EFFECT OF SOME BIOCIDES ON THE VASE LIFE OF CARNATION (DIANTHUS CARYOPHYLLUS L.) CUT FLOWERS

The current study was carried out at Antoniades Research Branch, Ornamental Plants and Landscape Gardening Res. Dept., Hort. Res. Inst., ARC, Alexandria, Egypt, over two consecutive seasons of 2019 and 2020. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of silver nitrate (AgNO3) at (20, 30, and 40 mg l-1), 8-hydroxyquinoline sulfate (8-HQS) at (50, 100, and 200 mg l-1), citric acid (CA) at (50, 100, and 150 mg l-1) and salicylic acid (SA) at (100, 150, and 200 mg l-1) as holding preservative solutions for reducing bacterial decay and prolonging the vase life on cut carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) flowers. The following records were evaluated at the conclusion of the experiment: vase life (days), which was calculated as the number of days before the flowers started to wilt, loss of flower fresh weight percentage (LFFW percent), final water uptake (g), flower fresh weight/flower dry weight ratio (FWR), relative fresh weight, vase solution uptake rate, and several chemical component tests. The results showed that the highest significant improvement in most measurements were obtained when treated with silver nitrate AgNO3 at a concentration of 30 mg l-1 including improved vase life, final water uptake, flower fresh weight/flower dry weight ratio, chlorophyll a & b, carotene content, and sugars content. It also reduced the number of bacterial colonies in the vase water. The treatment with 8-hydroquinoline sulfate at 200 mg l-1 was the closest to that treatment in most of the studied characteristics