planting (right).

On average around 10% of all crops are planted off-center which is also a leading cause of shrinkage in garden mum production.

All Gediflora mums have the ability to self-pinch and should be treated as no pinch varieties. There is no benefit in pinching Belgian Mums, by doing so, you will increase the production cost and could ruin the uniformity of the entire crop. Keep in mind that everyone pinches at a different height and machine trimming is also far from perfect and causes extensive tissue damage.

Figure 8. Different plug sizes from the same tray after pinch.

Perhaps the only time we would recommend pinch is when plugs get too stretchy. It is best to leave 5-6 leaves on the plant after pinch.

Figure 9. Leave 5-6 leaves if plugs get stretchy and pinch is necessary.