Effect of Some Preservative Solutions on Vase Life of Gladiolus Cut Flowers

Keeping quality and length of vase life are important factors for evaluation of cut flowers quality, for both domestic and export markets. These investigations proposed to determine the effectiveness of some preservative solutions as glutamic acid (100, 200 and 300 mg/l), salicylic acid (200,400 and 600 mg/l), calcium chloride (1000, 2000 and 3000 mg/l) and aluminum sulphate (100, 200 and 300 mg/l) on quality parameters of (Gladiolus grandiflorus L. cv. 'Rose Supreme') flowers. Results showed that all treatments significantly increased the vase life, fresh weight, water uptake and chlorophyll content with decreasing number of bacteria and proline accumulation compared to control. The highest increase in fresh weight, water uptake and chlorophyll index was obtained by glutamic acid (300 mg/l), salicylic acid (400 mg/l), calcium chloride (3000 mg/l) and aluminum sulphate (300 mg/l). Whilst, glutamic acid (300 mg/l) and salicylic acid (400) resulted in the maximum vase life in both experiments, in addition, glutamic acid (200 mg/l) and aluminum sulphate (200 and 300 mg/l) in second experiment. Moreover, glutamic acid (300 mg/l) recorded the most effect on decreasing number of bacteria  and proline accumulation in both experiments, furthermore salicylic (400 and 600 mg/l), calcium chloride (3000 mg/l) and aluminum sulphate (100, 200 and 300 mg/l) on number of bacteria and salicylic acid (200 and 400 mg/l), calcium chloride (3000 mg/l) and aluminum sulphate (100, 200 and 300 mg/l) on proline accumulation in first experiment compared to control.