Towards 25 per cent organically grown in 2030

Text: Broer de Boer The step from sustainable to organic cultivation can still be challenging for the nursery stock industry TOWARDS 25 PER CENT ORGANICALLY GROWN IN 2030

The cultivation of nursery stock is becoming increasingly more sustainable. Leaders in the industry have been working on this for twenty years. Organic cultivation is a politically correct activity that also increases the cost of production. That is why an increase in real organic products is still something for the future.

Actually, the knowledge and experience from practical network BIOM-boomteelt (BIOM nursery stock cultivation) started organic cultivation. Entrepreneurs, consultants and researchers had been involved in this project, which took place in 2002 - 2005. In 2021, the Second Chamber of the Parliament adopted a motion that stated that 25 per cent of all planting material has to be organically grown in 2030. The question is: what’s the situation of the organic nursery stock industry 20 years after the start of this project? The nursery stock cultivation is standing out due to its large diversity. It has more than 20,000 types and cultivars in several plant groups: standard trees, forest and hedge shrubs, perennials, fruit trees and ornamental shrubs, which are grown in pot, in container and on open soil.

Supervision

‘Organic’ is a legally protected term: a product is only organic if it is produced and certified pursuant the Dutch and European law. In the Netherlands, SKAL Biocontrole supervises the organic chain. If you want to market a tree as ‘organic’, you have to be SKAL certified. Statistics show that 1 per cent of all growers grow organically. Large businesses sometimes grow part of their plants SKAL certified. For types that can be grown without taking additional measures, this is not a problem. However, it can be cumbersome to make a strict division between the different processes for sustainable and organic growth. In many cases, a separate legal entity is founded for the SKAL part.

Organic arboriculture has been based on the principles of organic agriculture. It strives towards closed cycles and a natural balance. By refraining from the use of artificial manure, chemical synthetic weed control, and gen technology, tree nurseries are taking care of the environment. Organic nurseries growing nursery stock pay a lot of attention to the fertility of the soil by using organic fertilisers, such as compost and green manure crop. On top of that, the application of crop rotation contributes to a fertile soil with a rich and varied soil life. Organic cultivation also contributes to an attractive living environment and biodiversity. However, nurserymen often experience the hoops you have to jump through if you want to become SKAL certified, as a barrier. They often work mainly organic and follow the guidelines, but without the certification. According to them, it is hard to get the certificate, and it might even have a significant financial impact. Buyers also experience limits when it comes to purchasing organic materials. This mainly concerns the obligation of the European tender, and the limited supply of some products, which means that the purchaser cannot just select on SKAL material.

Faassen Plants

Ted Huijbers, account manager at Faassen Plants in Tegelen, is expressly working on certification of the company, with approximately 50 hectares of avenue trees, 30 hectares of forest shrubs, and approximately 1.5 hectares of container cultivation. He says: “We would love to produce under the SKAL certificate, to be able to sell official organically grown planting material. We started growing as sustainable as possible some fifteen years ago, pursuant the Milieukeur requirements. To become SKAL certified, you have to adhere to the rules of this certificate for at least five years. For us, those rules are too much of a barrier still. There’s too much work pressure at the nursery, which means that we hardly have time to work on this. We wonder why it is not possible to award the certificate afterwards, after you’ve been doing it for five years. However, we are officially PlanetProof and MPS A+ certified. My experience is that 50 per cent of the municipalities and the forest groups now work with PlanetProof or SKAL certified planting materials.” From that point of view, one could argue that the turning point from regular to sustainable has been reached. In any case, Faassen Plants is able to manage the demand for his PlanetProof products.’ “If regular cultivation, with the use of chemical products, will ever cease to exist?”

Will regular cultivation, with the use of chemical products, ever cease to exist? Huijbers answers that question as follows: “I think it is impossible to stop doing this, unless the government will remove all chemical products from the admission list of the ‘College voor de toelating van gewasbeschermingsmiddelen en biociden’ (Ctgb, college for the admission of crop protection products and biocides). Organically grown is also more expensive, and there is always a demand for regular planting materials. Huijbers says that in the past 15 years, Faassen Plants has mainly learned to continuously monitor the crops. “A healthy plant is always in a better position to withstand a bug or fungal infection than we think. And infections mostly come in waves. If for example Fagus would really suffer from the presence of lice, watering could be an option. We know from experience that they don’t like this! The use of ladybugs in open organic cultivation is considered to be hard. Moreover, we see that weed in our sustainable cultivation is the major point of attention. That especially causes problems with planting woodlands. Despite mechanisation, a small plough with a hoe are used to maintain our beds, very traditional.”

Use of means

What is the status of organic means that organic growers can use to combat insects, fungi, and undesirable herbs? We ask Peter van ’t Westeinde of Coöperatie CEMP. Van ‘t Westeinde says: “When it comes to green means, there is an entire series of low risk products available, based on micro organisms such as bacteria and fungi specimens. Provided that they are used well, they are very effective in controlling fungi and insects. Insiders know these products and every industrial permit holder has an assortment of these ‘green products’. Some examples are Polyversum, new organic fungicide on the basis of Pythium oligandrum, and Vintec, a product against branch mortality on the basis of Trichoderma atrovirens. Furthermore, Taegro and Amylo-X have been allowed onto the market in the past two years. These are organic fungicides based on the bacterium Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, just like the already earlier allowed product Serenade. Velifer is a new organic insecticide on the basis of fungus Beauveria bassiana and is effective against - amongst others - trips and the white fly.

Accountmanager at Faassen Plants in Tegelen. PHOTO NWST

Horticulture industry is leading

Van ‘t Westeinde: “Velifer is a low risk product that the industry needs to learn how to work with. Such a new product is also valuable to be able to alternate the weed control with other products. For weed control in organic cultivation,

On behalf of trade fair GrootGroenPlus: Didier Hermans, member of the board.

MUlti E-trike. PHOTO NWST

people often use - with some limitations - pelagon, vinegar and nonanoic acid. Of course, in addition to the use of mechanic hoeing methods, sometimes executed using a robot. All products and methods are similar in that they are more expensive than the regular - chemical - approach, and that the industrial permit holders mainly focus on horticulture in its development. There, products and methods are used in a more or less closed environment. These might be natural predators, which will stay inside of a greenhouse, but which you cannot really control in outdoor cultivation. Something like that can cause problems in sales if certain insects (such as remaining predators, red.) are found in the planting materials, especially if the grower sells it through construction markets. Does Van ‘t Westeinde see a breakthrough in selling only organic nursery stock? “For many growers, organic cultivation was somewhat of a gamble,” he states. “This has given them a couple of good years. However, now the prices in the industry are overall increasing, we feel that there is less interest in organically grown nursery stock, which are even more expensive.

Multi-headed beast

For nurserymen who find sustainability very important, it can be necessary to use conventional methods or means sometimes. For them, it still is no option to grow (completely) organically. Fortunately, low-volume systems (LVS) are also becoming increasingly common in modern, sustainable tree nurseries. They are often used as modular systems for the control of undesirable herbs and (leaf) fertilisation. Earlier, magazine Boom-in-Business used a headline regarding the purchase of organic planting materials: “This is a multi-headed beast.” The conclusion is that nursery stock growers who focus on sustainability experience this in the same way. However, it is quite difficult to get them to talk about this ‘in front of the camera’. The certified organic cultivation method to them is one with many question marks. Another question is if the industry will leave such a development up to the market, or that it needs intervention from the government to make this initiative - that has been around for twenty years - a success. Or would adjustments in the form of more realistic objectives lead to a faster market penetration of organic planting materials?  Peter van ‘t Westeinde. PHOTO NWST