Rosemary Tristram and her friend Janet Whiting started growing and selling herbs to collect funds to repair Binsted’s Village 12th-century church. After their success in the village’s Herb Festival, Rosemary and her husband David decided to create Binsted Nurseries in 1978 to grow garden plants for wholesale to retailers.
Binsted would then become part of Tristram Plants, together with Walberton and Fleurie Nurseries. Today, Tristram Plants operate across 12 different sites and grow 7.5 million plants a year for UK garden centres.
Kroptek spoke with Paul Dyer; Technical Manager (Propagation and Crop Protection) at Binsted and Walberton Nurseries.
Diversification and Expansion LED to Obstacles
In the 20 years leading to 2015, production in Binsted grew from 300,000 to 3,000,000 plants a year. Apart from growing herbs, the nursery decided to diversify and also produce perennials, garden succulents and autumn container plants. However, with this expansion, some hindrances occurred.
“We wanted to try to condition the stock plants” said Paul, “having propagation material available in season”. This was the main motivation after the obstacles Binsted encountered due to climate difficulties. Poor quality of light and shorter days, especially in winter, were impeding the nursery to be ready to supply by late winter or early spring.
Successful Grow Light Trials
Kroptek suggested to Binsted a series of grow light trials of our KP04 spectrum Hikrop range lights because of their very high CRI and their similarity to sunlight. After several trials, Binsted Nurseries concluded that plants under Kroptek LED grow lights, from 6am to 8pm every day, were showing the best results. There were significant improvements in the growth rate, speeding up growth by 6 weeks for thyme and sage; as well as improvements in colour, size and quality of the plants.
Another interesting finding was that cropping off the plants earlier and leaving them under the light allowed for additional sessions of cuttings to be available sooner. This also gave Binsted an advantage over other growers who have to wait to transplant seedlings.
Using Grow Lights for the First Time
For this first LED grow lights trial, Paul highlighted the ease of installation and the design quality of Kroptek lights.
“The service has been great; Kroptek has been very understanding and obliging. I would definitely recommend and have already recommended Kroptek lights to other growers” – Paul Dyer, Binsted and Walberton Nurseries.
At Kroptek, we are grower-focused and advise on the best solution for your horticultural business needs. We are delighted to continue helping all of our growers.
We are proud to work with growers such as Binsted Nursery. Together we share the same passion for growth, sustainability and innovation. Get in touch today to see what we can do together.