Improved Quality and Vase Life of Cut Flowers of the Standard Chrysanthemum Cultivar ‘Baekma’ Using Wet Shipping Solutions with NaOCl and ClO2

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of dry and wet conditions during harvest and shipping on the quality and vase life of cut flowers using the standard chrysanthemum cultivar 'Baekma'. Wet harvest and wet shipping (Wet-Wet) treatments maintained a high fresh weight of cut flowers and extended their vase life by 2 days compared to dry harvest and shipping (Dry-Dry) treatments. However, no significant difference was observed in the quality or vase life of cut flowers between dry harvest and wet shipping (Dry-Wet) and Wet-Wet treatments. The Dry-Dry treatment also resulted in lower chlorophyll fluorescence ratios (Fv/Fm) than the Wet-Wet treatment, and it means Dry-Dry treatment had more stress than Wet-Wet treatment. We also tested the effects of treatment with a wet shipping solution containing sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and chlorine dioxide (ClO 2). When cut flowers were placed in a holding solution with NaOCl after transport, both fresh weights and flower diameters were highest when treated with 50-200 mg‧L-1 NaOCl. Treatment with a 50 mg‧L-1 NaOCl wet shipping solution also extended the vase life of cut flowers by 2 days compared to other shipping solutions. When cut flowers were transported with a 0.5-2 mg‧L-1 ClO 2 wet shipping solution, they maintained high quality with an extended vase life of 2.1 days. Treatment with either NaOCl or ClO 2 shipping solution significantly inhibited bacterial growth after transport for 4 days. These results suggest that standard chrysanthemum 'Baekma' should be distributed in a wet shipping solution of 50 mg‧L-1 NaOCl or 0.5-1 mg‧L-1 ClO 2 to maintain quality and vase life of cut flowers exported to Japan.

Effects of Dry and Wet Shipping Conditions on Quality, Vase Life, and Physiological Responses of Chrysanthemum morifolium ‘Baekma’ Cut Flowers

“…Recently, it was reported that the use of NaOCl and ClO 2 , as holding solutions or pretreatment agents after harvest of cut flowers of chrysanthemum, was effective in keeping cut flowers fresh (Lee and Lee, 2015;Yoo and Roh, 2015b;Yoo et al, 2016). It was estimated that wet shipping with NaOCl solution promoted the moisture uptake in cut flowers by preventing the proliferation and penetration into the vessels of microorganisms during transport (Roh et al, 2018) and thus was effective at maintaining freshness and extending the vase life of cut flowers. In addition, NaOCl was verified as an effective solution for wet shipping compared to the commercial product Chrysal OVB, which is used globally.…”

“…Effects of Dry and Wet Shipping Conditions on Quality, Vase Life, and Physiological Responses of Chrysanthemum morifolium 'Baekma' Cut Flowers pretreatment with promalin that exhibited better vase life and quality of cut flowers than the control (Choi et al, 2014). Also, when cut flowers of chrysanthemum were transported by dry shipping, the Fv/Fm value due to drought stress was lower than that of chrysanthemum transported by wet shipping (Roh et al, 2018). In this study, it was suggested that the relatively low values of Fv/Fm, ETo/TRo, and ETo/ABS seem attributable to decreased quantum efficiency in the photosystem Ⅱ due to drought stress caused by dry shipping of the cut flowers of chrysanthemum 'Baekma'.…”

“…In the dry shipping method, cut flowers were laid horizontally in a corrugated paperboard box. In the wet shipping method, cut flowers were placed vertically into a wet container filled with wet solution inside a corrugated paperboard box (Roh et al, 2018). The wet solution was treated with tap water (pH 6.6, EC 0.1 dS•m -1 ), 50 mg•L -1 NaOCl, 2 mg•L -1 ClO 2 (Vital Oxide Ⓡ , Danbibio Ltd., Korea), and 3 mL•L -1 Chrysal OVB (Chrysal International B.V., Netherlands).…”

“…Measuring chlorophyll fluorescence is a means of nondestructively determining the effect of environmental stress such as damage induced by salt, cold, frost, high temperature, dryness, and air pollution, as well as assessing physiology relevant to photosynthesis (Smillie and Nott, 1982;Omasa et al, 1987;Bhandari et al, 2018;Zha et al, 2018;Zhou et al, 2018). For the cases of the Lilium Oriental hybrids 'Siberia' and chrysanthemum 'Baekma', it was reported that the value of Fv/Fm, one of the parameters of chlorophyll fluorescence, appeared higher in cut flowers of favorable quality or reduced leaf yellowing compared to cut flowers of degraded quality (Choi et al, 2014;Roh et al, 2018). In addition, the spectral reflectance of a leaf provides the information on stress or senescence of plants through measurement of the chlorophyll-to-carotenoid ratio (Peñuelas et al, 1995;Barták et al, 2016).…”