EFFECT OF DIFFERENT PACKING MATERIALS ON THE POST HARVEST LIFE OF ROSE

Abstract

The research was conducted to compare the post harvest life of cut roses (Rosa hybrida L.) when packed in polyethylene, newspaper, brown paper, butter paper and without any packing material. Four days after packing, maximum wilting was recorded in unpacked flowers followed by flowers packed in brown paper, butter paper and newspaper, whereas minimum wilting was in flowers packed in polyethylene. Roses packed in polyethylene maintained high level of fragrance. No significant differences were observed in fragrance of flowers packed in news paper, brown paper, butter paper and without any packing material, all of which had lower level of fragrance. Seven days shelf life was observed in flowers packed in polyethylene. There were no significant differences among shelf life of flowers packed in newspaper, brown paper, and butter paper. Minimum shelf life observed was 2.6 days in flowers without any packing material. The results indicate that polyethylene was best packing material because it had resulted in less wilting, high fragrance level and maximum shelf life of flowers.