Event Date : March 5, 2026
Event Time : 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Event Location : CAWR, Ryton Gardens, Coventry CV8 3LG / Online
CAWR hybrid seminar with Francis Rayns, Judith Conroy, Leonardo Faedo, Ulrich Schmutz, Margi Lennartsson
The CAWR team developing this novel growing media have a long history of researching materials, practices and policies which could end reliance on peat. This is part of a wider body of work to phase-out a range of contentious inputs, with the overarching aim of improving certified organic systems to bring them closer to the movement’s founding principles. In addition to this project, they led the EU Horizon 2020 project Organic-PLUS and continue this work on contentious input phase-out in the new Horizon Europe project SCALE-it.
A team of researchers at CAWR have been working to phase-out the use of peat from organic horticulture. The production of some vegetable and salad crops is highly dependent on transplanted seedlings grown in pressed blocks. Whilst peat- free growing media are
widely available for use in modular trays, media for pressed blocks still rely on a high peat content to achieve the required cohesivity.
The mining of peat has adverse environmental impacts including the release of CO2, biodiversity loss and increased risk of flooding, and consequently is coming ever closer to being phased out by the UK government.
In collaboration with Riverford Organic Farmers and Delfland Nurseries, CAWR researchers have worked to develop organic, peat-free growing media suitable for producing blocks, which can be handled by existing machinery at both the plant nursery stage and when
transplanted into the field.
