Calcium Chelated with Amino Acids Improves Quality and Postharvest Life of Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum cv. Cinderella Lime)

Abstract

<jats:p>Lisianthus is one of the most important specialty cut flowers in the world. Various greenhouse conditions and inadequate evapotranspiration can disturb the transport of calcium and impair its uptake by plants. This study aimed to compare the effects of calcium amino acid chelates and calcium chloride (CaCl<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>) on flower production, quality, and postharvest life of cut ‘Cinderella Lime’ lisianthus. Therefore, nutrient solutions containing calcium amino acid chelates (1%) were prepared using calcium and equal concentrations of lysine, threonine, or methionine. The control treatment was a solution without amino acids and calcium. Calcium concentrations of flowering stems were significantly higher in plants treated with calcium amino acid chelates than those treated with amino acids or the control treatment. Treatment with calcium methionine chelate led to significantly higher flower numbers compared with treatment with free amino acids and the control treatment. Moreover, calcium amino acid chelates effectively improved the fresh and dry mass of the flowering stems in comparison with the control plants. In summary, among all calcium sources, calcium lysine chelate could most effectively enhance the postharvest life of lisianthus cut flowers.</jats:p>

Resistance Elicitors on Production and Post-Production Performance of Potted Lisianthus

“…Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum (Raf.) Shinn) is an ornamental plant that has been gaining space across the world due to the high attractiveness and vivid colors of the flowers (SAEEDI et al, 2015), standing among the 10 best selling products worldwide (LÓPEZ-GUERRERO et al, 2019). This species is popular due to its beautiful morphological characteristics (YAN et al, 2019) and stands out for the production of single or double flowers in a great diversity of colors (AHMAD et al, 2017) and bicolors (ALMEIDA; CALABONI; RODRIGUES, 2016) with high productivity (SHEIKH, F. et al, 2014).…”

“…Over time, strategies have been used to extend the life of cut lisianthus through floral preservatives and ethylene action inhibitors (NOORDERGRAAF, 1994;SHEIKH et al, 2014;SAEEDI et al, 2015;CAVASINI et al, 2018). However, considering the cultivation of potted flowers, sustainable strategies that are safe for the producer and the consumer must be explored, such as those involving induced resistance in plants (ROMANAZZI et al, 2016;LÓPEZ-GUERRERO et al 2019;AHMED et al, 2020), not yet studied in potted lisianthus.…”

“…The use of plant resistance inducers has been reported in tropical flowers to reduce the incidence of diseases that compromise quality (GURGEL et al, 2018), reducing the useful life. Among the commercial products used as resistance elicitors, have been highlighted the compounds based on phosphorylated mannanoligosaccharide from the Saccharomyces cerevisae cell wall (SARDINHA et al, 2019) and those containing bioflavonoids and citric phytoalexins, vitamins, and organic acids, which are antioxidant substances that, even when applied in very small doses in production or pre-harvest, promote changes in the metabolism of plants, helping to prevent diseases and maintaining nutritional balance (ARANEGA-BOU et al, 2014). Furthermore, the bio-based resistence inducers, such as inducers based on citric biomass, rich in flavonoids, polyphenols, phytoalexins, and organic acids, can improve the use of inputs, balancing the metabolism of phenolic compounds to induce systemic acquired resistance (SAR) in plants, providing lower disease rate in preand postharvest, increasing resistance to transport, in addition to acting against water stresses and phytotoxicity.…”

Glycine mitigates fertilizer requirements of agricultural crops: case study with cucumber as a high fertilizer demanding crop

“…The crop has a relatively short life period, but can produce high yields particularly in greenhouse cultivation. Application of new and suitable cultivars, intensive fertilization and optimization of the growth conditions are quite important to achieve high yield in cucumber culture [27]. High rates of chemical fertilizers are generally applied to cucumber culture in the field and particularly under greenhouse cultivation.…”

Cerium nitrate and salicylic acid on vase life, lipid peroxidation, and antioxidant enzymes activity in cut lisianthus flowers

“…Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum) is a major cut flower from the family Gentianaceae (Saeedi et al, 2015). Cut lisianthus flowers exhibit short vase life due to their susceptibility to ethylene (Ichimura et al, 1998) and xylem blockage (Sharifzadeh et al, 2014).…”