Dr. Michael Gaffney

It was challenging at the start, so...

I think in general, yeah, they're doing as well, maybe even a little bit better probably.

You know, the plants are performing very well in this material.

And there's all different types.

So in general, what we're looking at across this are varying mixes of bark and wood fibre and coir.

It's not going to create, we'll put it into the spreadsheet.

These are some materials that have been created from anaerobic digestate and straw, and they've been composted down.

Exactly, yes.

When we started off working on this, one of the things we had to understand was how much of these materials, of these potential components for a peat-free mix, are available on the island of Ireland.

So there's no point developing a peat-free material where you don't actually have enough of that material.

We wanted to be able to say, I think if we're transitioning from peat, I think for us the ideal, and I think even for growers, is that there is security in knowing that there is enough of an alternative available within close proximity on the island.

I think it is for a lot of the crop systems.

We know that we can produce a crop without peat.

But yes, can we produce a crop at the price point that is required and that people are willing to pay?

Well, that is the next thing, is that you have to have production systems for some of these materials to come through.

If nobody is producing it and if it's not available to growers, well, then they can't use it.

In the end of the day, growers are exactly what they are.

They're growers.

They don't want to become growing media manufacturers as well as growers.

Yes, I would say that.