PREFACE

Although ACTA HORTICULTURAE is not a refered journal, the ISHS has decided that authors can be asked if they want to have their paper refereed. It is, however, up to the convener to decide if none, all, or only selected papers may be refereed. The scientific committee decided to inform the authors that if they wanted their paper refereed, they should indicate that when submitting the paper. In that case members of the scientific committee would be asked to examine the paper to see if it meets the requirements of originality and scientific standard to be accepted for publication in a journal like SCIENTIA HORTICULTURAE.

Only in a few cases did the author(s) wish to have the paper examined in this way. Those papers that the referees felt might be accepted without major revisions, are marked refereed. It is unfortunate that papers marked in this way may be considered to be superior to the rest, since several very interesting and well written papers have not been subjected to refereeing.

The camera-ready system adopted for ACTA HORTICULTURAE, implies that the manuscripts submitted are truly ready for reproduction. This makes it difficult for the editor to suggest any changes in the manuscript. To return it to the author for corrections may call for extreme delays in publication. We have thus made some compromises, we have accepted minor errors and a not always superb English. One should bear in mind that the purpose of this publication is to present what is discussed at the symposium. One should not be too particular as to how the paper is composed as long as it reflects in an understandable way the message the participants wanted to bring.


WORDS OF WELCOME OPENING SESSION

Tove Fjeld
Convener
Department of Horticulture and Crop Sciences
Agricultural University of Norway

Dear colleagues and friends, ladies and gentlemen

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you all to this 6th International Symposium on Post Harvest Physiology of Ornamental Plants. It is now 4 year since the last symposium on post harvest physiology, which took place in Nice, France. And we felt honored that the Department of Horticulture and Crop Sciences at the Agricultural University of Norway was chosen to host this symposium.

It is also a great pleasure to welcome you to Norway and to this location, Sjømannskolen, close to the center of Oslo.

As you know, Norway is a rather small country with only 4.5 million citizens. Norway is probably most known for the fjords and the mountains, the oil production in the North Sea and the shipping industry. Some of you might even have heard of the Oslo-agreement in 1993, and all of you probably have heard about the whaling and the seal hunting. But I doubt if many of you are familiar with the Norwegian flower industry, since this is quite small. All of the cut flowers and pot plants which are produced, goes to the domestic marked. The Norwegian consumer demands high quality of the products - probably as a result of the high price level in Norway (as you might experience when buying a beer at a restaurant in Oslo).

As in the other Nordic and North European countries - we have a rather high consumption of pot plants and cut flowers. It amounts to approximately 1000 Norwegian Kroner per year per citizent. Each Norwegian buys more than 10 pot plants every year - and this figure does not include the summer flowers which are planted outdoor. This puts us on the top of the world consumption rating list when it comes to pot plants. Regarding cut flowers, the consumption is more on the average European level.

Although the flower industry is small compared to for example the industries in Denmark and Holland, it is characterized by a high investment level. This is, of course, mainly due to the high labor cost. During the ISHS Rose Symposium this February in France, professor Naftaly Zieslin categorized the North-European flower industry as a phytotron-like industry. I think this included the Norwegian pot plant and cut flower production as well, which is rather sophisticated when it comes to level of technology in order to control the climatic conditions during the growing period.

We also like to think that the growers generally are of high competence, and that the dialogue between the growers and the scientists - concerning both cultural and post harvest aspects, is quite good. On Tuesday - on the symposium excursion - you will get the chance to visit 2 of the larger cut flower growers in Norway. By means of high levels of supplementary irradiation they both have established year round cut flower production. This will give you an idea of how we believe the Norwegian flower industry will develop in the coming years: high levels of supplementary lighting, high investments and also an increase in the size of each operation. This will probably be true both for cut flowers and pot plant production. You will not get the opportunity to see any Norwegian pot plant production, however, but those of you who are joining us on the excursion to Denmark, will receive first hand information concerning pot plant quality and pot plant production there.

I also would like to draw your attention to this building in which the symposium takes place. As you have seen, the building is situated on the top of a hill, overlooking the Oslo fjord and the city of Oslo. The building was built in the early part of this century, as a school for training young men for serving in Norway's most prominent trade at the time, namely the merchant marine. Today, the building houses part of the Oslo Business College and is at times also used as a study and conference center.

The interior decorations which you see in this building, are dominated by the frescos which are made by the Norwegian painter Per Krogh. He was given the task to decorate the assembly hall where we sit at the moment, and some other parts of the building. Many of the frescos were damaged during the war. But during the recent restoration care has been taken to bring them back to their original splendor.

On the rocks behind the building, you will find carvings from the stone age (that is ten thousand years ago) which have motives associated with hunting. Typically, the carvings from this age is the moose (in Norway called ELG), but also other animals - for instant fish and whales - are represented, indicating that the people living in this area hunted both at sea and on land. The rock carvings in Norway are quite extensive, many have been covered by vegetation for ages and are just recently exposed. And many of those who have been exposed for many years are now about to disappear. The big problem at the moment is how to keep them from further deterioration. People have suggested to cover the carvings again in order to maintain them for the future. You therefore should use the opportunity to take a closer look at the carvings while they are still there …

While not studying the rock carvings outside or the frescos inside, I suppose you will join us in the scientific program. The program contains 41 oral presentations and 29 posters presentation, and all together we are 72 persons from 20 different countries here for this week. This should guarantee us many interesting views into the field of post harvest physiology. And I am very happy that we were able to include the field of molecular biology and genetic engineering, as much of the new information we need to understand post harvest physiology, must use these techniques. I am also very pleased about the fact that this symposium not only focuses on basic scientific

information, but also has sessions which have a more applied focus. Combining practical problems and views with more basic scientific views gives us the opportunity to discuss the field of post harvest physiology within a broad frame and with several different perspectives.

I would like to thank each and every one of you who have prepared a presentation for this symposium. A special thank should be given to those of you who have prepared invited lectures, and to those of you who have accepted the extra responsibility as chairmen of sessions and working groups.

The scientific program of this symposium has been worked out between the members of the scientific committee. This committee has consisted of Shimon Mayak, Abraham Halevy, Terril Nell, Wouter van Doorn, Cor Vonk Noordegraaf, Lars Høyer, Roar Moe and myself. Thank you for the fruitful cooperation which we experienced during the preparations.

As the convener of this symposium I also would like to give thanks to those firms and organizations that have given us financial support. This has enabled us to keep the fees on a reasonable level, to finance most of the social events, and to subsidize travel costs for the invited speakers.

The name of the sponsors are listed in the program, and we are very happy to see that several of the sponsors will attend the symposium.

The organizing committee has consisted of Professor Roar Moe, Dr. Lars Høyer, Professor Emeritus Erling Strømme and myself. And I must add that the most important person in making this symposium come true - has no doubt - been Erling Strømme. In addition invaluable assistance has been given by Inger-Turid Jahr at the Science Park at Aas.

Lars Høyer is responsible for the post-symposium excursion to Denmark, which will bring those of you who will attend this tour, to one of the worlds most interesting areas when it comes to pot plants. Thank you Lars, for convening this excursion.

I also would like to mention the support and help that have been offered from the staff and coworkers at Department of Horticulture and Crop Sciences at the Agricultural University of Norway. Their assistance has been - and still is - necessary in order to arrange this symposium.

It is my wish for this symposium that it will provide for a good atmosphere which enables us to establish new contacts as well as to meet old acquaintanses, with whom we can exchange information and have good discussions concerning the items which we all have in focus, namely the post harvest physiology and keeping quality of plants and flowers.