Methods to Accelerate Vacuum Cooling of Cut Flowers

Rose((Rosa hybrida), carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus), gypsophila (Gypsophila elegans) and statice(Limonium simuatum) were used as materials to investigate the rate of cooling of these flowers during vacuum cooling in this paper The results are as follows: At the same speed of vacuum chamber pressure reduction, similar rates of cooling were obtained for one kind of flower in Beijing and Kunming respectively, but not for different kinds of flowers in the same area. Although the cooling rate could be increased obviously with both water spray and stem water absorbing, the stem water absorbing could achieve excellent cooling effects with 4 different kinds of flowers in short time simultane-ously. These results provide a new method for accelerating vacuum cooling.