The 2011 ASHS Annual Conference

Ethylene during storage can cause leaf chlorosis in various foliage plants species/cultivars. This study evaluated ethylene sensitivity of seven popular Aglaonema cultivars. Uniform plants were exposed to 3 μL·L^-1 ethylene for 0 (control), 3, 5 or 7 days during dark storage at 16 °C. Poststorage performance, measured as number of chlorotic leaves and photosystem II, was recorded after the plants were placed in the indoor environments. All control plants and those exposed to ethylene for 3 d, except ‘Silver Queen’, did not have any visual chlorotic leaves. Based on the chlorotic leaves at day 14 in the indoor environments, the sensitivity of the seven cultivars ranked as follows: Silver Queen > Papaya Beauty > Emerald Beauty > King of Siam > Silver Bay > White Tip > Chalit’s Fantasy. Regardless of ethylene treatments or not, Fv/Fm value of the lowest leaves remained about 0.8 in ‘Chalit’s Fantasy’. Fv/Fm values declined gradually for the other six cultivars that had exposed to 3 μL·L^-1 ethylene for 7 days. The cultivars with a lower Fv/Fm value are those had more chlorotic leaves.