Titoki nursery introduced the Plant Paper system last year to save on plastic waste and found it speeds up plant production too. Titoki nursery owner Tim Le Gros is finding he can produce mature kowhai seedlings in 6 months, instead of 18 months in plastic root trainer pots, and he can get grasses in 10 weeks. The faster growth is thought to come down to the perforations in the paper, which help air-prune the roots.
This year, Titoki have added a seed drilling machine and a hopper to feed potting media into the paper pot machine.
The paper pot driller and stacked pots ready for pricking out.
Thirada "Cee" pricking plants into the paper pots.
Tim says the system is so good, as their plastic root trainers disintegrate, Titoki will move more and more of their production into the paper pot system.