Report on trials with alternative growing media (replacement of contentious input peat).

Summary

This report describes studies and experiments conducted to replace peat in growing media for certified organic growers. Peat in growing media is one contentious input which has been extensively studied in Organic-PLUS, under the lead of Rafaela Caceres (IRTA) who coordinated Task 5.5, “Examination of promising alternatives, peat”. While some of the studies referred to here have already been described in other publications, some studies are primarily described in the present report. Hence, the level of detail described here varies between the studies. The studies were conducted in countries with greatly different climatic conditions. They range from raising of olive saplings (cuttings) in Turkey (MFAL), various crops in Catalonia (IRTA, EAM), production of extruded fibre from many different plant materials in Germany (ATB), tests to reduce the need for vermiculite in growing media from composted woodchips in UK (CU) and composted horse manure with leaves from hardwood trees for vegetable transplants in Norway (NORSØK). This report includes the main results of the activity done during the project.