Anthurium
Botanical name – Anthurium andreanum
Family – Araceae
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).
Soil –
Anthurium requires porous, well drained aerated soil rich in organic matter content. The soil pH should be 5.5 and 6.5.
Climate –
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.
Growing Environment
75% shade net house with 70 – 80% relative humidity, day temperature of 24 – 280C
and night temperature of 15 – 220C.
Growing Media
Porous organic media such as leaf mould and cocopeat is ideal. A mixture of 1 part
each of coir pith, leaf mould, cattle manure, coarse sand, brick pieces, charcoal, neem cake
and coconut husk pieces is highly suitable.
Propagation
Propagated through tissue culture or suckers. Tissue culture plants are widely used for commercial cultivation.
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 overhead 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
Leaf pruning
Leaf pruning retaining 4-6 leaves per plant has to be taken up at regular intervals to avoid disease problem and to promote flowering.
Pests
Aphids : Spray dimethoate @ 3 l/l
Scale insects : Spray malathion @ 1 ml/l
Spider mites : Spray wettable sulphur @ 3 g/l or propargite @ 2 ml/l
Thrips : Spray fipronil @ 1.5 ml/l
Anthracnose: Spray carbendazim @ 1g/l
Leaf spot : Spray carbendazim @ 1 g/l or mancozeb @ 2g/l
Root rot : Soil drenching with captan @ 2g/l
Bacterial wilt: Spray streptomycin sulphate @ 0.1g/l
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.
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
7- 9 flowers/plant/year.
