Extending the Vase Life of Cut Gerbera through the Antibacterial Effect of Peracetic Acid against Pseudomonas fluorescens

This study evaluated the antibacterial effects of peracetic acid (PAA) against Pseudomonas fluorescens and its influence on the vase life and quality of cut Gerbera hybrida.Isolate from a farm-preservative solution showed >99% 16S rRNA sequence similarity to P. sichuanensis and Lysobacter enzymogenes, clustering with these species with 89% bootstrap support.In P. fluorescens suspensions, the optical density (OD) at 600 nm decreased significantly from 0.05 mLL -1 and was 42% lower than in distilled water (DW) at 0.3 mLL -1 PAA.For vase solution treatments, cut flowers were placed in distilled water (DW), P. fluorescens at OD 600 0.1 (1 10Bacterial counts in the vase solution increased to 1.77 10 6 CFUmL -1 with the Pf treatment but decreased to 2.0 10 4 CFUmL -1 with PAA.Vase life was extended to 10.6 days with Pf + PAA and to 11.1 days with Pf + FL compared to 8.4 d in DW.Termination symptoms primarily involved scape bending in the Pf treatment (80%), but there were reduced to 20% and 10% with Pf + PAA and Pf + FL, respectively.Scape firmness was highest with Pf + PAA, showing a 65% increase over the Pf treatment.Scape cavity formation expanded rapidly with the Pf treatment but was suppressed by PAA and FL.Scape elongation was greatest in DW but decreased to 53% with Pf + PAA and to 65% with Pf + FL.Consequently, PAA extended vase life by approximately 26% compared to DW and by 112% compared to the Pf treatment, exhibiting a quality preservation effect comparable to that of the commercial preservative FL.Furthermore, PAA suppressed cavity formation, stem bending, and stem elongation while also slowing the opening rate of disk florets, thereby contributing to the maintenance of external floral quality.