Development and obtaining of a substrate based on fermented gorse for the ornamental sector

This Task Force aims to create different types of alternative and innovative substrates, in which peat will be replaced by gorse, obtained by different manufacturing processes, to give it the texture and granulometry necessary for each type of plant.

To prepare the substrates, it is necessary to plant gorse, for which orderly mountain land, undergrowth land and/or uncultivated land will be used.

The planted gorse is harvested at different times and processed in different ways, and a controlled fermentation is carried out to obtain the raw material that will replace peat in substrates. Substrates are made and tested with different crops, in order to adjust the percentages of the materials that make up the substrate.

The advantages of this are the need for less chemical fertilizer, since gorse, being a legume, has high amounts of nitrogen that is easily assimilated by the plant once fermented; providing added value to the land where the plantations are made by fixing the nitrogen of the legume and by diversifying the farms and avoiding forest fires, since the forest will be clean.