effect of chemical and natural treatments on vase life of anturium andranum cv. ‘climax’

this experiment was conducted in national institute of ornamental plants for extending vase life of anturium andranum cv. climax cut flowers. experiment was done based on completely randomized design (crd) with three replications and three cut flowers per replicate. treatments included volk oil emulsion wax coating (10, 20 and 30 percent), thyme oil (100, 150 and 250 ppm), salicylic acid (200, 400 and 600 ppm) and aloe vera gel as wax coating (2.5, 5 and 7.5 percent). sucrose (5 percent) was added to all of the treatments. after treatments some quantitative and qualitative traits were measured. results showed that vase life of cut flowers increased significantly in volk oil wax coating 10 percent (27.33 days) than control (17.88 days), the lowest vase life was found with thyme oil treatment. the flowers which treated with 2.5 percent of aloe vera gel had the highest solution uptake than control. treatment with thyme oil of 150 ppm caused the highest ion leakage (69.5 percent) compared to the others. the lowest ion leakage (10.71 percent) was obtained in aloe vera gel treatment of 7.5 percent.