Read the
magazine
story to find out more.
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Scientists have found that spraying low
concentrations of the compound thidiazuron can significantly extend the life of
some potted plants' leaves and flowers such as the treated cyclamen on the
left. Click the image for more information about it.
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Longer-Lasting Flowers: Fresh Ideas from ARS
Researchers
By Marcia Wood
April 2, 2010 Tomorrow's fragrant bouquets and
colorful potted plants might last longer, thanks to floriculture research by
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant
physiologist
Cai-Zhong
Jiang. His investigations might help boost the vase life of favorite cut
flowers and shelf life of prized potted plants.
Jiang is with the ARS
Crops
Pathology and Genetics Research Unit at Davis, Calif. He's collaborating
with researchers from the University of California-Davis
(UCD) and elsewhere.
In ongoing studies, Jiang, UCD colleague Michael S. Reid and co-researchers
have shown that spraying low concentrations of a compound known as thidiazuron
(TDZ) has significant, sometimes spectacular effects in extending the life of
potted plants' leaves and flowers. For example, in tests with greenhouse-grown
cyclamen plants, TDZ-treated plants had a significantly longer life than did
unsprayed plants, according to Jiang. Leaves of TDZ-treated cyclamen plants
took longer to yellow and fall off than those of untreated plants.
TDZ, a synthetic version of a naturally occurring plant compound known as a
cytokinin, is not new. But preliminary studies with cut flowers, reported by
Reid and co-researchers in 2000, were the first to demonstrate the value of TDZ
for a commercial floricultural species—in that case, alstroemeria. The
cyclamen experiments conducted by Jiang and collaborators are the first to show
the leaf-saving and blossom-boosting effects of TDZ with potted floricultural
plants.
Jiang and colleagues reported some of their TDZ findings in Postharvest
Biology and Technology earlier this year, and in Acta Horticulturae in 2009.
Though commercial use of TDZ on cut flowers and potted plants seems
promising, the researchers' deeper interest lies in determining precisely how
TDZ affects genes and proteins inside the plants.
Read
more about this research in the April 2010 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's principal intramural scientific research agency
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