study on effects of ascorbic acid and citric acid on vase life of cut lisianthus (eustoma grandiflorum) ‘mariachi blue’

The postharvest life of cut eustoma grandiflorum flowers is limitedin open flowers. therefore a factorial experiment based on a completelyrandomized design with ascorbic acid (asa) at 4 levels (0, 100, 200, 300mg l-1) and citric acid (ca) at 3 levels (0, 100, 200 mg l-1) with 3replications and 3 samples for each replications, was conducted for thispurpose. results indicated that a significant increase with applying ascorbicand citric acid nearly in all traits both individually and in combination,with higher concentrations imposing greater effects (p?0.05 and p?0.01).the highest vase life (17.6 days) and petal water content (68.9%) wasobserved for the interaction of ascorbic acid (300 mg l-1) and citric acid(100 mg l-1) and ascorbic acid (300 mg l-1) and citric acid (200 mg l-1), respectively,which shows a 94 and 252% increase compared to control (9.1days and 27.3%). along with this, relative water content and petal watercontent raised with asa and ca increase. water content also showed asimilar manner. fresh weight decreased in all treatments during experiment,but this reduction was much less in asa (300 mg l-1) alone and ininteractions with ca levels. according to the results of this experiment,ascorbic acid and/or citric acid as cheap, safe and biodegradable compoundsare suitable alternatives for chemical treatments in order to prolong vaselife of cut flowers of eustoma. commercialization of these compounds foroptimum formulations needs further experiments.