A.K Acharya^* , D.R. Baral^**, D.M. Gautam^** , and U.K Pun<sup>***

*</sup>Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives,Kathmandu
^**Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal
^***Himalayan Flora Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., Lalitpur, Nepal

Abstract

Postharvest studies were carried out in 2 varieties of gerbera; 'Malibu' and 'Sunway' to find out the effect of vase solutions (distilled water, sodium hypochlorite 40 ppm, 8-HQS 200 ppm, Flora Life 10 gm/l, GA₃ 5mg/l, sucrose 2% + 8-HQS 100 ppm and CaCl₂ 1%) for prolonging the vase life during September 2009 to March 2010. Laboratory experiments were carried out in randomized complete block design in controlled room having 18±2⁰c temperature, 68±2% relative humidity and 100 lux light. Among 7 different vase solutions, sodium hypochlorite 40 ppm (19.1 days) and calcium chloride 1% (18.8 days) were found to be the most effective to prolong the vase life of the gerbera cut flowers, while the effect of HQS 200 ppm (10.4 days) and 'Flora life' 10gm/l (9.5 days) was insignificant compared to the control (distilled water) (10.l days). Total solution uptake was found the highest in variety, Sunway in sodium hypochlorite (42.12 ml), followed by calcium chloride (38.6 ml), GA₃ (26.36 ml), HQS (22.1 ml), control (19.54 ml), and Flora life (18.82 ml). Increment of floral diameter at the fourth day of vase life was 2.74% whereas at the last day (13 days) there was reduction of floral diameter by 5.03%

Keywords: Gerbera, preservatives, solution uptake, vase life