Supply and demand: Pressure on peat availability last year may have helped the slow move to alternative media to gather pace

摘要

Every year, the share of peat used by professional growers decreases slightly in line with long-term Government and industry goals. But last year's limited peat availability appears to have nudged the process along, according to Catherine Dawson, technical director of wood- and bark-derived media supplier Melcourt and a member of the industry's Growing Media Association (GMA)."It made some growers open to new things and we have since hung onto them as customers," she says. The situation has an irony to it, she points out. "One of the criticisms thrown at alternative media is that if everyone used them, there wouldn't be enough. But we are in no danger of running out—it was peat that came closest to the wire last year."Yet bark and wood remain one of the few viable alternatives to peat that are available in quantity at the right price, says Dawson. "Even after 25 years of this debate, it still just comes down to that or coir— very few others have emerged."