mums

nakanj · Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:26 am

why are the mum plugs in the baskets and pots turning yellow? They are in the greenhouse. I water everyday till it runs out bottom.

rainbowgardener · Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:43 am

What do you mean by mum plugs?

Probably overwatering. Unless it is very dry as well as hot, watering every day is too much. This is especially true for plants in baskets and pots as all that watering flushes nutrients out of your limited amount of soil, so then they get nutrient starved as well.

Water only when the top couple inches of the soil are dry. For plants in a greenhouse that retains humidity, that probably doesn't need to be more than once a week.

nakanj · Tue Jul 26, 2011 9:16 am

The plugs are about 3 in. tall when we get them. Now they're about 5 in. tall.I have them in a greenhouse and on hot days it gets up to 110* in there.
However it has been raining a lot here and very cloudy, so maybe I am watering to much. I have about 2,000 plugs in baskets and pots plus pansies and ornamental Cabbage and Kale.

I pinch the mums back to make them bushier. Does anyone know how many times I should do this?

rainbowgardener · Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:53 pm

Tradition was to pinch your mums back on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July (I think that just made it easy to remember) and then leave them alone.

nakanj · Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:54 pm

OK, so the mums are tall and healthy but not blooming. Should I be feeding them anything special to make them bloom. They have tiny buds but no blooms.

rainbowgardener · Sun Sep 18, 2011 7:20 am

Patience! If they have buds, they will bloom. The buds have their own schedule and nothing you can do will make them grow and open any faster.
But definitely don't pinch it back any more. If you pinch those buds off, you will slow it way down and possibly prevent it from blooming this year.

Personally, I'm always pleased when mums are slow... that means they will bloom later in the fall when little else is blooming. Right now, most places there's plenty of flowers left.

nakanj · Sat Oct 08, 2011 1:13 pm

can't believe this late in the year and none of my mums are blooming. I consulted with a horticulturist and she said it was heat delay and a lot of people had had this problem. Oh well there's always next year. Meantime we can enjoy the beautiful buds on them.

rainbowgardener · Sat Oct 08, 2011 5:18 pm

Patience!!! They WILL bloom, even if frost comes first. I have had mums blooming at Thanksgiving.

cynthia_h · Sat Oct 08, 2011 10:19 pm

Mine are just now opening up, and the summer has been chilly out here as well. Week before last it was in the 90s, last Wednesday it was in the 80s, and then Thursday it rained 2 inches from a storm front from the Gulf of Alaska that sent the temps down to 50 degrees for the high that day.

The mums are happy, but my tomatoes in the rented container (the one with full sun exposure!

) are confused. Some of them are ripe; others are very green; still others are in between and threatening to split. There are only six plants!

But the mums are just starting to open up. I have (I think?) three mum plants this year. I let them overwinter on their own and surprise me every fall.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

nakanj · Tue Oct 11, 2011 2:39 pm

lol, ok, I'll take your word for it, that they will bloom.It will make my life a lot easier if they do as my boss keeps hinting that I messed up on them. fingers crossed

ghostrider · Wed Oct 12, 2011 12:39 pm

I got some mums as a gift Sunday, it was in one of those small plastic containers, one of my neighbors gave me a larger pot and I transplanted them today, I did not mess with the roots and put potting soil in it up to about an inch from the top, I watered it the other day, when should I water them again? Should I have loosened the roots or did I do good by not disturbing them? :?