The Greenhouse Grower Magazine Articles

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Growing media firms receiving mixed signals on peat

It’s almost eight years since the Government’s Environment White Paper first set out targets to reduce the use of peat in growing media. However, the issue is still firmly on the agenda. Defra’s recently published 25 Year Environment Plan includes the policy goal of ‘Restoring vulnerable peat lands and ending peat use in horticultural products...

Mar 05, 2018

A burning opportunity

Changes to Renewable Heat Incentives policy and prices has had both a positive and negative effect on the renewable heating sector. But on the whole the sector remains positive of future developments, as Adrian Tatum reports. Changes to the Renewable Heat Incentives (RHI) over the last few years has seen a temporary slow down in...

Feb 05, 2018

Agri-tech park due for development

A new Cambridgeshire-based agri-tech park is to be developed to provide land for crop trials, demonstration plots and rentable business space, bringing together existing and emerging companies from across the agri-tech, technology and science sectors. The 220-hectare site is due to open in five years and could accommodate up to 4,000 employees. The project is...

Jan 31, 2018

Project to tackle aggressive strain of lettuce disease

AHDB has commissioned work on lettuce fusarium wilt following the first confirmed outbreak of the disease in the UK, on a soil-grown protected lettuce crop in Lancashire. It was also recently found on a crop in Ireland. The UK outbreak, reported in October, has been confirmed as race 4 of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lactucae, the...

Dec 31, 2017

Retail Sales

Supermarket sales have increased by 3.1% compared to last year with the retailers seeing steady increases for over 17 months, according to a latest report by Kantar Worldpanel. As usual all of the major supermarkets have witnessed varied performances over the period 12 weeks up until October 8. Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer...

Nov 21, 2017

Four Oaks 2017 review

Among the ‘best first show days at Four Oaks since the year 2000.’ That was the consensus of views among exhibitors about Tuesday 5th September. Even at the end of the afternoon of the following day – rather quieter but still busy – it was taking quarter of an hour to get out of the...

Oct 31, 2017

Chelmsford Council capitalises on growing its own

Producing bedding plants on site for some 20 years, Chelmsford City Council Parks Department is now one of just three in Essex producing its plants in-house for civic displays. The department holds 13 Green Flag Awards – the international quality mark for outstanding parks and green spaces. The Council’s small production team grows in excess...

Sep 30, 2017

Lights under the spotlight

Building on the success of last autumn’s Horticultural Lighting Conference staged in the US, the inaugural event in Europe was staged at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, writes Steven Vale. Bringing growers and manufacturers together, the targeted one-day Horticultural Lighting Europe conference was designed as a fast-paced and informative event to share the latest...

Sep 30, 2017

More options than ever

The way in which greenhouses are heated has changed a lot over the years. If you look back far enough in horticultural history coal boilers and brick walls to retain latent heat were common, something few commercial growers would countenance today. These changes have been driven by a number of different factors, including economics and...

Aug 31, 2017

The need for investment

From the moment he starts talking about the industry, you can hear the passion in Pas Milazzo’s voice. He speaks enthusiastically about the glasshouse sector and is clearly very proud to be growing in the Lea Valley, alongside some of the best producers in the country and in a region steeped with horticultural history. “I...

Jul 31, 2017