Horticultural students from South Lanarkshire College recently visited ICL’s state-of-the-art Nutberry growing media manufacturing facility at Eastriggs, Dumfries and Galloway, to gain a valuable insight in to growing media and plant nutrition.

“To encourage the next generation of ornamental growers, ICL feel it is important for students to connect with the industry,” says ICL technical area sales manager Ian Todd.  “Growing media production and nutrition has a direct link with the National Certificate Level 5 Horticultural units.”

According to horticultural lecturer Fiona Sanderson it proved to be a comprehensive educational visit with students given an insightful presentation on Levington Advance Solutions by Ian and his colleague, ICL technical manager Andrew Wilson.

“The students learnt about the concept of  ‘Grow, Nurture and Protect’ – a comprehensive package incorporating growing media structure, precision nutrition and a choice of plant protection options,” she says.  “It was an inspiring visit and we were impressed by ICL’s professionalism.  Having an opportunity to see the processes involved in processing, manufacturing and packaging Levington Advance Solutions to meet the specific needs of each customer was quite an experience.   The students were fascinating to see how the different grades of peat are separated out and then remixed to suit the particular need of each customer.

“While helping with course work, the trip has provided the students with a valuable insight and appreciation of other aspects of the horticultural industry.  We hope this link with ICL will grow with our programme in the future.”