Cool Tulip Tour

This morning I went on a great greenhouse tour. Basically on the Dunville/ Wainfleet border, is a cool greenhouse. Nothing like I have ever seen before. In our area, that is hard to come by. I've been in all sorts of greenhouses, either working or touring, and this was definitely new to me.

In Holland over the past years, they have been working on hydroponically growing bulb plants. Apparently, there are only three or four hydroponic tulip growers in Canada. I received a phone call the other night by one of the few operations. We set up an appointment so I could have a tour of the operation. The least I can do is walk away with more knowledge as well as really cool pictures.

The owner walked me through the whole process, from importing the
bulbs, to final shipped product. He has a lot of automation as well, mainly for bunching and packing the final product.

Bulbs come in from Holland, and are stored at a cool enough temp to
keep the bulbs dormant. When they are ready for planting, the bulbs are brought out of the cooler and put on a hopper. The hopper is raised, and the bulbs are gravity fed onto a short conveyor belt. Staff then take the bulbs and set them in crates that are lined with pins. There is a water reservoir built into the tray, so when the bulbs start to push
out roots, they have an ample supply of food.

After the bulbs are planted, they are put back into another cooler until they are ready for forcing in the greenhouse. They are warmed up slightly, to ensure good rooting in cold storage. The rooted plants are now ready to grow. Since they are such a short crop, and not grown during insect season (summer) pesticides are rarely if ever used. This makes for an even more enjoyable atmosphere. And clean throughout.


All the floors are concrete, so disinfecting over the summer is a cinch. Concrete floors also let all excess water out through holes drilled at 1 foot spacings into under drainage. Irrigations in the greenhouse are done by boom sprayer in the growing area, until the plants are moved into the harvesting area. Then it is done by hand. The grower will try to top up the plants before moving over to reduce the amount of hand- watering.

Harvesting is also fast paced. A few criteria must be followed: bloom maturity and stem length are the two key factors. I had the opportunity to talk to some staff for a couple of seconds, then realized I was being a hindrance. He needed another cart to pick into. After harvesting, the tulips, bulbs and all are brought over to the packing line. Two people place the tulips onto a conveyor. They are swept down the line through different stations as they go.

1. placed on the line by 2 people
2. bulbs are cut off by machine, waste is augured into a bin (minimal clean-up)
3. four people pick up the prepped stems and align 10 blooms to the same height
4. bunches are set back onto the next belt, where they are tied together by machine, and bottoms are trimmed to ensure uniform length within each bunch
5. two people sleeve the bunches, and are tied once more to help keep the stems together, as well as to hold the sleeve in place
6. ten bunches of tulips are set into a pail, and off they go. 100 stems per pail.
7. pails may or may not be boxed, dependant on where they are going
   

Space is always maxed out, there isn't any money in empty square footage! I am hoping that the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" will help fill in any blanks, but feel free to ask questions. I'll reply to comments ASAP.