PREPARATIONS EFFECT ON THE COSMEA CUTTINGS LIFESPAN AT DIFFERENT STORAGE TEMPERATURES

The purpose of the study is to compare the effectiveness of preparations that prolong the life of cut cosmos plants. We used the most popular and sought-after preparation Chrysal and developments from Russian manufacturers – Forte, Tsvetalon, Zhivoy Buket. Two species of Cosmea took part in the cutting – double-pinnate and sulfur-desire, where representatives of these species were varieties Popsoks rozovyj and Zolotaya dolina, respectively. Plants were grown in open ground on the territory of the Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy in 2022. The cutting was carried out during the phase of mass flowering of plants. Next, the samples were placed in solutions of Chrysal, Forte, Tsvetalon, Zhivoy Buket and control in different temperature conditions: room temperature 18–20 °C and in a refrigerator 4–5 °C. The condition of the plants was assessed according to the scoring system of criteria we developed for cosmos: petal color, petal shape, peduncle turgor, leaf turgor and general decorativeness. To analyze the results, the method of descriptive statistics and three-factor analysis of variance were used, testing the significance of differences using the method of pairwise differences of group means with NSR05. The difference between the shelf life of the Zolotaya dolina variety in room conditions and in the refrigerator is insignificant, so if the cosmos must be sold in less than 10 days, you can store it outside the refrigerator. The Popsoks rozovyj variety is stored the longest (on average 27 days) and this result is significantly different from different storage options for the Zolotaya dolina variety. If a flower salon needs flowers with a long shelf life to maintain its assortment, we recommend paying attention to the Popsoks rozovyj variety.