Effect of Chemical Treatments and Harvest Stages on Vase Llife of Cut Tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.) Flowers cv. ̋Pearl ̋.

This experiment was carried out for finding best harvest stage and chemical treatment in order to increase the vase life of cut tuberose (polianthes tuberosa L.) flowers cv. ‘pearl‘. The experimental design was factorial in the base of complete randomized design with ten chemical treatment and 3 replications in two harvest stages of one floret open and three floret open was used. After harvest, cut tuberose flowers pulsed by: Nitric oxide (NO), Thidiazuron (TDZ) and their combinations in three level and distilled water used as control. Cut flowers then transferred in containers with 500 ml of preservative solution including sucrose 2% plus 8- hydroxyquinolinesulfate (8-HQS) 200 ppm. The effects of applied treatments were evaluated according to vase life and some of quantitative and qualitative characteristics. Based on the results of this study, the three floret open stage had the most effect on the vase life and keeping of quantitative and qualitative characteristics of cut tuberose flowers as compared with one floret open. However, the most effective treatment of all was TDZ compared to NO according to vase life and keeping quality. NO was not useful alone but the combination treatments of NO and TDZ had no deleterious effect.