Majestic Trees makes dramatic advances in AirPot Peat Free specimen tree production

At Majestic Trees, the team have been working determinedly towards transitioning to become peat free. Building on our tremendously successful trials in the full production 2022/23 growing season, in 2023/24 we have extended our trials to over 1,500 trees, with more than 100 different genera of all sizes of what we grow. This is a major step forward for us, as it covers over 90% of the 500+ varieties that we grow, but with lots of careful monitoring and adjustments still needing to be tailored to commercially grow the best quality product we can.

Though not unique, our product’s production period is measured in far longer timeframes than many other plants in the production sector which raises challenges that need to be overcome. For example, at one extreme we have trees on our nursery that have been growing under our care in AirPots for 20+ years, though a more typical cycle lasts 1-2 years. This raises a number of questions, but to date, has received very little attention in the media, and left many questions unanswered!

The world is calling for increased tree production, yet the input quality of ingredients required to grow trees are being squeezed ever tighter. The issue is complex. A mixture of science, practicality, logistical integrity of the plant and perspective on the alternative growing media options are all thrown into the mix. Eliminating peat could be a major milestone in horticulture but the switchover must not be rushed. For horticulture to be sustainable, there must be longevity in the direction of progress, especially if we do not want to simply export our jobs to the continent or increase our carbon footprint through importing.

This is especially true when leading peat free advocates either refuse to test or say it will be difficult to police, let alone verify whether European production is peat free, creating little incentive for UK peat free production as it will cost more to grow. This resistance is naturally supported by the garden centre trade, as the majority of what they sell comes in from Europe, where the vast majority of growers are resisting removing peat from production. Never forgot it only takes one EU member country to object for the EU to kick the can down the road, just as happened with combustion engines!

Arit Anderson - RHS Peat Free Garden

We’re really honoured to have supplied an AirPot-grown, peat-free, multi-stem Prunus x yedoensis in the ‘RHS Peat Free Garden’ designed by Arit Anderson, garden designer and of BBC Gardeners World fame.

Arit’s ‘RHS Peat Free Garden’ showcased peat free grown trees from other nurseries but the Majestic Trees grown cheery tree is by far the most vigorous.

Peat Free Trials at Majestic Trees

Ellen Underwood, who has led our very successful Peat Free Trials, is shown here with other company directors and managers receiving the award for the UK Grower of the Year, Inspirational Business 2023.

Majestic Trees had previously been honoured with a record 4 x Nursery Stock Grower of the Year awards in 2008, 2011, 2015 & 2017, but this was the first big success as an Employee-Owned Trust.

5 x Tree Production Peat Free Myths

Many nurseries already proclaim that they are peat free, but becoming peat free is relatively easy if you are growing a crop for anywhere between 6 weeks to 6 months. You do not have to deal with the long-term problems, such as how peat free compost decomposes and loses structure. Majestic Trees have been experimenting with peat free trials for nigh on 10 years, but ramped up the planning, monitoring, and recording of results over the past 3 years where we identified important issues that we needed to solve. In the past, the structure and moisture holding ability of peat free compost was extremely poor. During the initial trials, water tended to collect at the base of the pot, where a mass of roots would form in a layer with almost no other root colonisation throughout the pot. This would lead to a complete disintegration of the root ball during handling and planting- potentially disastrous when moving up to 5,000ltr trees!

Back to the drawing board. Thus, a more targeted and large-scale trial of 300 trees of various varieties in 80L pots was carried out in 2023 and with over 5x this trial size in process for 2024. While the nursery team all worked together, a dedicated person was responsible for overseeing the trial which involved intelligently applied, environmentally friendly wetting agents, bio stimulants, mulches, and modifications to the irrigation cycles to try to address our previous issues. Weekly records of moisture levels at 3 positions in the pot were taken and recorded using a pulse meter. All of this of course incurs significant extra cost both financial and the risk of crop failure which the industry is expected to shoulder, whilst more and more peat grown black plastic container and bagged trees are coming in from mainland Europe.

Growing trees peat free is possible. However, we quickly realised there were serious challengers, so for example, rather than accepting our original trials results that peat free compost drains quickly so will definitely need more water, we quickly realised that that it could be a change in horticultural practise that was required. All that we thought we knew had to be reevaluated and a whole new take on horticultural perspective was required, replacing a ‘it cannot be done’ attitude, with a scientific approach where we will make sure the results meet the narrative, but an honest and in-depth research where our findings were proven. Some species were quite resilient to this change, others not so and some which to date we have not yet mastered. The market may have to accept that there could be some species we lose altogether, that simply cannot be grown peat free! Besides the higher cost of peat free compost- sometimes quoted at more than double what we pay for our standard peat reduced 50/50 mix, a significant cost when potting 80 to 5,000 litre AirPots, some well-known companies could not even guarantee they could supply us with the large quantities we require for our trees!

Another problem for us to overcome has been finding the right mix, the range of alternatives on the market for trees is very limited for commercial growing on our scale, with green waste for example, just not reliable enough yet either. While coir is now a major component of most peat free mixes, we did not want to invest time and money into something that we do not consider much more sustainable than peat, only for that to also be banned next. Something as simple as adding loam to improve our peat free compost structure would mean we would have to limit the tree size range we offer due to the extra weight, as our machinery simply would not be able to lift our largest stock. Here at Majestic Trees, we pride ourselves on having the highest quality AirPot produced root balls; we could never simply hide behind a poor root system masked by a rigid pot or held together in a bag. Larger stock requires a dense firm rootball to be lifted using machinery so there is an additional incentive to get it right. This is a far cry from a small, underdeveloped plant in a 9cm pot that often survives once planted out, which is what the majority of the peat free evidence is currently being based on.

Just Water and Fertilise More

With peat free composts having fewer water retention properties to peat, the logical thinking is that you will simply need to water and feed more. To the contrary, we decided that with water security being under threat and the likelihood of excess fertiliser leaching out into water courses, we needed to look for another way. We must realise that peat free mixes have a completely different structure and properties to peat, and thus must be treated differently dependent on what the mix is comprised of. It is up to us to use our horticultural knowledge to adapt our growing methods, unfortunately there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ as we were fortunate to have with peat.

At Majestic Trees we have taken this opportunity to review our whole nursery water management, with the addition of a microplastic free organic wetting agent to improve the water distribution and retention in our compost, particularly during the hottest months, as well as experimenting with different dripper styles and a mulch to reduce water loss and avoid any unnecessary leaching that may occur. Honing in on our horticultural understanding seems to have resulted in us using less water to produce a crop of trees in peat free than it did in a peat reduced mix, though with both 2023 and now 2024 spring and summer being wet, we cannot be 100% sure whether this was a coincidence. Some varieties even rooted out quicker and reached ready date sooner than expected! However, there is no getting around the fact that peat free media does not hold nutrition as well as a peat-based mix. Whilst we liquid feed all production by injecting fertiliser into the irrigation water, we do use additional costly bio stimulants on the peat free and both folia feed and top dressing as necessary. Through this, we understand that we are helping the tree, to help itself.

Peat Free Alternatives Have the Same Shelf Life as Peat

The mix may look similar and may even respond similarly during the first 6 months however, something which has not been considered is the long-term stability of a peat free compost. After a full 12-month production cycle, we have noticed that composition turns increasingly powdery, hydrophobic and less than optimal for further root production which has never been an issue for peat-based composts. What is more, this cannot be resolved by simply re potting, as the core of the root ball can become loose, and when the tree is moved is liable to disintegrating altogether. Ingredients such as wood fibre and coir are raw organic ingredients that obviously break down over time, something that peat takes far longer to do. This means that the structure can break down and lead to slumping and develop into anaerobic conditions that can kill our trees. Again, this may not be such a problem for short-term crops, but is certainly a huge issue for our more long-term growing and which is simply not being considered. Moreover, this degradation can become a health and safety concern for our team and something that we have become increasingly aware of.

Whilst moving trees of 80 litre or less are not a concern, for a tree root ball of between 1,000 and 5,000 litres, a decomposing mass of compost with no solid root structure has the potential to create unsafe handling conditions which is a serious factor for those moving and planting large trees.

Trees are Less Sensitive to Growing Media Changes

It would be false to say that trees are not resilient. They are. Most species have an innate desire to live. However, in our experience, there are a number of widely known genera which do not willingly generate a dense fibrous root system in peat free compost. Not to mention more unusual trees such as Stewartia, Cornus, Styrax and of course the Ericaceous group of plants – Camellia, Magnolia etc… We are trying to grow all of these species peat free, but if unsuccessful, we will have to accept no longer growing these species unless an peat use exemption is allowed for certain crops. In a time where eminent arboriculture and horticulture experts are saying that a diverse treescape is a resilient treescape that will stand the test of pest and disease, climatic and human pressures, we will simply have to accept that the number of species, that can be produced to a high quality, which is less than 10% at Majestic Trees, will be reduced. Again, large quantities of decent peat free ericaceous mixes are not available yet for commercial growing.

(Image above) Just look at the roots of this bare root potted trees grown in peat free compost after the AirPot is peeled off!