Mums for fall...

Cole_Robbie · August 17, 2017

My mums have been a disaster. My cuttings were all half-smashed when they arrived, but because I don't know anything about mums, I couldn't tell. The stems were only half-broken and the tops were not wilted. Then over the next few days, the top half of almost all my cuttings died off, and I was left with the bottom half.

I started everything too late by about a month, and having broken cuttings I'm sure set me back as well. I may be over-wintering a lot of mums. Half of them made into into my gigantic 9" pots, which are way too big. The other half that looked more sketchy are in 4" sheet pots.

On top of all that, I have seen mums at the hardware mega-store Menard's for $4, and now the local farm store has them for $2, which is below my cost to grow them. There's no competing with prices that low. Now I see why there are not a lot of mum growers. I may have done better to stick with dwarf zinnias, sunflowers, and marigolds, sold as table-top pieces in the fall, even if they are annuals.

August 17, 2017	#11
Cole_Robbie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Illinois, zone 6 Posts: 8,407	My mums have been a disaster. My cuttings were all half-smashed when they arrived, but because I don't know anything about mums, I couldn't tell. The stems were only half-broken and the tops were not wilted. Then over the next few days, the top half of almost all my cuttings died off, and I was left with the bottom half. I started everything too late by about a month, and having broken cuttings I'm sure set me back as well. I may be over-wintering a lot of mums. Half of them made into into my gigantic 9" pots, which are way too big. The other half that looked more sketchy are in 4" sheet pots. On top of all that, I have seen mums at the hardware mega-store Menard's for $4, and now the local farm store has them for $2, which is below my cost to grow them. There's no competing with prices that low. Now I see why there are not a lot of mum growers. I may have done better to stick with dwarf zinnias, sunflowers, and marigolds, sold as table-top pieces in the fall, even if they are annuals.