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cut
flowers
survive
without
much
Pre-Harvest Factors
The spathe of anthurium is tender and subject to bruising and colour fading due to handling and calcium deficiency. Also,
high nitrogenous fertilizer reduces and moderate to high potassium levels improve post harvest life. Apart from
environmental, nutrition and cultural factors, the most important aspect is selection of variety which determines the future
of the produce. There are three types of anthurium flowers, namely standard, obake and tulip. The most common type
is standard varies in size 12x11 cm to 20x18 cm, heart shaped, spathe lobes often overlap. Obake types are bicolour,
popular for their two tone colouration. The tulip types have medium size cupped spathe with a straight and erect spadix.
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Stage of Harvest
Anthurium blooms throughout the year. The flowers are harvested when spadix is almost fully developed and cut
preferably in the morning. The best stage of harvesting flowers is one-third to two-third of the true flowers on the spadix
open. Flowers are cut with sharp knife/secateurs leaving 3 cm on the mother plant to prevent basal rotting. The flowers
should be placed immediately in water after cutting.
Pre-Cooling
Anthurium is stored in water at 13 C for 3-5 weeks. Flowers are very sensitive to low temperature. Storage below 13
C causes darkening of spathe. Red coloured cultivars are more susceptible to chilling injury.
Pulsing
Pulsing with 100 ppm silver Nitrate for 45 minutes maintain water uptake and respiration. Before transportation, pulsing
with 25 ppm Silver Nitrate for 10 minutes or Benzyl Adenine (BA) at 150 ppm for 8 hours improves the vase life of cut
flowers.
Grading
Anthurium flowers are graded on the basis of the size of their spathe. The minimum spathe size should be 3-9 cm with
stem length of 30 cm. Hawiian cultivars have four grades namely extra, fancy, choice and standard. The spathe size
(L+W/2) may be specified with conjunction to the grade as miniature (less than 7.5 cm), small (9.5-10 cm), large
(12.5-15 cm) and extra large (more than 15 cm).
Packaging
Flowers are packed in corrugated cardboard boxes. The box is lined with polythene sheets and layers of newspaper.
120 Nos. of cut anthurium are packed in a 102x43x29 cm box with their spathe face down and their stem interwoven.
Moist shredded newspaper is inserted to provide cushion and maintains humidity. Covering each flower with waxed
tissue or polyethylene envelop to reduce mechanical damage, before packing is also practised.
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Storage
The temperature during storage greatly determines the postharvest life of flowers. High temperature in storage declines
the vase life of flower due to high rates of transpiration and respiration, whereas, low temperature is subjected to chilling
injury. Therefore, optimum storage temperature for anthurium cut flowers should be 13 C.
Vase life
Anthuriums survive without much deterioration for about two weeks by nature. Commercial floral preservative viz.
floralife, everbloom and roselife increases vase life 2-3 times in compare to normal condition. Waxing and use of
anti-transpirants on the spathe also improves longevity of cut flowers.
PHYSIOLOGICAL DISORDERS
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Authors:
KRISHNA S. TOMAR
College of Horticulture & Forestry, Central Agricultural University,
Pasighat 791 102 (Arunachal Pradesh)
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E-mail: tomarhorti@rediffmail.com
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