Quality of Yellow Button Type Chrysanthemum Flowers as Affected by Desiccants

Investigation was carried out to standardize the suitable embedding material for hot air oven drying of yellow button type chrysanthemum (Dendranthema grandiflora Tzvelev) for better display quality of flowers. The experiment was laid out in factorial CRD with five embedding materials viz., silica gel, calcium chloride, copper sulphate, sand and borax and three drying temperatures viz., 40°C, 5O°C and 60°C. The overall quality of dried flowers was judged by a panel of 5 jUdges and ranked based on their appearance, colour and texture. Among the desiccants silica gel embedded flowers scored the maximum points for good appearance (7.367). The flowers embedded in copper sulphate scored the maximum points for bright flowers (7.144) whereas, silica gel embedded flowers scored the maximum points for smooth petal texture at all the drying temperature (7.367). The quality of flower petals was better maintained at a low temperature for all the desiccants tried.