Around 25 years ago, Stolk Brothers was one of the first pot plant growers to use biological control agents in their cultivation and now, this Dutch grower is one of the first who is growing pot anthuriums completely peat free.
David and Pieter Stolk
"We already knew that was possible to grow anthuriums peat free for quite some time," David and Pieter tell us when we received a guided tour in their greenhouse, "we've been working on it for about five or six years. However, it is a bit more expensive and initially, there was no necessity to make the switch. Gradually, however, it became more and more pressing on the social agenda and we decided it was time to make the switch."
The extraction of peat releases a lot of CO2 and on top of that, the supply will end as it will run out sometime. Especially in those areas where a lot of peat is being extracted, it has become more and more of an issue in recent years; in a country like the UK, there is now even a ban on peat extraction. Traditionally, however, it has been widely used in numerous crops, as it has many properties that make it suitable for that purpose. For instance, it holds water and nutrients well and in that respect it is, in nursery language, 'forgiving' and has a good 'memory'.
With alternatives, you inevitably sacrifice some of those properties and that makes it more challenging. "You have to watch it closely," they say, "that's the main thing." And if you do all other things correctly, quality or cultivation time will not be affected. One can't even tell they are grown peat free.
Bij de winning van veen komt veel CO2 vrij. Daarom hebben wij als StolkBrothers er hard aan gewerkt om al onze anthuriums #peatfree te kweken. Sinds begin van 2023 leveren we ons hele assortiment uit zonder veen. Om deze mijlpaal te vieren hebben we een video gemaakt! 🎥 pic.twitter.com/XC03InU6CO
— Pieter Stolk (@StolkBrother) May 16, 2023
(Peat extraction releases a lot of CO2. That is why we at StolkBrothers have worked hard to grow all our anthuriums #peatfree. Since the beginning of 2023, we have been delivering our entire range without peat. To celebrate this milestone, we made a video!)
Stolk Brothers has long been one of the big names in anthuriums. The nursery in Bergschenhoek, the Netherlands, grows plants in eight hectares of glass and differentiates itself in the market, among others, by its wide range and a wide range of pot sizes. Since 2012, David and Pieter Stolk are running the company.
For more information:
Stolk Brothers 
Hoeksekade 111b
2661 JL Bergschenhoek
T. +31 (0)10 529 62 22
info@stolkbrothers.nl
www.stolkbrothers.nl