Abstract
The effects of CO2 enrichment of chrysanthemum (Dendranthema grandiflorum) on thesubsequent growth and mineral and carbohydrate contents of the plant and on CO2 andC2H4 production and vase life of cut flowers were investigated.
By enriching the atmosphere with 1, 000 and 2, 000 ppm CO2 for 2-1/2 hours eachmorning, stem length, fresh weight, and leaf number of cut flowers were increased by 3to 11%, and vase life was extended 3 days compared with flowers grown in ambient CO2concentration of 350 ppm. N, K, Mg, and Na concentrations, especially in the lower leaveswere lower, whereas P and Ca concentrations were either the same or higher in the CO2treatment than they were in leaves of plants grown in the ambient CO2. Starch and sugarcontents in the leaves and stem were increased under CO2 enriched condition. CO2 pro-duction in the leaves was significantly reduced by the CO2 treatments; C2H4 productionwas unaffected. From these data, we propose that the decline of [N + K] /Ca ratio (Funa-koshi, 1984) and the increase in starch and sugar contents in the leaves and stem as a resultof the CO2 enriched atmosphere effectively prolonged vase life of the cut flowers.
