Improvement Postharvest Quality of Cut Alstroemeria (<i>Alstroemeria hybrida<i>) by Stem-End Splitting and Ethanol

Abstract

For the improvement the postharvest longevity of cut alstroemeria (<em>Alstroemeria hybrida </em>L.), a factorial experiment was carried out based on RCD with 2 factors of stem end splitting at two levels (5 cm splitting and without splitting) and ethanol at five levels (0, 1, 2, 4 and 6%), 10 treatments, 3 replications and 30 plots. In this experiment, the estimated traits included vase life, water absorbtion, fresh weight, dry matter percent, ethylene, petal anthocyanin, electrolyte leakage and lipid peroxidation (MDA). ANOVA showed significant differences among treatments for vase life, water absorbtion, dry matter percent and electrolyte leakage at the 5% probability level and for other traits at the 1% probability level. Results showed that different treatments improved vase life as compared to control and maximum vase life of 19.77 days was achieved under the treatment of ethanol 1% + with 5 cm splitting compared to control (11.09 days). <br />