Dhiman M.R. , Guleria M.S. , Chander Parkash , Raj Kumar

ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Regional Station, Katrain, Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh- 175129, India
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2015, Vol. 5, No. 18   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2015.05.0018
Received: 16 Oct., 2015    Accepted: 01 Dec., 2015    Published: 29 Dec., 2015

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Dhiman M.R., Guleria M.S., Chander Parkash, and Raj Kumar, 2015, Effect of different chemical compounds on leaf chlorophyll content and postharvest quality of Lilium, International Journal of Horticulture, 5(18): 1-6 (doi:  10.5376/ijh.2015.05.0018)

The effects of different chemicals treatment on postharvest cut flower quality of hybrid lily cultivar ‘Eyeliner’ were investigated. Lily stems were harvested when the first flower bud showed full colour. A whole stem (leaf and bud) sprayed with water (control) and with a growth regulator solutions containing TDZ (1 & 2 ppm), BA (25 ppm), GA₃ (25 ppm), BA (50 ppm), GA₃ (50 ppm), BA + GA₃ (25 ppm + 25 ppm), BA + GA₃ (50 ppm + 50 ppm), SAMRAS (2&4 ml·L^-1), Agri-Herbo-99 (1 & 2 ml·L^-1) and Super Gibbre (1 & 2 ml·L^-1). After the treatments, each stem was then maintained for postharvest evaluation in an individual 500 ml conical flask with 300 ml of normal tap water.  Within each treatment, the numbers of buds per stem were kept constant as possible for ease of data recording. In general, BA alone or in combination with GA₃ treatments significantly delayed the flower bud opening. Leaf yellowing and flower senescence was substantially delayed up to one week when cut flowers were sprayed with a solution containing TDZ (2 ppm). Application of BA @ 50 ppm significantly delayed total chlorophyll (a + b) degradation after 6 and 9 days. After 3 days sharp increase in total chlorophyll content was found when cut stems were sprayed with 1 ppm TDZ and slightly declined after 6 and 9 days. In conclusion, TDZ @ 2 ppm not only delayed leaf yellowing but also reduced onset of petal senescence in Lilium cut flowers. BA was able to delay the chlorophyll degradation.

GA3; TDZ; BA; Leaf yellowing; Chlorophyll; Flower senescence; Lilium; Postharvest