The effect of disbudding and cold storage on carbohydrate metabolism and vase life performance of Chrysanthemums

MSc-thesis abstract (submitted 30 March 2017): Chrysanthemums (Chrysanthemum x morifolium) are popular cut flowers for consumers, because of their long vase life compared to other cut flowers.
In general, cold stored and disbudded flowers show a shorter vase life compared to non-stored and spray flowers, because of turbid vase water caused by bacterial growth.
The aim of the research was to determine the cause of increasing bacterial growth during vase life of chrysanthemum after storage and disbudding during growth.
The effects on sugar metabolism were deemed more important for vase life than bacteria growth in the vase water.

Keywords: bacterial growth, storage, disbudding, sugar metabolism, Chrysanthemums (Chrysanthemum x morifolium)