Keep Your Flowers Fresh for a Long Time by Applying These Techniques

Nursery Today Desk

New Delhi: Using beautiful flowers to your event can add feathers to any occasion and gifting flowers to anyone can bring smile to their faces. These colorful blossoms can cheer up any mood. This is the reason, flowers are in great demand during any festival, events or weddings. But the more pretty it is, the less time it takes to wither. If not taken proper care of its post-harvest treatment, these flowers do not reach market with the same freshness, which decreases its value. It doesn’t matter how well your farming has been, if the post-harvest technique is not proper, floriculture farming will ultimately face downfall. So it is important to know the proper post-harvest technique to keep your flowers fresh for a long time.

Here are some tips to help you with this:

Time to Harvest

Different flowers are harvested at different intervals. Some are plucked at an interval of one day while other flowers are harvested in 3 to 4 days but whatever the time is, flowers must be harvested at fixed prescribed intervals. If there’s delay in harvesting, the quality, beauty and freshness of flowers is compromised.

Plucking Flower according to season

During summer season, flowers must be plucked in the morning time because excessive sunlight and heat throughout the day can wither the flower by evening. During rainy season, take care that flowers are not wet due to rain, this forms stains in the flowers. Also, during winter season, harvest the flower when it’s sunny to avoid dew.

Size of the flower

While plucking the flower, pay attention to the size of flower. Do not harvest the flower when it is too small/unripe or too big for a long time. The flower should be cut before they bloom completely, this will help sustain its freshness.

Water before picking flowers

The plant and the field should be lightly watered before picking the flower. This increases the quality of the flower.

Selection of right tools

Use sharp knife, scissors, blade or razor to cut the flowers without damaging its stem. Prune the stems to increase the surface area for water absorption. Flowers with stems should be kept in water filled bucket, this increases their freshness for a long time.

Storage

Flowers which continue to bloom even after harvest should be plucked in their bud stage. So that they are available in market in the best condition. Spike type flowers are usually harvested when one-fourth to one-half of the flowers has opened.

Use ice

For transporting and carrying flowers for long distance, send them to the consumer after packing them in a plastic, jute or basket. Additionally, bear in mind that while packaging flowers, ice cubes should be put in tiny plastic bags at the bottom, middle, and top to keep them fresh.