Dümmen Orange starts installing ErfGoedFloor
Reinoud Hagen, Managing Director Cut Flowers at Dümmen Orange (left) and Cock van Bommel, Business Development Manager at ErfGoed.
Dümmen Orange has started installing an ErfGoed cultivation floor at its De Kwakel site (the Netherlands). The company will use the ErfGoedFloor – a cultivation layer approximately 20 cm deep – for growing cut chrysanthemums in its show greenhouse. The ErfGoedFloor enables Dümmen Orange to grow emission-free.
The ErfGoedFloor consists of a waterproof film that incorporates a water supply and drainage system. Above that there is a 5 cm layer of stone. This layer is covered with a special floor cloth and a layer of growing medium. This allows for highly uniform irrigation and enables the excess water to be drained off and recovered.
Reinoud Hagen, Managing Director Cut Flowers at Dümmen Orange: ‘Installing the ErfGoed cultivation floor at De Kwakel fits in with our commitment to growing cut chrysanthemums more sustainably. At the moment we are still cultivating them in the ground. By working with ErfGoed and other parties, we want to show the sector that there are some very useful innovations out there for soil-grown cut flowers. We expect to be harvesting our first ErfGoedFloor chrysanthemums in early 2022.’
Cock van Bommel, Business Development Manager at ErfGoed: ‘Plant health, cultivation optimisation and the use of water, fertilisers and energy are concrete challenges that chrysanthemum growers have to face. We are responding to this with the ErfGoedFloor. Trials in 2020 and 2021 have shown that chrysanthemums can be grown very well on the ErfGoed cultivation floor all year round. Besides savings on water, fertiliser and energy usage, positive effects were observed in our biological control outcomes. Due to the thin layer of soil, using biological simulants is an affordable option and we really liked the fact that it made fertilisers and water easier to control, especially at the end of the crop. Growers of cut chrysanthemum can now harvest dry flowers free from condensation and moist.’