Postharvest Handling of Cut Campanula medium Flowers

Abstract

Various postharvest treatments were evaluated for effect on longevity and quality of cut Campanula medium L. `Champion Blue' and `Champion Pink' stems. Stems stored at 2 °C either wet or dry had no difference in vase life or percent flowers opened; however, flowers stored dry had a slightly greater percentage of senesced flowers at termination. Increasing storage duration from 1 to 3 weeks decreased vase life. Stems pretreated for 4 hours with 38 °C floral solution (deionized water amended to pH 3.5 with citric acid and 200 mg·L-1 8-HQC) or a 1-MCP pulse followed by a 5% sucrose pulse solution produced the longest vase life (10.3 or 10.4 days, respectively). Flowers opening after treatments commenced were paler than those flowers already opened and a 24-hour pretreatment with 5% or 10% sucrose did not prevent this color reduction. Stems had an average vase life of only 3.3 days when placed in floral vase foam but lasted 10.0 days without foam. Optimum sucrose concentration was 1.0% to 2.0% for stems placed in 22 °C floral vase solution without foam and 4% for stems placed in foam. High (110 μmol·m-2·s-1) or low (10 μmol·m-2·s-1) light levels did not affect postharvest parameters, but the most recently opened flowers were paler under low light conditions than under high light conditions. Chemical names used: 8-hydroxyquinoline citrate (8-HQC); 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP).