The health and development of hardy stock at Scotland's leading tree nursery is its priority and the availability of water is vital, particularly during the drier summer months.
The location of Bellwood Trees’ 320-acre site north-west of Dundee means that low available water capacity in the light soil and rapid percolation provide growing conditions which are far from ideal.
The company stocks more than 90,000 trees at any time, supplying landscape architects, contractors, the Public Sector, the sports and leisure industry and major private clients across the UK.
The planting of new stock in different areas around the vast site is a continual process and moving irrigation equipment around is both time consuming and expensive.
Alistair Eccles, British Seed Houses’ technical advisor for Scotland, Cumbria and North East England suggested the use of Zeba granules to nursery manager Craig Wemyss at the BTME exhibition in Harrogate last year.
Zeba is made of 100% maize, and is a soil enhancer that retains 400 times its weight in water. This water is held very loosely by the granules which release 95% of it back to the plant on demand.
It doesn’t reduce the amount of water needed for plant growth nor will it reduce the need for irrigation once the soil has dried out, it increases the amount of water that the soil can absorb and hold for future use by the plant. It keeps more rainwater in the root zone and also holds more irrigation water for the plant. The frequency of irrigation can be reduced during dry spells, resulting in direct savings in water usage as well as healthier stock.
Craig explained why it was needed and how it’s used: “Water availability is a huge issue for us. We have incredibly dry soil in the East of Scotland. The areas of the site which are flanked by the River Isla aren’t too bad, but the sloped, higher areas are problematic. We’ve tried the petroleum-based P4 granules in the past with poor results. They absorbed the moisture but retained it and we didn’t see an improvement in the condition of the stock – we’d dig the trees up a year later to find lots of slimy green gel around the roots. Our staff poured Zeba into the freshly dug trenches, planted the bare-rooted trees, then back filled with soil. We had to water initially to enable the granules to absorb it, but then we saw good recovery in the growing season after planting, followed by excellent growth this year with leaves back to full size.
We’re definitely impressed with the results. The health of the stock has noticeably improved and when we’re digging the trees up a year later we can still see evidence of the Zeba working. Using it has reduced our watering by 80% and has enabled us to delay irrigating for the first time this Spring. We now incorporate Zeba into the soil every time we plant young stock.”
The granules are capable of lasting up to a year and are broken down through microbial activity in the soil, biodegrading completely.
Zeba is available from British Seed Houses in 11.4Kg tubs and in Smart Packs Planter Bags for container plants, small trees and shrubs and hanging baskets. For more information visit www.bshamenity.com or call 01522 868714.
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