Studies on post harvest life of cut anthurium flowers

An experiment was conducted to study the post harvest life of two anthurium cultivars viz. Sunset Orange and Agnihotri. Studies involved pulsing of anthurium cut flowers with 10 chemicals, out of which maximum vase life in terms of spadix drying, spathe blueing and loss of spathe glossiness was observed in 100 ppm BA. All the pulsing treatments showed improved water uptake over control, maximum uptake was observed in 4% sucrose, followed by 500 ppm AgNO₃. In the holding solution experiment, 100 ppm citric acid + 5% sucrose showed significantly higher vase life in terms of spadix drying, spathe blueing and loss of spathe glossiness. Maximum water uptake was observed in flowers held in 5% sucrose. In the cold treatment experiment, precooling treatment at 15°C for 4 hours resulted in maximum vase life in terms of spadix drying, spathe blueing and loss of glossiness