Dehydration studies in carnation flowers

An investigation was carried out on "Dehydration studies in carnation flowers" at College of Horticulture, Hyderabad, India during the year 2014. Four experiments were conducted. The experiments I & II were investigated with the carnation cultivars Harvey and Gaudina in f CRD. Based on the results, the best carnation cultivar (Harvey), embedding medium and drying method were chosen to determine the effect of pre drying treatments on the quality of carnation flowers in CRD. Among the two cultivars, the cv. Harvey performed better better than the cv. Gaudina with respect to the sensory attributes. Among desiccants, borax + silica gel (1:1 v/v) mixture was best for embedded drying of carnation flowers of cv. Harvey at room temperature. Among the different methods of drying, hot air oven drying at 55 ± 1 oC was best for production of best quality carnation flowers. Among the various pre-treatments, soaking the flowers in citric acid 0.5% solution for 15 minutes was best for production of quality dry flowers. Among the various pre-drying chemical treatments, soaking of flowers in magnesium chloride 10% solution for 5 hours was best for production of quality dry flowers of cv. Harvey.