Chrysanthemum indicum cultivar Sakura is one of the daisy cultivars. It is beautiful, but the vase life of cutting flowers is very short. The decrease in flower quality during storage and transportation is a big problem in the flower export. In this study, the morphological, physiological, and biochemical changes during the vase life of cutting flowers were analyzed. The effects of plant growth regulators and sucrose at different concentrations on the vase life of cut flowers were investigated. The vase life of Sakura cutting flowers includes two stages: (1) the growing and blooming of flower, (2) senescence of cutting flowers. During the growing and blooming, the color of disk flowers changed from green to yellow, and the ray flowers continued to expand the dimension leading to an increase in the diameter of the head flower. The senescence of cutting flowers was initiated by the reduction of chlorophyll content in the leaf, which was located at the base. Then, the ray flowers were discolored. In the senescence stage, the respiration rate and the content of the abscisic acid of head flower increased continuously. In contrast, the water absorption, the content of starch, total sugar, salicylic acid, auxin, cytokinin, and gibberellin decreased strongly. The treatment of 10 g/L sucrose, 2 mg/L NAA, 5 mg/L BA, and 20 mg/L salicylic acid in 24 hours extended the vase life of Sakura cutting flowers and the diameter of the head flower.
FOLIAR APPLICATIONS OF ZINC, IRON AND MANGANESE INFLUENCE THE PLANT GROWTH AND FRUIT QUALITY OF PAPAYA CV. RED LADY
