Phil Badgery is the managing director of Legro Australia, supplying specialty substrates for berries, salad crops, mushrooms, and young plants, including Botanicoir grow bags.
He is seeing a shift towards ‘bench-top’ growing and says that demand for consistent, high-quality coir products is increasing.
“There’s definitely a trend where growers are moving from soil production to bench-top growing systems and we are following Europe and the UK in this shift,” says Phil.
“There is a lot of knowledge sharing between European/UK and Australian/New Zealand based farmers who are seeing increased benefits to growing in hydroponic systems.”
Legro supplies fruit growers and propagating nurseries in Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia and New Zealand and Phil is now seeing more interest from salad growers.
The market is shifting rapidly, and unpredictable weather is a catalyst to this, according to Phil.
“Excess heat is an issue for our growers, but so is flooding and excess rainfall and unpredictable weather events,” he says.
“The key is control. Growers using Botanicoir substrate have more steer over water use, crop protection, and disease, plus they have less weed pressure.
“Bench-top growing in polytunnels is now very innovative with significant labour-saving benefits for growers. ‘Cravo’ models have been adopted which have retractable systems for closing and opening, or better venting tunnels so that heat is not trapped – a limiting factor in the warming Australian climate,” says Phil.
Phil’s business incorporated with Legro in 2009 and he started selling Botanicoir grow bags in 2019.
“We started supplying Mushroom growers and diversified into soft fruits. Mushrooms are still 45% of what we do, the rest is berries and other horticulture, most of which are strawberries and blueberries,” says Phil.
“The growers like the consistency of the Botanicoir products and it’s a quality brand in the marketplace that’s competitively priced,” he says.
Tony Lerace from TP Cucumber Farm in Perth grows quality cucumbers and says the free draining nature of the Botanicoir grow bags have benefitted his crops. “Ever since I have been using Botanicoir Breeze XD my fungal disease issues in the root zone have disappeared,” says Tony.
Phil explains that it’s the consistent, high-quality nature of the product that has helped to reduce disease in Tony’s crops. “It’s free draining and has a high air-filled porosity, with all dust and fines screened out – all crucial for healthy, high yielding salad and fruit crops.”
Phil believes that the demand for coir grow bags will keep increasing. “The future is in bench top growing, and I can see more automated growing and picking in the future,” adds Phil.
