Calcium chloride and/or sodium selenite: an effective strategy for extending vase life and alleviating stem bending in gerbera “Stanza” flowers

Despite the importance of gerbera in the international market, stem bending is still the biggest problem for gerbera cut flowers during the post-harvest stage, as it reduces the flowers’ vase life and their market value.

To address this problem, the effects of different vase solutions containing calcium chloride (CaCl₂) and sodium selenite (Na₂SeO₃) on the longevity and stem curvature of gerbera ‘Stanza’ flowers were investigated using repeated-measures ANOVA. The treatments were: distilled water (control, T1), 1 g L^–1 (T2) and 2 g L^–1 (T3) of CaCl₂, 1 mg L^–1 (T4) and 2 mg L^–1 (T5) of Na₂SeO₃, and 1.5 g L^–1 CaCl₂ plus 1.5 mg L^–1 Na₂SeO₃ (T6).

Gerbera cut flowers subjected to T6 of vase solution exhibited a significantly longer vase life (20 days) and a substantially lower degree of stem bending (25.7°). Moreover, these flowers achieved the lowest significant ion leakage (IL) in petals, and an inhibition in the cellulase (CEL), polygalacturonase (PG), xylanase (XYL), and pectinase (PT) activities, along with noticeably greater levels of catalase (CAT) activity and lignin content until the last day of sampling. Automatic linear modeling analysis revealed CEL, PT, PG, lignin content, and XYL were selected as the most contributing attributes in determining the degree of stem bending.

It can be recommended that using calcium and/or selenium can be regarded as an effective substitute vase solution to maintain gerbera flowers and reduce bending stems over the post-harvest period.