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POST HARVEST TREATMENT OF GYPSOPHILA PANICULATA
The flowers open better and the colour is whiter.
The keeping quality can be doubled to about 10 days.
The post-harvest pretreatment must continue for at least 4 hours.
Depending on the solution, a pretreatment time of 24 hours may also be necessary.
A treatment in STS (Florissant) + a sugar compound (Nutriflor, now known as Florissant 300) gave the best results.
Compared to water, a solution of a quaternary ammonium base with 3% sugar also attained very good results.
Quaternary ammonium bases used were G.S., Floron, and TOG.
In practice, the combination of quaternary ammonium base and sugar has an advantage as compared to STS treatment.
Gypsophila requires only one treatment with ammonium base + sugar: immediately after harvest it should be placed into the preservative and remain there until the flowers, after being auctioned, are delivered to the buyer.
The solution does not become filthy because of too intensive use.
The longer the flowers remain in it, the better.
STS solutions cannot be used in the same way: they are not admitted at the auction.
To achieve an optimum vase life, Gypsophila stems must be stripped of leaves for 10 cm from the lower end.
To protect the flowers from damage, they are sleeved in bunches of 25 stems.
Each container, good for 50 or 75 stems, is washed after use, to avoid bacterial infection.
The price of the cheapest solution, G.S. + sugar 30 g/l, is approximately 11 ct/l.
Per container, 3 l of solution is needed.
The costs per stem are about 0.5 ct.