Salicylic and Citric Acid Treatments Improve the Vase Life of Cut Chrysanthemum Flowers

Chrysanthemum (Dendranthema grandiflorum (Ramat.) Kitamura cv. Pattriot) is one of the most important and marketable cut flowers in the world. However, a relatively limited vase life reduces its marketability. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of salicylic acid (SA) and citric acid (CA) in extending the vase life of chrysanthemum flowers. Therefore, a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with SA at (0, 100, 200, 300 ppm) and CA at (0, 100, 200 ppm) with 3 replicates and 3 samples (individual flowers) for each replicate, was conducted. Applying SA and CA increased vase life, petal water content (%), initial fresh weight (%) and marketability, significantly. SA treatments increased leaf relative water content (RWC), petal water content (%) and initial fresh weight (%) by 49, 73 and 23 %, compared to the controls, respectively. The highest vase life (21.77 days) was observed for the treatments of SA (300 ppm). The significant increase (300%) in vase life is considered to be due to plant regulating and anti-stress properties of SA and CA. According to the results of this experiment, SA and CA as natural, cheap, safe and biodegradable compounds are suitable alternatives for conventional chemical treatments in order to prolong vase life of cut flowers of chrysanthemum. Commercialization of these compounds for optimum formulations needs further experiments.