When wet weather hits our area, there’s an increase chance that Botrytis will impact the flowers you receive from PFG. Botrytis is a type of mold that you’ve likely run across already in handling flowers. It’s pretty common and often on flowers that have been shipped in boxes, where humidity builds up and spores proliferate. It can also build up in your cooler. Similar to ethylene, keeping your cooler clean is paramount to keeping botrytis at bay.
Botrytis is not as common in local, freshly-picked (i.e., not shipped) stems. But it does become more prevalent at the end of the season as crops start to wane and heavy dew and cloudy damp days increase. The reason for this is that tired crops that managed to endure the long hot dry days of summer struggle to adjust to the change in season and moisture levels. Mold spores can naturally build up in the environment. It can be tricky for the harvest crew to detect any problems in the field as botrytis takes a few days to manifest.
If you’ve had issues with botrytis on PFG stems, please let us know! We always want you to be 100% satisfied with our quality! Here are some tips for minimizing botrytis damage on your end:
- Immediately remove sleeves from bunches as soon as you receive them. Do not delay on this step as it is the most crucial.
- Immediately process bunches upon receiving them, removing any foliage you don’t anticipate using and taking off rubber bands so the stems can be more spaced out in the bucket.
- Don’t overcrowd buckets. You want plenty of airflow in among the stems so humidity doesn’t build and give mold spores a chance to multiple.
- If there appears to be extra moisture on stems/blooms, leave them sitting out of the cooler and put a fan on them to gently dry them out a bit more. Once excess moisture has dried up, you can then put the product into the cooler.
- Keep your cooler clean. Remove any dead, moldy or decaying plant material from your cooler immediately. Check in the corners and under shelves where bits often go unnoticed for a long time. One moldy old bloom on the floor can quickly infect a whole cooler of new healthy product if conditions are right.
As with so many things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure when it comes to botrytis. Keep a vigilant eye out for it and practice these steps to prevent it!