Flowering influences adventitious root formation in chrysanthemum cuttings

Root formation in chrysanthemum (Dendranthemum grandiflora (Ramat.) Kitamura) cuttings was reduced as flowers developed on stock plants. This effect was shown for all ten cultivars evaluated in this study. Not all cultivars were affected equally by the presence of flower buds on cuttings. There was no relationship (r² = 0.06) between root formation in vegetative cuttings and the ability for a cultivar to root from flowering cuttings. IBA (1 mM) could partially overcome the negative effect of flowering on root formation, but cuttings taken after the flower buds had fully opened failed to root even after auxin treatment. Removing buds from cuttings or continually removing flower buds during stock plant growth reduced rooting compared to cuttings with flower buds intact. Furthermore, cuttings taken from the top three nodes of the stock plant containing flower buds rooted comparably to cuttings taken from the lower stem section that contained only vegetative buds. The negative influence of flowering on root formation appears to be due to the photoperiodic induction of the flowering stimulus rather than a direct competition for resources between flowers and developing roots.