Effect of Wrapping Materials and Cold Storage Durations on Keeping Quality of Cut Flowers of Ornithogalum Thyrsoides Jacq

The effect of different wrapping material and cold storage durations (3, 6, 9 and 12 days) at 40C on keeping quality of Ornithogalum was investigated. Among different wrapping materials (polyethylene, newspaper, cellophane, butter paper, low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE)), cellophane proved promising in improving the keeping quality of cut spikes. The keeping quality of unpackaged cold stored cut spikes was highly deteriorated and decreased with increase in storage duration. Cut stems wrapped in cellophane and stored recorded maximum water uptake with less number of unopened florets. This material further increased floret size and vase life of cut stems. Cold storage of spikes for 3 days with cellophane wrapping maintained good keeping quality with improved floret opening, floret size and appearance. Thus, ornithogalum spikes can be best stored up to 3 days at 40C in modified atmosphere packaging with cellophane. INTRODUCTION Chincherinchee (Ornithogalum thyrsoides Jacq.) is an ornamental bulbous plant and belongs to the family Hyacinthaceae. It is native to South Africa. Chincherinchee is suitable for cut flower, herbaceous border, naturalizing wild gardens, rockery, pot culture, bouquets and flower arrangements. Scapes even if cut after complete drying on the plant, look beautiful, lasted long and can be used in dry decoration. It possesses relatively longer vase life too than most of the other commercial cut flowers. Appropriate packaging of cut flowers for optimum duration offers potential advantage of extending their vase life and maintaining flower quality. It is immensely important to determine the optimum duration for storage of cut flowers that keeps the quality and potential vase life at its best. Thus the present experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different wrapping material and storage durations on the quality of ornithogalum cut spikes in order to evolve an optimum storage technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS The experiment was conducted at the Department of Floriculture and Landscaping, Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan. Fresh cut spikes of Ornithogalum were obtained from experimental farm. Cut stems of chincherinchee (more than 20 cm long) were harvested when lower most florets start showing colour. The experiment was laid out in Factorial Completely Randomized Design with 7 wrapping materials and 4 storage durations replicated thrice. The spikes were grouped into bundles of 10 spikes each and packaged in different wrapping material. The packages were stored in cold storage at 40C temperature for 3, 6, 9 and 12 days. The bundles of cut spikes without wrapping were also kept in cold storage as control. After the storage bottom 2.5 cm portion of the basal end was re-cut under water to remove surface blockages and the basal ends were dipped in distilled water and kept for taking observations. The observations were recorded on amount of solution consumed (ml/stem), Percent of unopened florets (number of unopened florets per spike / Total number of florets per spike x 100), Vase life (till 70% of the florets dry), Weight change (%) (Final weight (g) Initial weight (g) /Initial weight (g) x 100) and Floret size (cm). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Maximum amount of solution (19.60, 15.73, 12.73 and 10.80 ml, respectively) consumed in cut stems of ornithogalum wrapped in cellophane for 3, 6, 9 and 12 days as compared to un wrapped ones (14.20, 11.93, 9.73 and 8.07 ml, respectively) as presented in Table 1. Table 1. Effect of wrapping materials and storage durations on amount of solution consumed (ml/stem) and per cent of unopened florets by Ornithogalum cut flowers Wrapping materials Solution consumed (ml/stem) Storage durations (Days) Un opened florets (%) Storage durations (Days) 3 6 9 12 Mean 3 6 9 12 Mean Control(without wrapping) 14.20 11.93 9.73 8.07 10.98 4.08 (2.02) 4.21 (2.05) 4.36 (2.09) 4.46 (2.11) 4.28 (2.07)* Polyethylene 19.00 15.33 12.60 10.40 14.33 3.62 (1.90 ) 3.69 (1.92) 3.80 (1.95) 4.89 (2.19) 4.00 (1.99) News paper 16.07 13.20 10.33 9.40 12.25 3.92 (1.98 ) 4.03 (2.01) 4.15 (2.04) 4.21 (2.05) 4.08 (2.02 ) Cellophane 19.60 15.73 12.73 10.80 14.72 3.53 (1.88 ) 3.62 (1.90) 3.75 (1.94) 3.87 (1.97) 3.69 (1.92 ) Butter paper 18.60 15.20 12.47 10.40 14.17 3.75 (1.94) 3.81 (1.95) 3.89 (1.97) 3.95 (1.99) 3.85 (1.96 ) Low density polyethylene (LDPE) 17.53 14.80 12.07 10.00 13.60 3.77 (1.94 ) 3.89 (1.97) 3.95 (1.99) 4.05 (2.01) 3.92 (1.98 ) High density polyethylene (HDPE) 17.20 14.60 12.00 9.80 13.40 3.86 (1.96) 3.90 (1.98) 4.03 (2.01) 4.10 (2.03) 3.97 (1.99 ) Mean 17.46 14.40 11.71 9.84 3.79 (1.95 ) 3.88 (1.97) 3.99 (2.00) 4.22 (2.05) -