Commercial Floriculture

Common Embedding Materials

Sl. No.	Material	Properties
1.	Silica gel	Very clean material, does not cake, acts very quickly, light in weight, keeps colour well, reusable (Bake in oven at 1200C for two hours until turns dark blue), highly hygroscopic, expensive, rapidly absorbs moisture from flowers, it can absorb about 40 per cent of its weight with water, drying within 2-3 days.
2	Corn meal	Light, tends to stick to the petals, hence difficult to handle, less tendency to flatten flowers, makes boxes easier to handle and move after filling.
3	Borax	Hygroscopic, bleaches petals if stored for long time, tends to become lumpy after absorbing moisture, drying will take 2 to 10 days. If flower remain in borax too long, they become brittle and lose their petals.
4	Sand	Cheapest, easy to handle, heavy and does not react with water vapour. It neither forms lumps nor bleaches the plant materials embedded in it. Since heavier, it takes longer time for drying (4 days to 2 weeks)
5	Alum	Double sulphate of Aluminium and Potassium.

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