Project
Wool for Crop resilience 2.0
This project can improve the technical maturity/readiness of specific options as part of a transition pathway to contribute to a renewable carbon-based material transition. We can support the reuse of a carbon-based material, namely wool fibre, which can have other societal impacts. Farmers will not have to burn wool scraps, reducing CO2 emissions (thus reducing the carbon footprint), and farmers can benefit from the potential of this product together with other intermediate partners in the wool processing process (new value chain for wool). On the other hand, this material would be a good alternative to growing media in horticulture, avoiding the use of peat, which is now protected (peatlands) because of its role in CO2 storage. Finally, if wool improves crop growth (with less fertiliser added) and is more resistant to pathogens, less fertiliser and plant protection products would need to be used.
This proposal is a follow-up to the project "Wool for crop resistance", in which we investigated the role of wool in crop resistance in horticulture. We tested the properties of raw (unwashed) and cleaned wool and tested their potential as an alternative growing medium and as a soil conditioner to suppress soil-borne diseases (general disease suppression). We found that wool samples were rich in protein-derived nitrogen, especially the washed wool, which was also free of most fatty acids. Moreover, washed wool at lower concentrations in growing media seemed to improve the performance of strawberry plants, which ripened faster. Both washed and unwashed wool seemed to increase photosynthetic activity in cress and to slow the spread of Pythium disease. Finally, we found bacteria and fungi with biostimulatory properties for plants in washed wool. We have demonstrated the potential of wool as a soil conditioner, but there are still questions about the mechanisms behind those observations and what the potential of wool is for resilience for other crops.
With this follow-up project, we aim to set up new experiments to (1) test the degradation of wool in soil; (2) test how the effects already observed in strawberry and cress can apply to other important horticultural crops, such as cucumber, to assess whether we can reduce fertiliser application and disease suppression, and we will (3) communicate our results more widely by organising a seminar with sheep farmers and other stakeholders to present our learning points, along with writing a report and presenting our results at community days.