Effect of Chrysanthemum Plants to Artificial Defoliation and Disbudding on Growth and Yield

The market outlook for chrysanthemum flowers is extremely optimistic, as domestic and international consumer demand has increased over the past five years. The development of chrysanthemum plants is anticipated to have a positive effect on the region's employment opportunities, economic growth, and service sector growth. Along with the increasing intensity of chrysanthemum cultivation in various regions, more in-depth research on chrysanthemum flowers is required to improve quality and added value, as well as to utilize the potential of locally available resources that are simple for farmers to apply and have a significant impact on improvement.  The majority of chrysanthemum cultivation business actors are small farmers. Chrysanthemum plant technology is distinct from other horticultural crops, requiring special maintenance such as Disbudding, the addition of artificial light, artificial defoliation, and the erection of plant enforcement nets. The research method employs the Factorial Group Random Design, with the first factor being artificial defoliation including: no defoliation, defoliation at 30 dap, and defoliation at 60 dap, and the second factor being disbudding including: no disbudding, disbudding at 60 dap, and disbudding at 90 dap.   The results demonstrated that the interaction between artificial defoliation and disbudding had a significant effect on flower stalk weight but no effect on other variables. The treatment of leaf defoliation had significant to very significant effects on all observed variables, with the exception of the weight of flower stalks, which was unaffected. While the disbudding treatment has a significant effect on all observed variables.  The interaction between leaf defoliation at 30 dap and disbudding at 60 dap resulted in the heaviest average flower stalk weight of 93.58 grams.  Artificial defoliation at 30 dap was able to increase the yield of economically viable fresh flower weight by 8.09 percent compared to when defoliation was not performed. The 60 dap disbudding treatment was able to increase the yield of fresh flower weight by 9.25% when compared to the control.