Impact of pinching on growth and flowering of annual chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum coronarium L.)

During 2020–2021, a field experiment was conducted as part of an investigation at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences’ Agricultural Research Station, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar. Two factors were used in the Factorial Randomized Block design experiment that was carried out viz., date of planting and levels of pinching. In this investigation there were three levels of pinching viz., P1 (single pinching after 15 days of planting), P2 (single pinching after 30 days of transplanting) & P3 (double pinching after 15 & 30 days of transplanting). The study’s findings showed that among three pinching treatments tried, plants receiving single pinching at 15 days after transplanting exhibited better performance with respect to plant height (58.70 cm), and were earliest to produce 50% flowers. Besides, maximum improvement in flower size (2.22cm), weight of flowers per plant (88.53g), per plot (3.19kg), and per hectare (36.89q) was noticed under this treatment. Plants receiving single pinching at 30 days after transplanting (P2) exhibited better performance with respect plant spread i.e. 50.58 cm in E-W and 45.46 cm in N-S direction. Besides, floral parameters such as earliest to 50 % flowering, flower size (2.18cm), weight of flowers per plant (83.79g), per plot (3.02 kg) as well as per hectare (34.91 q) showed appreciable improvement next to P1 pinching treatment. However, number of flowers per plant (93.37 nos), per plot (3361.20nos) as well as per hectare (3890277.78 no’s) were found to be at their highest during double pinching at 15 and 30 days after transplanting(P3), While performance of plants receiving single pinching at 30 days following transplantation was second in order regarding these floral Measurement. However, the dimensions of each individual flower was reduced and there was significant delay in flowering under double pinching. Hence, it was concluded that single pinching at 30 days after transplanting exhibited satisfactory performance regarding almost all flower characters.