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"... it has been found that
flowers in cold storage suffer from dehydration caused by the low relative
humidity that exists in the cooling areas, created by the action of the
cooling unit that absorbs the water vapor from the air space in the cold
store.
In our estimation, this problem can be dealt with in two ways. Firstly, by
attempting through various technologies, such as developing covers for the
flowers, which will create a micro-climate with a higher relative humidity
around the flowers which will reduce the evaporation of water from the
flowers into the surroundings. Secondly, it is possible to attempt to
increase the relative humidity in the cold store, thereby reducing the
desiccation of the flowers while at the same time, as we are dealing here
with larger air volumes, reduces the danger of such, or other, toxification.
Whereas the second option at the moment appears to be simpler, we have found
that there is room to attempt to integrate the "Shira" fog
generator that disperses water into very small droplets (5 microns) which
enables a technology for increasing relative humidity while slightly
increasing the relative amount of free water that represents, as stated, a
nuisance to operating systems.
In our opinion, systems such as Shira's system, offers a positive
contribution while increasing the relative humidity in every one of the
following applications:
1. During work in flower storage warehouses, whether
grower owned or regional.
2. During the routine cooling of flowers by growers.
3. During prolonged storage in cold stores for
entrepreneurial considerations.
The working procedures that were adopted in this instance also. were based on experiments at our laboratory and the
conclusions reached enables a transfer to a larger scale. Most certainly
today, fog generators are very efficient at increasing the relative humidity
during the prolonged storage of flowers. It is important to mention that as
this system worked successfully in the laboratory. a
larger system was installed at the Azata flower
cold-store. This system increased the humidity in the cooling chamber over
about three weeks while stabilizing relative humidity in the range of 89-93%
humidity. In practice, approximately half a million roses of different
varieties (Jaguar, Mercedes, Florop and others)
were stored. This storage was carried out purely for commercial
considerations and was used instead of expensive controlled storage in
refrigerated containers that have been used for this purpose until now. At
the end of the storage period. the flowers were
removed and shipped to their various destinations in Europe
where the boxes were opened and the flowers underwent additional quality
checks. it was found that out of 1600 cardboard boxes containing the flowers,
approximately 10 containers were damaged, most of which contained problematic
varieties that for various reasons are hard to keep in storage such as the Meifota variety whose color is a deep pink that is
inclined to turn bluish..."
Tandler Application Developments, Karme Yosef, Israel
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