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Rick Bradt, managing director of A.M.A. Plastics (A.M.A.) in Kingsville, ON has seen what air currents can do to an orchard. Trees loaded with a crop standing tall one day and toppled over the next, giving in to gusts that blow through their heavy branches.
The problem has nothing to do with what is in the air. It starts below ground with poor root structure tracing back to when trees are propagated at the nursery. Trees are typically grown in containers causing roots to drive down through soil substrate until they reach the walls and bottom of the propagation tray. With nowhere left to go, they circle around each other into a tangled, unstable mess.
It is a longstanding industry conundrum and Bradt was determined to finally crack it.
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The solution was rooted in a partnership between A.M.A. Plastics, which has distributed propagation containers for the horticulture industry for 35 years, and Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (Vineland).
Bradt and A.M.A. Plastics were looking for research supporting new propagation tray structures capable of producing generations of healthy trees. Meanwhile, Vineland’s nursery and landscape research scientist Darby McGrath was looking for an industry partner to develop such a concept.
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“The goal is to end root girdling or circling in tree propagation,” Bradt said. “There isn’t really a good solution in the marketplace to end this critical problem.”
“I don’t know what we would have done without our Vineland partnership,” Bradt said. “They were able to do the research and recommend a winning innovation for the industry.”