A comprehensive postharvest study on poinsettia cut flowers was carried out during the two successive seasons of 1997/98 and 1998/99 at the Veget. and Flor. Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University to evaluate the effect of a Super Grow fertilizer at 0.0, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 g/plant once weekly combined with different irrigation levels of 150, 300, 450 and 600 ml/plant once every 3 days and different flower holding solutions as follows : sucrose (15 g/L), silver nitrate (25 ppm), boric

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... id (10 ppm), citric acid (10 ppm) and their interaction on vase life and quality of cut poinsettia flowers. The obtained results indicated that the heaviest flowers weight (19.87 %) resulted from treated plants with the fertilizer at 0.9 g/plant, irrigated with 450 ml/plant combined with holding flowers in citric acid (10 ppm) + sucrose (15 g/L) solution. Moreover, the highest water uptake (3.26 ml/fl), the best positive water balance (0.94 ml/fl./day) and the longest vase life (19.75 days) were produced from plants treated with the fertilizer at 0.9 g/plant, irrigated with 450 ml/plant and combined with holding flowers in silver nitrate (25 ppm). However, the fertilized plants with 0.3 g/plant and irrigated with the minimum water level of 150 ml/plant showed almost half the vase life prementioned (9.0 day) when hold in water only in the first season. The present study recommended that applying Super Grow fertilizer at 0.9 g/L once every week, with irrigation level at 450 ml/plant once per 3 days and combined with holding flowers in silver nitrate (25 ppm) to obtain the longest vase life and best quality of poinsettia cut flowers.