Peat-free case studies: Greenwood Plants
Greenwood Plants share their peat-free journey
Have you made the transition to peat-free? If you’d like to share your story to help and inspire other growers, please get in touch.
Many growers and nurseries in the UK are already 100% peat-free, or are well on their way. Greenwood Plants have shared their journey with us to help other growers learn about the issues they faced along the way and the solutions they found.
So how did Greenwood Plants do it, what motivated them, and how did they overcome challenges to reach peat-free success?
Growing peat-free – in conversation with Melanie Asker, Managing Director
When did you start your transition to becoming peat-free?
We developed our sustainability strategy in early 2022 and decided that becoming peat-free was an essential component of that strategy. Very soon after, we set up the first peat-free trials and scaled the transition across all six of our nursery sites from there. By late 2023, we were very pleased to confirm that we had transitioned our entire growing operation and had become a fully peat-free grower.
Some are, and some aren’t. For example, supply to the new build property sector is increasingly interested in sustainability and biodiversity, and peat-free is increasingly asked for. On the other hand, supply to infrastructure or larger scale public projects is more advanced on the topic, and these projects do tend to specify that all product needs to be fully peat-free as part of their tendering process.
There is still a way to go, and we need to collectively educate industry on why specifying peat-free should be the planting standard for every project.
We believe that every plant matters and it’s the right thing to do.
What were the different feed and irrigation needs when growing peat-free, and were there any other changes to production?
We tested many different suppliers and specifications of mix to find the one that worked for our plants. For us, the key changes were around irrigation, and this is where the greatest amount of trial and error took place.
Generally speaking, the watering regime is very different for growing when using peat-free growing media, as it affects both the volume and frequency of watering needed.
It’s hard to pinpoint specific benefits because we introduced the use of
The two seem to work well together and offer a more sustainably grown plant – which is what we are interested in. It’s about moving towards sustainable growing in way that works well commercially.
What are your top tips for those starting out growing peat-free?
Be single-minded. Expect losses. Understand that it may be a frustrating process but persevere.
