Identification of predominant bacteria and controlling of microbial population in vase solution of cut orchid flowers

Microbial and specially Bacterial growth in holding solutions of cut flowers can cause blockage in xylem and later will resulted to impaired water uptake and faster wilting. In this experiment, after harvesting and transporting the cut orchid flowers to the Lab., they were put in the bottles containing distilled water which treated with 0, 1.3, 2.6, 3.9 and 5.2 mg/L aqueous ozone and during 24 hrs each 6 hours, bottles solutions were sampled and cultured in different media and the predominant bacterial type was determined. Result revealed: sequence of the strain of studied bacteria is 88, 87 and 86% sequence similarity to the sequence of the strains Burkholderia cenocepacia and Burkholderia dolosa. Moreover, aqueous ozone at 1.3 and 2.6 mg/L did not significantly decreased bacteria population compared to distilled water, while at 3.9 and 5.2 mg/L, the populations were significantly (P ≤0.01) reduced.