Horticulture :: Flower Crops

Horticulture :: Flower Crops :: Anthurium

ANTHURIUM (Anthurium andreanum) Aeraceae

Varieties

    Red             : Temptation, Tropical Red, Red Dragon, Verdun Red, Flame, Mauritius Red .
    Orange        : Mauritius Orange, Peach, Casino, Sunshine Orange, Nitta.
    White          : Acropolis, Linda de Mol, Mauritius White, Lima, Manoa Mist.
    Pink             : Abe Pink, Candy Stripe, Passion.
    Green          : Midori, Esmaralda.
    Bicoloured : Titicaca, Jewel, Akapana, Cardinal.
    Others         : Fantasia (cream with pink veins), Chocos, Chicos (chocolate brownish red).


Tropical Red	Calisto	Acropolis	Akapana

Flame	Cheers	Aymara	caesar

Meringue	Coto Paxi	Castano	Cerilla

Tropic Night	Condor	Eesmeralda	Fantasia

Grace	Laguna	Lima White	Marshall

Midori	Pistache	Poopo	Safari

Titicaca

Climate
Anthurium requires porous, well drained aerated soil rich in organic matter content. The soil pH should be 5.5 and 6.5. It performs well under green shade net having 70 – 80 % shade intention with 80 -90 % humidity and 24 - 28°C temperature and 15 - 22°C night temperature with 1500 – 2000 foot candles light intensity.

anthurium at flowering stage
Under shade net

Growing environment: 75% shade net house with 70 - 80% relative humidity, day temperature of 24 - 280C and night temperature of 15 - 220C.

Growing media
A growing media containing 1:1 mixture of leaf mould and coco peat with a pH of 5.5 to 6.5 is ideal, which ensures good drainage as well as water holding capacity.

Coco peat bricks

Propagation:
Propagated through tissue culture or suckers. Tissue culture plants are widely used for commercial cultivation.

Seed : Seeds germinate within 10 days; transplanted after 4-6 month takes 2 - 3 years to bloom. Seeds scattered on a finely shredded medium & kept under 75 % shade. Also germinated aseptically under nitsch/ms media supplemented with BAP & Adenine

Suckers : Suckers produced from base of the plant at 4-5 leaf stage with 2-3 roots separated. 57 ppm BAP at monthly intervals on more than one year old plant encourage more suckers

Stem cutting : Top of the stem with few roots of 3 to 4 year old plants is removed and planted. Each cutting should have single eye or bud IBA 500ppm produce good roots.

Tissue culture : Becoming popular; explants – leaf segments, root segments, stem section, vegetaive buds, flower stalks, spathe and spadix; MS medium

Planting: Grown in pots or raised beds. Tissue culture plants of 15 cm height with 4-6 leaves are ideal for planting.

Irrigation: Mist or over head sprinkler to provide water and to improve relative humidity.

Pot cultivation
Foliar application of 0.2% of NPK @ 30:10:10 during vegetative stage and 10:20:20 during flowering stage is adopted for pot cultivation. Fertigation can be adopted for raised bed cultivation.

Raised bed cultivation
For the first 6 months spray plants with a solution of cow dung and DAP @ 250 ml/plant (10 kg of cow dung + 2 kg of DAP dissolved in 200 l of water and the decanted solution is used for spaying). After 6 months fertigation is adopted with the following schedule.

Fertilizer	Quantity (g/100m²)
Schedule ‘A’ - Weekly once
Calcium Nitrate	250
Potassium Nitrate	150
Micro nutrients	50
Schedule ‘B’ - Weekly once
Mono Ammonium Phosphate	250
Potassium Nitrate	100
Magnesium Sulphate	50

Bed system
Soil is incorporated with organic matter. Bed size of 1.2 to 1.4m width with a spacing of 60 x 60 cm is found ideal.

Shade regulation
Open condition with adequate shading facility are the best. Growing under polythene plastic with shade cloth prevents bacterial blight. 70-80% shade level is found to be best for Tamil Nadu and Kerala conditions. Excess light causes permanent damage to the leaves. Shade net should be laid at a minimum height of 3m from ground level.

Under polythene plastic with shade cloth

Fertilizer requirement
NPK @ 30:10:10 @ 0.2% is given from 30 days of planting as foliar application at weekly intervals

Growth regulators
Application of GA3 200 ppm as foliar spray at 2 month intervals improves the growth and quality of flowers

After cultivation
Leaf pruning retaining 4 – 6 leaves/plant has to be taken up then and there to avoid disease problem and to promote flowering. The roots formed on the lower leaf axils should be buried.

Excess light
Leaves appear bleached in the center and may have brown tips. To control this problem, shade should be given so as to reduce the light level to 1800-2500 foot-candles.

Plant protection

Pests
Aphids : Dimethoate (0.3%)
Scale insects : Malathion (0.1 %)
Spider mites : Wettable sulphur (0.03 %)
Thrips : Malathion (0.1%)

Diseases
Anthracnose : Bavistin (0.1%)
Leaf spot : Dithane m-45 (0.2 %)
Root rot : Captan (2 g/l) – soil drench
Bacterial wilt : Streptocyclin (200 ppm)

Harvest
Harvest commences after 3 – 6 months of planting. Each leaf unfold will give out one flower. Flowers are harvested when the spathe completely unfurls and the spadix is well developed with one third of bisexual flowers got opened. Harvesting has to be done during cooler parts of the day i.e.) early morning or late evening. In general, the blooms are placed in water held in plastic buckets immediately after cutting from the plant. Delay in keeping in water allows air entry into the stem and causes blockage of the vascular vessels. Cut flowers after harvest should be shifted to pre cooling chambers in refrigerated vehicles having 2-4°C temperature as they deteriorate most rapidly at high temperature.

Yield
An average 8 flowers/plant/year can be obtained.

Post harvest technology
1. Pulsing of flower stalks with BA 25 ppm for 24 hours improves shelf life up to 24.5 days as against 13.5 days in control
2. Packing the spathe with spadix in poly film (100 gauge) and covering the basal ends of the stalks with cotton dipped in BA improves shelf life up to 27.5 days
3. Holding solution: 8 HQC 200 ppm + sucrose 5 % increases vase life up to 30.5 days

Source
1. http://www.avo.nl/avo_fl2.jpg
2. www.malaysiasite.nl/chagrotecheng.htm