Growing healthy plants, as we know, is a hard task to do, but making these plants bear flowers is a challenge. With sometimes unpredictable climate and other agricultural dilemmas, growing flowers in the outdoors could be frustrating. However, with the greenhouse technology, this big factor to unsuccessful farming can now be overcome. This article discusses how greenhouse technology is more favorable than outdoor gowing of flowers.
Growing flowers is not as easy as it looks. There are several factors to consider in order to grow high-quality blooms and the growers' work is to make sure that the factors remain as stable as possible. These factors are temperature, humidity, soil type, fertilizer supply, pest control, preventing blight, and the seasons (in tropical areas such as the Philippines, there are only two seasons---wet and dry---while other countries have spring, summer, autumn, and winter). Almost all these factors involved in growing the best flowers in the market are unpredictable, making production wholly dependent on natural causes. One can toil a month in a garden, sweating and swearing, but all it takes for this work to be rendered useless is a strong typhoon.
Growing flowers outdoors has many advantages though, and one of them is that it is a cheaper way to cultivate blooms compared to building an expensive greenhouse. The work is much simpler, without all the complicated machinery and maintenance that a greenhouse needs. Also, unlike greenhouse-grown flowers, outdoor flowers do not require that much personnel. All one needs is the basic gardening tools and competent hands to use them to do the job right.
However, growing flowers the traditional way is dependent on many factors besides the hard work a grower exerts on the job. Sudden and extreme weather conditions can easily destroy a flower crop, wasting hundreds of hours of patient, backbreaking work. Pests may suddenly invade the garden and destroy half the flowers before the insects are overcome by the chemicals used to kill them. Moreover, the same chemicals may have an adverse effect on the quality of the flowers.
On the other hand, pests and sudden changes in the weather are not a problem when flowers are grown in a greenhouse. The sealed environment provides the best protection against these “Acts of God” in order to ensure that the flowers are at their best. The temperature and humidity are controlled in a greenhouse to ensure that the flowers reach their maximum potential in terms of appearance and overall quality. Also, the growers can adjust the environment of the greenhouse to “program” the flowers' appearance to accommodate consumer demand. The chemicals used are kept to a minimum too, which means that the flowers have clean petals and stems and a longer vase life. Lastly, the supply of flowers is kept reliable since it doesn't depend on the weather or the seasons anymore. This means that the cost of flowers in the market do not fluctuate, ultimately benefiting the consumers.
Overall, it is definitely more advantageous to grow flowers indoors (greenhouses) rather than growing them outdoors. The cost and effort of utilizing greenhouses to grow flowers are definitely worth it.