M. M. Jowkar, H. Salehi,
Volume 10, Issue 3 (10-2006)
Abstract
Tuberose is one of the tropical and subtropical bulbous cut flowers cultivated extensively in most floricultural regions of Iran. Although it has a high potential for a long vase life after harvest, tuberose declines rapidly at home. In order to overcome this problem, two experiments were conducted on a local cultivar, “Goldorosht-e-Mahalat”, using a completely randomized design. To find a suitable preservative which provides the longest vase life for tuberose, the experiment was carried out by applying the carelessness of most consumers: not recutting stem ends nor changing the vase solutions. In the first experiment the preservative solutions were: sucrose (1, 2 and 3%), silver thiosulphate (0.4, 0.8 and 1.2 mM), silver nitrate (50, 100 and 150 mgl-1), citric acid (150, 300 and 450 mgl-1) and tap water as the control. In the early days of the experiment, silver thiosulphate caused severe burning of the florets, silver nitrate caused the wilting of the florets and bent the end of the flower spikes and sucrose didn’t have any positive effect, but decreased the vase life. The longest vase life belonged to citric acid, after which the control (tap water) was placed. The second experiment was conducted to determine the role of the water quality and citric acid. The treatments were: sterilized distilled water, citric acid made with sterilized distilled water (150, 300 and 450 mgl-1) and tap water as the control. The longest and the shortest vase life belonged to sterilized distilled water and the control (tap water) respectively. The citric acid prepared with sterilized distilled water had a desirable effect on the vase life of cut tuberose flowers. This effect increased with the increment of the acid up to 450 mgl-1.
