Marigold Flower Dryers

Marigold Flower Processing Systems

Marigold flowers, also known as Tagetes, are a genus of annual or perennial herbaceous plants in the sunflower family. Marigold flowers are primarily native to North and South America, but some species have been naturalized in different parts of the world. They can vary in size from 0.1 to 2.2m tall. Their flowers are usually golden, orange, yellow, and white with maroon highlights. They are usually annual plants, but there are a variety of perennials that are gaining in popularity. All marigolds have a very fibrous root system.

Although there is some variation among species, marigold flowers typically grow well in almost any type of soil. They are also very resistant to drought-like conditions. They can also grow in a variety of environments that retain a lot of water such as shores, ponds, springs, near streams, ditches, wetlands, wet meadows, waterside swamps, damp hollows in broad leaved forests, snow-bed sites, and sometimes in the right conditions, underwater.

Marigold flowers are often known for their musky, pungent scent. Their scent has been known to deter common insect pests and even nematodes. For this reason, marigolds are often used as companion plants for tomatoes, eggplants, chili peppers, tobacco, and potatoes. Many of the perennial species are deer, rabbit, and rodent resistant.

A variety of marigold flowers derived from South America are used to produce an essential oil for the perfume industry that is known as marigold oil. This oil is also sometimes used as a flavor in the food and tobacco industries. Another species of marigold utilizes the orange-yellow color as food coloring in the EU for foods such as pasta, vegetable oil, margarine, mayonnaise, salad dressing, baked goods, confectionery, dairy products, ice cream, yogurt, citrus juice, and mustard. In the US, it is not approved for direct human consumption.

Marigold flowers are used as a food plant for caterpillars and a nectar source for butterflies, and thus often seen in butterfly gardens. In the wild, many marigold species are pollinated by beetles.

In Mexico, a marigold species known as Tagetes lucida, is used to prepare a sweet, anise-flavored tea. The marigold flower used to be regarded as the flower of the dead in pre-Hispanic Mexico, and is used during the Day of the Dead celebrations to this day.

Marigold flowers can benefit from material handling and milling. The ONIX Corporation’s processing systems can handle numerous materials and co-products that you may not know what to do with or want a better more effective way to process. We have the ability to work with materials such as, but not limited to, apple pomace, citrus pomace, sludge, alfalfa, bagasse, coffee grounds, sawdust, marigold flowers and much more. Our equipment is engineered to fit your specific needs. If you feel that The ONIX Corporation may be of assistance to you, please don’t hesitate to research more about our alternative fuel systems, including rotary drum dryers and material handling solutions. Whether you’re looking for a new solution to process marigold flowers or something else, it never hurts to give us a call to learn more.