Cold Storage Period of Bulbs Influences Their Sugar Contents and Post-Storage Growth and Flowering in Lilium Oriental Hybrids

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the changes in internal shoot growth, total and reducing sugar content, plant growth, and flowering characteristics after cold-stored bulbs of Lilium Oriental Hybrids are planted. Bulbs of Lilium Oriental Hybrids ‘Le Reve’, ‘Sorbonne’, and ‘Siberia’ were harvested at the end of November, cleaned, treated with fungicides, conditioned for 30 days at 4 °C, and cold-stored for 30 to 120 days at 0 °C. Plant height, fresh and dry weights, leaf numbers and area, chlorophyll content (SPAD index), days to flowering, number of flower buds, and flower diameter were measured when the cut flowers were harvested. In all cultivars, the shoot lengths in the bulbs increased as the storage period increased. As the storage period was extended, the fructose and glucose contents increased, whereas sucrose content decreased. The total sugar content increased during the early storage period and decreased subsequently. Plant height, fresh and dry weights of cut flowers showed a decreasing trend as the storage period increased. Flower diameter generally decreased with increasing storage period but varied among cultivars. These results indicated that more storage carbohydrates in bulbs were consumed as the storage period increased, and thus, the subsequent plant growth and flowering were negatively affected.

Warm Bulb Storage Optimises Flowering Attributes and Foliage Characteristics in Amaryllis belladonna L.

“…This finding validates the research that the capacity for a bulb to flower depends on the key storage intervals, and straying from these threshold parameters increases the risk of inflorescence abortion [50]. According to this study's findings, the timing, length, and variety of subsequent temperature regimes affected the flowering response, aligning with those of [52,56]. The timing of floral induction after leaf development is typically governed by vegetative growth and senescence under the influence of temperature during a phase of limited vegetative growth [31].…”

“…Other key factors influencing decorative quality include crown diameter [64] and fullness ratio [65]. Given the disparities in floret numbers, they were likely already formed in the bulb before storage treatments, and the discrepancies may be due to several other factors, such as the genetic disposition of floriferous clones [66] and carbohydrate assimilation [56,61].…”

Genotypes and Storage Duration Effects on the Quality of Cut Flower – Gerbera (Gerbera Jamesonii Hook)

“…One of the reasons for this may be the linkage with vase life, and the low amount of carbohydrates led to less vase life ( Van-Doorn et al, 1991;Pettersen and Gislerod, 2003). Also, a reduction in carbohydrate values can occur because of the transporting of carbohydrate forms, with the content decreasing in one state but increasing in another (Ranwala and Miller, 2008;Kim and Oh, 2021).…”