Once filled with flowers, the buckets are placed at the end of the flower beds for collection and transport to packing facilities. Preclassification is carried out in the field to remove spotted, streaked, bruised, or deformed flowers. Packhouse Operations Careful handling is required during all packhouse operations involving anthuriums because the stems of the flowers are highly susceptible to mechanical damage. Bruising results in brown discoloration. Treatments can be applied to delay water loss and wilting stress, and delay or suppress the rise in ethylene production.
Some producers use a fungicide treatment before packing to prevent anthracnose development.
Insecticides may also be used. Water quality in packhouse operations is important because hard water damages cut flowers. Although minerals in water are beneficial to cut flowers, in most cases, deionized water is better than tap water. A demineralizer is normally used to improve water quality and vase life. Precooling is effective in improving vase life, but anthuriums should not be cooled with other flowers that have high rates of ethylene production.