Abstract:

To diversify market offerings and meet the requirements of different customers for cut chrysanthemum quality，this experiment used the cut chrysanthemum cultivar Huangxiao as material，set five pinching time treatments（2，4，6，8，and 10 days after light cessation），with no pinching as the control，to investigate the effects of pinching on phenotypic traits at flowering. The results showed that compared with the control，pinching increased the number of flower buds and the numbers of secondary and tertiary branches，while decreasing the number of primary branches，resulting in better overall plant fullness. Among the treatments，the numbers of flower buds and primary branches in plants pinched at 8 and 10 days after light cessation were higher than those pinched at 2，4，and 6 days after light cessation；the number of tertiary branches in plants pinched at 8 days after light cessation was significantly higher than that at 10 days. Comprehensive evaluation indicated that pinching at 8 days after light cessation resulted in the best overall plant fullness in cut chrysanthemum Huangxiao at flowering，meeting the requirements of domestic customers；while the non-pinched plants had a more slender plant type with compact and well-proportioned inflorescences，better meeting the requirements of overseas customers.

Key words: pinching, cut chrysanthemum, Huangxiao, branching, plant architecture