Quality management of cut carnation flowers with long-term sucrose treatment.

摘要

Storage of cut flowers in dry conditions entails lowered quality despite low temperatures. The aim of this work is to show the possibility of quality management of cut carnation flowers with long-term sucrose treatment. Cut carnation flowers ('Excerea') were kept in solutions containing 0-15% sucrose and germicide at 4掳C for 3 weeks. Cut flowers treated with more highly concentrated sucrose showed a higher increase of fresh weight during both sucrose treatment and longevity tests. Considerable sucrose accumulation was observed in stems, leaves, pistils, and receptacles after 3 weeks of 5% sucrose treatment. For cut flowers without STS pre-treatment, cut flowers treated with 5% sucrose for 3 weeks showed delayed ethylene production compared with cut flowers treated with 0% sucrose. No significant difference in flower longevity was observed among the cut flowers treated with 5% sucrose for 4-8 weeks. Cut flowers harvested in April and treated with 5% sucrose for 6 weeks displayed larger flowers with slightly higher L*, lower a*, b* and C* values in comparison with cut flowers harvested in May. Contents of two major anthocyanins in petals of flowers harvested in April were slightly lower than those in May. Five other tested genotypes of carnation were able to adopt long-term sucrose treatment. Results demonstrate that long-term sucrose treatment at low temperature is effective to maintain cut carnation flower quality.CT XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): International Symposium on Postharvest Technology in the Global Market, Lisbon, Portugal.