A one-way system to deliverable hyacinths

Greenhouse Horticulture of WUR has teamed up with several parties from the flower bulb industry, including the KAVB, the Greenport Dune and Bulb region and North Holland north, to create a vision for the future "Vital cultivation". Here, a development process leading to a bulb crop without chemical means by 2030 is outlined.

The sustainability problems of the bulb industry are largely due to the slow propagation of many bulbs. Propagation and breeding deliverable bulbs takes place on the field, the bulbs are planted, harvested, processed, preserved and replanted several years in a row. This “cyclical” cultivation keeps diseases and pests in the soil and at businesses and is the cause for the use of many chemical substances. For this reason, ending cyclical growing is central to the vision for the future.

A one-way system to deliverable hyacinths

As Greenhouse Horticulture of WUR, we want to work on developing a one-way system for hyacinth cultivation. A system in which deliverable bulbs are cultivated straight from source material, under controlled circumstances as much as possible. Such a system renders the use of chemicals unnecessary.

Our idea is that the bulbs are grown under protected conditions and then can be bred further into larger bulbs (“raw plant material”), which still require one year to reach the deliverable size. If in this last growing year these bulbs are grown outdoors as is traditional, the total environmental burden will already be reduced by 60% to 70%. By using our knowledge of "cultivation out of soil" systems and the use of bacteria and mycorrhiza for the purpose of disease resistance, it is possible to reach a deliverable product in the last year of cultivation. This is possible by cultivating on disease-free substrates in systems with fertigation in which the production is optimal. In that case, the environmental impact is even further reduced.

For this project we are looking for partners. Are you interested? Then contact us!