Sodium injury to cuttings of chrysanthemum

Following A change in the water supply used for irrigation and misting–from a shallow well (400 ft) to a deeper well (800 ft)–a large California chrysanthemum producer experienced extreme difficulty in rooting the cuttings. Early symptoms appeared as a loss of root hairs and small rootlets, and as a reddening of portions of the roots (photo 1). As severity increased, the tips beyond the reddened areas died and the number of roots increased. These failed to elongate so that in the most severely injured cuttings, only a tuft of short, reddish-brown roots was produced (photo 2). Except for the failure to elongate, there were no symptoms on the above-ground portions of most varieties.