10128373LatticeGro: eliminating peat in free-standing propagation blocksClosedGrant for R&DInnovate UKThe UK's 2030 peat ban is causing financial and technical challenges for professional growers accustomed to using peat. Here, DEFRA's "Ending the Use of Peat" impact assessment predicts that these over 15,000 growers--including food, ornamental and tree seedling producers--will face: * £192.6m transition cost over the coming decade * £456.1m in profit losses due to increased costs of using peat-free media These staggering costs will harm an industry that operates on thin margins and is essential to British food security. Here, the House of Lords Horticulture sector committee's "Sowing the Seeds" report notes "Businesses cannot make the transition to peat-free without financial support for R&D." Glasshouse growers are particularly affected, and many crops, including salad greens, tomatoes and leeks, peat's unique built-in structure to support plants without pots or other external support. Free-standing peat propagation blocks enable growers to automate transplanting and use growing space more efficiently, thereby boosting production, decreasing labour costs and providing affordable, British grown produce for consumers. However, all these benefits are under threat due to a lack of satisfactory peat-free alternatives. Currently, peat-free blocks crumble over time, weakening the plant and/or collapse during transplanting, killing the plant. Alternatives include expensive paper-based containers that do not work with all crops or stabilised plugs based on polyurethane that has slow biodegradability which poses environmental challenges for growers. This project seeks to address growers' needs by validating our innovation, LatticeGro. LatticeGro is a one stop peat-free solution that can be moulded into mechanically-strong blocks, providing support throughout the plant's development and a delay release nitrogen source. Importantly, LatticeGro has been designed to work with current growing practices and production systems, requiring no additional investment into grower's infrastructure, thereby making the transition to peat-free growing possible. This project will further develop and validate LatticeGro with salad crop growers, testing it on production machinery to ensure it is fit for purpose.