Evaluation of Cut Carnation Longevity cv.  Yellow Candy under Treatment with Chemical and Organic Antimicrobial Compounds

Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) is valuable in terms of production and exports in the world. Increased vase life of cut flowers is an important factor for their market acceptability. For this purpose this study was carried out to examine the effect of plant essential oils as compared to 8-hydroxy-quinoline sulfate on the control of bacteria population and the longevity of carnation cut flowers on the basis of a complete randomized design with 14 treatments, control (distilled water), control alcohol (2%), 8-HQS at three levels (100, 200 and 400 mg l-1), and the essential oils of dill seeds, caraway seeds and aromatic geranium, each one at three levels (50, 100 and 150 mg l-1) continuously with 3 replications, 42 plots – each plot including 5 flowers. The recorded traits included vase life, vase solution bacteria population, fresh weight loss, increasing the soluble solids,ionic leakage, ethylene production, chlorophyll a and b. The results of this study showed that the longest vase life was obtained from the treatment of alcohol 2% with 15.83 days. Also, among the treatments containing essential oil, dill (100 mg l-1), geranium (50 mg l-1), caraway (100 mg l-1) and 8- hydroxyquinoline sulfate (400 mg l-1) as better treatments are considered.