Horticulture Week Podcast HortWeek

HortWeek editor Matt Appleby speaks with ICL's Andrew Wilson, Matthew Miller, Steven Chapman and Sam Rivers to preview Hort Science Live.
ICL Hort Science Live explore the latest technologies and management practices growers need to produce quality resilient plants in sustainable media.
Wilson will lead the ‘How to rethink plant nutrition’workstation, taking growers through ICL’s 2024 peat-free Osmocote 5 trials, exploring different rates and longevities. He will highlight the specific nutrition challenges of peat-free growing media and explain how the latest generation of water soluble and CRFs can address any issues. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HortWeek is delighted to present the Cultivate Your Future podcast, in partnership with the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation and sponsors MorePeople.
At a time when horticulture needs to encourage a new wave of young people to come into the industry, this podcast is designed to highlight the multiple and varied career opportunities available.
Hear from people who have found their way into their chosen career through different paths, what their job involves and what it means to them.
In this podcast from the Colegrave Seabrook Foundation, trustee Neville Stein hosts a discussion with Level 2 Horticulture students from Sparsholt College in Hampshire.
Sparsholt College teamed up with The Colegrave Seabrook Foundation to create Sparsholt’s 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show Discovery entry display entitled ‘Plants, Routes & Branches’.
We hear from Chloe, Hayden, Jessica and Joshua as they prepare to build and promote their Chelsea Flower Show exhibit.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Richardson is director of horticulture at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and leads a team of almost 850 horticulturists responsible for the maintenance and gardening of more than 2,400 sites across 50 countries.
He speaks to HortWeek about how the CWGC will be at the heart of many D-Day events in the UK and France, and is a global leader in commemoration. The
‘Lighting their Legacies’ Torch of Commemoration Roadshow is also being organised by the CWGC, culminating in the lighting of every CWGC grave in Normandy.
A trustee of Kew Gardens, and president of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture, he talks about those roles, as well as the work that’s been done to ensure the CWGC’s grave sites are in top condition for the D-Day 80 commemoration events.
He details how climate change is driving a change in long-term strategy for cemetery maintenance – such as increased use of partial rewilding, reducing irrigation, and careful selection of plants to provide beautiful places of remembrance while also being sustainable.
Richardson discusses the change of perceptions on what is considered “beautiful” being led by sustainable practices – moving away from the English garden green grass and red roses look to more natural and local decision-making.
He also outlines·the need to recruit younger people to be part of maintaining such a vital part of honouring the fallen and leading the way in sustainable remembrance for years to come.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris Baines is one of the UK’s leading independent environmentalists and an award-winning writer and broadcaster.
A trained horticulturist and landscape architect, he spent some years practising and teaching landscape design but has spent most of his career a professional adviser to Government and other bodies including the National Trust, National Grid and energy regulator Ofgem.
Fornerly a presenter of BBC Countryfile, his 1986 film Blue Tits and Bumblebees is often credited with starting the trend towards gardening with nature.
Back in 1979 Baines bucked the trend in a chemical-driven gardening decade and created a "rich habitat garden" for Gardeners World. "At that stage, I just remember vividly...Peter [Seabrook] looking at me and saying..'you really think Britain's gardeners are going to be interested in that?' It was a supreme put down, really. And then they were absolutely avalanched with requests for the leaflet that I'd produced about how to create a rich habitat garden."
With his best-selling book How to Make a Wildlife Garden continuously in print for almost 40 years, a new expanded edition was published in 2023 as an RHS classic, he reflects on where nature gardening and rewilding is today.
His new book RHS Companion to Wildlife Gardening updated edition is out now.
With Biodiversity Net Gain now in legislation, Baines shares his concerns: "If the outcome of the new legislation is that more creative partnership with the Wildlife Trust and others managing the investment that's required from the developers, that would be brilliant...If it finishes up with just little patches of trees planted on, in many cases, landscape, which is rather more valuable without its trees for wildlife than it will be with trees on it, then that will be a wasted opportunity. But I'm eternally optimistic."
He discusses the pros and cons of bird feeding and the prospects for and importance of local parks in this election year.
"It's wonderful to have national parks out in the countryside, but actually most people most of the time need access to green space right where they live and work. And we need to take that much more seriously because neglect and lack of safety in those spaces puts people off going there."

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Biostimulants and legislation is the topic for this week's podcast with ICL.
ICL's Sam Rivers says there is confusion about what biostimulants are: micro-organisms that when applied to plants stimulate natural processes. They are not replacements for nutrition or IPM but can help overcome issues in plant production.
Different types of biostimulants include beneficial bacteria and fungi, seaweed, humic and brewer's yeast-based products and many more; they are described as multivitamins for plants.
Biostimulants work as 'natural elicitors', or by inducing plant growth hormones or other methods.
Benefits to using biostimulants in peat-free growing media include adding microbes to sterilised ingredients to boost growth. 
Driving the use of biostimulants is EU-wide legal moves to chemical pesticide reduction by 50% by 2030. Sustainable Use Directive hierarchy of controls places biostimulants higher than pesticides, helping result in a shift to biostimulants Europe-wide.
Current legislation on biostimulants in the UK is quite relaxed but they must not claim 'control' of pest and diseases or having a fertiliser effect or else they have to be officially registered. Regulations for biostimulants in the EU are stricter with more standards around quantifying claims as a fertiliser. Rivers says this is a good thing as its supports any claims being made and will take "snake oils" off the market as they will need to much work to remain available. The UK could follow suit with the EU at some point.
An example of a product registered under the new standards is ICL's wetting agent H2Pro TriSmart, now the first registered as 'non-microbial biostimulant' under the latest EU Fertilizing Product Regulation (FPR) (1009/2019.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The second part of this conversation with Fargro's managing director, explores drones, sustainability and fairness in the supply chain.
Fargro's interest in drones is part of a number of projects on data-driven decision-making for protected horticulture "to try and give a holistic view for agronomists and growers so they actually get some actionable insights" to help them prioritise their activities.
Hopkins talks about the shortage of agronomists and how they are trying to attract a new generation of 'digital natives'. But the new technology puts power and information directly into growers' hands.
On robotics, he expresses a sense of "frustration" with the slow progress, especially in robotic harvesting. He talks about the funding struggles for the sector to help them bring new tech to market. He discusses how unlike in agriculture, horticulture still relies on "not cheap" manual labour. He calls for the Government to step up with Innovate UK funding but he anticipates "a long haul".
On sustainability, he advocates first efficiency measures, but also discusses the need to improve plastic reduction and recyclability. "The problem is that [non plastics] nearly always cost more than the plastic alternatives" he says, though he believes often suppliers could absorb some of these extra costs.
Increased use of organic and controlled-release fertilisers are yielding good results and also enjoy a cost advantage, he adds.
With the ascension of King Charles III to the throne, Royal Warrant holders, including Fargro, are having to re-apply and "there's a huge emphasis on sustainability and the whole environmental social governance element of it - ethical trading as well." In the transition away from peat he percieves the change is being led by retailers and consumers, though "it's all about perception as well as the reality of sustainability".
Fargro has put together a consortium of waste operatives and recyclers to work with growers to make collection and recycling of plastics easier. But above all he believes the key question is "Is there an economic benefit to it? and how can we use that to drive the sustainability agenda?"
On fairness in the supply chain, he heard Rishi Sunak promise improvements for fresh produce in a very "uneven playing field", but coming behind dairy, poultry and eggs, he wonders how quickly horticultural growers can expect meaningful change. He expects ornamental growers to "be ignored entirely" and face a battle to protect or improve their margins.
Hopkins talks through business changes, including consolidation in the customer base and signs that glass is being taken up by growers.
Fargro itself is looking to diversify including to improve its amenity offering.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.