Effects of irradiance and juvenility on the selection of chrysanthemums

Summary Chrysanthemum morifolium seedlings and cuttings from those seedlings were grown to flowering at 17°C, short days (8 h) and two levels of irradiance (10 and 30 W m^–2). The cuttings flowered more readily than the seedlings at both irradiances, Especially at 10 W m^-2 many seedlings remained vegetative. The delay in flowering of the seedlings was accompanied by a higher number of leaves produced before flowering.The number of leaves produced by the seedling in excess of the number of leaves produced by the cutting from that seedling varied considerably between genotypes. The correlations between seedlings and the corresponding cuttings for days to flowering and number of leaves were low but generally significant.It is concluded that cuttings are preferred over seedlings in breeding programmes that aim at developing chrysanthemums for low light winter production.