Our Head of R&D, Dr. Janine Robinson, has been very busy since she joined us a few months ago! With many projects ongoing we’ll continue to share our findings with you as our numerous investigations and trials progress over time.
However, here’s a brief snippet for you as we reach the pinnacle of the growing cycle.
In terms of our long-term mixes, trials are ongoing. Landscape 34 in its 2nd year of testing; the mix with no maintenance at all is now seeing a wide variety of species coming through whereby other mixes which received cuts last autumn are going over now.
We have started a new cut plan on one of our trial plots so that it had a cut in early May. This plot is now looking good with ox eye daisy, birdsfoot trefoil, self-heal, yarrow, white clover, white and red campion, common knapweed, ladies bedstraw, toadflax, wild carrot and bladder campion all flowering.
We are now also looking into germination testing and considering different methods of increasing germination of the seeds. Some species have specific environmental conditions that must be met in order to grow, or germinate. To help us with this we are working with external companies and individuals who have the specific knowledge to help us. We are currently awaiting some seed to come back from a priming process, whereby the seed of individual species are put through a secret process (even we don’t know the specifics!) to bring them all to the same point of germination. This we will be trialling and look to have answers on its effectiveness next year. We’ll keep you posted!
