What are the methods for storing and preserving cut lily flowers?

After cut flowers are separated from the mother plant, life activities such as transpiration and respiration of the leaves and stems continue, so water in the plant is continuously lost, and organic matter is continuously decomposed and reduced. If water and nutrients cannot be replenished in time and the rate of water loss cannot be slowed down, the flowers will wither within a short time, reducing or losing the commercial value of the cut flowers. Therefore, the storage and preservation of fresh cut flowers is very important, and generally includes three aspects, namely pretreatment, storage, and post-sale vase placement, forcing open, and preservation.

① Pretreatment: After harvesting, cut flowers need to be pretreated immediately, mainly including two items: precooling to lower temperature and chemical immersion.

Precooling: Use methods such as cold water, cold storage, forced-air, and vacuum cooling to lower the temperature.

Chemical treatment: Soak the base of the flower stems in 20-30% sucrose + 1000/L silver nitrate solution or 4 mmol/L silver thiosulfate solution for 20 minutes.

② Storage: After pretreatment, cut flowers should be immediately placed in cold storage, inserted into cold water that has been precooled to 2-3°C, and stored for 4-48 hours. Low temperature can effectively inhibit the respiration of cut flowers and the production of ethylene. If the storage time is less than 4 hours or more than 48 hours, the quality of cut flowers will be affected. Generally, after 4 hours they can be quickly transported to the market under low temperature conditions@#@136@#@.

The above pretreatment and cold storage can also be carried out at the same time.

③ Post-sale vase placement, forcing open, and preservation: Different flowers require different preservation solutions. The following two preservation solutions are suitable for lilies:

3% sucrose solution + 200 mg/L 8-hydroxyquinoline

3% sucrose solution + 200 mg/l 8-hydroxyquinoline + lmmol/ISTS

After treatment with the above preservation solutions, the life of the flowers can be extended by more than 2 times. It is worth mentioning that lily pollen has very strong adhesiveness, and once it falls on the skin or clothing it is very difficult to remove, so the stamens should be removed after flowering but before the anthers split, to prevent pollen from contaminating clothing and petals.