Cultivation practice of anthurium

1. Cultivation practice of Anthurium
Prepared by
Umesh Timilsina
CNRM,Bardibas

2. ANTHURIUM (Anthurium andreanum)
Family: Araceae
• Anthurium is a genus of herbs often growing as epiphytes on
other plants.
• Some are terrestrial.
• Grown for the showy cut flowers or for their unusually attractive
foliage.
• Used in the various floral decorations or for bouquet making.
• It has bold effect and lasting qualities of flowers when cut.
• The name Anthurium is derived form the Greek ‘anthos’,
meaning flower, and ‘oura’, meaning tail, referring to the spadix.
• World trade is 2nd i.e, just next to orchids among the tropical
flowers.
• Anthurium plants are poisonous due to calcium oxalate crystals.
The sap is irritating to the skin and eyes.

3. 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).

9. Climate and soil
• 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 requires porous, well drained aerated
soil rich in organic matter content.
• The soil pH should be 5.5 and 6.5.

10. 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.
1. For pot culture
• Highly organic, well aerated with good water retention
capacity and drainage
• Soil, coarse sand, farm yard manure layer-wise.
• Media for pots should have:-
• high porosity
• low salt concentration
• pH must be 5.5-6.5

11. 2. For raised beds
• 4 inches brick pieces, 3 inches charcoal, 2 inches
coconut huskand small portion of coco peat & sand
in 3: 1 ratio filled in the beds one after another in
layers. And finally planting is done.

13. Propagation:
• Propagated through tissue culture or suckers.
• Tissue culture plants are widely used for commercial
cultivation.
1. 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.
2. 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.

14. 3. 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.
4. Tissue culture:
• Becoming popular; explants – leaf segments, root
segments, stem section, vegetaive buds, flower
stalks, spathe and spadix; MS medium

16. Tissue Cultured seedling

17. Planting:
• Grown in pots or raised beds.
1.On raised beds
• 30 cm raised beds with 3 inches slope, framed with
cemented brick walls or bamboos in shade nets
• Bed size: 1-1.2 m breadth and length according to
the convenience.
• Bed to bed: 50 cm
• Spacing:- 45 x 45 cm or 30 x 30 cm
2. In pots
• Suitable for small scale planting
• Pot size must be 25-30 cm with minimum of 2-3 holes

18. Potted plant Raised bed

19. 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.

20. 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.
• Excess light causes permanent
damage to the leaves.
• Shade net should be laid at a
minimum height of 3m from
ground level.

21. 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.

22. 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)

24. Harvesting of anthurium
• 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.

26. 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

28. Packaging