Special Issue "Factors Affecting Export Flower Quality and Strategies for Prolonging Flowers Vase Life"

A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This special issue belongs to the section "Floriculture, Nursery and Landscape, and Turf".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Jin-Hee Lim
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Plant Biotechnology, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea
Interests: floriculture; breeding of ornamental crops; prolonging flowers vase life

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Currently, the cut flower market appears to be generating a large amount of export revenue in the world flower market trade. Interestingly, large cut flower exports have seen impressive increases in their goods and qualified production in numerous countries. However, each of the flower species has a varied vase life and is subject to different export environmental controls under postharvest conditions. The effective factors have been classified into two categories: the internal (the facial product characteristics and the typical company features) and the external factors (flower condition and export environment, market chances, and flower industry). Thus, methods for prolonging flower vase life need to be studied, and the tools for postharvest treatment in the floral industry need to be optimized. Recent developmental methods in nanotechnology, thermal image analysis, UV-light application, and other technologies are realizing promising methods that could be applied for prolonging flower vase life. The purpose of this Special Issue is to present new factors, important techniques, and potential technologies for improving the postharvest quality of flowers, and new ideas or recommendations for handling postharvest mechanization in the flower industry.

Dr. Jin-Hee Lim
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Horticulturae is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cut flowers
  • flower industry
  • flower export
  • postharvest quality
  • postharvest technique
  • preservative solution
  • vase life

Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission, see below for planned papers.

Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Planned Paper 1:

Title: Floral Preservative Solutions: Do Eco-friendly Preservative Solutions Prolong Vase Life Better than Chemical Solutions?

Abstract: The cut flowers have currently become an export income of the global trade floriculture market. They have multiple purposes such as home beauty, ceremony, wedding decoration, funeral, and various arrangements through social and human loves. Each of the cut flowers has different vase life and their fresh links to pre-postharvest and harvest tools. Postharvest quality and vase life longevity of cut flowers can be considered to obtain their desirable qualities and their factors affect the most importance in the floral industry. Floral preservative solution is chosen as the good practice for prolong vase life of cut flowers. However, there are some problems between chemical and eco-friendly solutions. In this review, we summarize several potential approaches to improve flower vase life and discuss the best choice for holding preservative solution practices.

 

Planned Paper 2:

Title: Comparative Analysis of the Quality of Domestically Distributed Cut Phalaenopsis Flowers Based on the Season and Place of Origin

Abstract: This study compared and analyzed the qualities of cut Phalaenopsis ‘V3’ flowers based on the place of origin and season. In this study, flowers originating from Korea had a higher rate of aging than those from China across all three seasons based on the investigation of senescence type. Consequently, the vase life is also 3 – 5 days longer for Chinese flowers than those for Korean flowers, regardless of the season. Furthermore, the vase life is the longest in autumn, followed by spring and summer, with statistically significant differences. The sugar content inside the water tubes of Chinese cut flowers led to their long vase life and qualities and that treating Korean cut flowers prior to distribution to facilitate water uptake and reduce ethylene production could extend their vase life, and hence, enhance customer satisfaction. Moreover, as the flower quality decreases in summer compared to those in spring or autumn, it would be necessary to reduce the differences in quality between seasons.

 

Planned Paper 3:

Title: Pre-harvest CaCl2 Sprays Improve Scape Hardness of Gerbera Cut Flowers by Strengthening the Pectin Crosslinks through Ca2+ bonds

Abstract: Scape bending is one of the representative disorders causing the short vase life of gerbera cut flowers. The previous study showed that the scape hardness was closely related to the scape bending symptom of gerbera cut flowers. In this experiment, we sprayed the gerbera scape under development with calcium chloride (CaCl2) solutions (0.5 or 1%) to study the effects of the pre-harvest spray of calcium on the senescence and quality of cut flowers. Pre-harvest calcium spray significantly made the scape harder by 12% and efficiently reduced the symptoms of scape bending, prolonged the vase life of gerbera cut flowers. More calcium ions (Ca2+) were detected in CaCl2-treated flowers; while, the flowers sprayed with water treatment (control) showed less calcium. The pectin contents significantly increased up to 14% in CaCl2-treated flowers compared to the control. Pectins are the main polysaccharides of the cell walls and work the plant tissue integrity and rigidity, and calcium ions play the role of bond for pectins crosslinking. Calcium treatments efficiently increased the total pectin amount in cell walls; while effectively reduced the conversion ratio of the water-insoluble pectin (WIP) during vase life. Our results suggest that exogenously applied calcium increases Ca2+ in cellular tissue and affects pectin levels that may help to increase scape hardness by strengthening the calcium-pectin combination in cell walls.

Back to TopTop