Dry handling cuts could reduce costs

Although placing cut flowers in buckets of water is the traditional method of postharvest handling, this method does have some negative aspects. These include labor and materials costs related to handling buckets, potential contamination due to bacteria in dirty buckets and/or solutions, continued growth of flowers held in water and damage to turgid flowers during handling and transportation.

Studies conducted by University of California researchers with Colombian roses compared the differences between handling the flowers dry without any water after harvest and the traditional method of using water buckets. The results: flowers stored in water experienced more than a 10 percent weight gain, had a larger flower head size and greater packing weights; larger and more turgid flowers showed significantly more damage after shipping; weight loss during prolonged transport was less than 12 percent; quality and vaselife of dry-handled flowers was at least as good and often better than flowers harvested the traditional way.

{sidebar id=1}

Similar results were found with roses grown in California.

For more: Michael Reid, University of California-Davis, Department of Plant Sciences, (530) 754-6751; msreid@ucdavis.edu.