Department of Floriculture and Landscaping, ASPEE College of Hortieulture and Forestry, G.A.U., Navsari - 396450.
*Corresponding author's
1Present address: H. No. 461/3, Mangal Pandey Nagar, Meerut, U.P.
Dehydration is an important post harvest technique for enhancing ornamental keeping quality of flowers as it quickly reduces the moisture content of flowers to a point wherein growth of microorganisms can be prevented and bio-chemical changes can be minimized or brought to a standstill. The study ofthe phenomena of dehydration with respect to petal shape, colour and longevity, revealed 8 to 11.5% moisture content as an optimum level of dehydration for maintaining six months longevity and good flower shape. Dehydration at low temperature (40°C) or flower drying at ambient temperatue with sand or silica gel as embedding media, exhibited better quality with good petal-texture, colour and low degradation of carotenoids and anthocyanins.
Dehydration, embedding media, moisture content, pigment, temperature, Zinnia
