SUCROSE: PATTERNS OF UPTAKE AND SOME EFFECTS ON CUT FLOWER SENESCENCE

Movement of ¹⁴C was studied in cut roses and carnations using a pulse of ¹⁴C-sucrose and a distilled water chase.
The label moved selectively to leaves and stems, but not to flower heads during the pulse.
During the chase, however, ¹⁴C moved from leaves and stems into the flower heads.
Age had no effect on this movement into rose flower heads, but movement of ¹⁴C into carnation flower heads diminished as cut carnations aged.

It was established by girdling cut rose stems that the greatest proportion of assimilates are translocated from leaves and stems to flower heads via the phloem.

Electrolyte leakage from petal cells was measured in ageing cut roses held in either 2% sucrose or in distilled water and in roses left to age in the plant.
Intact rose petals displayed little loss in electrolytes, whereas leakage from petal cells of cut roses increased with time.

Scanning electron micrographs of petal surfaces indicated a ballooning of petal cells of roses held in sucrose solution, compared to those of roses held in water.
No evidence of enhancement of cuticular synthesis by sucrose treatments was observed.

Symposium on Postharvest Physiology of Cut Flowers

J.N. Sacalis

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1975.41.4