Influence of pre-harvest growth substance applications on the post-harvest longevity of gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii L.)

This experiment was conducted in a naturally ventilated polyhouse at the Centre of Excellence on Protected Cultivation and Precision Farming, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur (C.G.), India, during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 growing years. The study followed a completely randomized block design with twelve treatments, a control, and three replications. Pre-harvest foliar sprays were applied using two concentrations for each growth substance, including salicylic acid (50 ppm and 100 ppm), boric acid (100 ppm and 200 ppm), fulvic acid (15,000 ppm and 20,000 ppm), and GA3 (150 ppm and 250 ppm), with a control group (no spray). The results demonstrated that the application of brassinosteroids at 25 ppm led to the most favorable outcomes in reducing physiological weight loss (35.95), improving the water loss-to-uptake ratio (3.47), and extending vase life (8 days). Additionally, GA3 at 250 ppm showed the best performance in terms of relative water content (40.13) and membrane stability index in petals (46.32).