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Extending the Vase Life of Cut Gerbera through the Antibacterial Effect of Peracetic Acid against Pseudomonas fluorescens
Na Won Moon1
,
Young Boon Lee1*
1Department of Horticulture, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Korea
*Corresponding Author
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Abstract

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 mL·L-1 and was 42% lower than in distilled water (DW) at 0.3 mL·L-1 PAA. For vase solution treatments, cut flowers were placed in distilled water (DW), P. fluorescens at OD600 0.1 (1 × 108 CFU·L-1) (P·f), P·f + PAA 0.2 mL·L-1, or P·f + Floralife (F·L) 10 mL·L-1. Bacterial counts in the vase solution increased to 1.77 × 106 CFU·mL-1 with the P·f treatment but decreased to 2.0 × 104 CFU·mL-1 with PAA. Vase life was extended to 10.6 days with P·f + PAA and to 11.1 days with P·f + F·L compared to 8.4 d in DW. Termination symptoms primarily involved scape bending in the P·f treatment (80%), but there were reduced to 20% and 10% with P·f + PAA and P·f + F·L, respectively. Scape firmness was highest with P·f + PAA, showing a 65% increase over the P·f treatment. Scape cavity formation expanded rapidly with the P·f treatment but was suppressed by PAA and F·L. Scape elongation was greatest in DW but decreased to 53% with P·f + PAA and to 65% with P·f + F·L. Consequently, PAA extended vase life by approximately 26% compared to DW and by 112% compared to the P·f treatment, exhibiting a quality preservation effect comparable to that of the commercial preservative F·L. 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.

Keywords
bacteria
fungicides
Gerbera hybrida
optical density
preservative solution
scape banding
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Information
  • Publisher :KOREAN SOCIETY FOR HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE
  • Publisher(Ko) :한국원예학회
  • Journal Title :Horticultural Science and Technology
  • Journal Title(Ko) :원예과학기술지
  • Received Date : 2026-02-09
  • Revised Date : 2026-04-07
  • Accepted Date : 2026-04-17
  • DOI :https://doi.org/10.7235/HORT.20260013
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