Articles
POST-HARVEST RESEARCH ON ORNAMENTALS IN THE NETHERLANDS
Some 30 years ago knowledge about post-harvest physiology of cut flowers was extremely scarce.
This situation contrasted sharply with that in the field of post-harvest knowledge of fruits.
About 1950 an impressive number of articles on fruits had already been published.
This may partly be ascribed to the fact that around 1920 Kidd & West (re)discovered storage under modified atmosphere, today called CA-storage.
A steadily increasing number of papers on fruits followed.
About 1950 ethylene was well-known to virtually every fruit physiologist.
It is also true that ethylene was known to negatively influence flowers; but this was only "book knowledge", without any practical interest.
Before 1950 a few publications on cut flowers had appeared in our country, but these earliest records originated in most cases only from personal interest of the research worker concerned, who also finished the experiments by a personal decision when it was thought that the matter was studied thoroughly enough.