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GEORGE. L. STAB*.

Floral Care And HandlingQ&AWith George StabyAfter 12 years as a university professor and another 28years as a researcherand consultant, Dr. George Staby offers his unwavering views on top post-hawest factors affecting floral crop quality and profits.

BY E. SHAUNN ALDERMAN

You may have been one of hisstudents at Ohio State Universi

ty or you may have attendedone of his seminars at Ohio

Florists' Short Course or the

Super Floral Show. You may have heard himspeak in Colombia, Ecuador or Holland oryou may have read his telling words here inProduce Business. In this final interview

before his official retirement, George Stabydiscusses floral care and handling practices.

PB: There seems to be a continual blame

game about certain topics between floral suppliers and retailers. What should retailers notrequest from bouquet suppliers?

GS: Retailers should not request ice, geland/or water picks for incoming dry packshipments. Having one or two ice packs inshipping boxes and placing cut flowers insome sort of a water delivery device doesnot compensate for poor temperature management and is often a waste of time andmoney, and can give both senders andreceivers false securities.

PB: Retailers watching the bottom linemust be persistent in their fight againstshiink. What is the importance of immediately removing plant sleeves when productanives in the stores?

GS: Leaving any type of plant sleeve —plastic, fiber or paper — on plants afterarrival can only decrease plant quality due toincreased ethylene production, low light levels, less air circulation and increased chancesfor greymold (Botrytis) development.

PB: At what temperature should most cutflowers, such as roses, chrysanthemums, alstroe-meria andcarnations, beupon store anival?

GS: They should be between 32" and36*F. Tropicals, such as anthuriums and gin-

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The roses on the left are in a container with the correct amount of flower food inthe water. If containers are dirty or if too little flower food is used, bacterialgrowth will cause cloudy vase water resulting in reduced flower life.

ger, should be between 55° and 65°F. Whenpossible, measure the flowers per se. Ifflower temperatures are outside of theseranges, they should be rejected, or at leastmonitored closely for possible subsequentdamage. In addition, measure and recordincoming growing media temperatures ofpotted plants and make similaraccept/reject decisions using appropriatetemperature thresholds.

PB: With focus on quality and keepingconsumers coming back for more, whatshould retailers require related to temperature management?

GS: Retailers should require time/temperature indicatorswith all shipments, includingpots and cuts. Time/temperature indicatorsthat have been proven effective for floralcrops or data loggers should be required in allpotted plant and cut flower shipments inorder to document cold chain issues. Namely,there are no excuses for not monitoring tem

peratures during distribution and for not taking action when the data becomes available.

PB: You are known for your strong stanceon cleanliness. Since keeping it clean can saveretailers money andprevent product loss whatis your advice?

GS: Maintaining clean buckets, vases andall solutions in which cut flowers are placedis critical. Always clean buckets after everyuse and never put fresh flowers into alreadyused solutions or, for that matter, in plainwater. If you are not willing to drink out of abucket, it is too dirty for flowers.

PB: Retailers dealing with labor cuts havecertain tasks that must be met no matter if thefloral department is understaffed. Wlmt is thebottom line recommendation for handlingincoming pottedplants?

GS: Irrigate all incoming potted plantswith water containing an adjuvant (a wetting agent). No matter the moisture level ofthe growing media, irrigate all plants using

ware Driving an adjinGro,. Soaxat manufachathe label.

PB: The fungal discasAcalled grey mold, can caimcost retailers money. Hamthe significant damagesMers andplants by grey tm

GS: In order to coldisease, one first has fenwere caused by this aly, about half of the tSdiagnosed. Name;; ; .when, in fact, antralTherefore, the first*-- \

••- •.<•: :> mis-

Botiytisis present.

mid be takenat grower or retail level is to determine if

the symptoms seen were caused by Botiytisor something else. There is a Botrytis testkit on the market specifically designed forthis purpose. It works similarly to a homepregnancy test. (See www.pocketdiagnos-tic.com to learn more about this test kit.)

PB: Many retailers know not to merchandise most floral products next to apples, but asaprevention step, what should retailers requirerelated toethylene?

GS: Retailers should require anti-ethyleneprotective treatments before shipping.Namely, they should demand that ethylene-sensitive flowers and plants be properlytreated with appropriate anti-ethylene products (STS/AVB or MCP/EthylBloc) prior toshipping to minimize post-harvest losses andimprove shelf-life. STS should only be usedwith cut flowers, but MCPcan be used withcut flowers, potted and bedding plants.Receivers should check to determine if thesetreatments were applied properly using theFlorel test (see sidebar article at right).

PB: Related to shelf-life and loss prevention,what else should retailers require?

GS: Retailers should require full-strengthcut flower food in wet packs and theyshould use the same at store level. Otherthan for dry-shipped cut flowers, retailersmust store, display and sell flowers in full-strength flower food solutions that are prepared correctly according to labeldirections.This includes wet packed flowers. Do notuse hydration or half-strength flower foodsolutions in wet packs forbest results.

PB: The economy has some retailers pinchingpennies at unprecedented rates. Shouldretailers provide consumers with floral foodvackets asa take-away?

GS: Providing flower food packets is amust. All bouquets, arrangements, budvases, and loose flowers sold to consumersmust include at least one 10-gram flower

Florel Test:Determining The Quality Of

Ethylene-Sensitive Flowers And PlantsEthylene is a gas often referred to as

ine 'death hormone" because it canreduce the life offlowers and plants.

Sources of ethylene gas include engineexhaust, cigarette smoke, fruits and flowers among many other sources. Symptoms of ethylene-induced damagesinclude premature flower death (carnation,kalanchoe, baby's breath), flower fall(baby's breath, geranium, delphinium,waxflower), leaf fall (Reus, holly), fruit fall(holly), leaf twisting (poinsettia) and leafdiscoloration (dracaena, lily).

Florel is a liquid form of ethylene gas.The purpose of this test is to determine ifethylene-sensitive cut flowers and plantswere properly treated with MCP (EthylBloc)or cut flowers with STS (AVB) prior todelivery to retailers. If flowers and plantswere properly treated, then they will notbe harmed by ethylene (Florel), resultingin more profits and repeat sales. Alist ofethylene-sensitive flowers and plants ispresented in the Chain of Life Networkwebsite (www.chainoflifenetwork.org)under the Floral Crops Specific section.

To run this simple and inexpensive test(five cents per test for Florel):

1) Use an Internet search engine, suchas Google, and locate a place where youcan buy Florel. As ofmid-February, 2010,Amazon.com was selling it for $19.49 per-pint including shipping, which is enoughto last for about 450 tests.

2) Add one milliliter (about 30 drops)of Florel to 100 milliliters (about 3.5ounces) ofwater in a plastic spray container, similar tothose used for misting plants.

3) Divide the flowers or plants to betested into two equal groups, one that willbe sprayed with Florel and the other thatwill not be sprayed. For cut flowers, split

The flowers on the left were not

treated with MCP and all flowers weresubsequently sprayed with Florel.

one bunch in half and place into separatevases containing flower food solution,while for potted or bedding plants, use atleast six plants, three that will be sprayedand three plants that will not besprayed.

4) Spray half ofthe cut flowers, potted,or bedding plants with the freshly madeFlorel solution, covering all of the flowersand leaves. Do notspray the other half ofthe cut flowers or plants. Discard anyremaining solution.

5) For the next 24 hours, keep thesprayed and non-sprayed flowers or plantsin separate areas, both atroom temperature.

6) If the sprayed flowers or plantsbegin to die in one to three days, whilethe others are okay, they were not treatedproperly with either MCP or STS. Tell yoursuppliers of this finding and have the situation corrected for future shipments.

7) If after three days both the sprayedand non-sprayed flowers/plants lookequally good, then they were treatedproperly with MCP orSTS. Tell your suppliers that they did a good job! This resultalso could mean that the flowers and/orplants are ethylene-insensitive. In eithercase, the results are good! pb

food packet along with the proper directions for their use by consumers. This isespecially true for arrangements made infloral foam.

PB: Why is it important for retailers toknow and show consumers the proper namesofflowers?

GS: Retailers should purchase and market every floral crop by cultivar/variety

name. If one does not know the propername of a floral crop, how can one determine if it should or should notbe purchasedagain? Consumers know that all red carnations are not the same so why should all redcarnations be considered the same? Mass-market flower buyers and consumers knowmore apple cultivar/varietynames than ger-bera orcarnation cultivar names. pb

GeorgeStaby, Ph.D. is the founder ofChain ofLife Network and co-founder andpresident ofPerishables Research Organization,both based in Pioneer, CA. He can be reached atgeorge.staby@volcano.net or www.chainoflifenetwork.org.

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