After harvest the bulbs  can be moist. The bulbs must be dried to prevent germs and mold from developing.

Nowadays bulbs are dried in two ways: stacked drying and fast drying. An advantage of stacked drying is that more boxes can be placed in front of the drying wall. With fast drying however the bulbs will dry faster and equally. With this technique sloping beams or sloping pallets are used. The different ventilation techniques are described below.

Stacked drying

1-Layer Ventilation

1-Layerventilation is a suitable method to dry bulbs fast and equally. The boxes are stacked in rows in front of the system with the pallet opening connecting to the air outlet. The air will be forced through the the pallet. The pallets at the end of the rows will be closed with foam blocks. Because of the closed bottoms of the pallets the air can only go upwards. In this way the air is forced through the boxes. This means ventilation takes place in every separate box layer. The air can escape through gaps at the side of the boxes.

This system is also available as a mobile version.

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2-Layer Ventilation

With 2-layerventilation the boxes are stacked in rows in front of the system. The pallet gaps of the second and fourth box in the pile connect to the air outlet. The last pallets of the second and fourth rows are closed with closing blocks. The use of boxes with an open pallet bottom is necessary in order to let ventilation happen per two box layers.

This system is also available as a mobile version.

Download our folder for more information

Fast drying

Good drying techniques are necessary in order to avoid rotting processes. With fast drying two different methods can be distinguished: sloping beam drying and drying with sloping pallets.

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Drying on sloping beams

A way to dry bulbs fast and equally is by using sloping beams. The boxes are placed on sloping beams in front of the air outlet of the system. The use of sloping beams makes the air distribution equal. The air is forced through the bottom of the box. An advantage of this system is that the boxes can easily be placed in front of the system with a forklift. An disadvantage is that the system needs more space compared to other systems.

Drying with sloping pallets

Drying with sloping pallets is another good method to dry bulbs fast and equally. Piles of two boxes high are placed in front of the system. Between the box layers sloping pallets are placed to keep the air distribution equal. In this way the ventilation takes place per two layers. An advantage of drying with sloping pallets in comparison with drying on sloping beams is that more boxes can be ventilated simultaneously. A disadvantage is that the pallets have to be placed between the two boxes in every pile. This can take a lot of time.

Storage

The storage of bulbs usually takes place in storage cells. Because of the secluded space, conditions such as temperature and humidity can easily be regulated.

Instead of building storage cells, the situation can be imitated by a retour-air solution. With the use of a damper and a special system (or unit) the conditions can be regulated.