Greenhouse vegetable cultivation is increasingly moving towards hydroponic production for ecological reasons. To this aim, Novarbo has developed Mosswool® growing media. Now we are further developing and upscaling production with the support of EU Horizon 2020 programme.
Mosswool® is the sustainable and total costs saving growing media for vegetable cultivation. Mosswool® slabs are made of sphagnum moss, which is harvested with a patented ecological method. Mosswool® can save money for the greenhouse farmer, because used slabs can be composted together with crop residues.
Mosswool® growing slab is the drop-in sustainable replacement to stonewool. EU-regulations state that stonewool filled with living root mass may not be dumped in landfill. After one year of usage stonewool will be waste, which does not burn or decompose. Mosswool® will solve this issue since it can be easily locally composted with the crop residues or recycled after use, which minimises disposal costs. On top of that, Mosswool® is made of rapidly renewable raw material.
Mosswool® can be locally composted or recycled
Mosswool® is made of rapidly renewable sphagnum moss. Sphagnum moss is harvested with a special patented Light Sphagnum Removal technique (LSR technique) developed by EcoMoss Oy, who is a member of Novarbo. LSR technique harvests only a part of the living moss, presses water out the moss and returns this water back to the bog biotope. The surface of the bog is not skimmed bare, so there remains plenty of spores to regrow new moss. To enhance the growing process, auxiliary buds regrow from the remaining layers. Hence the re-growth takes place both from the surface by spores and from the remaining moss layer by buds. After LSR harvesting, the bogs return to their former state within three years.
LSR moss harvesting:
A bog re-grown two years after LSR harvesting:
Sustainable and total cost saving growth media
Equal or better performance than stonewool slabs.
Ref.: MTT AgriFood Research Finland, 28.5.2014
Made of rapidly renewable raw material
Minimises disposal costs: can be locally composted or recycled
Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE) has tested Mosswool® for cucumber growing in their greenhouse for 10 weeks and proved that it performs better than stonewool.
If you are interested to receive Mosswool® slabs for testing or request further information, please contact us:
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 778341
Disclaimer: This website reflects only Novarbo´s view and EASME and the Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
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