Patent ID: 6365548
Filing Date: 2002-04-02
Classification: A01N

Abstract:
In a treatment method for preserving cut flowers, which includes a dehydration process for removing tissue water of cut flowers using a solvent, and a permeation process in which polyethylene glycol permeates said flowers after dehydration, whereby to substitute polyethylene glycol for the solvent in the cut flowers, and wherein the dehydration process is effected while the cut flowers are held in a container having therein a proper quantity of molecular sieve for adsorption of water, said container also having therein a solvent with a specific gravity smaller than that of water, the improvement comprising:(a) monitoring the change of dehydratability of said solvent during the progression of dehydration by incessantly measuring the specific gravity of the solvent, for detecting the time for exchanging the molecular sieve, and (b) replacing said molecular sieve with a fresh molecular sieve substantially free of water when the total quantity of dissolved water in the solvent as determined by the specific gravity measurements exceed the water adsorbability of the molecular sieve.