Effect of storage temperature and harvest bud maturity on bud opening and vase life ofPaeonia lactifloracultivars

Abstract

Six Paeonia lactiflora cultivare ('Coral Sunset', 'Festiva Maxima', 'Maestro', 'Nick Shaylor', 'Pink Hawaiian Coral', 'Sarah Bernhardt') were studied to determine whether postharvest storage temperatures (0-7°C) impacted on postharvest quality of flowers that had been harvested at different bud maturities. The flowers of each of the cultivare differed in their response to postharvest storage temperatures for particular bud harvest maturities. The development of harvested buds in cold storage was affected by both bud maturity at harvest and the temperature that the buds were stored after harvest. The open vase-life of flowers was unaffected by postharvest storage temperatures (0-7°C) but bud maturity at harvest did impact on the open vase-life of one cultivar ('Festiva Maxima'). For 'Festiva Maxima', buds harvested at less mature stages had a greater open vase-life than those harvested at more mature stages. The current research shows that maintaining low postharvest storage temperatures (<8°C) for short-term storage of P. lactiflora cultivare slows bud development, thereby influencing flower maturity at export destinations while not impacting on the open vase-life of the cut flowers.

North American Specialty Cut Flower Production and Postharvest Survey

“…After harvest, buds should be immediately cooled to 33 to 34°F, and that temperature should be maintained during the many postharvest handling stages (Kamenetsky and Dole, 2012). Furthermore, bud maturity influences the peony response to different temperatures (Eason et al, 2002). Another complaint of producers was the short harvest window, which resulted in the harvest of many stems at once and insufficient cold storage space.…”

“…The harvest stage varies greatly among species. Dutch iris should be harvested before the falls (downward petals in the inflorescence) reflex and standards (upright petals) expand (Dole and Wilkins, 2005;Eason et al, 2002). Vase life was a problem for the postharvest of cosmos (14.5%), dahlia (16.2%), and viburnum (11.1%).…”

Evaluation of ITS2 for intraspecific identification of Paeonia lactiflora cultivars

“…Herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora .Pall) belongs to the Paeoniaceae family and is widely distributed in temperate Eurasia as a perennial herbaceous plant [1] . With colorful flowers and wound-healing roots, it is welcomed as a traditional flower, both potted and as cut flowers, and enjoys the title of ‘The minister of flowers’ in China [2] .…”

Optimum harvesting time of herbaceous peony buds for cutting flowers

“…Gao (2006) found that the optimum harvesting stages were different for short-term and long-term storage of 'Qi Hua Lu Shuang' and 'Tao Hua Fei xue'. Other studies also showed that vase life was mainly determined by harvesting stage and different cultivars had different optimum harvesting stages (Charles 1986;Eason 2002). This paper investigated the relationships of harvesting stages with vase life and flower diameter and presented scientific statistics in order to determine the optimum harvesting stages.…”