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Abstract
Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. is a popular Christmas flowering pot plant that occasionally is used as a cut flower. Popularity of the poinsettia cut flower is limited by its short postharvest life. When the poinsettia is cut, a milky latex excreted from the cut stem accumulates and prevents uptake of water, resulting in rapid wilting of the leaves and bracts (2). Several methods of preventing latex flow have been proposed, including heat searing, dipping in boiling water, and dipping in alcohol (2, 3). Freyermuth et al. (1) showed that treating the cut stems with al cohol was the best method for improvement of the postharvest quality of cut poinsettias. The objective of this study was to determine when the alcohol pretreatment could be applied, and whether a flower preservative had any effect on postharvest life of cut poinsettia.