Innovative wool-based growing-media set to transform horticulture

Jacinta Penn won the Innovation Prototype award at Fieldays 2024 for her wool-based growing-media block product for horticulture industry use. Photo / Nick Walker, Container Space

What happens when wool and horticulture collide? Countries start calling.

Lack of choice for a sustainable growing-media for the horticulture industry led to agritech innovator Jacinta Penn wondering if a solution lay with wool.

She questioned if the properties and applications of wool had been fully explored in the horticulture and agriculture industries.

FleeceGrow was formed, and this week moves to the “proof of concept” phase.

It all began in 2020, when Penn, living just out of Pukekohe, was choosing a topic for her masters in technological futures.

“We were asked to look around us for problems that need solving,” she said.

Imported growing-media can end up in landfill

Penn’s home at Patumahoe was surrounded by horticulturists experiencing challenges with weather, labour, and pests.

There were also issues with nitrates in the local waterways.

She decided to study commercially sustainable options for indoor horticulture.

“I found most indoor growers use soilless mediums.

“They had three choices of growing-media, but all had to be imported.”

Once the coco coir, peat, and rockwool have served their horticultural purpose, Penn said there was a bit of a challenge with disposing, or upcycling.

“If care is not taken, the growing-media can end up in landfill.

“Peat is now recognised as a carbon store and bans are coming into force overseas and may follow here.”

Using wool as a local growing-media for indoor horticulture

Penn set out to find a local alternative that was both sustainable and at the same price point as the three existing growing-media.

A few years back, she noted how the wool from their one sheep (ex calf club) lasted two years on the ground.

With this in mind, Penn set up a trial in her greenhouse and developed the idea that wool can act as a growing-media for the horticulture industry in New Zealand.

Proof of concept – support from investors and a Whanganui businessman

Wool as a growing-media for seedlings could replace the existing choices of coco coir, peat, and rockwool. Photo / FleeceGrow

Last year, Penn and her husband Greg won Innovation Prototype at Fieldays 2024 with a wool-based growing-media block they invented in 2023.

Penn said the recognition was a confidence boost and a gateway into the world of attracting investors and funding.

In the year since Fieldays 2024, she and Greg have been mentored by Sprout Agritech and completed the HTK accelerator from the Whakatipu In8cubator Programme.

A patent has been filed for the growing-media prototype machinery, and they have entered into a joint venture with Christchurch manufacturer Terra Lana to experiment and attempt to produce the wool-based growing-media blocks at scale.

Fieldays – NZ’s biggest farming networking opportunity

Nick Walker and Jacinta Penn met at Fieldays 2024. Photo / Container Space NZ

A shipping container arrived, a critical piece of kit so they can proceed to proof of concept for the wool-based growing-media block.

The container will house the prototype machines, and FleeceGrow has two years free use of it for lease, courtesy of Whanganui’s Nick Walker and the team from Container Space NZ.

Both were exhibiting at the 2024 National Fieldays, and Penn talked to Walker about leasing a container, but was hesitant to go ahead without first securing funding.

“A few months later, I was struggling to fit everything in my house, and I put up a social media post, asking if anyone knew where I could find a container,” she said.

“Nick replied, he was just so encouraging. He said, ‘I love what you are doing, I’d like to help.’

“It’s really hard starting a new business like this, and this kind of support really counts.”

Walker said Fieldays was New Zealand’s biggest meeting place for business.

“Fieldays champions agriculture, and it’s also a massive networking event.

“Business of all types across New Zealand can network, collaborate and showcase in front of a wide range of people.

“Fieldays champions agriculture, and it’s also a massive networking event.

“I don’t think Fieldays fully caters for the networking side of it.”

Wool as a commercial fertiliser and growing-media

These seedlings are germinating in wool. Photo / Supplied, FleeceGrow

The year ahead looks incredibly exciting.

FleeceGrow will launch with a range of wool pellet fertilisers and a wool-based potting mix.

Soon after launch, it will release its wool-based compressed seedling starter disks and the wool-based growing-media block.

The wool-based potting mix also contains bark, seaweed, and added phosphate for boosting root growth.

A liquid fertiliser called Liquid Wool has been trademarked and is already in testing.

Penn said that wool made great nitrogen fertiliser, adding 10-14% nitrogen to the soil (by volume), “which is more than sheep manure”.

“Wool growing-media and wool fertiliser for horticulture have a global potential.

“I’m getting calls from Australia, Mexico, Finland, the UK.”

As for a future wool supply, Penn said she’s had farmers offer her their entire shed.

“The big aim is to really rev up the wool industry again, making wool the solution to a growing problem – pun intended.”