Industrial Orchid Mass Production Video (2:27)

[My Green Pets]

I ran across this the other day and found it pretty mind-blowing. In this vid, Home Depot shows where they get their orchids and how they are grown...by the millions.

All I could say was "Wow."



---------- Post added at 10:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:41 PM ----------

Here's part 2.

[Jayfar]

Ugh! She ends the second video with an exhortation to "Just add ice. Three ice cubes once a week. It's as easy as that." I guess we know which HD orchid supplier this is.

[Tindomul]

OMG!! They have it down to a science. WOW!!!! Watching second video now.

[orchidsarefun]

really amazing.
Now I know why these are tagless, just too much hassle and expense. Those sleeves that keep the leaves upright are interesting, never seen that before. I think I need some

[Tindomul]

Just add ice!!!! What ?????

[ALToronto]

And that's just one Just Add Ice facility. They have several in North America, including one in Southern Ontario.

Now, those flasks must be clones, not sprouted seeds, right?

[My Green Pets]

It is fascinating and horrifying to me at the same time.

Two things bother me about this.

One is that, as you guys have already said, in spite of the exact science they have gotten this process down to, they leave you with the most bone-headed watering advice that imo could only have been thought of by a money-hungry marketing team.

And the second thing is the vast consumption of resources needed to drive this level of production. So ironic that the process used to produce plants in the short term will ultimately contribute to the destruction of their natural habitat (and ours, too, if you want to be completely honest about it) in the long run.

$0.02

[Jayfar]

Here's another mass grower, this one in the Netherlands:

[escualida]

Wow. Just wow.

Originally Posted by ALToronto

Now, those flasks must be clones, not sprouted seeds, right?

For sure.

[ALToronto]

The "just add ice" advice is perfect for keeping existing flowers as long as possible, and then speeding up the demise of the plant. Perfect for selling more plants.

Interesting thought about the habitat destruction. It's probably not as bad as regular agriculture in terms of resource usage, although the wastewater runoff must be pretty toxic. I wonder how much pesticide is used in one of these greenhouses.