Substrates

The advantage of substrates based on peat and bark is their natural inoculation with saprophytic fungi such as Trichoderma harzianum, Pythium, Glyocladium, i.e. geni that are often intentionally added to artificially prepared substrates as commercial organic products that increase the overall cost.

These fungi improve the availability and usability of nutrients for young plants. Peat and bark-based substrates can partially fix nutrients and release them gradually according to the actual needs of the young plants.

Substrates based purely on peat are characterised by low specific gravity, high water-absorbing capacity, are light and airy. They need regular fertilization – unless clay is used as a component in the substrate (e.g. bentonite or loess soil) – nutrients are easily washed out because such substrate cannot fixate them.

As the finest stripped or milled peats continue decomposing, they tend to fixate nitrogen. The same applies to partially composted bark.

Other substrates can be custom-made following different recipes to suit your specific growing conditions, such as used technology and length of individual crop cycle, quality of irrigation water including incorporation of controlled-release fertilizers available on the market: Multicote and Osmocote.