ISHS Acta Horticulturae 138: Postharvest Physiology and Storage, XXI IHC
EFFECTS OF LOW TEMPERATURE STORAGE ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF CUT CARNATION FLOWERS |
| Authors: | J.D. Faragher, A. Borochov, A.H. Halevy |
| Abstract:
Cold-storage of cut flowers often leads to reduced quality after storage. Possible mechanisms of this effect were investigated in flowers of the spray-carnation cv. Pink Royalette, Storage of flowers, with stems in water at 2°C for 6 to 17 days, advanced the time to end of vase-life (petal inrolling) by 1 to 2.6 days. However, it did not affect the time to the first rise in flower ethylene production. That is, the time between rise in ethylene and petal inrolling was reduced by storage. This suggests that cold-storage increased the sensitivity of the flowers to endogenous ethylene. In flowers held at 20°C for 6 days the values of several parameters of cell senescence decreased below the values in fresh flowers. However, in flowers held at 2°C there was not the expected slow decrease in these parameters, but rather an increase above the levels found in fresh flowers. We conclude that low temperature storage has effects on cut carnation flowers other than simply slowing aging processes. | |
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