Stadium G
It’s the end of July and the tulip bulb harvests are rolling in to our suppliers in The Netherlands! We should know in about 10 days how the full harvest for our orders is turning out as the bulbs are counted and sorted from all the various farms that grow them.
Healthy tulip bulbs at our warehouse in Jay, NY.
In simplest terms, our bulb brokers in The Netherlands are responsible for working with individual bulb farms to collect the varieties we offer, help us find substitutions when crop failures make it necessary, manage bulb health prior to shipping, and coordinate their journey to the US. We are fortunate to have many wonderful people helping with our products along the way.
What is Stadium G?
When the brokers receive the bulbs, they begin checking the earliest varieties for “stadium G” - the stage at which the full new flower (allbeit tiny and immature) has grown inside the bulb. The brokers do weekly checks lot of bulbs. Once each of the three bulbs they randomly select from a lot of bulbs shows stadium G, the bulbs from that lot are approved to begin pre-cooling. Pre-cooling before this stage can damage flower delvelopment.
How to look for Stadium G:
To check for stadium G, a bulb is carefully sliced open horizontally with a scalpel, to expose the the small sprout inside. The tip of the sprout is excised and a technician uses a microscope to look for evidence of the formation of a stimga and petals. The triangular form of the top of the stigma is recognizable even at the microscopic level.
ABC purchaser, Linda D’Arco, practices looking for stadium G during one of her annual visits to The Netherlands.
An image of the triangular tulip stigma in a mature blooming flower.
Varietal and Environmental Differences in Stadium G dates:
The point at which each lot of bulbs reaches stadium G is different. Early blooming varieties can show the tiny flower embryo earlier in the summer. But the exact date varies from year to year and from farm to farm because of differences in growing conditions.
Our suppliers track the stadium G for each variety and each lot of bulbs within varieties to ensure that bulbs can enter the cooling cycle at the earliest possible time. That results in earlier bulb forcing outcomes for customers who are eager to grow and sell tulips during the winter time.
Why these dates are so important:
There are two primary reasons why close monitoring and recording of these dates are very important to us.
The first has to do with shipping. We choose to delay any shipping of our tulip bulbs from The Netherlands until after they have reached stadium G. This decision allows us to ship them with some refrigeration during their 2-week long journey in enclosed containers across the Atlantic. Electing to ship them any earlier would mean that the perishable bulbs must travel warm in an enclosed space where they are more likely to develop diseases and molds. This is the recommended shipping timeline from the people who know bulbs best. And it’s also a common reason that we see so many bulb health issues in the US. When US suppliers elect to ignore this shipping recommendation and push for earlier and earlier shipping from The Netherlands, the resulting products can be poorer in health.
The second reason is that we need to share accurate information with our growers regarding the date on which each bulb’s cooling will be achieved and forcing may begin. We label our pre-cooled products with this helpful information. It simplifies bulb forcing by removing the guess work and calculations from their growing process. This is a service that we include for all of the pre-cooled tulip bulbs we sell. Our bulbs listed as “Untreated” bulbs have minimal cooling (about 2 weeks of 9C cooling) during their journey. “Untreated” bulbs arrive in the US and are distributed earlier than pre-cooled bulbs.
We’re looking forward to seeing the outcomes of this year’s bulb harvests. Let us know if you have any questions. We’ll let customers know when any shorted varieties have been removed from pre-orders and substitution shopping is open.