EFFECT OF DIFFERENT MATURITY STAGES ON THE DISPLAY-LIFE OF CUT DENDROBIUM ORCHIDS

Dendrobium orchid inflorescences are the most important cut flower for exports. The experiment was to investigate the vase-life of cut Dendrobium 'Suree White' and Dendrobium 'Suree Peach' 115 inflorescences at different stages of development. Inflorescences of both cultivars were harvested from the Mana Orchid nursery at four different stages of development and were transported to the laboratory at Silpakorn University within one hour. The four different stages were determined as following; stage 1 had 25% open flowers, stage 2 had 40% open flowers, stage 3 had 50% open flowers and stage 4 had 75% open flowers per inflorescence where the 40% open stage serves as the commercial stage. The stem ends were re-cut to ensure a uniform size before placing in distilled water at 25°C for the evaluation of vase-life. The results showed that cut inflorescences of Dendrobium 'Suree White' at different stages of development did not affect its vase-life, while the inflorescences of Dendrobium 'Suree Peach' 115 cut at 25% of open florets had a longer vase-life (approximately 10 days) compared with other stages (8, 6 and 5 days, respectively).