Reducing the Waste Disposal in Tomato Crops Through the Use of Sustainable Wood-based Growing Media
The project aims to evaluate and produce standard operating procedures for a system of tomato and other protected salads production using a growing medium based on a selected forest residue. The evaluation will be undertaken in carefully controlled conditions in a season-long tomato growth experiment. An economic evaluation will also be carried out.
The project also aims to investigate the technical and economic factors related to the processing of ‘once-used’ growing medium into material suitable for other uses, although this is secondary to the main objectives and will only include limited practical work.
Background
This project addresses waste management, one of the most important issues facing the UK horticultural industry at present. The majority of British tomato, cucumber and sweet pepper growers currently use a mineral wool product as a growing medium. The agronomics of these production systems are well understood and the materials provide reliable results.
However, the growing medium is not biodegradeable and at the end of the season most is disposed of to landfill. This is not environmentally sustainable and is placing a considerable financial burden on the growers. Forest-residue-based materials have, in preliminary studies, been shown to offer a potential alternative to mineral wool products and have the advantage of being biodegradable and re-useable.
This project, jointly undertaken between Melcourt Industries Ltd, Stockbridge Technology Centre and WRAP aims to develop and demonstrate the use of a wood based growing media for tomato production.
Update
The full season experiment is well underway with a projected finish date of the end of October. Currently the test growing media is performing on a par with the mineral wool control, with no apparent differences in either yield or fruit quality. Cumulative yield data is being collected but is not available in a report as yet.
