Effect of different varieties and root treatments on cooling preservation of fresh celery

With 4 western and 6 local celery cultivars as test materials,the effect of preservation of different varieties,root treatments were studied at 4℃. The results showed that celery cultivars had significant effect on celery's freshness,and the western celery cultivars were generally better than local ones. The best cultivar of the western celery was Crown Celery,the second was Columbia Parsley. The shelf life of the former was 16 days. In local celery cultivars,Yellow Stem Celery was the best,and its shelf life reached 15 days. The root treatments had significant effect on celery's preservation. The effect of root cutting treatment(NR) was the best way of celery preservation for both types of celery,the second was the root soaking with water(RW),and the worst was the root non-cutting(R) and root soaking with 2% sucrose solution. The shelf life of Crown Celery of NR treatment reached 22 days,and the one of Yellow Stem Celery of NR treatment was 20 days,and the rate of fresh weight loss of NR for both cultivars were 80% of R treatment at the 25 th days of storage. Therefore,the better way of postharvest treatment for celery was to cut root,then pack with plastic membrane and store at4℃. The 25 days of shelf life would get for some of the western celery cultivars.