Effect of plant age and methods of stem treatment on the quality of cut roses

Cut roses are always valued for their beautiful and outstanding flowers. Apart from the physiological and nutritional features of the plants, there are many other factors which influence the marketable quality of cut roses over the entire period of production phase. Among them we tried to understand how plant age and different methods of stem treatment can modify cut stem physical properties. To do this, the effect of newly stented plants beside the three-year old stented plants combined with four stem training methods were evaluated for their cut flower qualities. The results showed that the time to bud break was shorter (seven days) for young plants while it reached to about 15 days in old plants particularly for the third and fifth buds. In general, young plants performed better for some quality traits such as higher stem length and higher flower and stem diameter. When shoots were bent over the fifth bud, the highest shoot weight and leaf area were produced in the new growing cut flowers. It was concluded that young plants tended to increase their foliage volume by producing more leaves on relatively vigorous shoots, thereby they increased their marketable stem quality.