Professionals in knowledge and product development
PPO’s Flower Bulbs Research Unit provides support to the flower bulb sector in the form of practical research aimed at workable innovations in the production chain, practical crop and farm management through active knowledge transfer and implementation of applicable solutions.
Our research takes into account societal developments regarding the environment and sustainable production.
Focus of research
Sustainable flower bulb production, organic as well as integrated, is developing rapidly. Cultivation bottlenecks show up in field-scale growing systems at St. Maartensbrug. Together with growers and experience from other sectors Applied Plant Research focuses on bottlenecks to come up with solutions for sustainable and profitable farm management systems, now and in the future.
Recognition of pests and diseases forms the basis of a healthy crop. PPO’s Flower Bulb Research Unit provides diagnostic services for existing and new pests and diseases.
Healthy plants in a healthy environment can be achieved by developing new, safe pesticides with a safe application technique. We also work on the development of cultivation measures that may suppress pests and diseases. Integration of the knowledge on these aspects enables the development of new control strategies for sustainable crop protection.
Restricted fertilization while maintaining good quantitative and qualitative yields contributes to sustainable bulb production. Applied Plant Research develops new fertilization techniques where the sparing use of nitrogen, phosphate, and also water is important.
PPO’s Flower Bulb Research Unit conducts research for the bulb sector and for the government. PPO’s strength is a multi-faceted approach of research questions, in particular in the field of crop protection, fertilization, efficacy research, multifunctional agriculture, sustainable production, farm management systems, weed control, storage, quality, labor, etc. We conduct our research in close collaboration with other agricultural and horticultural organizations.