Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
can cause skin irritation. Some mimosa (acacia) growers
in Europe have become allergic to acacia pollen. These
risks can presumably be avoided to some extent by using
gloves and protective clothing, including breathing
masks.
Packaging
Primary package
Plastic buckets are widely used in cut flower handling. In
wet-handling systems, buckets are used from the point of
harvest through to the point of sale. Buckets can be
arranged on sturdy wheeled trolleys that are returned to
the seller. There is increasing use of special boxes that
contain water in the base for transporting flowers. For
larger scale operations wheeled tubs or troughs of water
can be used. In dry-handling systems, a variety of natural
(e.g. fibreboard cartons; Plate 19.4; McGregor 1987)
and  synthetic (e.g. polystyrene caskets) materials are
used as  primary packages. Dry handling is particularly
appropriate for international airfreight and/or for storage
for periods in the order of weeks or months. Wet handling
is more appropriate for road freight and/or for storage
for  a matter of days. To prevent stem bending, vertical
packaging can be adopted for gravitropic flowers such
as  gladiolus and snapdragons (Halevy & Mayak 1981;
Reid 2002).
Efficient handling and process control
Post-harvest handling is expensive, at least where labour
costs are high. Thus, it is important to use efficient methods
of handling. These include minimising the number of
handling steps, using mechanical aids, automating to give
an even flow of flowers through the handling chain, and
achieving economies of scale. It is also wise to ensure that
staff are well trained and have comfortable and safe
working conditions.
The reliable supply of high-quality cut flowers is
important in maintaining customer satisfaction. Towards
this end, careful and regular monitoring of product
quality (e.g. vase life) and of treatments (e.g. STS
uptake) and handling conditions (e.g. temperature) is
important (Wills et al . 1998). Thus, cut flower enterprises
can benefit from  adoption of quality management
protocols including Total Quality Management and
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (Forsythe
2000). Increasingly, customers such as wholesalers and
retailers, consumers and legislators are requiring
documented and third party-certified evidence of quality
assurance. They are also interested in demonstration of
sound chemical, environmental and ethical management
practices.
Secondary packaging
A wide variety of secondary packaging options offers
physical protection to delicate cut flowers. These include
carton liners of plastic or paper sheets; padding by shred-
ded  paper, wood or synthetic wool; bunch sleeves of
perforated printed plastic; supports in the form of cleats,
perforated cards, plastic boxes; and vase solutions provided
in flexible or rigid vials or in a saturated cotton wool plug
(Plate 19.4; McGregor 1987). In addition, ice or freezer
packs can afford in-package cooling, particularly if the
flowers and ice are insulated from external heat. Holes in
cartons can provide ventilation, and scrubbers (e.g.
permanganate-coated particles in sachets) can help to
remove ethylene. Insulation, such as reflective foils and
thermal blankets, can be applied to cartons, groups of
cartons and/or pallets to restrict incoming heat.
Vase life measurement
and prediction
Cut flower quality is conventionally gauged by subjective
vase life assessment under standardised conditions of
temperature 20°C, 60-70% RH and 12 h light per day
(Reid & Kofranek 1980; Joyce 1996). Subjective vase life
criteria, such as days to first signs of wilting, can be
supported by objective measures, such as weighing the
flowers daily and plotting relative fresh weight (i.e.
proportion of initial fresh weight) as a function of time
in days. A degree of prediction of vase life may be obtained
from more sophisticated objective measures, such as
starch-iodine staining status (Berkholst & Navarro
Gonzales 1989; Shellebear et al . 1993), chlorophyll
fluorescence (Joyce & Shorter 2000; Miranda et al . 2000)
and water uptake (Buys & Cours, 1980). Both subjective
and objective measures can facilitate predictive modelling
of post-harvest performance (Hansen et al . 1991; van
Doorn & Tijskens 1991; Hoogerwerf et al . 1994).
Cold storage and transport
Cut flower storage is usually only for a relatively short period
of time, with stems in water (Table 19.2). Longer term storage
is possible for some flowers, but requires picking at an early
bud stage, pre-treatments, tight packing to prevent water loss,
low temperatures, and special rehydration and bud opening
processes after storage (Goszczynska & Rudnicki 1988;
Nowak & Rudnicki 1990; Nowak et al . 1991). Long-term
cold storage practices can be used for shipping flowers by
sea. This is done, for example, from South America to North
America and Israel to Europe. However, in-transit loss of
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