Damask rose plantation established at experimental farm of IHBT, Palampur
Field view of Damask rose nursery
Flower plucking operation in the morning hours
A cup shaped flower-right stage of plucking
DAMASK ROSE
FLOWERING AND PLUCKING
ERRATIC FLOWERING
Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT), Palampur has developed two cultivars through selection and characterization of a number of accessions collected from different locations. These are designated as Jwala (IHBT Gulab I) and Himroz (IHBT Gulab II).
Jwala is suitable for cultivation in subtropical northern plains, mid-hills and mild temperate regions up to 1200 m altitude, Himroz is suitable for cultivation in mild temperate to cold temperate regions (1200 to 2500 m altitude). It is cold tolerant and grows in temperate areas without any visual sign of winter injury to flower buds.
The plantation starts yielding economic returns during the third flowering year. R.damascene flowers once in a year during late spring and early summer, however, exact flowering time varies from place to place depending on the prevailing temperatures.
Flowers are plucked daily in the early morning hours before
sunrise when these have higher concentration of oil. These are
transferred to well aerated, bamboo baskets before processing. Flowers
are processed for different products immediately after harvesting.
Loss of essential oil occurs when flowers are stored over extended
hours.
Damask rose is known for
its irregular flowering behaviour. Following factors contribute to
this phenomenon:
Plant growth hormone status
Nutritional imbalances
i)In plantation system
ii)In soil system
Genotypic influences
Crop husbandry practices
i)Pruning (height, time, number)
ii)Fertility management
Environmental factors
i)High temperature, dry weather and low humidity
PROCESSING OF ROSE PRODUCTS
Ros
Rose water and rose oil are produced by hydro-distillation.
Rose concrete, a waxy semi solid material, is by extraction of fresh rose flowers with an organic solvent like hexane.
Rose absolute is prepared from rose concrete by refluxing it with absolute alcohol followed by filtration and removal of
undesired fats. Solvent traces are removed by vacuum distillation leaving behind a highly fragrant liquid called rose absolute.
Production technology of three grades of rose water namely A,AA and AAA grades and criteria for grading rose water and
its quality analysis has been established by IHBT for the first time.
SCALE OF PRODUCTION
Damask rose is a capital
intensive and highly specialized enterprise wherein a relatively high
initial investment on plantation and installation of distillation
plant is required. Actual benefits are derived after a gestation
period of 3 years plantation and sustained production is obtained for
at least 10-12 years.
Three scales of production levels have been designed by
this Institute for different categories of entrepreneurs.
I)Mini scale
About 0.25 to 0.40 ha of Damask rose plantation with a
mini-distillation unit of 10 kg per batch is the minimum viable scale of
production for marginal growers. 1000-12001 or rose water can be
produced during a flowering season. At this scale, rose oil
production is not practical.
II)Medium scale
The size of plantation of 1.2 to 2.0 ha is suggested along with a direct fired field distillation unit specially designed for rose oil distillation. A target of 1.0 to 1.5 kg rose oil can be achieved with this set up.
III)Large scale
A minimum of 3 ha area should be brought under Damask rose plantation while adopting large sizes steam fed rose oil distillation unit. A capacity of 400 kg per batch flowers is designed for such large scale plantations. One such unit can support up to 6 ha area. However, for plantations larger than 8 ha, two distillation units are recommended.
TECHNOLOGY PACKAGE
Total technology package on Damask rose agrotechnology for cultivation, rose oil distillation and processing technology for other rose products is available with the Institute on consultancy basis. Designing of processing units is also undertaken. Contracts for fabrication of processing units having expertise in this area are provided for convenience of the entrepreneurs.
Institute of
Himalayan Bioresource Technology,Post Box No. 6 Palampur (H.P.) 176061 INDIA Tel:
+91-1894-230742-43 Fax: +91-1894-230433
E-mail:director@ihbt.res.in