Best Practices at Xara Flowers

Engineering serves as the foundation of every aspect of life, and now a days it becomes the backbone of each Industry field, thus technology plays a vital role in preserving flowers to sustain their longevity and maintain their quality. In order to achieve consistent and high-quality flower production, flowers are cultivated in a controlled environment with soil and water chemistry carefully managed to meet the requirements of export-quality flowers. This process is known as high-tech floriculture, which is an extended arm of horticulture.

Open ground production of flowers is largely affected by UV rays. However, cultivation in UV-protected paper areas ensures that plants receive proper light and heat, protecting the flowers from damage and promoting good size. The growth cycle of a flower is 45 days, and maintaining the highest quality of flowers is a challenging task. Key criteria for floriculture products include the width, length, and disease-free state of the flowers.

Our project is supported by a cold storage facility, where fresh-cut flowers are stored at a temperature of 2°C. We use equipment such as PH meters and EC count meters to achieve the best possible quality of flowers. Post-harvest activities involve segregation based on stem length, circumference of bud, and other important factors. Once the best quality flowers have been selected, they are packed into boxes and made ready for dispatch.

Transportation to the nearest airport is carried out in refrigerated van that maintains a temperature of 3°C to preserve the quality of the flowers during transit. Overall, our commitment to engineering and technology is evident throughout the entire process, from cultivation to dispatch, ensuring that our customers receive the highest quality roses possible.

Harvesting

Stage1

Harvesting is the important operation under greenhouse. Harvesting is being done at right stage and right time. Harvesting is being done by skilled labour. Vase life of the flowers is 10-12 days if proper care is been taken.

Deleafing

Stage2

The leaves from the lower portion of the stem are removed upto 15 cm to reduce the weight of the stem. All infected leaves are also removed frequently.

Grading

Stage3

The grading process is been followed according to the stem length, bud size, stem thickness and opening of flowers. In manual grading, skilled workers are used for grading. Bent neck, thorn damage flowers, disease and pest affected flowers are treated as rejection.

Sorting and Bunching

Stage4

Sorting is generally done according to local and export market requirement. Bunching is done according to buyers requirement viz staggered or level head bunching.

Rose Bunch Table: General specification for number of stems per bunch Sorting

Create Table as per slide 23

It is very important to maintain the same cut stage of flowers the post harvest operations right from harvesting in the field upto the flower reaching to the market. If the temperature is not maintained properly the flowers may open and the price is reduced to a great extent. Hence the temperature in the post harvest chain is reduced to minimize the activities in the stem. The temperature is reduced during post harvest as follows: Table: Cold Room temperatures at different stages

Packing

Stage5

Bunches are packed in scientific way that no damage should happen to flowers.

The boxes are kept in cold storage at 0 – 20C till dispatch.

Delivery and Transport

Stage6

The process of FIFO (First in first out) is being followed at xara flowers i.e. first arrived flowers from green houses are processed and dispatched first.

Refrigerator van containers are used to transport cut flowers for export. These vans transport the produce from the production center to the airport and to the concerned market.

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