Study of the effects of salicylic acid, sodium nitroprusside and ethanol on vase life and flower quality of cut flowers of two gerbera varieties

Gerbera is one of the ten most popular commercial cut flowers in the world, but its postharvest vase life is generally short. So vase life improvement of gerbera is one of the first floriculture’s purposes. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of salicylic acid (0, 100, 150 and 200 µgl-1), sodium nitroprusside (0, 100, 150 and 200 µgl-1) and ethanol (0, 2, 4 and 6%) on the vase life, fresh weight (FW), relative water uptake (RWU), and stem bending of two gerbera varieties, namely Bayadère and Sunway (with high and low postharvest performance qualities, respectively) arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The results indicated the significant effect of cultivar, treatment and also their interaction on all evaluated parameters. Accordingly, Bayadère cut flowers with higher postharvest performance quality showed higher vase life; fresh weight and relative water uptake than those of Sunway cut flowers. Also; ethanol, sodium nitroprusside and salicylic acid showed significant effects on post-harvest quality, depending on their concentrations and the studied cultivars. So that the highest longevity and minimum stem bending in both cultivars were obtained in 2% ethanol, 150 µM sodium nitroprusside and 200 µM salicylic acid. Taken together, screening of the varieties and also application of inhibitors of the senescence such as SA and SNP at optimum concentrations in vase solutions might be promising approaches to improve postharvest performance of gerbera cut flowers.