If spiders aren’t your thing you may want to turn away!
Because these are the creatures that leading Colombian grower Cultivos del Norte specially breeds (they are the only growers to have their own red spider family!) and used as crop protection instead of chemicals because quite simply the red spiders eat all the bad bugs and that’s it.
Now obviously there is a whole lot more to biological crop protection than just letting a bunch of spiders lose but at its simplest, any flower farm worth its salt … especially if they want to be granted an official accreditation certificate … keeps chemical use to a minimum and certainly don’t use any banned ones! It simply isn’t worth the risk of being dropped as a supplier never mind not being necessary.
Not only has scientific development created a range of safer products but breeders are working overtime to create stronger, more disease resistant varieties which make the need for pesticides far less. A long job given it can take up to 12 years to develop a new variety, but they are on it.
When it comes to water this is treated like gold dust. Greenhouses are fitted with special drainage systems to capture every drop of rainwater and every drop is then recycled where it can be. Some flower farms have huge reservoirs, others use their water holding facilities to create nesting areas and watering holes for the indigenous animal population or create calm areas for the workers to enjoy. But however it’s done, not a drop is wasted!
And the Elephant Hoover? Well, that’s a rather strange looking contraption that is used to gently sweep up bugs and beasties from inside the greenhouses and take them out. We saw it first hand in Colombia and know not only is it ingenious but oh so effective.
