Keen to help businesses in the fight towards net zero, the innovation hub Growing Kent & Medway (GKM) is offering a number of funding opportunities to horticultural, food and drink enterprises wanting to take sustainability to the next level.

Defra is inviting growers, businesses and researchers to apply for a share of the £12.5 million funding, for projects focused on cutting-edge innovations to boost productivity, reduce labour demands and create more sustainable practices.

The findings of recent trials led by NIAB research assistant Adam Walker indicate commercial volatiles are effective at attracting and retaining aphid-feeding hoverflies in soft fruit crops and can be used to improve integrated pest management practices.

Over one-fifth of the UK may have suitable weather by mid-Century to grow Chardonnay grapes for still wines, according to a recent research study.

Contrary to the current grower practice of monitoring pest thrips with below tabletop traps, placing the traps level with or slightly above the strawberry crop significantly improves their effectiveness, sensitivity, and value to growers, NIAB research has shown.

The retail sale of peat in horticulture will end in Wales, Rural Affairs Minister Lesley Griffiths has announced.

A new science-based strawberry forecasting tool called BerryPredictor is in the last stages of development at NIAB’s WET Centre and is expected to launch on the market by 2024.

At the 2022 NIAB Soft Fruit Day technical webinar, WET Centre operations manager Trevor Wignall outlined the benefits of efficient water use in strawberry crops and shared details of successful research into precision irrigation and rainwater harvesting systems.

A Kent-based contractor who specialises in vineyard establishment and maintenance has invested in one of the first new Weaving Vineyard drills to establish cover crops and herbal mixes for his customers this year. David Williams saw the machine working

The Royal Agricultural University’s award-winning wine and social enterprise, Cotswold Hills, is set to become the UK’s first vineyard to sell wine in Packamama’s eco-friendly flat wine bottles.

With labour shortages being a constant battle with UK growers, Kirkland UK says it has researched and sourced the ideal machinery solutions for this seemingly perpetual problem.

The trellis system is one of the key factors influencing the success of a vineyard, after the suitability of the site, and selection of appropriate varieties, clones, and rootstocks. With trellis costs representing around 50% of the budget, Alistair Nesbitt from Vinescapes Ltd explains how to get it right