Chrysanthemum

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The Challenges of Chrysanthemum Cultivation

Chrysanthemums are one of the most intensively cultivated crops in the Dutch floriculture sector, and this places high demands
on both the soil and the plants. Growers face the same challenges time and time again:

✓ Nematode pressure. Root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) are among the most persistent soil pests in
cultivation. They damage the root system and impair nutrient and water uptake, resulting in lower branch weights and higher crop loss.
✓ Soil health under pressure. Root pathogens such as Pythium and Rhizoctonia are constantly
lurking in intensively cultivated soil and strike as soon as the root system weakens or the soil ecosystem becomes unbalanced.
✓ Thrips pressure due to overfertilization. High nitrate levels in the leaves make the plant more attractive to sucking insects such as thrips—one of the most persistent pests in cultivation.
✓ Soil exhaustion. Intensive cultivation and annual steaming to control nematodes deplete soil life, making the plant more vulnerable to stress and disease pressure.
✓ Increasing pressure to reduce fertilizer use. Growers must reduce inputs without compromising branch weight or quality, while the current approach seems to run counter to this goal.

The Approach: The Resilient Cultivation System

REKA’s Resilient Cultivation System takes a fundamental approach to this: managing based on leaf sap values rather than standard fertilization schedules, combined with organic fertilizers and biostimulants. Vici Fix is the next step in that system. By improving the plant’s nutrient uptake, less input is needed to achieve the same or a higher branch weight, resulting in stronger root development and a more uniform crop.

How It Works in Practice

After application, Vici Fix colonizes the chrysanthemum’s root system. The fungal network increases the effective root surface area from 5 cm² of root system to 250 cm² of fungal mycelium network—an increase of approximately 10 to 100 times—allowing the plant to utilize a much larger soil volume (5 to 20 times) for
water and nutrient uptake. In practical terms for chrysanthemum cultivation, this means: a plant that utilizes nitrogen and phosphorus more efficiently, with a stronger and deeper root system, enabling higher branch weights to be achieved. Reducing fertilizer application is optional; even without such a reduction, higher branch weights are achievable.

Left: Untreated roots
Right: Treated roots