Post-production physiology and handling of ornamental potted plants

• There are numerous quality components in potted ornamental plants.
• Ornamental value of potted plants is strongly affected by the storage conditions.
• Post-production treatments help in withstanding the transport or storage period.
• The plant recovery is important to guarantee a good end-use performance.

Flowering or foliage potted plants are ornamental items usually grown in greenhouses under optimal growing conditions. Cultivation in protected environments allows for rapid growth and high quality characteristics. When plants reach the desired commercial size they can be transferred to hardening greenhouses or directly sent to the distribution chain. The growing and post-production conditions such as storage and transportation can have very deleterious effects on the ornamental quality of plants. The major post-production disorders are bud and flower abscission in flowering potted plants or leaf abscission or yellowing in foliage potted plants. On the other hand, the ornamental quality of potted plants is extremely important and depends on the number and colour of flowers or leaves, flower, leaf and plant longevity. The presence of flowers on flowering potted plants depends on flower longevity and turnover. The colour and size of leaves of foliage potted plants is linked to pre- and post-production environmental conditions. The post-production quality losses of flowering potted plants can be mainly ascribed to natural flower senescence. This phenomenon is highly regulated by plant hormones such as ethylene and abscisic acid, but the post-production environment can dramatically influence plant hormone equilibrium. Quality losses of foliage potted plants are mainly due to leaf senescence usually associated with inadequate acclimatization from the production area to the post-production chain.