Background
The rose, one of the most economically important and popular cut flowers worldwide requires special postharvest care in order to obtain the best vase life and quality. Fresh cut flower food plays an important role in the postharvest performance of roses by providing essential nutrients in the proper balance. Floralife® Rose Professional Flower Food has been specially formulated to provide these essential needs during the transport and storage stages for roses. This product aids in lowering the pH of water to the flowers benefit, speeds up the hydration, and improves the freshness and quality of roses during the storage phase over the use of a general purpose fresh cut flower food or plain water. This product is available as a concentrated liquid (1% dilution) and can be easily used with an automatic dispensing injector unit.
Research
An experiment was conducted in the Floralife, Inc. Walterboro, SC lab to test the effectiveness of Floralife® Rose Professional Flower Food. Cut roses were obtained from commercial sources (shipped dry) for these experiments. The ends of the stems were recut taking off 1 inch (3 cm). Leaves that would be below the solution level were removed, and stems were placed in buckets containing either water, properly mixed Floralife Clear Professional® Flower Food, or Floralife® Rose Professional Flower Food. The buckets of flowers were then subjected to shipping, holding and retail store simulation by storing them for 3 days in a cooler between 34 – 36° F (1 – 2° C), then at 68 – 70° F (20 – 21° C) for 2 days. At the end of this simulation phase, flowers in all treatments were placed in vases containing Floralife® Rose Flower Food (consumer packet) and held in an interior postharvest evaluation room (68 – 70° F / 20 – 21° C; 12 hours light) to monitor vase life performance.
Results
The following graph shows the vase life of rose data at the last step in that process which is the vase evaluation phase. The data is the average of 5 different rose varieties tested.
Conclusions
Both Floralife Clear Professional® and Floralife® Rose Professional Flower Foods performed better than using just water. Vase life performance was better when Floralife® Rose Professional Flower Food was used during shipping, holding and retail store simulation phase compared with the allpurpose crop Floralife® Clear Professional Flower Food.
Source: Floralife
