‘Going cold’: how does this affect the house plants that you grow or purchase?   

The fact that we are facing high costs and sky-high gas prices means that consumers and entrepreneurs are closely examining their costs and finding ways to save money. Many greenhouses are going ‘cold’ (not consuming any energy). Garden centres are also turning down their thermostats. But how will the (tropical) house plants react to this? It’s important to measure that.
 
Koen Zuijderwijk, team manager Knowledge Center & Product Management: “Many of the experiments that are currently taking place in plant cultivation or at sales points have not yet shown how products will react and/or whether quality will suffer. In order to avoid disappointment among consumers and losses at sales points, there is actually only one priority: measuring the impact of lower temperatures on the basis of a longer period of research, as offered by the Post Harvest Knowledge Centre.”  

The workers at Royal FloraHolland’s Post Harvest Knowledge Centre have noticed a degree of reticence among buyers when it comes to purchasing tropical house plants and/or that they are reducing their purchases. Evelyn Beckers, senior researcher: “These buyers assume that the plants will do badly with the lower temperatures, but is that true? At the Post Harvest Knowledge Centre, we believe that this assumption definitely doesn’t apply to every plant.”  

The Post Harvest Knowledge Centre is currently working for a number of growers and buyers on an investigation into whether (tropical) house plants are damaged at a temperature of 12 degrees Celsius or at temperature of 15 degrees Celsius. Evelyn: “We are testing across the breadth of a product group, but also for individual growers. If products cope well with these two temperatures, then they should be fine, irrespective of the temperature at the sales point.”

The tests conducted by the Post Harvest Knowledge Centre run over a period of nine weeks. The Post Harvest Knowledge Centre tests for two weeks in the store phase, two weeks in the transport phase (when they simulate the conditions in a lorry) and five weeks in the consumer phase. Evelyn: “This is important because the damage that is suffered by plants is not always immediately clear.” She goes on to say: “Not all sales points handle the products in the same way. Sometimes, plants are left in the freezing cold which cannot cope with that. That affects the quality, but that damage is only revealed when the product is moved into a warm area and the plant begins to grow again”

Koen: “The fact that we are simulating the consumer’s conditions in our research is therefore a deliberate choice. We want the consumers to enjoy the product for as long as possible and to be open to repeat purchases in the future. Consumers are often prepared to pay a little more for a product, but this will only remain the case, of course, if they receive quality in return for that. We are all responsible for this in the chain.” 

The results of the research by the Post Harvest Knowledge Centre help entrepreneurs make decisions based on facts. Koen: “Growers can make targeted choices about where to sell plants if certain products do less well in colder conditions. Because growers sometimes deviate from the regular growing methods, it is important to measure the effectiveness of what they are doing. Experiments can turn out very positive, but it is also important that you investigate the impact of your experiments. The same goes for customers: ask growers about growing methods and the changes therein. Avoid taking risks if you don’t need to. Your purchases and the assortment that you choose can also be tested at the Post Harvest Knowledge Centre. You can then use well-founded research to select the best products,since we test here for growers and buyers.” 
 
In these challenging times, it’s all about making the right decisions. Decisions that you make on the basis of thorough research. The Post Harvest Knowledge Centre is happy to help growers and buyers with that!”

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