Fertil improves its biodegradable pots
Sandra Villette Sigault presenting the Fertilpot NT at the IPM Essen 2018 in Germany.
Entirely environmentally friendly
Over the years, increasingly more growers have been investing in ways to grow more sustainably. Using biodegradable pots is a way that enables growers to enhance their environmentally friendly cultivation process. The Fertilpot is made of wood fibers which make them 100% natural and biodegradable. "The wood is collected mainly in the forest near our factory in France. We only use the trees that are being cut for thinning the forest. Therefore, we work entirely environmentally friendly. When cut, the trees are brought to the factory where they are made into wood pulp," explains Sandra Villette Sigault, Marketing manager at Fertil.
Continuous improvement
The French company introduced their first biodegradable wood fiber pot in the 1960's. Since then they have been developing new products and constantly improving their product line. In 2015 the company came up with a peat free biodegradable pot. But there was still room to grow. The previous Fertilpot could be unstacked by standard machines that are equipped with a double fork system. However, this is not always the case. Therefore Fertil focused the last couple of years improving the characteristics of the pots with a view on automation.
"The previous Fertilpot were more difficult to restack and use in a machine because of its more rough texture. Our new generation has a smoother structure. Therefore they are better destackable and compatible with any kind of standard machine", says Sigault.
A winning concept
The new Fertil pot proved itself already. It has been chosen to be the best technical innovation of the year at the Salon du Vegetal 2017 by winning the first prize at Innovert (Innovation Award).
For more information
Fertil S.A.S
www.fertil.fr