Samenvatting

Cost price efficiency is key in competing in the modern horticultural industry. Over the past four years I came to realize that bulb cultivation and the cultivation of bulb flowers is accompanied by major risks, as it is difficult to fine tune the product’s quality. Seasonal influences affect bulb growth, and thereby the energy content and stress susceptibility of the bulbs. When a bulb grower sells its products he also sells the promise that the bulb will deliver a certain quality. However, this promise is not always met, resulting in an inferior product quality and eventually a lower selling price of the end product. Mostly, unexpected quality losses are caused by subsequent stress inducing conditions as well as seasonal factors. Within this research a potentially stress inducing factor has been addressed. It has given me the opportunity to address each aspect of lily production, superficially as well as in depth. Although follow up research is recommended this report gives a good basis for lily bulb disinfection and therewith production of lily flowers. Hopefully, readers will benefit from this report by being abled to tackle the issue of bulb disinfe tion in lily flower production. This report is of interest to lily breeders, lily bulb producers, lily bulb exporters and lily flower growers.