Vase Life of Gerbera Cut Flower cv. Pink Power affected by Different Treatments of Plant Essential Oils and Silver Nanoparticles

Gerbera is one of the most important cut flowers in floriculture industry and has high economic value. One of the main problems in gerbera export is postharvest losses and short vase life due to the water relations disruption by the increasing of microbial population in preservative solution. During last decades awareness increased among peoples regarding side effect of chemicals used in agriculture and several research has been conducted to find alternative methods or materials to preserve product quality or prolong vase life.
In this study the effect of essential oils of ajowan, lavender, and eucalyptus with two concentrations (15 and 30 l L-1 L) and silver nanoparticles with two concentrations (40 and 80 l L-1 L) on vase solution uptake, membrane stability index of stem and petals, petals wilting percentage, microbial population at the end of stem and vase life of cut gerbera cv. Pink Power were investigated. A factorial experiment (the first factor was treatments and the second factor was sampling time) was conducted in a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications and four flowers in each replication.
The different treatments of plant essential oils and silver nanoparticles had not sensible effect on some of traits such as relative fresh weights of cut flowers, the changes of stem diameter in the below of flower head and end of stem and petals ion leakage. Conversely, some of traits such as the vase solution uptake, membrane stability index, stem ion leakage, microbial population at the stem end, petal wilting percentage and vase life significant affected. Essential oil of ajowan (15 l L-1 L) increased vase solution uptake and reduced microbial population, ion leakage petal, wilting percentage and, consequently, increased the vase life of gerbera. The highest vase life (11 days) was related to 15 l L-1 L ajowan treatment, although there was no significant difference with compared to silver nanoparticles
In general, essential oil of ajowan and silver nanoparticles used in this study were able to improve the vase life of gerbera cut flowers. But, due the superiority of some measured traits of gerbera cut flowers treated with essential oil of ajowan compared to silver nanoparticles, and harmful environmental effects of silver nanoparticles, can be recommended the ajowan essential oil with 15 l L-1L concentration be used for increasing the vase life of gerbera. However, since gerbera plants are highly heterozygous, further researches on other cultivars with different concentrations may be suggested.