Effect of different holding solutions on post-harvest keeping quality of chrysanthemum cut stems

The investigations were carried out at Ludhiana, Punjab during the year 2018–19 to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of floral preservatives as holding solutions and to standardize the optimum concentration to increase the post-harvest keeping quality of chrysanthemum cut stems cv. “White Star”. The chrysanthemum cut stems were placed in different holding solutions containing sucrose (2%), aluminium sulphate (300 ppm) and benzyl adenine (25 and 50 ppm) along with distilled water (control). The experiment was laid out using completely randomized block design with three replications under seven treatments. The holding solution containing sucrose (2%) + aluminium sulphate (300 ppm) + benzyl adenine (25 ppm) was recorded to be the best treatment with respect to the maximum delay in leaf yellowing (17.89 days), complete floret senescence (29.98 days) and improved water uptake (138.67 ml/cut stem) as well as the maximum vase life (27.22 days) of the chrysanthemum stems.