Effects of Different Fresh-keeping Agents on the Water Balance and Fresh Weight of Fresh Cut Flowers of Gladiolus hybridus

The aim of the research was to screen out the suitable fresh-keeping agent for fresh cut flowers of Gladiolus hybridus.G.hybridus was treated with different concentrations of sucrose,aluminum sulfate,citric acid and silver nitrate to determine the fresh weight dynamic,ornamental value and the vase life of cut flowers.Different fresh-keeping agents and different concentrations of the same kind of fresh-keeping agent all had different effects on the water balance value and fresh weight of G.hybridus cut flowers.The fresh-keeping effects of 200 mg/L aluminum sulfate and 500 mg/L citric acid were best.And their vase lives of cut flowers were both 5 d,which were prolonged 1 d than CK.The change tendency of water balance values in all treatments was similar to that of CK and the whole tendency was decreasing.The water balance values in early vase stage of were more than 1 and that in late stage were less than 1.Except that the fresh weight changing rate of G.hybridus treated with 2% sucrose showed a decreasing trend,that in other treatments all showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing.When vase holding was ended,fresh weight of flower branches was obviously lower than the initial fresh weight.The fresh-keeping effect of sucrose solution with low concentration is obvious.Considering comprehensively,200 mg/L aluminum sulfate and 500 mg/L citric acid can get best fresh-keeping effects.