Maintenance solutions for the conservation of sunflower inflorescences

Alex Guimarães Sanches; Maryelle Barros da Silva, Elaine Gleice Silva Moreira; Carlos Alberto Martins Cordeiro

doi:10.9755/ejfa.2019.v31.i5.1950

Authors

Alex Guimarães Sanches Department of Horticulture of the Paulista State University ''Júlio de Mesquita Filho'' - Campus of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences, Jaboticabal. Street Prof. Paulo Donato Castelane, S/N - Vila Industrial, 14884-900, Jaboticabal-SP, Brazil
Maryelle Barros da Silva, Elaine Gleice Silva Moreira Department of Plant Production of the State University of Goiás, Highway 330 Km 241 - University Sector, 75780-000, Ipameri-GO, Brazil
Carlos Alberto Martins Cordeiro Department of Fisheries Engineering, Federal University of Pará, Alameda Leandro Ribeiro S/N, Aldeia, 68600-000, Bragança-PA, Brazil

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.9755/ejfa.2019.v31.i5.1950

Keywords:

Cut flower, Gibberellic acid, Helianthus annuus L, Sucrose

Abstract

The sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an ornamental plant of great acceptance in the market, however, as cut flower has its limited useful life, about 3 to 5 days at room temperature. In order to prolong shelf life and preserve post-harvest quality was evaluated the effect of maintenance solutions on sunflower cv. Oasis for 10 days storage at 25 °C. O experimento foi conduzido em delineamento inteiramente casualizado em arranjo fatorial 5x6, correspondendo a cinco tratamentos/soluções de manutenção (distilled water (control), sucrose, citric acid, gibberellic acid and benzylaminopurine to 5%) and six evaluation times (0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 days). The effect of treatments on fresh mass, inflorescence turgescence, stem curvature, relative petal water content, respiratory rate and carbohydrate content was investigated. The results showed that the solutions with sucrose and gibberellic acid significantly (p<0.05) preserved the quality of the inflorescences as a function of the control of respiratory activity and water absorption, thereby reducing the physiological processes related to senescence. It is recommended to use sucrose 5% as a maintenance solution due to the low cost to producers and consumers.