A study on the effect of silver nitrate and 8-hydroxyquinoline citrate pulsing solutions on Lilium cut flowers

Abstract

Lilium is one of the most important cut flowers in commercial markets, giving customers ornamental value. Fresh flowers, a highly perishable item, need more care and proper treatment for their longer post-harvest life and due to this, the end users face the post-harvest losses of cut flowers. Such losses can be minimized by using preservative chemical, which plays an important role in increasing the vase life of flowers. To increase the post-harvest life of lilium cut flowers cv. ‘Pavia’, the present investigation was aimed to study the effect of different combinations and concentrations of silver nitrate at 50, 75 and 100 ppm and 8-hydroquinoline citrate at 100, 150 and 200 ppm pulsing solutions with 20 % sucrose. Three replications were completely randomised with 16 treatments and one control. Silver nitrate showed better results in flower bud opening, flower bud opening to complete flowering, flower size, bloom life, dry weight and dry matter percentage. Among the treatment concentrations, AgNO3 at 50 ppm with 20% sucrose showed the most effective result on enhancing the selected parameters and improved flower quality during post-harvest life. Among the treatment combinations, 8-HQC at 100 ppm + AgNO3 at 75 ppm with 20 % sucrose showed better results. These findings will be useful to researchers, farmers, and end users to retain the ornamental value of lilium cut flowers for longer than usual.