1/10/2014
Lavender in Colorado
2nd Annual Western Colorado
Food and Farm Forum
Lavender Associations
Curtis Swift, Ph.D.,
Swift Horticultural Consulting
You can grow Lavender in Colorado
• And make money in the process
• Several thousand Cultivars
– Cultivar = cultivated variety
– Started by cuttings not seed
• Plants and product is sold by cultivar
• Seeded plants vary in their height, color,
fragrance, and quality and quantity of oil
Uses
• Processed into oil – Steam Distillation
• For 1 liter of oil
• 1000 plants L. angustifolia
• 300 plants Lavadins
• Oil mostly in the Calyx of the flower
• Used in body products
• Used in aromatherapy
• Culinary
Uses cont’d
• Sold as wands or buds
• Decorations
• Buds used in cooking, gelato, etc.
• Eye pillows, sleep pillows
• Infused into vinegar, honey, sugar
• Added to wine and beer
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Wholesale Value of Oil
• Lavandin Oil - $10.50 / pound - wholesale
• Lavender Oil – $22.50/pound – wholesale
• 1 Acre – 2nd year
– Lavandin Oil 35 – 180 lbs = $367.50 - $1,890
– Lavender Oil 5-25 lbs = $112.50 - $562.50
Retail Value of Oil
• 5 ml of lavender/lavandin oil sells for $12+
• 1 gallon = 756 - 5 ml bottles = $9072.00
– Lavender; .75 – 3 gallons per acre
– Lavandin; 4 – 21 gallons per acre
• 5 ml bottles = ~ $0.55 = - $415.80
• Cost to fill bottles
• > $8,000 per acre if retail in 5 ml bottles
Value of Buds
• Buds – 1,000 – 1,500 lbs @ $6 - $10 per pound
– $6,000 - $15,000
• Flower Bundles – 15,000 – 25,000 @ $6 - $10
per bundle - $90,000 - $250,000
• Value added products - sachets, neck pillows,
etc.
Value of Hydrosol
• Distillate produced when distilling for
essential oil
– 25 gallons per acre
• 16 ounces - $9
• 4 ounce spray bottle - $12; 25 gallons = $9600
• “Monster Spray”
What is Lavender used for?
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antiseptic properties
soothing and nurturing for the skin
helps tone and revitalize the skin
helpful for a range of skin problems including
acne, oily skin, dandruff, burns, wounds,
insect bites and stings
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Many Products
Cultivar Names
• Limited Edition Local Lavender Wine
• Always in single quotes ‘Maillette’
• Cultivar names follow botanical
name
– Lavandula angustifolia in Italics
• Hybrids are usually identified with
an x
– Lavadins are Lavandula x intermedia
Cultivars L. angustifolia
• ‘Royal Purple’
‘Folgate’
‘Hidcote …’
Hardiness
• Lavender are subshrubs
– Woody at the base and herbaceous at the top.
• Origin
– Western part of the Mediterranean, southern
Europe and North Africa
• Lavandula angustifolia – Most Hardy
• Lavandula x intermedia – Hardy
• Lavandula stoechas – Spanish, French – not
hardy
Hardiness Groups
• Hardy - between 5 and -4oF
– L. angustifolia
– L. x intermedia
• Frost-Hardy - between 23 and 14oF
– L. stoches, L. pedunculata, L. latifolia, L. x
chaytorae cultiars
• Half-Hardy
• Tender Lavenders
Hardy L. angustifolia
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‘Hidcote Pink’
‘Miss Katherine’
‘Munstead’
‘Nana Alba’
‘Royal Purple’
‘Folgate’
‘Ashdown Forest’
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Lavandins
• Hybrids between L. angustifolia & L. latifolia
• Fruity, fatty, harsh, turpentine-like, eucalyptus,
fresh, camphoraceous, sweet, aromatic, and
possessing a warm wood smell.
Lavandula
stoechas
• Stoechas Lavender
is used
commercially in air
fresheners and
insecticides
• Harsher and more
resinous in its oils
than angustifolia or
lavandins
Lavandula
pedunculata
Lavandula
dentatum
• Long naked
peduncles – flower
stalk
• Woody Base –
often flaky strips of
bark
• Butterfly Lavender
‘Papillion’ Papilionidae
• Gray-green, linear or
lance-shaped leaves
have toothed edges
and a lightly woolly
texture
• Three feet high
Selecting the cultivars
Demonstation
Plot
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Propagation
Where can you plant Lavender?
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Alfalfa Mosaic Virus
Orchard Mesa Research Center
In an open field
Between the rows of grapes in a vineyard
In an orchard
In your back yard
• Do not plant in:
– Water logged soil
– High salt soil - > 8 mmhos/cm
On Mounds
More winter damage in open
Green Acres - Palisade
On the flat – furrow irrigation
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On Mounds
• Burning holes
to plant
• Piece of stove
pipe with
weed burner
Preparing the area
• Soil Test – Ward Laboratory
– Need recommendations?
– N, P, K - Lean soil?
– Soil type – amendments needed?
– Planting on beds is advised
Weed Control is Critical
Planting
• Spring, summer or fall
• Start shaping the second year
• Remove up to 2/3rd new growth
Types of Irrigation
• Need to control water application
– Amount, timing
• Will rot off if too wet – raised beds
• Can water by:
– Furrow irrigation
– Sprinklers
– Drip – Research Site
• Most people in area use drip
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WCRC- CSU
Sprinklers
Fertility
• Soil test – Ward laboratory
– @ 3 to 4 year intervals
• Nitrogen – based on soil test
– Year 1
• 50 pounds per acre pre-plant – timing?
• 50 pounds after first cutting
– Years after
• 50 pounds per acre after first cutting
Nitrogen
• Conventional
– Ammonium sulfate – 21% N
– Urea – 48% N
• Organic
– Blood meal – 9% N
Phosphorus
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Lavender is an obligate mychorrhizal species
Controls P uptake
Protects the roots from pathogens
Increases growth and health of plant
High levels of P kill mychorrhizae
• Nitrogen increases yield but doesn’t change
the composition of oils
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Winter Protection
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Winter/Early Spring Damage
• DeWitt Frost
Barrier
• 0.5 / 1.5 /2.5 oz
Winter damage varies with the year
Dewitt Ultimate 2.5 oz./yard most protective
Cover after the ground freezes
Water first if soil is not moist
Water in winter or very early spring if open
and dry
Harvest
Floral Stages
• Remove flower stems the first year?
• Maturity
Scale
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Harvest
• For Bundles
– Do not want the calyxes to drop off
– Stalk needs to be stiff
– Few if any flowers open
• First one or two flowers open
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Dry in low humidity less than 100o F.
Often takes only a couple of days
Flowers continue to open during drying
No dew on flowers; Low humidity
Harvest for Oil
• Half of the corollas on the flower head have
withered.
• Stem length should be no more than 5 inches
• Too much stem results in woody camphorous
odor
• Need stems to permit steam movement
Hedge Shears
Mechanical
Tea Leaf harvester
Distillation
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Floral stems somewhat wilted
Pack it down
Distill at atmospheric pressure
Adequate steam to avoid reflux
Pre-Heating < 5 minutes
– Linalyl acetate to Linalool
– Reduction in quality
• Extraction 25 – 30 minutes
Distillation
• Hydrosols
– Need 90 minutes to extract coumarins
• Coumarins
– A sweet-smelling plant substance
– Appetite-suppressing properties
– Anti-HIV, anti-tumor, anti-hypertension, antiarrhythmia, anti-inflammatory, anti-osteoporosis,
antiseptic, and analgesic (pain relief). It is also
used in the treatment of asthma.
Curtis Swift, Ph. D
High Altitude Lavender
Swift Horticultural Consulting
970.778.7866
[email protected]
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