Collaborating with entrepreneurs on the future of the flower bulb sector

Added on 11 March 2024

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Collaborating with entrepreneurs on the future of the flower bulb sector

Photo: WUR

Flower bulb cultivation faces major challenges, partly due to a smaller package of resources and increased regulatory pressure. A future-oriented bulb company may therefore have to make different choices, for example when it comes to cultivation methods. The Greenhouse Horticulture and Flower Bulbs Business Unit of Wageningen University & Research helps the sector with research into that future. Project manager Joop de Hoog: “We are working on creative, sustainable solutions so that growers can continue to propagate and grow bulbs in the Netherlands.”

Fewer and fewer crop protection is allowed in the cultivation of flower bulbs. Moreover, the social discussion about chemical crop protection is increasing. This means that the bulb sector may have to look for new, more sustainable cultivation methods. In other words: how can bulbs be grown using fewer crop protection?

WUR is investigating methods for growing not in the ground, but in reusable plastic gutters: in such a system there is less pressure from diseases and pests from the soil.