Nursery Monnikenwaard recently started with the supply of the Santini Maverick White, a new variety from the Floritec breeding stable. "We both put a lot of time and energy into it and the result is a beautiful fresh white flower with a green heart, with unparalleled cultivation characteristics and, moreover, an excellent vase life", grower Maurice van Tuijl and Harry Boers of Floritec report. We join the two for a round about the greenhouse and talk about the latest addition.
Harry Boers and Maurice van Tuijl
The Santini Maverick White is currently available at all clocks of the auction, the other half of the stems are delivered directly on order. Every week now 40,000 stems are cut, which is a lot, but in terms of the entire operation - the area of Monnikenwaard nursery in Nieuwaal in Gelderland covers approximately six hectares of greenhouse and supplies half a million stems a week - that number is small. However, the intention is to increase the number in the near future, because the expectations are high.
LED
That trust is based on two factors. On the one hand, the slick facilities make it possible to produce more stems. At the beginning of 2018, Maurice took over the management from his father, Jan van Tuijl. At the end of last year, the entire six hectares were equipped with LEDs and the automation was updated from A to Z (among other things, with processing machines from BTM, each of which can process no fewer than 3,200 bunches of flowers per hour). An additional screen will soon be installed in the greenhouse to be able to control the climate inside the greenhouse down to the smallest detail.
"These investments have already proven their added value," says Maurice. “We are now the best lighted Santini grower in the Netherlands. We can now illuminate so well that we actually no longer have a winter in the greenhouse and we really can guarantee a uniform quality all year round. The stems are also heavier and we almost have no dropouts anymore."
Great uniformity
Of course, the new variety also benefits from this, but in the second place, the Santini Maverick White is going to do very well because both Maurice and Harry are impressed by the first few harvests. "And so is the trade," adds Harry, "because the flower was picked up very well right from the first harvest. Ultimately, of course, the demand is a deciding factor whether we should increase the production. But things are looking good in that respect, because the cultivation characteristics are turning out to be very good and the uniformity is really unprecedented. And that is precisely what makes it so good for wholesalers, who prefer to be able to deliver 100% the same bundles for their retail customers time and time again.”
For more information:
Kwekerij Monnikenwaard
Hogeweg 10
5313 BA Nieuwaal
The Netherlands
Tel. +31(0)418 56 18 72
E: monnikenwaard@hetnet.nl
www.monnikenwaard.nl
Floritec Breeding
Van Hemessenkade 7
2481 BG Woubrugge
The Netherlands
T: +31 (0) 172 518 963
F: +31 (0) 172 517 064
E: info@floritec.eu
www.floritec.eu