🍀HOME GARDEN🍀 Author:- G.keerthana

 IMPORTANCE OF POST HARVEST HANDLING OF FLOWERS:
 •The quality of flowers, which reaches the final consumer, depends on the pre-harvest and post-harvest handling.

•  Quality is the pillar for creating value and customer satisfaction

•The flowers are highly perishable need utmost care. 

•When flowers are detached from the plant, they deprived of food, water, minerals and hormones. 

•It is estimated that about 30% of flowers perish during handling. 

•Therefore it is important to study post-harvest handling of flowers to keep flowers in good quality.

 INHERENT FACTORS INFLUENCING POST-HARVEST LIFE:

•Keeping quality of flowers vary from species and cultivars, this may be due to genetic or inherent factors like differences in anatomical, physiological, physical, biochemical and genetic make up.

•Keeping quality of flowers also depends on,

–Carbohydrate reserves,

–Osmotic concentration,

–Pressure potential of petal cells,

–Stomatal functioning,

–Difference in number of thick walled supporting cells in the xylem element and phloem fibre, 

–Presence or absence of a complete ring of secondary thickening in flower peduncles,

–Differences in the diffusive resistance of leaves in the field. 

–Lignifications,

–Level of plant hormones and

–Susceptibility to disease and insects.

• PRE-HARVEST FACTORS INFLUENCING POST-HARVEST LIFE:

•Pre-harvest conditions under which the crop is grown influences on the post-harvest life of flowers. 

•Selection of the variety,

•Environmental factors like light, temperature, relative humidity

•Nutrition, irrigation, diseases and pests, pollution, etc

• RIGHT TIME, METHOD AND STAGE OF HARVEST FOR DIFFERENT  

        COMMERCIAL FLOWERS

•Right time, method and stage of harvesting influence the vase life of flowers.

•Harvest early in morning or in the late evening when temperatures are mild to avoid faster respiration rate to excessive water loss. 

•Flowers are fully turgid due to low transpiration at night (rose, chrysanthemum, gerbera). 

•Evening harvest is advocated because of higher sugar level in the stem due to high rates of photosynthesis during day time. 

•Immediately after harvest the flowers should be put in water or preservative solutions.

•Right method of harvest includes cutting flower stem with sharp knives or secateurs;

• •Avoid crushing of stem, giving slanting cut to hard wood stems so as to expose maximum surface area to ensure rapid water absorption.  

•Cutting stem length at specific lengths depending on crop market, purpose, etc,.

•Harvesting at an optimum maturity stage is important and stage of harvest varies from crop to crop and varieties.

• OPTIMUM STAGES OF HARVESTING FOR IMPORTANT FLOWERS

Sl. No.	Flowers	Purpose	Stage of Harvest
1	Rose	Cut flower	1-2 petals beginning to  unfold.  At tight bud stage.
2	Jasmine	Loose flower	Matured, unopened bud stage
		Oil extraction	Fully opened flowers
3	Anthurium	Cut flower	Spadix almost fully  developed 1/3rd of  flowers on spadix mature. Change of colour from base to top.