New! PlantPaper plug machine

Jun 19, 2018

We are very excited with our newest pieces of equipment which is up and running at our dedicated young plant and propagation nursery in West Sussex.

 

The Plant Paper SE MI-Automatic 2-in-1 arrived just a couple of weeks ago and we are already making 5,000 plugs per hour with only one operator! This is only early days, and no doubt this figure will increase once the teams have had some practice.

We were drawn to this revolutionary piece of equipment because of features including faster propagation time, shorter production cycles, higher yields and also a big bonus that it is environmentally friendly with re-use of our plastic trays. Producing the volume that we do this was a key factor to consider and we are also producing two different plug sizes from the one machine. The paper pots are 100% biobased and biodegradable which means no invisible microplastic in the soil. The paper is 100% plant-based and forms into paper pot without the use of any glue, thus meaning a biodegradable pot with holes that roots can easily grow through. We are proud to be the first in the UK to be using this new design of machine by Plant Paper and the first amenity horticulture nursery producing our own plugs.

Tom Wozniak, Greenwood Nursery Manager commented that: ‘Having the ability to ensure we have healthy and uniform plants with a higher survival rate is key to our growing success. Having the PlantPaper machine allows us to choose specific size plugs as well as our own mix of peat. Currently we have three mixes of peats we are using from a leading supplier which we are using to produce the plugs and are already seeing fantastic results is a relatively short period of time, it shows our commitment as a nursery to our own propagation and our response to market demands.