TDZ For Beautiful Blossoms

By Cara

Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 16:36

Beautiful bouquets, potted flowers in house decoration are one of the best ways of home decor but the only problem is with their short span of life. In a little while they lose all their charm, beauty and aroma. Not any more, thanks to floriculture research by a plant physiologist at Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

Cai-Zhong Jiang"s investigations have made it possible to boost the vase life of favorite cut flowers and shelf life of prized potted plants.

In current studies, the researchers have proved that spraying low concentrations of a compound known as thidiazuron (TDZ) has significant, sometimes spectacular effects in extending the life of potted plants' leaves and flowers.

TDZ have been experimented on greenhouse-grown cyclamen plants and the result was that TDZ-treated plants had a significantly longer life than unsprayed plants.

TDZ sprayed plants retained their colour for a longer time and even dried after a long time in comparison to unsprayed plants. TDZ, a synthetic version of a naturally occurring plant compound known as a cytokinin, is not new, it is only being used in the right direction now.

However, preliminary studies with cut flowers, were the first to demonstrate the value of TDZ for a commercial floricultural species—in that case, alstroemeria.

The cyclamen experiments conducted by the researchers are the first to show the blossom-boosting effects of TDZ, on potted plants.

Though commercial use of TDZ on cut flowers and potted plants seems promising, the researchers' wish to go deeper into the secret of how TDZ works on the plants.

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