Aspects of the flower production

Roses

The farm projects the following rose production for 2009.

Zantedeschia (Calla lilies)

Due to production problems Mount Elgon Orchards Ltd. has now stopped growing zantedeschia.

Growing environment

The first roses were planted in the soil in wooden green houses. From 2001 only steel green houses have been built and from 2004 all new expansion has been planted in hydroponics.

Methods of irrigation used for the crops

The farm is changing from a manually operated drip irrigation system to a central, computerized, irrigation and fertigation system. Currently 19 hectares is under computerized irrigation.

In order to guarantee enough water for irrigation during the dry season 3 large water reservoirs have been built with a capacity of 164 million liters. These reservoirs are all lined.

Pest control

The aim is to keep the use of pesticides and fungicides as low as possible through intensive scouting and quick reactions when problems are identified.  In 2008 the company started using biological control for powdery mildew and red spider mites.  Bacillus subtilis is sprayed  for the control of powdery mildew and phytoseiulus persimilis are applied weekly for the control of red spider mites.  

Post harvest procedures

From the moment of harvesting the hygiene, speed and temperature of all procedures are constantly monitored.

Traceability and quality control

After the process of sorting and grading a final quality control check is undertaken by a team of quality controllers who manually inspect 100% of the processed flowers.

Codes are used to provide traceability back to the individual harvester of the flowers, as well as the transporter, the grader and the person packing the flowers.

After a transport simulation a sample of each variety is put in the vase life test room for monitoring during a period of 2 weeks.

Every week new samples are taken for testing.