Manjunath S. Patil and Dr. A.R. Karale

DOI

ABSTRACT

The cut flowers are short lived, as they are perishable in nature. Flower drying offers viable solution to preserve the beauty of cut flowers and extend their marketability. A study was conducted to investigate appropriate harvesting stage and desiccant for drying cut flowers of gerbera variety Goliath. Fully opened flowers or three days before harvesting stage were dried in three desiccants namely fine river bed sand, silica gel and mixture of sand and silica gel in 1:1 ratio. The desiccants were used as embedding materials of cut flowers in aluminum boxes. Minimum dry weight (1.17 g/flower) was recorded when silica gel was used as embedding material, while sand resulted the highest dry weight (1.27 g/flower). Minimum number of days (5.10) was required to dry the flowers when silica gel was used as desiccant. Fully opened flowers embedded in silica gel took the least number of days (5.00) for drying. Silica gel was found superior for colour retention indicated by highest score (3.93), retention of shape (3.65) and for retention of shape (3.51).