KRISARI RAI, HOMRAJ SAHARE* AND RAMESH KUMAR SADAWARTI
Department of Horticulture, School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara-144 411 (Punjab), India
*(e-mail: homraj.19822@lpu.co.in, homrajsahare82@gmail.com; Mobile: 98775 20188)
(Received: June 17, 2025; Accepted: July 30, 2025)
ABSTRACT
The present study aimed at investigating the effects of different chemical sprays on the post-harvest life of Gaillardia (Gaillardia pulchella), an important annual used for garden decoration, cut and loose flower production. The treatments included different concentrations of calcium chloride and ascorbic acid, namely, ascorbic acid at 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 ppm, and calcium chloride at 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7%, respectively. The results revealed that treatments T10 (Calcium chloride 0.7%) and T2 (Ascorbic acid 100 ppm) comparatively exhibited the highest weight percentage 17.33 and 15.85, respectively, at 72 h, while minimum was recorded in control. Regarding flower diameter, the T2 treatment with ascorbic acid @ 100 ppm consistently displayed the largest diameter of 2.21 cm at the 72 h point. Moreover, T2 (Ascorbic acid 100 ppm) exhibited the lowest percentage of shrinkage (57.48) at the same time frame. Assessing overall flower quality, the T10 treatment (Calcium chloride 0.7%) scored the highest with a rating of 3, indicating “Fair” quality at the 72-h mark. Additionally, T10 (Calcium chloride @ 0.7%) showed the longest post-harvest life of 2.26 days among all the treatments. Overall, the findings suggest that the application of calcium chloride at 0.7% (T10) and ascorbic acid at 100 ppm (T2) resulted in significantly enhancing the post-harvest longevity, visual appeal and quality of gaillardia flowers.
Key words: Ascorbic acid, calcium chloride, TSS, shrinkage, post-harvet life