Flowers of Epidendrum ibaguense had high sensitivity to ethylene exposure, showing accentuated increase
on the rate of abscission when sprayed with ethephon solutions. Spraying the flowers with 10 mg L-1 ethephon
reduced the vase life from 7 to 5 days, and 100 and 1000 mg L-1 ethephon reduced it to 3 days. Pulsing the
flowers immediately after harvest with 20% sucrose for 12 hours improved the vase life by 46%, but when
treating the flowers with 5, 10, 15 or 20% sucrose for 24 hours, a shortening of the longevity was observed.
Longevity of flowers was not affected by pulsing with sucrose for 6 hours. Silver thiosulfate (STS) pulsing for
30 minutes linearly improved flower vase life, showing maximal efficiency at 2.0 mM STS. The greatest longevity
was achieved by exposing the flower to 1.0 g m-3 EthylBloc® for 6 hours, improving the vase life by 73% when
compared with the two other treatments, with an estimated vase life of 12.1 days.