Improving the Vase Life of Cut Gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii L. cv. âBalanceâ)Flower with Silver Nano-particles

Gerbera is one of the ten most popular cut flowers in the world and according to global trends in flor iculture, it occupies the forth place in cut flowers. In order tevaluate the effect of silver nano-particles on v ase life and postharvest quality of cut gerbera cv. ‘Balance’, a n experiment based on the completely randomized des ign with one factor; silver nano-particles in 4 levels (0, 5, 10 and 20 mg l -1 ) in three replications and 12 plots with 4 flowers per plot was done. Analysis of variance revealed that t he effect of silver nano-particles on vase life, flower diameter decreasing index and loss of fresh weight was signi ficant at 5% probability level. According to the mean comparisons, the maximum vase life and flower diame ter decreasing index was obtained in 10 mg l -1 silver nanoparticles treatment and the minimum loss of fresh w eight belonged to the 20 mg l -1 silver nano-particles treatment.