Greenhouse vs. Outdoor Growing
A better quality fall garden mum is produced outdoors rather than indoors, given proper irrigation. Temperature and humidity levels are often too high in a greenhouse for many varieties to perform satisfactorily. Outdoor-grown mums are tougher, more compact and generally perform better for the consumer. Cool summer night temperatures promote early flowering of garden mums. Very warm summer night temperatures can delay flowering. Garden mums grown indoors under natural daylength may flower approximately 2 weeks later than those grown outdoors for fall sales, if excessively high summer night temperatures are encountered. With proper variety selection, high quality, early shaded garden mum crops for summer flowering can, however, be grown in greenhouses because their short crop time minimizes their exposure to high greenhouse temperatures when compared to natural season, greenhouse-grown garden mums. See details on summer-shaded crops.