Farmers and garden owners know how good it is to grow different plants directly in peat.
“Peat is a pretty large resource in Latvia, but the outlet is not exactly right. We're just exporting it raw. This is a bad approach on the part of the country,” said the researcher Kristīne Irtiševa.
It is not effective to just place peat on the field, so Irtiševa has found another solution. Her developed technology means that peat could be sprayed on the field as a liquid.
“Peat is essentially soil. We will grow more, for example, potatoes, by planting potatoes in good soil,” said Irtiševa.
“We have peat, which is solid mass. Dilute with water. Everything is arranged in certain proportions so that the solution is optimal for future technological processes. In the extraction process, we get a solution containing some more particles, and then the next step is to separate these particles,” the scientist said.
The result is a concentrated peat solution that farmers can use to sprayplants. It is not harmful to the environment and could also be used by organic farms. Currently, studies continue with specialists at the University of Latvia, fluid is given for testing to farmers and for testing at Bulduri Gardening High School. Until such a product appears on store shelves, at least three more years are needed.
“The goal is to grow to a level of scientific evidence that it really works on the field, and then I can safely go into the market,” Irtiševa said.
