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Hydroponics Revolution in Cut Flower Production · Hydroponics Daily

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Hello there and welcome back to
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Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
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In yesterday's episode we talked about manipulating flower colour,
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especially in cut flowers and flower crops, bud crops and things like this.
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And then today we're going to talk about cut flower production in greater detail.
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So yesterday was just about flower colour manipulation and today we'll talk
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about how you grow a flower crop,
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how you harvest it and things like this well maybe not how you harvest it but pest
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and disease and hydroponics so we're
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going into the colorful world of cut flower production from
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chrysanthemums to tulips proteus to lisianthus more growers around the world
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are blossoming indoors with hydroponics so we'll explore the tricks of the trade
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okay so why shift from soil cultivation to hydroponics which has happened over
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the last 25 years in cut flower production.
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Well, the first thing is for year-round production, independent of soil and
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independent of the weather.
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Precise control over nutrients, water, pH, and environment.
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All very common reasons why you would move to hydroponics in any type of crop,
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especially in flower production.
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And then higher yields consistently, longer vase life,
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which is not what we often think about with hydroponics, and better
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flower quality so the flowers are
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grown in a number of countries around the
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world but there are specialist hot spots and then
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particular areas are holland columbia kenya
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south africa and kunming in
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china and also spalding in
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in lincolnshire that's a big one for cut flowers here
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in the uk so yeah on almost every
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continent there is a is one particular area
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that's particularly adept at
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growing flowers there's a a and because you
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need highly skilled workers to produce
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cut flower production you need a lot of water you need highlight
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levels and low temperatures you haven't got highlight levels in spalding but
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we'll go on to that why not so flower types are now being grown hydroponically
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include roses which are probably one of the biggest cut flowers i would imagine
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chrysanthemums very popular in japan gerberus.
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Lisanthus lilies proteas orchids and all the bald species so basically any type
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of cut flowers i think is is apart from ones maybe on trees,
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like hydrangeas or any shrub-based ones chrysanthemums and
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gerberas often grown in nft or ebon flood
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troughs they require short their
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short day plants requiring less than 12 hours so chrysanthemums
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used to be a autumn cut flower
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in the uk and now they're
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all year round because you can control you can
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create short days by by basically making a
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mini grow tent inside the greenhouse and cutting out
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all sunlight and then you can have extend the day
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length with just normal incandescent bulbs you
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don't need leds you don't need sodium luminaires or hpss you
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just can use incandescent or fluorescent lights and
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so that's how you grow chrysanthemums indoor in
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greenhouses other crops that used to be specific or still are dahlias you could
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only get dahlias for weddings in may i think in the uk so if you could produce
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them hydroponically you're to a winner because brides love dahlias and they
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are prepared to pay a premium for dahlias.
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So if you could set up a hydroponic dahlias farm in the UK or anywhere in Europe,
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you could make a killing.
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Roses and lilianthus, they're often grown in deep water culture troughs.
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Balance of nutrients is essential for quality of the stem and the petal.
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Highlight regimes boost the anthocyanin pigments the petals as we talked about
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yesterday interestingly though species sorry um variety is very important when
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it comes to cut flowers not just because people want certain colors,
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or not just because some people want scent but the way a cut flower looks,
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a rose is dramatically different in different countries in the uk and i think in.
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America we want a closed rose and not
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too long a stem because you think of that as good value for money
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because the consumer thinks oh the rose will open up eventually i
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want them just as they're opening the roses never do open up they're not early
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on and so whereas we just think of that that's where you've been accustomed
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to buy roses whereas in russia cut flowers from russia the roses have to be
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more open and the stems much longer because that's what the customer demands
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in Russia. Interesting that isn't it?
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Lilies and orchids, they're cultivated in perlite filled troughs or hydro substrate bags.
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A lot of bark for orchids, for the epiphytic orchids, the ones that normally grow in the trees.
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Temperature control is critical to the initiation phase of flowering in both
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of these species, lilies and orchids.
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Temperature, you've got to get the right cool treatments and the right high temperatures.
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That is even more the case in bulbs like tulips, staffodils and hyacinths.
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You can force these into flowering in hydrochronic troughs with temperature
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phasing, warmth for flower initiation, then 8 to 12 degrees Celsius to extend the stem and the spike.
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And this mimics the traditional forcing but improves the speed and efficiency.
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So that's interesting. Proteas, which
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are a very high value cut flower associated with
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the South african flora the finboss flora of the
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cape highly valued in africa and australia do
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they grow in australia i'm not sure any australian listeners please let
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me know do proteas grow in australia the i know this south
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african football team no football team rugby football
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team they their nickname is the
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proteas i forgot their no they're springboks sorry i'm
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talking absolute nonsense the cricket team of south africa
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are called the proteas anyway regardless
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of which sports team are called the proteas the proteas
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are a south african flower they're grown
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in coarse well-drained substrates with acidified low
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ec hydroponic feeds that's because proteas can be killed by high phosphorus
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levels they grow in very phosphorus deficient soil and so they've evolved not
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to have mycorrhizae on their roots but to just acidify the soil and if you give
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them to they've adapted to absorb as much phosphorus from the environment as
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possible you give them too much phosphorus it kill them.
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They might look pale yellow, but they definitely don't give them an MPK fertilizer.
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You have to be really careful with your nutrition when it comes to proteas.
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Interesting fact about proteas, you think of the big king proteas, the really big flowers.
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There are actually lots of different species and there's one that has the flowers,
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rather than being pointing up at the sun, they grow at the bottom of the shrub
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and they point downwards towards the soil.
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And they are pollinated by rodents, little rats and mice.
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Run across the finboss flora, and they take the pollen with them.
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So a really interesting pollen mechanism there.
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Whoever thought of it, rodent pollination.
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Very, very tolerant, sensitive to root rot, so you have to be really careful
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there. It requires strict quality water and good drainage.
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But if you can grow proteus hydroponically, it's a license to print money,
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as is, what did I say, dahlias? Dahlias? Dahlias.
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My wife has banned me from saying the phrase a license
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to print money because i say it so often
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when i come up with a new product that she you know she thinks
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we would be living in a lot nicer house and sending our
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kids to private school and going on much nicer holidays if
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i really had invented a license to print money every other
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week yeah i launched four new products today interestingly so
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i'll talk about them at the end of this podcast more four new licenses to
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print money anyway chrysanthemums as we said they
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need less than 12 hours of uninterrupted darkness
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to flower any stray light delays harvest and your profits so that's why the
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the enclosures have to be completely light sealed no light leak at all the temperature
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sensitive temperature sensitive bulbs daffodils hyacinths tulips as we say warm
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induction then cooling elongation and then other species like cineraria.
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Calciolaria tropical orchids prefer cool initiation phalaenopsis requires 18
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to 22 degrees celsius for flowering but won't tolerate cold temperatures below
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15 degrees celsius which is not cool for most species,
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We talked about color intensity in lisianthus or eustoma yesterday,
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so we can ignore that. We talked about hydrangea pH.
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So there, as I say, the geographical hotspots, the Netherlands and Colombia,
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they're where most roses and chrysanthemums are grown.
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Used to be a lot of chrysanthemums grown on the south coast of England.
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I went to a chrysanthemum grower in about 2002, and they were still growing in soil then.
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But the problem was is that they were just building up nematode levels.
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Year after year and the the growers were getting old
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pensioners they weren't going to hold it pass it on to their kids because
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it wasn't as profitable as it was for those growers back in the
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70s and 80s when they were really making big bucks and
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they could use chem really harsh chemicals to kill the
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nematodes and so they didn't have the capital invested
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and keep hold of they hadn't keep hold of that money to invest
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into hydroponic systems so they just went out of business and the dutch and
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the colombians and the kenyans took over when it came to rose cultivation there
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are still a few cut flower production down on the south coast of england in
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soil there are i'm trying to think now there is a guy who grows.
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Alstroemerias my father's favorite flower at the moment cross lens nursery and
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they grow in soil and they don't use any pest control and they get a few caterpillars
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and things like this but would appear that alstroemerias are pretty tough and
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resistant to soil-borne pest and disease because they were able to do it in
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the soil. But most cut flowers are not.
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So, Kenya and Ethiopia was a very high altitude, so high light levels,
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but cool temperatures, so roses and proteas thrive there.
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Japan, they grow, obviously, chrysanthemums and orchids, and then Kunming in
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China, so that's, what province is that?
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Is that Yunnan province, at the top of my head? Let me have a look.
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It's a very high city, it's a very big city in China,
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most cities are and it's
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very up in the mountains sort of like western china not
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tibet fairly close to it yeah it's
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a modern capital and transportation hub of china's
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southern province yunnan yeah there you go check out my chinese knowledge i
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know my capitals of my provinces so yeah
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that is yeah the the chinese wear
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a lot of flowers and they'll be imported into europe from there
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i think flamingo is a big importer of them
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into europe as a company so advantages of
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hydroponics in soil versus soil in cut
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flowers is obviously the soil pathogens particularly fusarium pythium
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nematodes cleaner stems because
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you're not got that soil around better vase life longer vase
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life you can automate production you can use vase life less
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pesticide exposure is in theory but still a
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lot of pesticides used and you see horror pictures
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videos of kenyan growers without any
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gloves dipping the flowers in fungicide
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before they go off to be sold so be careful when you're handling cut flowers
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could be exposing yourself to a lot of fungicide use gloves water and nutrient
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use more efficient obviously and there is big issues in kenya and tanzania where
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horticultural nurseries are taking groundwater away from.
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The general population really and their cattle and their livestock can struggle
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to get water but these big businesses have got.
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Contracts with the governments there and they get first dibs on the water.
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You wouldn't believe how often in the world of agriculture and agriculture imports,
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the phrase, I know the brother of the agricultural minister comes up when it
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comes to distributors worldwide.
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That seems to be a common way that certain horticultural and agricultural companies can get their way.
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Anyway, so photoperiod matters for chrysanthemums. We said they're short day plants.
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Lysianthus and roses are long day flowers, so they flower in the middle of summer.
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You can obviously manipulate that by just having extension.
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You can either extend it with supplementary lighting, and it's going to also
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increase photosynthesis, or if you don't want to increase photosynthesis,
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just a little incandescent bulb is more than enough to actually get the plant
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to think that it's under long days.
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And then remember that osteospermum and
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sunflowers only open in full sun sunflowers
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when they're young they move with the sun don't they
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but when they're older they get stuck in a certain position i think
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that's right and then for bulbs and
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certain orchids flowering is very important bulbs when we when we give them
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warm cold then warm that's known as forcing bulb forcing to mimic outside conditions
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just as we talked about like rhubarb forcing and chicory forcing and things
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like this basically taking plants indoors giving them cold treatments and hot
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treatments is called forcing.
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What are the growth challenges? Plants can get tall and vulnerable to wind in
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greenhouses and polytunnels.
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You'll find a lot of plastic tunnels abroad rather than actual glass houses.
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You could get root diseases from recirculated water, so it needs to be filtered
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and sterilised and your nutrients will need to be buffered to avoid pH drift,
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standard hydroponic issues.
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Proteus, you would want to reduce your hydroponic medium down
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to around 5.5 and exclude as much
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phosphorus as possible so educate you
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know roots the reason matches the natural cape environment as
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possible apart from the fact it's covered in water future opportunities
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definitely dahlias whilst i say
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there was another one proteas if you're going to grow for the uk market i
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don't know what the opportunities are in other markets but there will be ones you
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know find what is hip and happening in your
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area i'd say daily daily daily is
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definitely i don't mean dahlias i mean peonies they're peonies call myself a
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plant scientist and take that phd off me i mean peonies peonies are the ones
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that you can only get in may don't forget about dahlias they're not going to
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make you any money grow peonies for all year round peonies and you will absolutely make a fortune
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in the uk yeah but there will be things like peonies in other countries where there's a
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they can only get go and speak to a florist and say
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what can you only get at certain times of the year and try and produce them
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all year round everyone's going on about strawberries everyone in hydroponics
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is obsessed with all year round strawberries forget that everyone's after strawberries
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get into cut flowers go speak to your florist see where there's a where there's
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a pain point and hit that pain point.
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A solution there will be opportunities around renewable
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energy led lighting a lot
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of these things will not have been optimized for cut flowers
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because they get onto they'll have been optimized for leafy
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veg first and then legal cannabis and.
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Cut flowers will be much further down the road so there's opportunities.
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There and then breeding for hydroponic adaptability like
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dwarf chrysanthemums and could you
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use hydroponics to produce hydrangeas of
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a range of different colors by modifying their
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ph and things like this there's loads of different opportunities you
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could look at and yeah so
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i think cut flowers if i was getting into hydroponics wanted
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to set up a grow forget leafy veg forget strawberries
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forget potatoes and cotton and
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all these things that people are looking at i'd get down to my florist and
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ask them apart from peonies what are you struggling to
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get at certain times of the year and just go after that yeah there's
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an easy win there for someone who's got the balls to
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go and try it the cojones to go and try it the
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the gender neutral guts there.
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You go the guts there we go right so that's
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been hydroponics daily for today i think it's a really interesting area and
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i'd love people if you've got any you would like to talk about it further you
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want to talk about any ideas for cut flower production if you
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want to collaborate then get in touch with me if you've
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been shared this podcast then you owe the person who shared
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it with you a very very cold delicious
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beer or wine not cold wine but you
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know a wine of the right temperature or an iced lolly if you don't drink alcohol
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or an ice cream anyway i'm rambling that's been hydroponics daily for today
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i'll speak to you tomorrow where we'll be talking about nitrogen and different
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forms of nitrogen nitrogen that plants can absorb and the advantages and disadvantages
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of those different forms of nitrogen.
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That sounds amazing, doesn't it? But you can't wait. Speak to you tomorrow. Goodbye.