Effects of transport in (CA) controlled atmosphere at suboptimal temperatures on cut flowers of the rose ‘First Red’
M. Devecchi , H. de Wild, E. Woltering and U. van Meeteren
Proceedings of 26th International Horticultural Congress. Volume of Abstract . Toronto, Canada, 11-17 August, 2002. Abstract S09-P-207. pp. 272.
2002
บทคัดย่อ
The growing world-wide importance of cut flower productionin regions far from the main purchase sites has involved the necessity to improve conveyance and package systems for te flower products, to assure satisfactory qualitative standards. The most decisive factor to keep a satisfying quality at the consumer is a low (close to 0 oC) temperature during storage and transport. In practice, however, this low temperature cannot always be realised. As opposed to vegetable and fruit produce, the data available in literature on the use of controlled atmosphere (CA) for cut flowers are scarce. Thus experiments have been conducted on cut flowers of the rose ‘first red’ with the aim to study the effect on postharvest physiology of different transport conditions for 5 days of flowers in CA [(O2) 0.5-21%; (CO2) 0-10%] at suboptimal temperatures (4-12 oC). During the period of transport simulation in CA, the respiration rate and the production of ethylene was measured in the flowers while during the vase life, transpiration rate, water uptake, diameter and longevity of the flowers were recorede. In single petals, fresh weiht and area were measured daily. We found no positive effects on longevity of high CO2 concentrations. At low O2 concentrations, respiration rate and ethylene product during storage were lowered. The moment at which fresh weight of flowers started to decrease during vase life was somewhat delayed in low O2 –stored flowers. Low O2 concentrations during storage resulted in poor flower opening afterwards. Petal growth was not inhibited by the low O2 –storage, but instead the outer petals showed a greater increase in surface area and fresh weight after treatments at O2 concentrations of 1%. For the inner petals of the bud the differences in surface increase were less obvious. The negative after-effect of low O2 concentrations could not be annulled by a GA3 pulse treatment (20h) folowing the transport simulation.